19. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to talk to him for Adonijah. When Solomon saw her, he stood up to meet her. Then he bowed down to her and sat on the throne. He told some servants to bring another throne for his mother. Then she sat down at his right side.
20. Bathsheba said to him, “I have one small thing to ask you. Please do not refuse me.”The king answered, “Ask, mother. I will not refuse you.”
21. So she said, “Allow Abishag the Shunammite woman to marry your brother Adonijah.”
22. King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask me to give him Abishag? Why don’t you ask for him to become the king also since he is my older brother? Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah will support him!”
23. Then King Solomon made a promise in the name of the Lord. He said, “I promise Adonijah will pay for asking me this! May God punish me terribly if it doesn’t cost Adonijah his life!
24. The Lord has given me the throne that belonged to my father David. The Lord has kept his promise and given the kingdom to me and my people. As surely as the Lord lives, Adonijah will die today!”
25. So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada. And he went out and killed Adonijah.
26. Then King Solomon said to Abiathar the priest, “I should kill you. But I will allow you to go back to your home in Anathoth. I will not kill you now because you helped to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord God while marching with my father David. And I know you shared in all of the hard times with my father.”
27. So Solomon removed Abiathar from being a priest to the Lord. This happened as the Lord had said it would. He had said this about the priest Eli and his family in Shiloh.