1 Raja-raja 2:18-34

2:18 Bathsheba replied, “That’s fine, ¹  I’ll speak to the king on your behalf.”

2:19 So Bathsheba visited King Solomon to speak to him on Adonijah’s behalf. The king got up to greet ²  her, bowed to her, and then sat on his throne. He ordered a throne to be brought for the king’s mother, ³  and she sat at his right hand. 2:20 She said, “I would like to ask you for just one small favor. ⁴  Please don’t refuse me.” ⁵  He said, ⁶  “Go ahead and ask, my mother, for I would not refuse you.” 2:21 She said, “Allow Abishag the Shunammite to be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife.” 2:22 King Solomon answered his mother, “Why just request Abishag the Shunammite for him? ⁷  Since he is my older brother, you should also request the kingdom for him, for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah!”

2:23 King Solomon then swore an oath by the Lord, “May God judge me severely, ⁸  if Adonijah does not pay for this request with his life! ⁹  2:24 Now, as certainly as the Lord lives (he who made me secure, allowed me to sit on my father David’s throne, and established a dynasty ¹⁰  for me as he promised), Adonijah will be executed today!” 2:25 King Solomon then sent ¹¹  Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he killed Adonijah. ¹² 

2:26 The king then told Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your property ¹³  in Anathoth. You deserve to die, ¹⁴  but today I will not kill you because you did carry the ark of the sovereign Lord before my father David and you suffered with my father through all his difficult times.” ¹⁵  2:27 Solomon dismissed Abiathar from his position as priest of the Lord, ¹⁶  fulfilling the decree of judgment the Lord made in Shiloh against the family of Eli. ¹⁷ 

2:28 When the news reached Joab (for Joab had supported ¹⁸  Adonijah, although he had not supported Absalom), he ¹⁹  ran to the tent of the Lord and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. ²⁰  2:29 When King Solomon heard ²¹  that Joab had run to the tent of the Lord and was right there beside the altar, he ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada, ²²  “Go, strike him down.” 2:30 When Benaiah arrived at the tent of the Lord, he said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” But he replied, “No, I will die here!” So Benaiah sent word to the king and reported Joab’s reply. ²³  2:31 The king told him, “Do as he said! Strike him down and bury him. Take away from me and from my father’s family ²⁴  the guilt of Joab’s murderous, bloody deeds. ²⁵  2:32 May the Lord punish him for the blood he shed; ²⁶  behind my father David’s back he struck down and murdered with the sword two men who were more innocent and morally upright than he ²⁷  – Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. 2:33 May Joab and his descendants be perpetually guilty of their shed blood, but may the Lord give perpetual peace to David, his descendants, his family, ²⁸  and his dynasty.” ²⁹  2:34 So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and executed Joab; ³⁰  he was buried at his home in the wilderness.

[2:18]  ¹ tn Heb “[It is] good!”

[2:19]  ² tn Or “meet.”

[2:19]  ³ tn Heb “he set up a throne for the mother of the king.”

[2:20]  ⁴ tn Or “I’d like to make just one request of you.”

[2:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “Do not turn back my face.”

[2:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the king said to her.”

[2:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “for Adonijah.”

[2:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “So may God do to me, and so may he add.”

[2:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “if with his life Adonijah has not spoken this word.”

[2:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “house.”

[2:25]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text adds, “by the hand of.”

[2:25]  ¹² tn Heb “and he struck him and he died.”

[2:26]  ¹³ tn Or “field.”

[2:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “you are a man of death.”

[2:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and because you suffered through all which my father suffered.”

[2:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Solomon drove out Abiathar from being a priest to the Lord.”

[2:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fulfilling the word of the Lord which he spoke against the house of Eli in Shiloh.”

[2:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “turned after” (also later in this verse).

[2:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Joab.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:28]  ²⁰ sn Grabbed hold of the horns of the altar. The “horns” of the altar were the horn-shaped projections on the four corners of the altar (see Exod 27:2). By going to the holy place and grabbing hold of the horns of the altar, Joab was seeking asylum from Solomon.

[2:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “and it was related to King Solomon.”

[2:29]  ²² tn Heb “so Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying.”

[2:30]  ²³ tn Heb “saying, “In this way Joab spoke and in this way he answered me.”

[2:31]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[2:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “take away the undeserved bloodshed which Joab spilled from upon me and from upon the house of my father.”

[2:32]  ²⁶ tn Heb “The Lord will cause his blood to return upon his head.”

[2:32]  ²⁷ tn Heb “because he struck down two men more innocent and better than he and he killed them with the sword, and my father David did not know.”

[2:33]  ²⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[2:33]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his throne.”

[2:34]  ³⁰ tn Heb “struck him and killed him.” The referent (Joab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.