3 Kingdoms 2

¹ And the days of David drew near that he should die: and he ^[1]addressed his son Solomon, saying, I go the way of all the earth: ² but be thou strong, and show thyself a man; ³ and keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep the commandments and the ordinances and the judgments which are written in the law of Moses; that thou mayest understand what thou shalt do in all things that I command thee: ⁴ that the Lord may confirm his word which he spake, saying, If thy children shall take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart, I promise thee, saying, there shall not ^[2]fail thee a man on the throne of Israel. ⁵ Moreover thou knowest all that Joab the son of Saruia did to me, what he did to the two captains of the forces of Israel, to Abenner the son of Ner, and to Amessai the son of Jether, that he slew them, and ^[3]shed the blood of war in peace, and put innocent blood on his girdle that was about his loins, and on his sandal that was on his foot. ⁶ Therefore thou shalt deal with him according to thy wisdom, and thou shalt not bring down his gray hairs in peace to ^[4]the grave. ⁷ But thou shalt deal kindly with the sons of Berzelli the Galaadite, and they shall be among those that eat at thy table; for thus they drew nigh to me when I fled from the face of thy brother Abessalom. ⁸ And, behold, there is with thee Semei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Baurim: and he cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went into the ^[5]camp; and he came down to Jordan to meet me, and I sware to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. ⁹ But thou shalt by no means hold him guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and wilt know what thou shalt do to him, and shalt bring down his gray hairs with blood to the grave.

¹⁰ And David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹ And the days which David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

¹² And Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was ^[6]established greatly. ¹³ And Adonias the son of Aggith came in to Bersabee the mother of Solomon, and did obeisance to her: and she said, ^[7]Dost thou enter peaceably? and he said, Peaceably: ¹⁴ I have business with thee. And she said to him, Say on. ¹⁵ And he said to her, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel turned their face toward me for a king; but the kingdom was turned from me and became my brother’s: for it was appointed to him from the Lord. ¹⁶ And now I make one request of thee, do not turn away thy face. And Bersabee said to him, Speak on. ¹⁷ And he said to her, Speak, I pray thee, to King Solomon, for he will not turn away his face from thee, and let him give me Abisag the Somanite for a wife. ¹⁸ And Bersabee said, Well; I will speak for thee to the king.

¹⁹ And Bersabee went in to King Solomon to speak to him concerning Adonias; and the king rose up to meet her, and kissed her, and sat on the throne, and a throne was set for the mother of the king, and she sat on his right hand. ²⁰ And she said to him, I ask of thee one little request; turn not away my face from thee. And the king said to her, Ask, my mother, and I will not reject thee. ²¹ And she said, Let, I pray thee, Abisag the Somanite be given to Adonias thy brother to wife. ²² And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, And why hast thou asked Abisag for Adonias? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother, and he hath for his companion Abiathar the priest, and Joab the son of Saruia the commander-in-chief. ²³ And King Solomon sware by the Lord, saying, God do so to me, and ^[8]more also, if it be not that Adonias hath spoken this word against his own life. ²⁴ And now as the Lord liveth who hath established me, and set me on the throne of my father David, and he hath made me a house, as the Lord spake, this day shall Adonias be put to death. ²⁵ So King Solomon sent by the hand of Banaeas the son of Jodae, and he slew him, and Adonias died in that day.

²⁶ And the king said to Abiathar the priest, Depart thou quickly to Anathoth to thy farm, for thou art ^[9]worthy of death this day; but I will not slay thee, because thou hast borne the ark of the covenant of the Lord before my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all things wherein my father was afflicted. ²⁷ And Solomon removed Abiathar from being a priest of the Lord, that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he spake ^[10]concerning the house of Heli in Selom.

²⁸ And the report came to Joab son of Saruia; for Joab had turned after Adonias, and he went not after Solomon: and Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold of the horns of the altar. ²⁹ And it was told Solomon, saying, Joab hath fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and lo! he hath hold of the horns of the altar. And King Solomon sent to Joab, saying, ^[11]What aileth thee, that thou hast fled to the altar? and Joab said, Because I was afraid of thee, and fled for refuge to the Lord. And Solomon sent Banaeas son of Jodae, saying, Go and slay him, and bury him.

³⁰ And Banaeas son of Jodae came to Joab to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And Joab said, I ^[12]will not come forth, for I will die here. And Banaeas son of Jodae returned and spake to the king, saying, Thus hath Joab spoken, and thus hath he answered me. ³¹ And the king said to him, Go, and do to him as he hath spoken, and kill him: and thou shalt bury him, and thou shalt remove this day the blood which he shed without cause, from me and from the house of my father. ³² And the Lord hath returned upon his own head the blood of his unrighteousness, inasmuch as he attacked two men more righteous and better than himself, and slew them with the sword, and my father David knew not of their blood, even Abenner the son of Ner the commander-in-chief of Israel, and Amessa the son of Jether the commander-in-chief of Judah. ³³ And their blood is returned upon his head, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but to David, and his seed, and his house, and his throne, may there be peace for ever from the Lord. ³⁴ So Banaeas son of Jodae went up, and attacked him, and slew him, and buried him in his house in the wilderness.

³⁵ And the king ^[13]appointed Banaeas son of Jodae in his place over the host; and the kingdom was established in Jerusalem; and as for Sadoc the priest, the king appointed him to be high priest in the room of Abiathar. And Solomon son of David reigned over Israel and Judah in Jerusalem: ^35a and the Lord gave understanding to Solomon, and very much wisdom, and largeness of heart, as the sand by the sea-shore.^[14]

^35b And the wisdom of Solomon abounded exceedingly beyond the wisdom of all the ^[15]ancients, and beyond all the wise men of Egypt; ^35c and he took the daughter of Pharaoh, and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord first, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. In seven years he made and finished them.

^35d And Solomon had seventy thousand bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the mountain: ^35e and Solomon made the sea, and the bases, and the great lavers, and the pillars, and the fountain of the court, and the brazen sea— ^[16]and he built the citadel as a defence above it, he made a breach in the wall of the city of David; ^35f thus the daughter of Pharaoh went up out of the city of David to her house which he built for her. Then he built the citadel; ^35g and Solomon offered up three whole-burnt offerings in the year, and peace offerings on the altar which he built to the Lord, and he burnt incense before the Lord, and finished the house. ^35h And these are the chief persons who presided over the works of Solomon; three thousand and six hundred masters of the people that wrought the works. ³⁵ⁱ And he built Assur, and Magiddo, and Gazer, and upper Bethoron, and Ballath: ^35k only after he had built the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about, afterwards he built these cities.

^35l And when David was yet living, he charged Solomon, saying, Behold, there is with thee Semei the son of Gera, of the seed of ^[17]Benjamin out of Hebron: ^35m he cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went into the camp; ³⁵ⁿ and he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the Lord, saying, ^[18]He shall not be slain with the sword. ^35o But now do not thou hold him guiltless, for thou art a man of understanding, and thou wilt know what thou shalt do to him, and thou shalt bring down his ^[19]gray hairs with blood to ^[20]the grave.

³⁶ And the king called Semei, and said to him, Build thee a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and thou shalt not go out thence any whither. ³⁷ And it shall come to pass in the day ^[21]that thou shalt go forth and cross over the brook Cedron, ^[22]know assuredly that thou shalt certainly die: thy blood shall be upon thy head. And the king caused him to swear in that day. ³⁸ And Semei said to the king, Good is the word that thou hast spoken, my lord O king: thus will thy servant do. And Semei dwelt in Jerusalem three years.

³⁹ And it came to pass after the three years, that two servants of Semei ran away to Anchus son of Maacha king of Geth: and it was told Semei, saying, Behold, thy servants are in Geth. ⁴⁰ And Semei rose up, and saddled his ass, and went to Geth to Anchus to seek out his servants: and Semei went, and brought his servants out of Geth. ⁴¹ And it was told Solomon, saying, Semei is gone out of Jerusalem to Geth, and hath brought back his servants. ⁴² And the king sent and called Semei, and said to him, Did I not adjure thee by the Lord, and testify to thee, saying, In whatsoever day thou shalt go out of Jerusalem, and go to the right or left, know certainly that thou shalt assuredly die? ⁴³ And why hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment which I commanded ^[23]thee?

⁴⁴ And the king said to Semei, Thou knowest all thy mischief which thy heart knoweth, which thou didst to David my father: and the Lord hath recompensed thy mischief on thine own head. ⁴⁵ And King Solomon is blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever. ⁴⁶ And Solomon commanded Banaeas the son of Jodae, and he went forth and slew him.

^46a And King Solomon was very prudent and wise: and Judah and Israel were very many, as the sand which is by the sea for multitude, eating, and drinking, and rejoicing: ^46b and Solomon was chief in all the kingdoms, and they brought gifts, and served Solomon all the days of his life. ^46c And Solomon began to open the domains of Lebanon, ^46d and he built Thermae in the wilderness. ^46e And this was the ^[24]daily provision of Solomon, thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of ground meal, ten choice calves, and twenty oxen from the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides stags, and does, and choice fed birds. ^46f For he ruled in all the country on this side the river, from Raphi unto Gaza, over all the kings ^[25]on this side the river: ^46g and he was at peace on all sides round about; and Judah and Israel dwelt ^[26]safely, every one under his vine and under his fig tree, eating and drinking, and feasting, from Dan even to Bersabee, all the days of Solomon.

^46h And these were the princes of Solomon; Azariu son of Sadoc the priest, and Orniu son of Nathan chief of the officers, and he ^[27]went to his house; and Suba the scribe, and Basa son of Achithalam recorder, and Abi son of Joab commander-in-chief, and Achire son of Edrai was over the ^[28]levies, and Banaeas son of Jodae over the household and over the brickwork, and Cachur the son of Nathan was counsellor.

⁴⁶ⁱ And Solomon had forty thousand brood mares for his chariots, and twelve thousand horses. ^46k And he reigned over all the kings from the river and to the land of the Philistines, and to the borders of Egypt: ^46l so Solomon the son of David reigned over Israel and Judah in Jerusalem.

Notes

2:1 addressed: Gr. answered ↩
2:4 fail thee: Gr. be destroyed to thee ↩
2:5 shed: Gr. ordered ↩
2:6 the grave: Gr. Hades ↩
2:8 camp: Gr. camps ↩
2:12 established: Gr. prepared ↩
2:13 Dost thou enter peaceably: Gr. Is thine entrance peace? ↩
2:23 more also: Gr. add these things ↩
2:26 worthy of death: Gr. a man of death ↩
2:27 concerning: or, against ↩
2:29 What aileth thee: Gr. What hath happened to thee? ↩
2:30 will not: Gr. do not ↩
2:35 appointed Banaeas: Gr. gave Banaeas ↩
2:35a Alex. verses 35a–35b. Considerable variation here rather than omission ↩
2:35b ancients: Gr. ancient sons ↩
2:35e he built the citadel: probably some hiatus in the text ↩
2:35l Benjamin: Gr. Jemini ↩
2:35n He shall not be slain: Gr. if he shall be slain ↩
2:35o gray hairs: Gr. hoary head ↩
2:35o the grave: Gr. Hades ↩
2:37 that thou shalt go forth: Gr. of thy going forth ↩
2:37 know assuredly: Gr. knowing thou shalt know ↩
2:43 thee: Gr. against thee ↩
2:46e daily provision: Gr. dinner ↩
2:46f kings on this side: Gr. kings beyond ↩
2:46g safely: Gr. trusting in confidence. See Heb. ↩
2:46h went: Gr. ran ↩
2:46h levies: or, tributes ↩