The First Book of Kings, starting at chapter 1
{1:1} Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered
him with clothes, but he couldn't keep warm. {1:2} Therefore his
servants said to him, "Let there be sought for my lord the king a
young virgin. Let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let
her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm." {1:3} So
they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of
Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
{1:4} The young lady was very beautiful; and she cherished the king,
and ministered to him; but the king didn't know her intimately. {1:5}
Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be
king." Then he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to
run before him. {1:6} His father had not displeased him at any time in
saying, "Why have you done so?" and he was also a very handsome man;
and he was born after Absalom. {1:7} He conferred with Joab the son of
Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah
helped him. {1:8} But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty
men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. {1:9} Adonijah
killed sheep and cattle and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which
is beside En Rogel; and he called all his brothers, the king's sons,
and all the men of Judah, the king's servants: {1:10} but Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he
didn't call. {1:11} Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of
Solomon, saying, "Haven't you heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith
reigns, and David our lord doesn't know it? {1:12} Now therefore come,
please let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life, and
the life of your son Solomon. {1:13} Go in to king David, and tell
him, 'Didn't you, my lord, king, swear to your handmaid, saying,
Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on
my throne? Why then does Adonijah reign?' {1:14} Behold, while you yet
talk there with the king, I also will come in after you, and confirm
your words."
{1:15} Bathsheba went in to the king into the room. The king was
very old; and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king.
{1:16} Bathsheba bowed, and showed respect to the king. The king said,
"What would you like?" {1:17} She said to him, "My lord, you swore by
[1>]the LORD[<1] your [2>]God[<2] to your handmaid, 'Assuredly Solomon
your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.' {1:18}
Now, behold, Adonijah reigns; and you, my lord the king, don't know
it. {1:19} He has slain cattle and fatlings and sheep in abundance,
and has called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and
Joab the captain of the army; but he hasn't called Solomon your
servant. {1:20} You, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on
you, that you should tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord
the king after him. {1:21} Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the
king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be
counted offenders."
{1:22} Behold, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the
prophet came in. {1:23} They told the king, saying, "Behold, Nathan
the prophet!"
When he had come in before the king, he bowed himself before the
king with his face to the ground. {1:24} Nathan said, "My lord, king,
have you said, 'Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my
throne?' {1:25} For he is gone down this day, and has slain cattle and
fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king's sons,
and the captains of the army, and Abiathar the priest. Behold, they
are eating and drinking before him, and say, 'Long live king
Adonijah!' {1:26} But he hasn't called me, even me your servant, and
Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant
Solomon. {1:27} Is this thing done by my lord the king, and you
haven't shown to your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord
the king after him?"
{1:28} Then king David answered, "Call to me Bathsheba." She came
into the king's presence, and stood before the king. {1:29} The king
swore, and said, "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of
all adversity, {1:30} most certainly as I swore to you by the LORD,
the God of Israel, saying, 'Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign
after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place;' most certainly
so will I do this day."
{1:31} Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and showed
respect to the king, and said, "Let my lord king David live forever!"
{1:32} King David said, "Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada." They came before the king.
{1:33} The king said to them, "Take with you the servants of your
lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him
down to Gihon. {1:34} Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet
anoint him there king over Israel. Blow the [3>]shofar[<3], and say,
'Long live king Solomon!' {1:35} Then you shall come up after him, and
he shall come and sit on my throne; for he shall be king in my place.
I have appointed him to be prince over Israel and over Judah."
{1:36} Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said,
"Amen. May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, say so. {1:37} As
the LORD has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with
Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king
David."
{1:38} So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the
son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down,
and caused Solomon to ride on king David's mule, and brought him to
Gihon. {1:39} Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the Tent,
and anointed Solomon. They blew the [4>]shofar[<4]; and all the people
said, "Long live king Solomon!"
{1:40} All the people came up after him, and the people piped with
pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth shook with their
sound. {1:41} Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it
as they had made an end of eating. When Joab heard the sound of the
[5>]shofar[<5], he said, "Why is this noise of the city being in an
uproar?"
{1:42} While he yet spoke, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the
priest came: and Adonijah said, "Come in; for you are a worthy man,
and bring good news."
{1:43} Jonathan answered Adonijah, "Most certainly our lord king
David has made Solomon king. {1:44} The king has sent with him Zadok
the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the
Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they have caused him to ride on
the king's mule. {1:45} Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have
anointed him king in Gihon. They have come up from there rejoicing, so
that the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard.
{1:46} Also, Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. {1:47}
Moreover the king's servants came to bless our lord king David,
saying, 'May your God make the name of Solomon better than your name,
and make his throne greater than your throne;' and the king bowed
himself on the bed. {1:48} Also thus said the king, 'Blessed be the
LORD, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this
day, my eyes even seeing it.'"
{1:49} All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and each
man went his way. {1:50} Adonijah feared because of Solomon; and he
arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. {1:51} It
was told Solomon, saying, "Behold, Adonijah fears king Solomon; for,
behold, he has laid hold on the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let king
Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the
sword.'"
{1:52} Solomon said, "If he shows himself a worthy man, not a hair
of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he
shall die."
{1:53} So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the
altar. He came and bowed down to king Solomon; and Solomon said to
him, "Go to your house."
{2:1} Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he
commanded Solomon his son, saying, {2:2} "I am going the way of all
the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man; {2:3} and
keep the instruction of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, to
keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his
testimonies, according to that which is written in the Torah of Moses,
that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn
yourself. {2:4} That the LORD may establish his word which he spoke
concerning me, saying, 'If your children take heed to their way, to
walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,
there shall not fail you,' he said, 'a man on the throne of Israel.'
{2:5} "Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to
me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to
Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed,
and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his
sash that was about his waist, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
{2:6} Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don't let his gray
head go down to [6>]Sheol[<6] in peace. {2:7} But show kindness to the
sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at
your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your
brother.
{2:8} "Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the
Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day
when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan,
and I swore to him by the LORD, saying, 'I will not put you to death
with the sword.' {2:9} Now therefore don't hold him guiltless, for you
are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you
shall bring his gray head down to [7>]Sheol[<7] with blood." {2:10}
David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
{2:11} The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he
reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in
Jerusalem. {2:12} Solomon sat on the throne of David his father; and
his kingdom was firmly established. {2:13} Then Adonijah the son of
Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you
come peaceably?"
He said, "Peaceably. {2:14} He said moreover, I have something to
tell you."
She said, "Say on."
{2:15} He said, "You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all
Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However the kingdom
is turned around, and has become my brother's; for it was his from the
LORD. {2:16} Now I ask one petition of you. Don't deny me."
She said to him, "Say on." {2:17} He said, "Please speak to Solomon
the king (for he will not tell you 'no'), that he give me Abishag the
Shunammite as wife."
{2:18} Bathsheba said, "Alright. I will speak for you to the king."
{2:19} Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for
Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and
sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's
mother; and she sat on his right hand. {2:20} Then she said, "I ask
one small petition of you; don't deny me."
The king said to her, "Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny you."
{2:21} She said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah
your brother as wife."
{2:22} King Solomon answered his mother, "Why do you ask Abishag the
Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my
elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab
the son of Zeruiah." {2:23} Then king Solomon swore by the LORD,
saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken
this word against his own life. {2:24} Now therefore as the LORD
lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my
father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, surely Adonijah
shall be put to death this day."
{2:25} King Solomon sent by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell
on him, so that he died. {2:26} To Abiathar the priest the king said,
"Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But
I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of
the [8>]Lord[<8] the LORD before David my father, and because you were
afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted." {2:27} So Solomon
thrust out Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, that he might
fulfill the word of the LORD, which he spoke concerning the house of
Eli in Shiloh.
{2:28} The news came to Joab; for Joab had turned after Adonijah,
though he didn't turn after Absalom. Joab fled to the Tent of the
LORD, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. {2:29} It was told
king Solomon, "Joab has fled to the Tent of the LORD, and behold, he
is by the altar." Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,
saying, "Go, fall on him."
{2:30} Benaiah came to the Tent of the LORD, and said to him, "Thus
says the king, 'Come forth!'"
He said, "No; but I will die here."
Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, "Thus said Joab, and
thus he answered me."
{2:31} The king said to him, "Do as he has said, and fall on him,
and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed
without cause, from me and from my father's house. {2:32} The LORD
will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more
righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my
father David didn't know it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army
of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah.
{2:33} So shall their blood return on the head of Joab, and on the
head of his seed forever. But to David, and to his seed, and to his
house, and to his throne, there shall be peace forever from the LORD."
{2:34} Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell on him,
and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
{2:35} The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the
army; and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
{2:36} The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Build
yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and don't go out from
there anywhere. {2:37} For on the day you go out, and pass over the
brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die: your blood
shall be on your own head."
{2:38} Shimei said to the king, "The saying is good. As my lord the
king has said, so will your servant do." Shimei lived in Jerusalem
many days.
{2:39} It happened at the end of three years, that two of the
servants of Shimei ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath.
They told Shimei, saying, "Behold, your servants are in Gath."
{2:40} Shimei arose, and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to
Achish, to seek his servants; and Shimei went, and brought his
servants from Gath. {2:41} It was told Solomon that Shimei had gone
from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again.
{2:42} The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Didn't
I adjure you by the LORD, and warn you, saying, 'Know for certain,
that on the day you go out, and walk abroad any where, you shall
surely die?' You said to me, 'The saying that I have heard is good.'
{2:43} Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD, and the
commandment that I have instructed you with?" {2:44} The king said
moreover to Shimei, "You know all the wickedness which your heart is
privy to, that you did to David my father. Therefore the LORD shall
return your wickedness on your own head. {2:45} But king Solomon shall
be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the
LORD forever." {2:46} So the king commanded Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. The
kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
{3:1} Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took
Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he
had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD,
and the wall of Jerusalem all around. {3:2} Only the people sacrificed
in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of
the LORD until those days. {3:3} Solomon loved the LORD, walking in
the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense
in the high places. {3:4} The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there;
for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt
offerings on that altar. {3:5} In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon
in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."
{3:6} Solomon said, "You have shown to your servant David my father
great loving kindness, according as he walked before you in truth, and
in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept
for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to
sit on his throne, as it is this day. {3:7} Now, LORD my God, you have
made your servant king instead of David my father. I am but a little
child. I don't know how to go out or come in. {3:8} Your servant is in
the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that
can't be numbered nor counted for multitude. {3:9} Give your servant
therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may
discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your
great people?"
{3:10} The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this
thing. {3:11} God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing, and
have not asked for yourself long life, neither have asked riches for
yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for
yourself understanding to discern justice; {3:12} behold, I have done
according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and an
understanding heart; so that there has been none like you before you,
neither after you shall any arise like you. {3:13} I have also given
you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that
there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days. {3:14}
If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments,
as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."
{3:15} Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to
Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and
offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast
to all his servants.
{3:16} Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and
stood before him. {3:17} The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, I and this
woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house.
{3:18} It happened the third day after I delivered, that this woman
delivered also. We were together. There was no stranger with us in the
house, just us two in the house. {3:19} This woman's child died in the
night, because she lay on it. {3:20} She arose at midnight, and took
my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her
bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. {3:21} When I rose in the
morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked
at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore."
{3:22} The other woman said, "No; but the living is my son, and the
dead is your son."
This said, "No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son."
Thus they spoke before the king.
{3:23} Then the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son who lives,
and your son is the dead;' and the other says, 'No; but your son is
the dead one, and my son is the living one.'" {3:24} The king said,
"Get me a sword." They brought a sword before the king. {3:25} The
king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one,
and half to the other."
{3:26} Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king,
for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, "Oh, my lord, give
her the living child, and in no way kill it!"
But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it."
{3:27} Then the king answered, "Give her the living child, and in no
way kill it. She is its mother."
{3:28} All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged;
and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in
him, to do justice.
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {1:17} "LORD" or "GOD" (all capital letters) indicate the 4-letter
Holy Name of God
[2] {1:17} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."
[3] {1:34} or, trumpet
[4] {1:39} or, trumpet
[5] {1:41} or, trumpet
[6] {2:6} Sheol is the place of the dead.
[7] {2:9} Sheol is the place of the dead.
[8] {2:26} The word translated "Lord" (mixed case) is "Adonai."
________________________________________________________________________
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