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He also said that he was
contented to be a servant under him, and was pleased with the present
settlement; but he desired her to be a means of obtaining a favor from his
brother to him, and to persuade him to bestow on him in marriage Abishag, who
had indeed slept by his father, but, because his father was too old, he did not
lie with her, and she was still a virgin. So Bathsheba promised him to afford
him her assistance very earnestly, and to bring this marriage about, because
the king would be willing to gratify him in such a thing, and because she would
press it to him very earnestly. Accordingly he went away in hopes of succeeding
in this match. So Solomon's mother went presently to her son, to speak to him
about what she had promised, upon Adonijah's supplication to her. And when her
son came forward to meet her, and embraced her, and when he had brought her
into the house where his royal throne was set, he sat thereon, and bid them set
another throne on the right hand for his mother. When Bathsheba was set down,
she said,
"O my son, grant me
one request that I desire of thee, and do not any thing to me that is
disagreeable or ungrateful, which thou wilt do if thou deniest
me."
And when Solomon bid her to
lay her commands upon him, because it was agreeable to his duty to grant her
every thing she should ask,and complained that she did not at first begin her
discourse with a firm expectation of obtaining what she desired, but had some
suspicion of a denial, she entreated him to grant that his brother Adonijah
might marry Abishag.
3. But the king was greatly offended at these
words, and sent away his mother, and said that Adonijah aimed at great things;
and that he wondered that she did not desire him to yield up the kingdom to
him, as to his elder brother, since she desired that he might marry Abishag;
and that he had potent friends, Joab the captain of the host, and Abiathar the
priest. So he called for Benaiah, the captain of the guards, and ordered him to
slay his brother Adonijah. He also called for Abiathar the priest, and said to
him,
"I will not put thee
to death because of those other hardships which thou hast endured with my
father, and because of the ark which thou hast borne along with him; but I
inflict this following punishment upon thee, because thou wast among Adonijah's
followers, and wast of his party. Do not thou continue here, nor come any more
into my sight, but go to thine own town, and live on thy own fields, and there
abide all thy life; for thou hast offended so greatly, that it is not just that
thou shouldst retain thy dignity any longer."
For the forementioned cause,
therefore, it was that the house of Ithamar was deprived of the sacerdotal
dignity, as God had foretold to Eli, the grandfather of Abiathar. So it was
transferred to the family of Phineas, to Zadok. Now those that were of the
family of Phineas, but lived privately during the time that the high priesthood
was transferred to the house of Ithamar, (of which family Eli was the first
that received it,)were these that follow: Bukki, the son of Abishua the high
priest; his son was Joatham; Joatham's son was Meraioth; Meraioth's son was
Arophseus; Aropheus's son was Ahitub; and Ahitub's son was Zadok, who was first
made high priest in the reign of David.
4. Now when Joab the
captain of the host heard of the slaughter of Adonijah, he was greatly afraid,
for he was a greater friend to him than to Solomon; and suspecting, not without
reason, that he was in danger, on account of his favor to Adonijah, he fled to
the altar, and supposed he might procure safety thereby to himself, because of
the king's piety towards God. But when some told the king what Joab's supposal
was, he sent Benaiah, and commanded him to raise him up from the altar, and
bring him to the judgment-seat, in order to make his defense. However, Joab
said he would not leave the altar, but would die there rather than in another
place. And when Benaiah had reported his answer to the king, Solomon commanded
him to cut off his head there (1) and
let him take that as a punishment for those two captains of the host whom he
had wickedly slain, and to bury his body, that his sins might never leave his
family, but that himself and his father, by Joab's death, might be guiltless.
And when Benaiah had done what he was commanded to do, he was himself appointed
to be captain of the whole army. The king also made Zadok to be alone the high
priest, in the room of Abiathar, whom he had removed.
5. But as to Shimei, Solomon commanded that he
should build him a house, and stay at Jerusalem, and attend upon him, and
should not have authority to go over the brook Cedron; and that if he disobeyed
that command, death should be his punishment. He also threatened him so
terribly, that he compelled him to take all oath that he would obey.
Accordingly Shimei said that he had reason to thank Solomon for giving him such
an injunction; and added an oath, that he would do as he bade him; and leaving
his own country, he made his abode in Jerusalem. But three years afterwards,
when he heard that two of his servants were run away from him, and were in
Gath, he went for his servants in haste; and when he was come back with them,
the king perceived it, and was much displeased that he had contemned his
commands, and, what was more, had no regard to the oaths he had sworn to God;
so he called him, and said to him,
"Didst not thou swear
never to leave me, nor to go out of this city to another? Thou shalt not
therefore escape punishment for thy perjury, but I will punish thee, thou
wicked wretch, both for this crime, and for those wherewith thou didst abuse my
father when he was in his flight, that thou mayst know that wicked men gain
nothing at last, although they be not punished immediately upon their unjust
practices; but that in all the time wherein they think themselves secure,
because they have yet suffered nothing, their punishment increases, and is
heavier upon them, and that to a greater degree than if they had been punished
immediately upon the commission of their crimes."
Footnotes
(1) This execution upon Joab, as a murderer, by slaying him,
even when he had taken sanctuary at God's altar, is perfectly agreeable to the
law of Moses, which enjoins, that
"if a man come
presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him
from mine altar that he die," (Exodus 21:14).
So Benaiah, on the king's
command, slew Shimei.
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