1 Kings 02 - David's Charge and the Kingdom Established

In chapter 1, Solomon received the throne and spared Adonijah; now the new king must decide what to do with an inheritance burdened by bloodshed and broken loyalty. David’s first charge concerns obedience to God, but his final words also place Joab, Barzillai’s family, and Shimei before Solomon. The kingdom becomes secure through severe judgments. Scripture lets us feel the weight of that security, and chapter 3 will turn from the elimination of threats to the wisdom needed to judge a people justly.

Why This Passage Matters

The chapter refuses to separate public power from moral debts. Gratitude, the claims of victims, political danger, and personal grievance meet in the dying king’s instructions. The principal inheritance remains God’s commandments: a king who removes rivals but refuses obedience has secured a throne without learning how to occupy it. Christian reading must preserve the literal severity while refusing to turn these royal punishments into instructions for Church, family, or political violence.

David’s final charge (1 Kings 2:1-12)

The study follows the NKJV order of 1 Kings 2:1-46. Brenton’s Septuagint also includes lettered summaries after verses 35 and 46, printed here in their own places. The Greek tradition preserves this additional arrangement; its verse 46 does not contain the NKJV’s closing declaration that the kingdom was established.

Brenton 1 Kings 2:1-12

¹ And the days of David drew near that he should die: and he addressed his son Solomon, saying, I go the way of all the earth: ² but be thou strong, and shew thyself a man; ³ and keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep the commandments and the ordinances and the judgments which are written in the law of Moses; that thou mayest understand what thou shalt do in all things that I command thee: ⁴ that the Lord may confirm his word which he spoke, saying, If thy children shall take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart, I promise thee, saying, there shall not fail thee a man on the throne of Israel. ⁵ Moreover thou knowest all that Joab the son of Saruia did to me, what he did to the two captains of the forces of Israel, to Abenner the son of Ner, and to Amessai the son of Jether, that he slew them, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put innocent blood on his girdle that was about his loins, and on his sandal that was on his foot. ⁶ Therefore thou shalt deal with him according to thy wisdom, and thou shalt not bring down his grey hairs in peace to the grave. ⁷ But thou shalt deal kindly with the sons of Berzelli the Galaadite, and they shall be among those that eat at thy table; for thus they drew nigh to me when I fled from the face of thy brother Abessalom. ⁸ And, behold, there is with thee Semei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Baurim: and he cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went into the camp; and he came down to Jordan to meet me, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. ⁹ But thou shalt by no means hold him guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and wilt know what thou shalt do to him, and shalt bring down his grey hairs with blood to the grave.

¹⁰ And David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹ And the days which David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Chebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

¹² And Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was established greatly.

David begins by acknowledging the common end of human life. His son must be strong, but the strength he names is immediately placed under the law of Moses. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 required the king to read and obey that law rather than lift his heart above his brothers. Joshua 1:6-9 likewise joined courage to obedience. Solomon’s future is not founded upon temperament or military success. The ruler himself must first be ruled by the Lord.

The promise in verses 3-4 contains an “if.” David’s sons are to walk before God in truth with their whole heart. Psalm 132:11-12 (LXX 131) holds together the oath to David and the obedience required of his children. God’s faithfulness is no shelter for a king who refuses correction. A gift can be genuine and its recipient still answerable for how he uses it.

David then names particular debts. Joab killed Abner and Amasa, spilling blood in peacetime (2 Samuel 3:27; 20:10). Barzillai sustained David during his flight and declined a place at court; his children are to receive kindness (2 Samuel 19:31-39). Shimei cursed the fugitive king, then received David’s oath of protection (2 Samuel 16:5-13; 19:16-23). These histories prevent us from reading a list of arbitrary enemies. They also do not dissolve the disturbing question of how David’s own resentment and political prudence enter the charge. Scripture allows the tension to remain instead of calling every royal act uncomplicatedly holy.

David dies and is buried. Acts 2:29 and 13:36 recall that his tomb and death belong to the testimony that directs hope beyond him. Solomon’s kingdom is “established greatly” in Brenton’s verse 12, yet the following scenes show how exposed that establishment remains.

Adonijah’s renewed bid (1 Kings 2:13-25)

Brenton 1 Kings 2:13-25

¹³ And Adonias the son of Aggith came in to Bersabee the mother of Solomon, and did obeisance to her: and she said, Dost thou enter peaceably? and he said, Peaceably: ¹⁴ I have business with thee. And she said to him, Say on. ¹⁵ And he said to her, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel turned their face toward me for a king; but the kingdom was turned from me and became my brother’s: for it was appointed to him from the Lord. ¹⁶ And now I make one request of thee, do not turn away thy face. And Bersabee said to him, Speak on. ¹⁷ And he said to her, Speak, I pray thee, to king Solomon, for he will not turn away his face from thee, and let him give me Abisag the Somanite for a wife. ¹⁸ And Bersabee said, Well; I will speak for thee to the king.

¹⁹ And Bersabee went in to king Solomon to speak to him concerning Adonias; and the king rose up to meet her, and kissed her, and sat on the throne, and a throne was set for the mother of the king, and she sat on his right hand. ²⁰ And she said to him, I ask of thee one little request; turn not away my face from thee. And the king said to her, Ask, my mother, and I will not reject thee. ²¹ And she said, Let, I pray thee, Abisag the Somanite be given to Adonias thy brother to wife. ²² And king Solomon answered and said to his mother, And why hast thou asked Abisag for Adonias? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother, and he has for his companion Abiathar the priest, and Joab the son of Saruia the commander-in-chief. ²³ And king Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if it be not that Adonias has spoken this word against his own life. ²⁴ And now as the Lord lives who has established me, and set me on the throne of my father David, and he has made me a house, as the Lord spoke, this day shall Adonias be put to death. ²⁵ So king Solomon sent by the hand of Banæas the son of Jodae, and he slew him, and Adonias died in that day.

Adonijah approaches Bathsheba with the word “Peaceably,” but his account of events still puts himself at the center. He says the kingdom was his and all Israel looked to him, then acknowledges that it passed to Solomon from the Lord. The concession has not healed the claim. Desire for the crown has learned a quieter voice.

His request for Abishag carries more than a wish to marry. She belonged to the king’s intimate household even though David had not known her sexually. Other royal-household disputes explain the danger: Ishbosheth challenged Abner over Saul’s concubine (2 Samuel 3:7); Nathan described David’s accession in terms that included the royal household (12:8); and Absalom made his rebellion public by taking David’s concubines (16:21-22). These parallels explain Solomon’s interpretation without requiring certainty about every private motive in Bathsheba’s request.

Solomon honors his mother with a place at his right hand and hears her. Honoring her does not mean granting a request he judges destructive. Yet the execution remains a royal judgment of extreme severity. Christian readers can recognize that an unhealed passion returns under peaceable language while refusing to reproduce Solomon’s sentence. Christ commands His disciples to put away the sword as a means of defending His kingship (Matthew 26:52-54).

Abiathar removed and Joab at the altar (1 Kings 2:26-35)

Brenton 1 Kings 2:26-35

²⁶ And the king said to Abiathar the priest, Depart thou quickly to Anathoth to thy farm, for thou art worthy of death this day; but I will not slay thee, because thou hast borne the ark of the covenant of the Lord before my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all things wherein my father was afflicted. ²⁷ And Solomon removed Abiathar from being a priest of the Lord, that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he spoke concerning the house of Heli in Selom.

²⁸ And the report came to Joab son of Saruia; for Joab had turned after Adonias, and he went not after Solomon: and Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold of the horns of the altar. ²⁹ And it was told Solomon, saying, Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and lo! he has hold of the horns of the altar. And king Solomon sent to Joab, saying, What ails thee, that thou hast fled to the altar? and Joab said, Because I was afraid of thee, and fled for refuge to the Lord. And Solomon sent Banæas son of Jodae, saying, Go and slay him, and bury him.

³⁰ And Banæas son of Jodae came to Joab to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, Thus says the king, Come forth. And Joab said, I will not come forth, for I will die here. And Banæas son of Jodae returned and spoke to the king, saying, Thus has Joab spoken, and thus has he answered me. ³¹ And the king said to him, Go, and do to him as he has spoken, and kill him: and thou shalt bury him, and thou shalt remove this day the blood which he shed without cause, from me and from the house of my father. ³² And the Lord has returned upon his own head the blood of his unrighteousness, inasmuch as he attacked two men more righteous and better than himself, and slew them with the sword, and my father David knew not of their blood, even Abenner the son of Ner the commander-in-chief of Israel, and Amessa the son of Jether the commander-in-chief of Juda. ³³ And their blood is returned upon his head, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but to David, and his seed, and his house, and his throne, may there be peace for ever from the Lord. ³⁴ So Banæas son of Jodae went up, and attacked him, and slew him, and buried him in his house in the wilderness.

³⁵ And the king appointed Banæas son of Jodae in his place over the host; and the kingdom was established in Jerusalem; and as for Sadoc the priest, the king appointed him to be high priest in the room of Abiathar. And Solomon son of David reigned over Israel and Juda in Jerusalem:

Abiathar is spared because he bore the ark with David and shared his afflictions. Solomon nevertheless removes him from priestly office and sends him to his fields at Anathoth. The narrator gives a theological location for this change: the word against Eli’s house is fulfilled (1 Samuel 2:27-36). Past fidelity matters, but sacred office cannot make political betrayal innocent.

Joab flees to the altar. The resemblance to Adonijah in chapter 1 sharpens the difference. Adonijah had received a chance to demonstrate changed loyalty; Joab carries the blood of Abner and Amasa. Exodus 21:14 expressly denies immunity at the altar to someone who has deliberately killed. The passage exposes the attempt to turn a holy place into protection from an unanswered crime.

Benaiah obeys the king, and Joab is buried in his own house. Solomon declares that the blood should return upon Joab while David’s house receives peace. That royal declaration deserves sober attention. The victims were real, but the court is also removing a military rival. The narrative’s claim of justice does not give every later ruler permission to identify personal enemies with enemies of God. Where violence has occurred, Christian mercy requires protection, truthful judgment, and accountability. Forgiveness is not concealment, and it does not require the vulnerable to return to danger.

The Greek summary of wisdom, works, and old debts (NKJV context: 1 Kings 2:35)

Brenton 1 Kings 2:35a-35o

^35a and the Lord gave understanding to Solomon, and very much wisdom, and largeness of heart, as the sand by the sea-shore.

^35b And the wisdom of Solomon abounded exceedingly beyond the wisdom of all the ancients, and beyond all the wise men of Egypt; ^35c and he took the daughter of Pharao, and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord first, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. In seven years he made and finished them.

^35d And Solomon had seventy thousand bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand hewers of stone in the mountain: ^35e and Solomon made the sea, and the bases, and the great lavers, and the pillars, and the fountain of the court, and the brazen sea— and he built the citadel as a defence above it, he made a breach in the wall of the city of David; ^35f thus the daughter of Pharao went up out of the city of David to her house which he built for her. Then he built the citadel; ^35g and Solomon offered up three whole-burnt-offerings in the year, and peace-offerings on the altar which he built to the Lord, and he burnt incense before the Lord, and finished the house. ^35h And these are the chief persons who presided over the works of Solomon; three thousand and six hundred masters of the people that wrought the works. ³⁵ⁱ And he built Assur, and Magdo, and Gazer, and upper Bæthoron, and Ballath: ^35k only after he had built the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about, afterwards he built these cities.

^35l And when David was yet living, he charged Solomon, saying, Behold, there is with thee Semei the son of Gera, of the seed of Benjamin out of Chebron: ^35m he cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went into the camp; ³⁵ⁿ and he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, He shall not be slain with the sword. ^35o But now do not thou hold him guiltless, for thou art a man of understanding, and thou wilt know what thou shalt do to him, and thou shalt bring down his grey hairs with blood to the grave.

The first added summary widens the reader’s view abruptly. Wisdom, buildings, laborers, bronze works, offerings, and cities are gathered beside a repeated charge concerning Shimei. This is a digest of Solomon’s reign, not a consecutive account of everything accomplished on the day Joab died. Its buildings and provisions anticipate subjects developed in later chapters.

The juxtaposition matters spiritually. Enlarged understanding and sacred construction belong in the same life as unresolved debts. A list of great works cannot certify an undivided heart. Nor do the bearers of burdens vanish into the king’s achievements: the laborers remain people whose lives sustain the splendor. When religious accomplishment tempts us to excuse bitterness or harshness, this summary brings the building and the grievance back onto the same page.

Shimei and the established kingdom (1 Kings 2:36-46)

Brenton 1 Kings 2:36-46

³⁶ And the king called Semei, and said to him, Build thee a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and thou shalt not go out thence any whither. ³⁷ And it shall come to pass in the day that thou shalt go forth and cross over the brook Kedron, know assuredly that thou shalt certainly die: thy blood shall be upon thine head. And the king caused him to swear in that day. ³⁸ And Semei said to the king, Good is the word that thou hast spoken, my lord O king: thus will thy servant do. And Semei dwelt in Jerusalem three years.

³⁹ And it came to pass after the three years, that two servants of Semei ran away to Anchus son of Maacha king of Geth: and it was told Semei, saying, Behold, thy servants are in Geth. ⁴⁰ And Semei rose up, and saddled his ass, and went to Geth to Anchus to seek out his servants: and Semei went, and brought his servants out of Geth. ⁴¹ And it was told Solomon, saying, Semei is gone out of Jerusalem to Geth, and has brought back his servants. ⁴² And the king sent and called Semei, and said to him, Did I not adjure thee by the Lord, and testify to thee, saying, In whatsoever day thou shalt go out of Jerusalem, and go to the right or left, know certainly that thou shalt assuredly die? ⁴³ And why hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment which I commanded thee?

⁴⁴ And the king said to Semei, Thou knowest all thy mischief which thy heart knows, which thou didst to David my father: and the Lord has recompensed thy mischief on thine own head. ⁴⁵ And king Solomon is blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever. ⁴⁶ And Solomon commanded Banæas the son of Jodae, and he went forth and slew him.

Shimei receives a bounded mercy: he may live, but he must remain in Jerusalem. Solomon states the boundary, and Shimei accepts it. Three years later he travels to Gath to recover runaway servants. A practical loss becomes the occasion for violating a sworn condition. The narrative exposes how an apparently settled life can still treat a serious obligation as negotiable when obedience becomes inconvenient.

Solomon confronts both the oath and the earlier injury to David. Shimei is executed. The chapter’s security has a grave cost, and the reader should not be hurried past it. Its details belong to an ancient court, not to a Christian discipline of eliminating difficult people. A household or Church responsibility is never a private kingdom in which inconvenience licenses retaliation.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St. Augustine insists that the everlasting promise to David cannot be exhausted by Solomon’s throne: “He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon greatly errs; for he attends to the saying, He shall build me a house, but he does not attend to the saying, His house shall be faithful, and his kingdom for evermore before me.”¹ The force of his argument is the difference between a temporary royal achievement and God’s final faithfulness. Solomon can remove threats; he cannot make his dynasty sinless or his peace permanent. Luke 1:32-33 locates the enduring reign in Christ, and Hebrews 12:28 describes the unshakable kingdom received by His people.

The Greek summary of abundance and peace (NKJV context: 1 Kings 2:46)

Brenton 1 Kings 2:46a-46l

^46a And king Solomon was very prudent and wise: and Juda and Israel were very many, as the sand which is by the sea for multitude, eating, and drinking, and rejoicing: ^46b and Solomon was chief in all the kingdoms, and they brought gifts, and served Solomon all the days of his life. ^46c And Solomon began to open the domains of Libanus, ^46d and he built Thermæ in the wilderness. ^46e And this was the daily provision of Solomon, thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of ground meal, ten choice calves, and twenty oxen from the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides stags, and does, and choice fed birds. ^46f For he ruled in all the country on this side the river, from Raphi unto Gaza, over all the kings on this side the river: ^46g and he was at peace on all sides round about; and Juda and Israel dwelt safely, every one under his vine and under his fig tree, eating and drinking, and feasting, from Dan even to Bersabee, all the days of Solomon.

^46h And these were the princes of Solomon; Azariu son of Sadoc the priest, and Orniu son of Nathan chief of the officers, and he went to his house; and Suba the scribe, and Basa son of Achithalam recorder, and Abi son of Joab commander-in-chief, and Achire son of Edrai was over the levies, and Banæas son of Jodae over the household and over the brickwork, and Cachur the son of Nathan was counsellor.

⁴⁶ⁱ And Solomon had forty thousand brood mares for his chariots, and twelve thousand horses. ^46k And he reigned over all the kings from the river and to the land of the Philistines, and to the borders of Egypt: ^46l so Solomon the son of David reigned over Israel and Juda in Jerusalem.

The second added summary shows the kingdom’s outward fruit: a numerous people, daily provision, named officers, horses, and households beneath vine and fig tree. Brenton’s chapter ends with Solomon reigning over Israel and Judah. This picture is genuine blessing, yet the preceding judgments keep us from mistaking political quiet for the complete healing of human life. The abundance will receive closer attention in chapter 4; the peace here remains a promise whose fullness this king cannot secure.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The current Coptic lectionary index lists no direct reading from 1 Kings 2. The Agpeya’s Twelfth Hour includes Psalm 132 (LXX 131), whose verses 11-12 join the promise to David with the obedience of his children.² The connection is an inferred spiritual reading: at the close of the day, we can bring both the trust we have received and our use of it before God. We ask Him to preserve His promise while confessing the ways our conduct has obscured it.

Christological Reading

Solomon inherits a kingdom marked by old violence. Christ, the Son of David, receives an everlasting reign (Luke 1:32-33) and establishes peace through the blood of His Cross (Colossians 1:20). That self-offering is different from a ruler spilling the blood of rivals. Isaiah 9:7 directs royal hope toward enduring justice; Hebrews 12:28 calls us to grateful worship before the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Christ’s peace judges our conduct wherever authority has become a means of settling grievances. He reconciles enemies to God (Romans 5:10), and commands His disciples to love their enemies (Matthew 5:44). Justice and protection remain necessary, but hatred cannot be baptized as zeal. The true King fulfills the Father’s will without mixture of obedience and self-interest (John 6:38).

Glossary

• Adonias, Abisag, Bersabee: Adonijah, Abishag, and Bathsheba.
• Joab, Abiathar: David’s military commander and the priest who supported Adonijah.
• Banæas son of Jodae: Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who succeeds Joab as commander.
• Semei, Berzelli: Shimei and Barzillai.
• Anathoth, Geth: Anathoth, Abiathar’s destination; Gath, where Shimei retrieves his servants.
• Bloodguilt: Responsibility for unjustly shed blood, requiring truthful accountability rather than concealment.

Discussion Questions

1. Why does David place obedience before political instructions?
2. What do the histories of Joab, Shimei, and Barzillai add to the moral weight of his charge?
3. How does Adonijah’s account of the succession expose an unhealed claim?
4. Why must a Christian distinguish the security of Solomon’s court from the peace of Christ?

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Choose one responsibility you hold and put David’s first charge before the need to defend your position. A decision can be efficient and still disobedient if it depends upon dishonesty or contempt. Seek counsel before calling your own security another person’s good.

Let gratitude survive the settlement of grievances. David remembers Barzillai’s kindness alongside old injuries. Name someone whose quiet fidelity sustained you and repay that kindness in a practical way, without turning it into public display.

Examine a promise you treat as negotiable when it costs money, time, or convenience. Shimei’s journey began with a recoverable loss; he risked a far greater one. Bring the rationalization into confession and make a concrete repair where possible. If the promise itself is unsafe or wrongful, seek responsible counsel rather than treating this royal boundary as a command to remain in danger.

Lord Jesus Christ, our King and our peace, rule the responsibilities entrusted to us. Heal resentment, strengthen honest obedience, and teach us to seek justice without hatred. Establish our hearts in Your unshakable kingdom. Amen.

Teaching Notes

David’s charge (1 Kings 2:1-12)

• Ask: Why is David’s principal inheritance a call to keep God’s charge?
• Connect: The true King fulfills the Father’s will without mixture or failure.
• Watch for: Calling every instruction uncomplicatedly holy; keep the moral tension and the victims’ histories visible.

Adonijah’s renewed bid (1 Kings 2:13-25)

• Ask: How can an unhealed passion return in apparently peaceable language?
• Watch for: Treating the ancient royal punishments as a model for Christian family, parish, or political conduct.

Abiathar and Joab (1 Kings 2:26-35)

• Emphasize: The Eli-house prophecy and Exodus 21:14 explain the narrator’s theological and legal frame.
• Connect: Sacred office and sacred proximity do not cancel accountability.

The Greek summary (NKJV context: 1 Kings 2:35)

• Ask: Why should buildings and worship not distract us from the grievance also repeated here?
• Emphasize: This is a summary of the reign, not a claim that all these works occurred at this moment.

Shimei and the established kingdom (1 Kings 2:36-46)

• Ask: Why does the book leave us uneasy even as the kingdom becomes secure?
• Connect: Let the unresolved weight prepare the group for Christ’s peace, which reconciles rather than merely suppresses enemies.

Abundance and peace (NKJV context: 1 Kings 2:46)

• Ask: What remains fragile even when the people eat and dwell safely?
• Emphasize: The repeated Greek summary anticipates chapter 4 and is printed under its own verse labels.

Sources

Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX). 1 Kings, eBible edition.

Footnotes

1. St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, XVII.8; translated by George Wilson in the edition edited by Marcus Dods, NPNF, first series, vol. 2. Text. ↩

2. Coptic Reader, Agpeya / Twelfth Hour, Psalm 132 (LXX 131); the psalm placement is recorded in @andraws/lectionary-data 1.3.1. Coptic Reader. ↩