13Adonijah son of Haggith came to see Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She said, “Do you come with friendly intent?” “Yes,” he replied; 14and he continued, “I would like to have a word with you.” “Speak up,” she said. 15Then he said, “You know that the kingship was rightly mine and that all Israel wanted me to reign. But the kingship passed on to my brother; it came to him by the will of the LORD. 16And now I have one request to make of you; do not refuse me.” She said, “Speak up.” 17He replied, “Please ask King Solomon—for he won’t refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.” 18“Very well,” said Bathsheba, “I will speak to the king in your behalf.”
19So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king rose to greet her and bowed down to her. He sat on his throne; and he had a throne placed for the queen mother, and she sat on his right. 20She said, “I have one small request to make of you, do not refuse me.” He responded, “Ask, Mother; I shall not refuse you.” 21Then she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as wife.” 22The king replied to his mother, “Why request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Request the kingship for him! For he is my older brother, f-and the priest Abiathar and Joab son of Zeruiah are on his side.”-f
23Thereupon, King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying, “So may God do to me and even more, if broaching this matter does not cost Adonijah his life! 24Now, as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of my father David and who has provided himg with a house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this very day!” 25And Solomon instructed Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck Adonijahh down; and so he died.
26To the priest Abiathar, the king said, “Go to your estate at Anathoth! You deserve to die, but I shall not put you to death at this time, because you carried the Ark of my Lord GOD before my father David and because you shared all the hardships that my father endured.” 27So Solomon dismissed Abiathar from his office of priest of the LORD—thus fulfilling what the LORD had spoken at Shilohi regarding the house of Eli.
28When the news reached Joab, he fled to the Tent of the LORD and grasped the horns of the altar—for Joab had sided with Adonijah, though he had not sided with Absalom. 29King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the Tent of the LORD and that he was there by the altar; so Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go and strike him down.” 30Benaiah went to the Tent of the LORD and said to him, “Thus said the king: Come out!” “No!” he replied; “I will die here.” Benaiah reported back to the king that Joab had answered thus and thus, 31and the king said, “Do just as he said; strike him down and bury him, and remove guilt from me and my father’s house for the blood of the innocent that Joab has shed. 32Thus the LORD will bring his blood guilt down upon his own head, because, unbeknown to my father, he struck down with the sword two men more righteous and honorable than he—Abner son of Ner, the army commander of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, the army commander of Judah. 33May the guilt for their blood come down upon the head of Joab and his descendants forever, and may good fortune from the LORD be granted forever to David and his descendants, his house and his throne.” 34So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down. And he was buried at his home in the wilderness. 35In his place, the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army, and in place of Abiathar, the king appointed the priest Zadok.
36Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and stay there—do not ever go out from there anywhere else. 37On the very day that you go out and cross the Wadi Kidron, you can be sure that you will die; your blood shall be on your own head.” 38“That is fair,” said Shimei to the king, “your servant will do just as my lord the king has spoken.” And for a long time, Shimei remained in Jerusalem.
39Three years later, two slaves of Shimei ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. Shimei was told, “Your slaves are in Gath.” 40Shimei thereupon saddled his ass and went to Achish in Gath to claim his slaves; and Shimei returned from Gath with his slaves. 41Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and back, 42and the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Did I not adjure you by the LORD and warn you, ‘On the very day that you leave and go anywhere else, you can be sure that you will die,’ and did you not say to me, ‘It is fair; I accept’? 43Why did you not abide by the oath before the LORD and by the orders which I gave you?” 44The king said further to Shimei, “You know all the wrong, which you remember very well, that you did to my father David. Now the LORD brings down your wrongdoing upon your own head. 45But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD forever.”
46The king gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada and he went out and struck Shimeih down; and so he died.
Thus the kingdom was secured in Solomon’s hands.
3 Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He married Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the City of David [to live there] until he had finished building his palace, and the House of the LORD, and the walls around Jerusalem.
2The people, however, continued to offer sacrifices at the open shrines, because up to that time no house had been built for the name of the LORD. 3And Solomon, though he loved the LORD and followed the practices of his father David, also sacrificed and offered at the shrines.
4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the largest shrine; on that altar Solomon presented a thousand burnt offerings. 5At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask, what shall I grant you?” 6Solomon said, “You dealt most graciously with Your servant my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness and righteousness and in integrity of heart. You have continued this great kindness to him by giving him a son to occupy his throne, as is now the case. 7And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David; but I am a young lad, a-with no experience in leadership.-a 8Your servant finds himself in the midst of the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9Grant, then, Your servant an understanding mind to judge Your people, to distinguish between good and bad; for who can judge this vast people of Yours?”
10The LORD was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11And God said to him, “Because you asked for this—you did not ask for long life, you did not ask for riches, you did not ask for the life of your enemies, but you asked for discernment in dispensing justice—12I now do as you have spoken. I grant you a wise and discerning mind; there has never been anyone like you before, nor will anyone like you arise again. 13And I also grant you what you did not ask for—both riches and glory all your life—the like of which no king has ever had. 14And I will further grant you long life, if you will walk in My ways and observe My laws and commandments, as did your father David.”
15Then Solomon awoke: it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented offerings of well-being; and he made a banquet for all his courtiers.
16Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17The first woman said, “Please, my lord! This woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18On the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, just the two of us in the house. 19During the night this woman’s child died, because she lay on it. 20She arose in the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him in her bosom; and she laid her dead son in my bosom. 21When I arose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, it was not the son I had borne.”
22The other woman spoke up, “No, the live one is my son, and the dead one is yours!” But the first insisted, “No, the dead boy is yours; mine is the live one!” And they went on arguing before the king.
23The king said, “One says, ‘This is my son,
