1 Kings 2:1-46
1 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
2 I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
3 And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prospera in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:
4 That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not failb thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.
5 Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shedc the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
6 Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
7 But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother.
8 And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievousd curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.
9 Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.
10 So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
11 And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.
12 Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.
13 And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Comest thou peaceably? And he said, Peaceably.
14 He said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said, Say on.
15 And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's: for it was his from the LORD.
16 And now I ask one petition of thee, denye me not. And she said unto him, Say on.
17 And he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say thee nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife.
18 And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king.
19 Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.
20 Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, say me not nay. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother: for I will not say thee nay.
21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.
22 And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.
23 Then king Solomon sware by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life.
24 Now therefore, as the LORD liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who hath made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.
25 And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.
26 And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthyf of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
27 So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD; that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
28 Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.
29 And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him.
30 And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.
31 And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.
32 And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.
33 Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the LORD.
34 So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
35 And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host: and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.
36 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither.
37 For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.
38 And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.
39 And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, thy servants be in Gath.
40 And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.
41 And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.
42 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the LORD, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good.
43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?
44 The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the LORD shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head;
45 And king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever.
46 So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
1 Kings 2:5. Thou knowest what Joab did to me. David does not mention Absalom, but that was the deed that touched his heart; the blood of Abner and of Amasa still cried to heaven.
1 Kings 2:9. But his hoary head bring thou down to the grave with blood. Hebrews אל al; the conjunction should be read here disjunctively, as Proverbs 30:8. “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” Then the sense of David is, Neither pardon nor punish him; but if thou shalt find any fresh cause against him, his hoary head bring thou down with blood to the grave. Such was the exact conduct of Solomon, in bidding Shimei build a house in Jerusalem. The LXX and the Vulgate have led many of the versions into a total mistake, which involves the king's character in a cloud, even in dying moments.
1 Kings 2:11. David reigned over Israel forty years. Of the chronology of David's reign, Dr. Lightfoot affords more satisfaction than any other Hebrician. Let us hear this great and venerable critic speak for himself. “His reign is certainly fixed in the gross sum of forty years; but for the particular passages to distinguish the particular years, there is very little certainty; or if there be certainty, it is very obscure. I was once of opinion, with many jews and christians, that Saul reigned but three years in all. 1 Samuel 13:1. And that the forty years mentioned at the breaking out of Absalom's rebellion, 2 Samuel 15:7, were to be reckoned either from the time of Saul's first anointing, or from the time when the Israelites first asked a king; so that the rebellion happened in the thirty seventh year of David's reign. But now, having a second time considered the subject, and as seriously as I can view the times, and finding so many occurrences between the time of his anointing and his death, as cannot be imagined to have happened in three years, and especially as David was one year and four months in the country of the Philistines, previous to Saul's death, 1 Samuel 27:7; and from the order in which the Chapter s are disposed, it appearing most probable that the three years of famine for the blood of the Gibeonites occurred after the rebellion of Absalom; I cannot, I say, upon these second thoughts but retract my first, and conceive of those times as I now lay down.
(1) That David numbered the people, appointed the officers of state, and arranged the priests and levites in his fortieth year. 1 Chronicles 26:31.
(2) That this was begun immediately after the LORD had designated the scite of the temple, by the fall of fire from heaven, which occurred in David's thirty ninth year. 2 Samuel 24:8.
(3) That he numbered the people the year after the three years of famine. 2 Samuel 24:13.
(4) That the first of those three years follows the year of Absalom's rebellion.
(5) That the rebellion happened the fortieth year after David's first anointing in Bethlehem.
(6) That Saul reigned but three years before that anointing of David; and though he lived five years after, yet those years are not reputed a reign, the Lord having cast him off.”
1 Kings 2:21. Let Abishag be given to Adonijah. Solomon saw in a moment that this was a disguised step towards the throne, and that he who could take a woman from his father's bosom to his own bed, would be regardless of all oaths of allegiance.
1 Kings 2:28. Joab caught hold on the horns of the altar. Moses had directed to take murderers away from the altar. Exodus 21:14. Had Joab lain still, and not joined the rebels, he had not come to this tragic exit; but the blood of Abner and Amasa pursued him.
1 Kings 2:35. Zadok in the room of Abiathar. The Jesuits suppose here that the king consulted Zadok; for a king to expel a highpriest is a mortal blow at the assumptions of Rome. No doubt Solomon had a divine right to drive a rebel from the altar, or to put him to death.
REFLECTIONS.
We approach now to the bed of state, and see the psalmist and the hero of his country die, in a manner worthy of the signal mercies which the special regards of heaven had heaped on his head. He was favoured so far with a recovery from his palsy or chill, as in his last hours to be perfectly recollected and composed. He saw the revolt stifled in its bud, and a way opened for the child of God's choice peaceably to ascend the throne: for Solomon, it is supposed, was not more than twelve or eighteen years of age. From the contemplation of this hopeful son, David's eyes ran quickly back to the sheep cotes of Bethlehem. He looked at the covenant of God with him and his family. His heart being impressed with all those riches of grace, he charged his son to keep the ways and commandments of the Lord, with a fervour and an unction which those only could feel who stood in the royal presence; yea, and to keep them exactly as Moses had laid them down. Let aged men and dying fathers learn in this chamber how to speak to their children, and how to enforce the maxims of past experience with all the weight of wisdom.
David's next charge was to administer justice: and in doing this he acknowledged his own weakness in twice sparing the life of Joab for shedding the blood of his equals, because Joab, with the aid of Abishai his brother, had the ascendency of the army. But this being a moment of grateful recollection to David, and of signal joy to his friends, he pardoned all the rebels except Joab, the principal in the plot. Joab alone was devoted to die, and more for his former crimes than for his present wickedness. Shimei also was indeed devoted so as to be held not guiltless; and that Solomon understood his sire in the conditional sense, is apparent from the sequel. Thus his sins also found him out; for men whose hearts render them unworthy of mercy, presently commit other faults, and bring upon themselves the long merited destruction. Thus David died in peace, after having accomplished the pleasure of the Lord; he died the best and greatest of kings that ever filled the throne of Israel. He was also a very striking type of Christ. Like the Saviour he was born at Bethlehem, and fair and ruddy in his countenance above the sons of men. He vanquished Goliath, as Jesus vanquished death; and the kingdom and house of Saul grew weaker and weaker before him, as the reign of wickedness and idolatry diminished before the influence of the gospel. The innocent priests of Nob suffered for his cause, as the innocents of Bethlehem for Jesus. Ahithophel, his friend and counsellor, actuated by worldly interest, betrayed his cause, and wickedly plotted against him; but smitten with terror of conscience he immediately hanged himself, like Judas the traitor. David conquered Zion, made it a royal city, and filled it with honour; yet all the nobles of every city, except a few, plotted against him in the hour of death. So though the nobles of Jerusalem had seen the miracles and glory of the Messiah, they all except a few conspired for his destruction: but as they were frustrated at the death of David, so even now they were all confounded by the Lord's resurrection. Surely all these similarities did not happen by accident and chance. No, for God said of his Christ, “I will give him the sure mercies of David;” and he is raised up to sit on the throne of his father David for ever.
Returning now to Adonijah, Solomon gave him only a conditional pardon: “If he show himself a worthy man.” For want of an adequate acquaintance with the manners and customs of early nations, we are not at first struck with the implied treason of his request, in asking Abishag in marriage. By attending David during his palsy she had, though still a virgin, acquired the honour of a royal relict. Hence the piercing eye of Solomon, God having divinely endowed him with wisdom, at once saw in this request a latent aim at the crown. For this very reason Ishbosheth also came to a rupture with Abner, because he had lain with Rizpah, Saul's concubine. Hence if any one had claims on Abishag, it was Solomon, as appears from Nathan's speech to David: “I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom.” 2 Samuel 12:8. Hence with a severe prudence Solomon nipt the treason in its bud, by ordering Adonijah for execution. What can we say? Let every sinner be instructed by the terrors of justice.
Shimei also, after three years and two months, broke his parole, and received the just reward of all his wickedness. Thus all David's enemies fell for their sins; but his own iniquity being purged, he lifted up his head in righteousness and eternal joy.