Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: One of David's sons tries to get the people make him king instead of Solomon, but Nathan the prophet intervenes, and Solomon is made king and executes judgment on defectors.
King David is old, and he cannot get warm even with many covers, so his servants decide to find a young virgin woman to care for him and essentially cuddle with him (the actual words are "lie in [his] bosom") so that he can stay warm. They look for a "lovely young woman," and they find a Shunamite and bring her to David, and she cares for and serves him, but they do not "know" each other. Then, David's eldest son Adonijah "exalts himself" and declares he will be king, and he prepares chariots, horseman, and 50 men to run before him. And it says his father (David) does not check him to ask him why he is doing this and also that he is good-looking. His mother had born him after Absolom. He confers with Joab and also a priest, and they "follow and help [him,}" but Nathan the prophet and another priest and David's mighty men are not with him. He offers sacrifices and invites his brothers, the king's sons, all the men of Judah, and the king's servants to come, but he does not invite Nathan, the mighty men, Solomon, or Benaiah (the priest who remains loyal to David). Nathan speaks to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and asks her if she has heard that they have made Adonijah king without David's knowledge, and he tells her to take his advice to save her and Solomon's life. He tells her to go to David and ask if he did not swear Solomon would be king and ask him why Adonijah has been made king instead. He says he will come in after her to confirm her words. So she goes in to David's chamber where young woman is serving him and bows, and David asks her what she needs. She repeats Nathan's words and says, "The eyes of all Israel are on you that you should tell them who will sit on the throne..." She says if not, that after he dies, she and her son will be counted as offenders. As she is still speaking, Nathan comes in and bows, and he tells David the same thing. David tells Nathan to call Bathsheba back, and she stands before him again, and he makes a promise that Solomon will be king. She bows to the ground and says, "Let my lord, King David, live forever!" He asks for Nathan, Benaiah, and another priest, and he tells them to take his servants and have Solomon ride on his mule and to anoint him as king over Israel. Then, they are to blow the horn and say, "Long live, King Solomon!" They are also to come after him, and he should sit on the throne and be king, since David has appointed him the next ruler over Israel and Judah. Benaiah says, "Amen! May the Lord God of my lord the king say so, too!" They do all this, and all the people say, "Long live King Solomon!" And they rejoice and play instruments "so that the earth [seems] to split at their sound." Adonijah and his guests hear it, and Joab asks the reason for the noise, and Jonathan the son of a priest comes in. Adonijah welcomes him as he is a "prominent man," and Jonathan tells them that David has made Solomon king. Upon hearing this, all the guests are afraid, and they leave and go their way. Adonijah is afraid of Solomon, so he takes hold of the horns of the altar, and Solomon hears he is afraid of him. He asks for Solomon to swear not to put him to death. Solomon says he must prove himself a worthy man, but if wickedness is found in him, he will die. So they have him brought from the altar, and he falls before Solomon, and Solomon tells him to go to his house.
David is dying, and he charges Solomon to be strong and "prove [himself] a man and keep the charge of the Lord to walk in His ways and keep his statutes, commandments, judgments, and testimonies as is written in the law of Moses, that [he] may prosper in all [he does] and wherever [he turns] that the Lord may fulfill His word that he spoke to David," saying that if his sons follow Him with all their heart and soul, his throne will be established forever. He talks of what Joab did in shedding the blood of war during peacetime and tells Solomon that he must do according to his wisdom and not let his (Joab's) "grey head go down to the grave in peace." However, he tells him to show kindness to those who helped him when he fled from Absolom and to let them eat at his table. He tells him to keep the man accountable who cursed him. Even though David said he would not kill him, he charges Jonathan to not hold him guiltless but to "bring his grey hair down to the grave with blood." Then, David "[rests] with his fathers" and is buried in the city of David. He reigns 40 years in all, 33 years in Jerusalem. Then, Solomon reigns after him, and his kingdom is firmly established.
Adonijah comes to Bathsheba, and she asks if he comes peaceably, and he says yes. He says the kingdom was his and all Israel had expected him to reign, but that it is now his brother Solomon's because "it is his from the Lord." So he asks her to talk to Solomon to ask for the Shunamite woman to be his wife (the one who cared for David.) She says she will speak to him. Solomon bows to her and sits on his throne and has a throne for her at his right hand, and she asks for a favor, to make the Shunamite woman the wife of Adonijah. Solomon asks why, and that says she might as well ask the kingdom for him also, since he is his older brother. Instead of granting the request, he swears by the Lord that Adonijah has "spoken this word against his own life." His promises that he will be put to death that day, and he sends by Benaiah who strikes him down. He sends the disloyal priest away, saying he deserves death but that he will not kill him since he carried the ark before his father and suffered with him. It says that even though Joab had not defected to Absolom, he defected to Adonijah, so when this news comes to him, he flees also to the tabernacle and takes the horns of the altar. Solomon is told, so he sends Benaiah to strike him down as well. Joab refuses to come out and says he will die there in the tabernacle. Benaiah reports it to Solomon who tells him to do as Joab has said and kill him and bury him, thus taking away the innocent blood from his house that he has shed in killing two men "better and more righteous than himself" without David's knowledge. In so doing, their blood may return on him and his descendants forever, but on David and his descendants, on his household and throne, peace forever from the Lord. So Joab is killed and buried in his own house in the wilderness. David appoints a new commander and priest. He tells Shemaiah, the prophet who defected, to build a house for himself in Jerusalem and never leave there, that if he even crosses the brook, he will die, and the man agrees. After three years, his two slaves run away, and he is told, so he rises and goes after them and brings them back, and Solomon is told. He calls for him and tells him that he warned him and he had agreed to obey, and he says the Lord will return the wickedness on his own head. Then, he commands Benaiah to kill him. And it says the kingdom is established in this way by the hand of Solomon.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
David allowed certain things through passivity that never should have been allowed. This was Adam's great sin after all and- besides pride- is the main struggle of man (women have their own!) If he had stopped his son, perhaps he would not have become so foolish in thinking he could choose to be king. Was David's silence taken as a "yes" from him?
Solomon was considered very wise. He was not persuaded even by his own mother to go against what he knew to be right. This is a good lesson.