20
Then she said, "I desire one small petition of you; do not refuse me." And the king said to her, "Ask it, my mother, for I will not refuse you."
21
So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife."
22
And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, "Now why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also--for he is my older brother--for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah."
23
Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, "May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life!
24
Now therefore, as the Lord lives, who has confirmed me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has established a house for me, as He promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today!"
25
So King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down, and he died.
26
And to Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you are deserving of death; but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because you were afflicted every time my father was afflicted."
27
So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord, that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which He spoke concerning the house of Eli at Shiloh.
28
Then news came to Joab, for Joab had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and took hold of the horns of the altar.
29
And King Solomon was told, "Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord; there he is, by the altar." Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, strike him down."
30
So Benaiah went to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, "Thus says the king, 'Come out!' " And he said, "No, but I will die here." And Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, "Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me."