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.
28. When Joab heard about this, he was afraid. He had supported Adonijah, but not Absalom. So Joab ran to the Tent of the Lord and took hold of the corners of the altar.
29. Someone told King Solomon that Joab had run to the Tent of the Lord and was beside the altar. So Solomon ordered Benaiah to go and kill him.
30. Benaiah went into the Tent of the Lord and said to Joab, “The king says, ‘Come out!’”But Joab answered, “No, I will die here.”So Benaiah went back to the king and told him what Joab had said.