1 As the time of David's death came near, he gave his son Solomon his charge:
2 "I am going the way all the earth goes. Be strong, then, and be a man.
3 Keep what the LORD your God has entrusted to you: walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his rules and his testimonies, as written in the law of Moses, so that you may act wisely in everything you do and in every direction you turn,
4 and so that the LORD may fulfill the word he spoke about me: 'If your sons guard their way, walking before me faithfully with all their heart and all their soul, there will never fail you a man on the throne of Israel.'
5 "You know too what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, how he treated the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He murdered them, shedding in peacetime the blood of war, and he put the blood of war on the belt at his waist and on the sandals of his feet.
6 Deal with him by your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.
7 To the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, though, show steadfast love; let them be among those who eat at your table, for they stood by me in the same way when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom.
8 You also have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite of Bahurim. He cursed me with a bitter curse the day I was going to Mahanaim. Yet when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD, 'I will not kill you with the sword.'
9 Now do not let him go unpunished. You are a wise man and will know how to deal with him; you must bring his gray hair down to Sheol in blood."
10 Then David lay down with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David.
11 David reigned over Israel forty years in all: seven years he reigned in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
12 Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was made very secure.
13 Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother. She asked, "Is your coming peaceful?" He answered, "Peaceful."
14 He went on, "I have a word for you." "Say it," she said.
15 He said, "You know that the kingship belonged to me, and all Israel looked to me to be king. But the kingship has turned and gone to my brother, because it came to him from the LORD.
16 Now I have one request to ask of you. Do not refuse me." She said, "Go on."
17 He said, "Speak, please, to King Solomon, since he will not refuse you, and ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife."
18 "Good," said Bathsheba. "I will speak to the king for you."
19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king stood up to meet her and bowed to her, then sat down on his throne and had a throne placed for the king's mother, and she sat at his right.
20 She said, "There is one small request I am asking of you; do not refuse me." The king told her, "Ask it, mother; I will not refuse you."
21 She said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given as wife to your brother Adonijah."
22 King Solomon answered his mother, "Why ask for Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for the kingdom for him too, since he is my elder brother, for him and for Abiathar the priest and for Joab son of Zeruiah!"
23 And King Solomon swore by the LORD: "God do so to me and more, if Adonijah has not uttered this word at the cost of his own life!
24 So now, as the LORD lives, who has made me secure and seated me on the throne of my father David, and has built me a house as he said, this very day Adonijah will be put to death."
25 King Solomon gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who fell upon him, and he died.
26 To Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go off to Anathoth, to your fields. You are a man worthy of death, but today I will not kill you, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David and because you suffered in everything my father suffered."
27 So Solomon drove Abiathar out from serving as priest of the LORD, fulfilling the word of the LORD that he had spoken against the house of Eli at Shiloh.
28 The news came to Joab (for Joab had leaned toward Adonijah, though he had not leaned toward Absalom), and Joab fled to the tent of the LORD and grasped the horns of the altar.
29 King Solomon was told, "Joab has fled to the tent of the LORD; he is there beside the altar." So Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada with the order, "Go, fall upon him."
30 Benaiah went to the tent of the LORD and said to him, "The king says, 'Come out!'" He replied, "No, here I will die." Benaiah brought the king this report: "That is what Joab said, and that is how he answered me."
31 The king told him, "Do just as he said. Fall upon him and bury him; so you will remove from me and from my father's house the blood Joab shed for no cause.
32 The LORD will turn his blood back on his own head, because without my father David's knowledge he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he was and killed them with the sword: Abner son of Ner, Israel's army commander, and Amasa son of Jether, Judah's army commander.
33 Their blood will return on the head of Joab and of his descendants forever. But for David, for his descendants, his house and his throne, there will be peace from the LORD for all time."
34 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, fell upon him and killed him. He was buried at his home in the wilderness.
35 In his place the king set Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army, and Zadok the priest the king set in Abiathar's place.
36 Next the king sent for Shimei and told him, "Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and stay there. Do not leave it to go anywhere else.
37 On the day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, be sure of this: you will die. Your blood will be on your own head."
38 Shimei answered the king, "What you say is good. Your servant will do just as my lord the king has spoken." And Shimei stayed in Jerusalem a long time.
39 Three years later, though, two of Shimei's slaves ran off to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath. Shimei was informed, "Your slaves are in Gath."
40 So Shimei got up, saddled his donkey and went to Achish at Gath to search for his slaves. Shimei went and brought his slaves back from Gath.
41 Solomon was informed that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned.
42 The king sent for Shimei and said to him, "Did I not make you swear by the LORD, and warn you, 'On the day you leave and go anywhere, be sure of this: you will die'? And you told me, 'What I have heard is good.'
43 So why have you not kept your oath to the LORD and the order I gave you?"
44 The king also told Shimei, "You yourself know, your heart knows, all the harm you did to my father David. Now the LORD is turning your harm back on your own head.
45 But King Solomon will be blessed, and David's throne will stand firm before the LORD forever."
46 The king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and fell upon him, and he died. And the kingdom was made secure in Solomon's hand.