1 Kings 2:19-46 - Solomon's Responses To Adonijah, Joab, And Shimei
19 And thereupon Bathsheba went unto king Solomon to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up against her and bowed himself unto her, and sat him down on his seat. And there was a seat set for the king's mother, and she sat on his right side.
20 Then she said, "I must desire a little petition of 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, "Why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? But rather ask for him the kingdom, seeing he is mine elder brother! Even for him ask it; 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 so thereto if Adonijah have not spoken this word against himself. 24 Now therefore as surely as the LORD liveth which hath established me and set me on the seat of David my father, and which hath made me a house as he promised me, Adonijah shall die this day." 25 And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and smote him that he died.
26 And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, "Get thee to Anathoth unto thine own fields, for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time kill thee, because thou hast borne the Ark of the Lord Jehovah before David my father, and because thou sufferest with my father in all his afflictions." 27 And so Solomon put away Abiathar from being priest unto the LORD: to fulfill the words of the LORD which he spake over the house of Eli in Shiloh.
28 Then tidings came to Joab - for Joab had turned after Adonijah, but not after Absalom - whereupon he fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD and caught handfast on the horns of the altar.
29 And it was told king Solomon how that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD and stood by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada saying, "Go and smite him."
30 And when Benaiah was come to the tabernacle of the LORD he said unto him, "Thus sayeth the king: 'Come out.'" And he said, "Nay: But I will die even here." And Benaiah brought the king word, saying, "Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me."
31 And the king said, "Do even as he hath said: smite him and bury him, and take away the blood which Joab shed, causeless, from me and from the house of my father. 32 And the LORD bring his blood upon his own head, for he smote two men righteouser and better than he, and slew them with the sword; my father unwitting: even Abner the son of Ner captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether captain of the host of Judah. 33 And their blood return upon the head of Joab and on the head of his seed forever. And prosperity be unto David, and unto his seed, and unto his house, and unto his seat, of the LORD forever."
34 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and smote him and slew him and buried him in his own house in the wilderness. 35 And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host, and put Zadok the priest in the room of Abiathar.
36 Then the king sent and called Shimei, and said to him, "Build thee a house in Jerusalem and dwell there and see that thou go not once thence any whither. 37 For be thou sure of it: the day thou goest out and passest over the river of Kidron, thou shalt die for it, and thy blood shall be on thine own head."
38 And Shimei said unto the king, "It is well said: as my lord the king hath said, so will his servant do." And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many a day.
39 And it chanced, at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And one told Shimei, saying, "See, thy servants be in Gath." 40 And Shimei stood up and saddled his ass and gat him to Gath to Achish, to seek his servants, and came and brought them again from Gath.
41 But it was told Solomon how that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and was come again. 42 And the king sent and called Shimei and said unto him, "Did I not adjure thee by the LORD, and testified unto thee saying, 'Be sure whensoever thou goest out and walkest abroad any whither, thou shalt die for it?' And thou answeredst me, 'It is good tidings that I have heard.' 43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I commanded thee?" 44 And then the king said to Shimei, "Thou rememberest all the wickedness which thine heart knoweth that thou didst to David my father. The LORD therefore render again thy wickedness upon thine own head: 45 and king Solomon be blessed, and the fear of the LORD be established before the LORD forever."
46 And the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada: which went out and smote him that he died. And so was the kingdom settled in the hand of Solomon.