"I am going the way of everyone of the earth. You will be king so be strong and be a man. Keep the obligations of the Lord your God; those are to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as they are written in the law of Moses. If you do that you will be successful in everything you do and wherever you go. Then the Lord may continue His word that He spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your children pay attention to their ways, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall never be a time when there is not a man on the throne of Israel.'

"Now you know what Joab did to me (supporting Adonijah against my wishes,) and what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, Abner and Amasa. He killed them shedding the blood of war in peacetime, spilling the blood of war on his girdle and in his shoes that were on his feet. Therefore do according to your wisdom, and let not his gray head go down to the grave in peace.

"But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at your table because they came to me when I fled because of Absalom your brother.

"And remember Shimei the son of Gera who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day I went to Mahanaim fleeing Absalom; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan when I was returning to Jerusalem. I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. Now hold him not guiltless: for you are a wise man, and know what you ought to do to him; bring his gray head down to the grave with blood."

So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. He reigned over Israel forty years; seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was very securely established.

Then Adonijah came to Bathsheba Solomon's mother. And she asked him, "Do you come peaceably?

And he said, "Peaceably. I want a word with you."

And she replied, "Say on."

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 has turned about and has become my brother's, for the Lord gave it to him. Now I ask one petition of you, please don't refuse me."

And she said unto him, "What is it?"

And he said, "Please ask Solomon the king, (for he will not refuse you,) to give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife."

And Bathsheba said, "I will speak to the king for you."

So Bathsheba went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

Then she said, "I want you to do a small thing for me; I pray you, don't refuse."

And the king said to her, "Ask on, my mother, for I will not refuse."

And she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as his wife."

And king Solomon answered his mother, "And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask me to give him the kingdom too; for he's my elder brother. Ask for him and Abiathar the priest, and for Joab."

Then king Solomon swore by the Lord, "God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not condemned himself. Therefore, as the Lord lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day."

King Solomon sent Benaiah who killed Adonijah. He sent a message to Abiathar the priest , "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not put you to death right now, because you bore the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because you were shared in my father's troubles." So Solomon thrust Abiathar, a descendant of Eli, out of the priesthood of the Lord; that he might fulfill the word of the Lord, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh, 1st Samuel 3:14, "I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever."

Then Joab too heard about Adonija and Abiathar, for Joab had conspired with Adonijah, though he had not followed Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the horns of the altar in hope of mercy. King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tabernacle of the Lord. but Solomon sent Benaiah saying, "Go and kill him."

Benaiah went to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to Joab, "The king says come forth."

And Joab said, "No, I will die here."

Benaiah returned Joab's answer to Solomon and the king said to him, "Do as he has said; kill him, and bury him that you may purge the innocent blood which Joab shed, from me and from the house of my father. The Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, he who murdered two men more righteous and better than he, killing them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof. These men were Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah. Their blood shall return upon the head of Joab but upon David, and upon his descendants, and upon his house, and upon his throne, there shall be peace for ever from the Lord."

So Benaiah went up and killed Joab and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

And the king put Benaiah over the armies of Israel in place of Joab and Zadok replaced Abiathar as high priest. Then the king sent for Shimei, and said unto him, "Build a house in Jerusalem, and live there, never again go out of Jerusalem. If you ever go out and pass over the brook Kidron be aware that you shall surely die, your blood shall be upon your own hands."

Shimei replied, "Your words are sure; as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do." And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.

But after three years two of Shimei's servants ran away to Achish the son of Maachah king of Gath. When Shimei found out he went to Achish in Gath to seek the return of his servants and he brought them back from Gath.

Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had returned. So the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, "Didn't I make you swear by the Lord, and warned you saying, 'Know for certain that the day you go anywhere out of Jerusalem that you would surely die.' and you said to me, 'The word that I have heard is good.'

"Why then didn't you keep the oath of the Lord, and the commandment that I have charged you with? You know all the wickedness of your heart and what you did to David my father, therefore the Lord shall return your wickedness on your own head. and king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever."

So the king commanded Benaiah to kill Shimei, which he did, and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

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