Chapter Two

1–11. David’s final instructions and death. 12–46. The first steps of Solomon’s independent rule — measures to safeguard unlimited royal power.

1 Kings 2:1. When David’s time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, The fatal outcome of David’s illness, already previously foretold (1 Kgs 1:1-4), necessitated a second, solemn anointing of Solomon (1 Chr 29:20-22).

1 Kings 2:2. “I am about to go the way of all the earth; be strong therefore, and show yourself a man. “The way of all the earth” (cf. Josh 23:14) — the inevitable fate of all men, death.

1 Kings 2:3. “Keep the covenant of the Lord your God: walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; David’s exhortations to his son very much resemble the instructions of Jehovah to Joshua (Josh 1:6-7). The theocratic king of the people of God, for the success of his rule, had to base his entire activity on the law of Moses (Deut 17:18-19), keeping the statutes (Hebrew: hukkot) of Jehovah, commandments (mitzvot), ordinances (mishpatim), and testimonies (edot) of Him. The specific sense of the separate terms of the law cannot be precisely expressed (according to the rabbis, hukkot — laws in relation to God, for which a special foundation is not needed; mitzvot — laws also in relation to God with a clearly expressed foundation; mishpatim — laws about the relation to people; edot — laws resting on historical facts); in their totality (cf. Deut 8:11; Ps 118:5-7) they mean the entire whole of the law about the relation to God and people.

1 Kings 2:4. “that the Lord may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, then there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.’ The positive promise of God (2 Sam 7:11-16) is expressed here, as in (1 Kgs 8:25; Jer 33:17), in the negative form.

1 Kings 2:5. “Moreover, you know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, how he treated the two commanders of the armies of Israel, Abner the son of Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he murdered, shedding the blood of war in peacetime, and putting the blood of war upon the belt about his loins and upon his sandals on his feet. 1 Kings 2:6. “Act therefore according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head come down to Sheol in peace. The advice and instructions of the dying David to Solomon concerning the punishment of Joab, and also of Shimei (v. 8–9), were often regarded by interpreters as evidence of David’s bloodthirsty vengefulness. But David did not know Christian all-forgiveness: for an Old Testament man, blood vengeance was an institution regulated by law (Num 35:19; Deut 19:6; Josh 20:3), and a completely ordinary phenomenon of life (2 Sam 14:11); consequently, one cannot demand Christian virtue from David, unknown to the ancient world, nor can one, on the other hand, try to justify David: out of a desire to purify the Bible from all alleged blemishes we must not forget that sacred history gives us a precise and completely impartial image of a given epoch and of the persons acting in it (recall with what impartiality the failings of the apostles are reported in the Gospels and apostolic epistles). — “You know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me” (v. 5) — according to some (for example, Professor Guliaev), the chief sorrow caused to David by Joab — the murder of Absalom (2 Sam 18:14), but rather here is a general indication of Joab’s criminal behavior, immediately clarified by the separately named two examples of the treacherous murder of two main commanders: Abner (2 Sam 3:27) and Amasa (2 Sam 20:9-10). In proposing to Solomon the application of the law of blood vengeance to Joab, David, however, leaves everything to the wisdom, vigilance, and caution of his son; he wished to prevent the danger to him from Joab: “David feared that Joab, by his usual wickedness, would despise Solomon for his youth and do one of two things: either, under the mask of benevolence, would kill Solomon secretly, as he had betrayed to death Abner and Amasa, or openly arm himself and produce a division in Israel (Blessed Theodoret, question 4 on 3 Kings). Sheol (v. 6, 9) Hebrew sheol, LXX: hadēs, Vulgate: inferi, Slavonic: “hell” (Assyrian: Siwan — the region beyond the horizon): a dark underground realm (Job 10:21-22; Prov 9:18), where are all without exception the dead (Ps 15:10; Hos 13:14; Prov 5:5; Isa 38:18); like an insatiable monster, Sheol demands (Hebrew verb: shaal, from which the name sheol probably comes) ever new victims of death (Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; Ps 140:7; Prov 1:12); in the realm of Sheol it is impossible to glorify God (Ps 6:6), just as all activity in general ceases (Eccl 9:10).

1 Kings 2:7. “Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for with such kindness they met me when I fled from Absalom your brother. In gratitude to the Gileadite Barzillai for his loyalty and hospitality to David during his flight from Absalom (2 Sam 17:27-29), David at that time, when the danger was over, promised to receive Barzillai’s son Chimham into his court (2 Sam 19:32-40), and now confirms that promise for his other sons.

1 Kings 2:8. “And behold, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ 1 Kings 2:9. “But do not hold him guiltless; for you are a wise man and you know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down in blood to Sheol. Recalling the opposite treatment by Shimei the Benjaminite (2 Sam 16:13-16) from the village of Bahurim (in the tribe of Benjamin, near Jerusalem, according to Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, VII, 9, 7; Eusebius–Jerome, Onomastica, 220), David, although he swore at that time not to kill him (2 Sam 19:23), now, however, advises Solomon to act toward him according to political wisdom (cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 5). According to Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, VII, 15, 1), Solomon was to find, according to David’s advice, a plausible reason, aitia eulogos, for putting Shimei to death: and this was done by Solomon (below, v. 36–46).

1 Kings 2:10. And David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. “And David slept (Hebrew: ishkav, LXX: ekoimēse, Vulgate: dormivit) with his fathers” — about the spiritual communion of David with the fathers after death (cf. Gen 25:8), not in the sense of a joint burial, since the family tomb of David’s ancestors was Bethlehem, but he “was buried in the city of David”, that is, on Zion (cf. (2 Sam 5:7), see Blessed Theodoret, question 6; Eusebius–Jerome, Onomastica, 875), precisely on the eastern slope of the mountain in the Tyropeon valley, which cut through Jerusalem from north to south (Josephus, Jewish War, V, 4, 1), near the Spring of Siloam (Neh 3:15-16), (according to Josephus, to mnēma para tēs Siloa einai); here were buried other kings of David’s dynasty (1 Kgs 11:43), without doubt, not all (see 2 Chr 26:23; 2 Kgs 21:18). The present so-called “royal tombs” (Arabic: “Kalba shawua”) to the north of Jerusalem, according to the most probable assumption of archaeologists, serve as the remains of the tombs of the kings of Adiabene, around the time of Jesus Christ who adopted Judaism and settled in Jerusalem (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XX, 4, 3; Jewish War, V, 2, 2; 4, 2; see E. Robinson, Palestina (1841), Bd. II, 183–192). According to Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, V, 15, 3; see Blessed Theodoret, question 6), innumerable treasures were placed in David’s tomb by Solomon, so that later Hyrcanus could take from it 3000 talents of silver for military needs (Jewish Antiquities, XIII, 8, 4; Jewish War, I, 2, 5), and later Herod found there many precious things (Jewish Antiquities, XVI, 7, 1). The location of David’s tomb was well known even in Gospel time (Acts 2:29); later this tradition was lost, and already in the 3rd century they pointed to it in Bethlehem, in the Middle Ages — in the southwestern part of Jerusalem, in the so-called Coenaculum, and now to the southwest of the city beyond the Zion gates.

1 Kings 2:11. “The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years: seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem. The length of David’s reign — 40 years — is repeatedly indicated in the Bible (2 Sam 5:4; 1 Chr 29:27); in (2 Sam 5:5) it is shown as 40 years 6 months, so also according to Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, VII, 15, 2).

1 Kings 2:12. “Solomon sat on the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was firmly established. Verse 12 (cf. 1 Chr 29:23) forms a transition to the second part of the chapter — about Solomon’s measures to strengthen his power.

1 Kings 2:13. Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably. 1 Kings 2:14. Then he said, “I have something to say to you.” And she said, “Speak. 1 Kings 2:15. He said, “You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel expected me to be king; however, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s, for it was his from the Lord. 1 Kings 2:16. “Now I ask one thing of you; do not refuse me.” And she said to him, “Speak. 1 Kings 2:17. He said, “Please ask King Solomon — he will not refuse you — to give me Abishag the Shunnamite as my wife. 1 Kings 2:18. Bathsheba said, “Very well; I will speak for you to the king. 1 Kings 2:19. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. 1 Kings 2:20. Then she said, “I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.” And the king said to her, “Ask, my mother; for I will not refuse you. 1 Kings 2:21. She said, “Let Abishag the Shunnamite be given to your brother Adonijah as his wife. 1 Kings 2:22. King Solomon answered his mother, “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunnamite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom as well! For he is my older brother, and he has Abiathar the priest, and Joab the son of Zeruiah on his side. 1 Kings 2:23. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, “So may God do to me and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word at the cost of his life; 1 Kings 2:24. “Now therefore as the Lord lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day. 1 Kings 2:25. So King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down, and he died. Verses 13–25 — the death of Adonijah. Adonijah, forgetting the condition set to him by Solomon (1 Kgs 1:52), makes a new attempt to gain the right to the throne — through marriage to the last wife of David, Abishag, — a purely Eastern trait of royal life: the successor would take over the harem of his predecessor (2 Sam 3:7), as indeed Solomon understood Adonijah’s seeking (v. 22). Verse 15. Adonijah’s expression of feigned submission to the accomplished fact of Solomon’s accession, as God’s act, was intended to dispose Bathsheba in his favor. Verses 19–20. Solomon shows the greatest honor to Bathsheba — his mother (different was her reception from her husband David (1 Kgs 1:16)); sitting on the right hand of the king — a sign of equality (Ps 109:1); (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, VI, 11, 9). The importance of the queen — mother of the reigning sovereign, called: gebira, lady (1 Kgs 15:13), in the ancient Hebrew kingdom is evident from the constant biblical indication of the name of the mother of each king (1 Kgs 14:21); similar significance belongs now to the sultan’s mother — the mother of the ruling sultan — in the Turkish empire. Bathsheba’s intercession for Adonijah she calls a “small request”, apparently not realizing the political importance of Adonijah’s new design. Verse 22. Solomon immediately perceives the matter in its true light, seeing in Adonijah’s seeking not only his seeking of the kingdom, but also a political conspiracy with the participation of Abiathar and Joab (1 Kgs 1:7). The end of verse 22 from the Hebrew text gives the following thought: “ask for the kingdom for him, and for the priest Abiathar, and for Joab.” Contrarily, the LXX: kai autō Abiathar kai autō Iōab hetairos; Vulgate: et habet Abiathar sacerdotem et loabum; Slavonic: “and to him Abiathar... and Joab... friend” (so also Russian Synodal). The Hebrew text has a clear advantage over the LXX and Vulgate translations, which are forced to insert new words (hetairos, habet); the Hebrew text is accurately transmitted by Professor Guliaev. Verse 23. In view of Adonijah’s violation of the condition under which his life was granted (1 Kgs 1:52), Solomon swears (the formula of the oath — usual in the Old Testament, (Ruth 1:17; 1 Sam 3:17) and others) that Adonijah must perish. Verse 24. “Establishing (Jehovah) for me a house”: the dynasty of David was firmly established on the throne in the person of Solomon and through him (2 Sam 7:12-29). Verse 25. The execution of Adonijah, as later Joab (v. 34) and Shimei (v. 46), is carried out by Benaiah, the commander of the Cherethites and Pelethites (1 Kgs 1:38), to whom, besides serving as bodyguards, the office of executioners probably belonged, similar to the royal bodyguards in Egypt (Gen 37:36) and Babylon (2 Kgs 25:8; Dan 2:14). Concerning Solomon’s murder of his brother, Blessed Theodoret says: “Human life is different: some are engaged in high wisdom, others in what is called civil virtue; still others govern kingdoms or armies. Therefore, one must judge each according to the kind of life he lives. Consequently, from Solomon one should require not prophetic or apostolic perfection, but what is appropriate to kings... concerned about the peace of the kingdom, he commanded his brother to be put to death” (Question 7).

1 Kings 2:26. And to the priest Abiathar the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you deserve to die, but I will not at this time put you to death, because you carried the Ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because you shared in all the hardships my father endured. 1 Kings 2:27. So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, and thus he fulfilled the word of the Lord that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. The removal of Abiathar from the priesthood (v. 26–27), as well as the execution of Joab (v. 28–34), stand in evident causal connection with the murder of Adonijah: punishment falls also upon his allies (1 Kgs 1:7). Anathoth — a Levitic city in the tribe of Benjamin (Josh 21:18; Isa 10:30; Jer 1 and others), at 1½ hours’ journey to the north of Jerusalem, birthplace of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 1:1), according to Eusebius and Blessed Jerome (Onomastica, 92), at 3 Roman miles from Jerusalem; now the Arab village of Anata with 100 Muslim inhabitants (Robinson, Palestina, II, 319). The mitigating circumstances for Abiathar’s guilt, according to Solomon’s admission (v. 26), are not so much the dignity of his sacred ministry as the services he rendered to David: (Abiathar) “carried the Ark of the Lord God before David” — during the difficult time of David’s flight from Absalom (2 Sam 15:24-29), and even earlier in no less difficult times during Saul’s persecution, shared with him all that David endured (1 Sam 22:20-23); therefore Solomon punishes Abiathar’s twofold participation in Adonijah’s political conspiracy only by removing him from the sacred office at the tabernacle. In this decision of Solomon, according to the thought of the sacred writer (v. 27), — without doubt, apart from Solomon’s will and intention (Hebrew: lemaale, v. 27, Slavonic: “that it might be fulfilled”, is exactly the same in meaning as the New Testament “that it might be fulfilled”, hina plērōthē, (Matt 1:22) and similar), — the terrible judgment of God on the house of Abiathar’s ancestor, the high priest Eli (1 Sam 3:11-14), was fulfilled: after Saul’s slaughter of the priests in Nob, Abiathar remained the sole representative of the line of Ithamar (1 Sam 22:20), and with his removal from the priesthood, the office of high priest passes, in the person of Zadok, to the senior line of Aaron’s descendants — to the line of Eleazar (Num 25:13; 1 Chr 24:5-6).

1 Kings 2:28. When the news came to Joab — for Joab had supported Adonijah, though he had not supported Absalom — Joab fled to the tent of the Lord and grasped the horns of the altar. The news of Adonijah’s execution and Abiathar’s removal impels Joab, apparently not considering himself free from suspicion, to seek salvation, following the example of Adonijah (1 Kgs 1:50), in the tabernacle at the altar. “Did not support Absalom” — the name of Absalom is read in the accepted text of the LXX, in the Vulgate, Chaldean, Slavonic; conversely, in all Hebrew manuscripts and printed editions, as well as in the Alexandrian and Vatican manuscripts of the LXX, stands the name of Absalom. The latter reading is without doubt correct, as the name Solomon would give the speech an unnecessary pleonasm: it is self-evident that Joab, a supporter of Adonijah, could not be on Solomon’s side; the mention of Joab’s non-participation in Absalom’s rebellion may express the thought of a change in the political convictions of David’s military commander since that time.

1 Kings 2:29. When it was told King Solomon, “Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and now he is beside the altar,” Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, strike him down. The brief account of the Hebrew-Russian text is expanded by an insertion in the LXX and Slavonic text; according to the Slavonic text: “and the king sent to Joab, saying: What is it that you have done, that you have fled to the altar; and Joab said: Because I was afraid of you, and fled to the Lord” — an addition having the appearance of an explanatory gloss. At the end of the verse, the Russian text also has, beyond the Hebrew text, “and bury him”, LXX: kai thapton aeton, — an addition possibly from v. 31.

1 Kings 2:31. The king commanded him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him; and so remove from me and from my father’s house the guilt of innocent blood that Joab shed. 1 Kings 2:32. “May the Lord bring back his blood on his own head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than himself, Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah, and killed them with the sword without my father David’s knowledge. 1 Kings 2:33. “So shall their blood come back on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever; but to David, and to his descendants, and to his house, and to his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forever. By the law of blood vengeance (Exod 21:12-14; Num 35:16-21; Deut 19:11-12), upon David’s house there seemed to rest the blood shed by Joab and still unavenged — the blood of Abner and Amasa (2 Sam 3:27). Joab’s execution removed this blood from Solomon and David’s house (v. 31).

1 Kings 2:34. So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck him down and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. The disgrace of Joab’s execution was not, however, heightened by the deprivation of burial (cf. 1 Kgs 14:11; 2 Kgs 9:35); out of respect for his former state services, he was even buried on his own property, as was customary (cf. 1 Sam 25:1).

1 Kings 2:35. The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in command of the army in place of Joab, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar. The positions of the disgraced military commander (Joab) and high priest (Abiathar) are naturally taken by those who from the very beginning declared their loyalty to Solomon (1 Kgs 1:8) — Benaiah and Zadok. Further in the Greek and Slavonic Russian texts follows an insertion, apparently composed from various passages of the subsequent biblical narrative about Solomon, for example, see (1 Kgs 4:29-30; 1 Kgs 5:15-16 and others); a similar insertion is in the accepted LXX text after v. 46 of this chapter.

1 Kings 2:36. Then the king sent and summoned Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and do not go out from there to any place whatsoever; 1 Kings 2:37. “for on the day you go out and cross the Wadi Kidron, know for certain that you shall die; your blood shall be on your own head. 1 Kings 2:38. And Shimei said to the king, “The word is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem for a long time. 1 Kings 2:39. But after three years, two of Shimei’s servants ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. And when it was told Shimei, “Your servants are in Gath, 1 Kings 2:40. Shimei arose and saddled a donkey, and went to Gath to Achish, to search for his servants; Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath. 1 Kings 2:41. When Solomon was told, “Shimei has gone from Jerusalem to Gath and returned, 1 Kings 2:42. the king sent and summoned Shimei, and said to him, “Did I not make you swear by the Lord, and solemnly adjure you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you go out and go to any other place, you shall surely die’? And you said to me, ‘The word is good; I will obey.’ 1 Kings 2:43. “Why then have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the commandment with which I charged you? 1 Kings 2:44. The king also said to Shimei, “You know in your own heart all the evil that you did to my father David; so the Lord will bring back your evil on your own head. 1 Kings 2:45. “But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. 1 Kings 2:46. Then the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and struck him down, and he died. From suspicion toward Shimei (v. 8–9), who could have strong connections in his native tribe of Benjamin (cf. 2 Sam 19:16), Solomon binds him by word (according to the LXX and Slavonic — and by oath: kai hōrkisen auton, “and swore him”, v. 37, cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, VII, 1, 5) not to leave Jerusalem, not to cross the Wadi Kidron — the eastern border of Jerusalem (2 Sam 15:23; 2 Kgs 23:4; Jer 31:40), (cf. Onomastica, 610: now — Wadi-en-Nahr), beyond which lay Bahurim, Shimei’s birthplace. Although the latter’s departure to the Philistine Achish (cf. 1 Sam 21:11) for a completely innocent reason did not give grounds for accusing Shimei of the manifestation of evil will, Solomon hastens to take advantage of this occasion and for the enmity toward the house of David (v. 44) executes Shimei (cf. Blessed Theodoret, question 8). The conclusion of the chapter “and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon”, that is, thanks to the measures described in v. 23–46, — in the LXX, Vulgate, Slavonic-Russian translations is referred to the beginning of Chapter III, but according to the nature of biblical-Hebrew historiography, a remark giving the result of the preceding should have the place occupied by it in the Hebrew canonical text, that is, at the end of Chapter II.