18. Then Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak to the king for you.”
19. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to talk with him. When the king saw her, he stood up, bowed before her, and then sat back down. He told some servants to bring another throne for his mother, and she sat down at his right side.
20. Bathsheba said to him, “I have one small thing to ask you. Please don’t refuse me.” The king answered, “Ask whatever you want, mother. I will not refuse you.”
21. So Bathsheba said, “Let your brother Adonijah marry Abishag, the woman from Shunem.”
22. King Solomon answered his mother, “Why are you asking me to give Abishag to Adonijah? Why don’t you just ask me to give him the whole kingdom! After all, he is my older brother, and both Abiathar the priest and Joab support him!”
23. Then Solomon said, “By the Lord, I swear I’ll make Adonijah pay for this with his life!
24. The Lord made me the king of Israel. He gave me the throne of my father David. The Lord kept his promise and gave the kingdom to me and my family. Now, as surely as the Lord lives, I swear Adonijah will die today!”
25. King Solomon gave the command to Benaiah, and Benaiah went out and killed Adonijah.
26. Then King Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, “I should kill you, but I will let you go back to your home in Anathoth. I will not kill you now because you helped carry the Holy Box of the Lord GOD while marching with my father David. And I know that you shared in the hard times with my father.”
27. So Solomon told Abiathar that he could not continue to serve as a priest of the Lord. This happened as the Lord said it would when he told Eli the priest what would happen to him and his family.