13. Now Adonijah son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother. She asked, “Do you come peacefully? ”“Peacefully,” he replied,
14. and then asked, “May I talk with you? ” “Go ahead,” she answered.
15. “You know the kingship was mine,” he said. “All Israel expected me to be king, but then the kingship was turned over to my brother, for the Lord gave it to him.
16. So now I have just one request of you; don’t turn me down.” She said to him, “Go on.”
17. He replied, “Please speak to King Solomon since he won’t turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.”
18. “Very well,” Bathsheba replied. “I will speak to the king for you.”
19. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, sat down on his throne, and had a throne placed for the king’s mother. So she sat down at his right hand.
20. Then she said, “I have just one small request of you. Don’t turn me down.”“Go ahead and ask, mother,” the king replied, “for I won’t turn you down.”
21. So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife.”
22. King Solomon answered his mother, “Why are you requesting Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my elder brother, you might as well ask the kingship for him, for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah.”
23. Then Solomon took an oath by the Lord: “May God punish me and do so severely if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life.
24. And now, as the Lord lives, the One who established me, seated me on the throne of my father David, and made me a dynasty as He promised — I swear Adonijah will be put to death today! ”
25. Then King Solomon gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who struck down Adonijah, and he died.
26. The king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death today, since you carried the ark of the Lord God in the presence of my father David and you suffered through all that my father suffered.”
27. So Solomon banished Abiathar from being the Lord’s priest, and it fulfilled the Lord’s prophecy He had spoken at Shiloh against Eli’s family.
28. The news reached Joab. Since he had supported Adonijah but not Absalom, Joab fled to the Lord’s tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar.
29. It was reported to King Solomon: “Joab has fled to the Lord’s tabernacle and is now beside the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada and told him, “Go and strike him down! ”
30. So Benaiah went to the tabernacle and said to Joab, “This is what the king says: ‘Come out! ’ ” But Joab said, “No, for I will die here.”So Benaiah took a message back to the king, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.”
31. The king said to him, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him in order to remove from me and from my father’s house the blood that Joab shed without just cause.