16. And now I ask one petition of thee, do not deny me. And she said unto him, Say on.
17. Then he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king (for he will not deny thee) that he give me Abishag, the Shunammite to wife.
18. And Bathsheba said, Well, I will speak for thee unto the king.
19. Bathsheba, therefore, went unto King Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and bowed himself unto her and sat down on his throne and caused a seat to be set for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right hand.
20. Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee, do not deny me. And the king said unto her, Ask on, my mother, for I will not deny thee.
21. And she said, Let Abishag, the Shunammite, be given to Adonijah, thy brother, to wife.
22. And King Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag, the Shunammite, for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my elder brother and he also has Abiathar, the priest, and Joab, the son of Zeruiah.
23. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying, 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 made me a house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today.
25. Then King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.
26. And unto Abiathar, the priest, the king said, Go to Anathoth, unto thine own inheritance, for thou art worthy of death; but I will not put thee to death today because thou didst bare the ark of the Lord GOD before David, my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
27. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord that he might fulfil the word of the Lord, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
28. And the news came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he had not turned after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord and caught hold on the horns of the altar.
29. And it was told King Solomon that Joab had fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord and that he was by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him.
30. And Benaiah entered into the tabernacle of the Lord and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, No, but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.
31. And the king said unto him, Do as he has said and fall upon him and bury him that thou may take away from me and from the house of my father the blood which Joab shed without a cause.
32. And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he and slew them with the sword without my father David knowing of it: Abner, the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa, the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.
33. Their blood shall, therefore, return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever; but upon David and upon his seed and upon his house and upon his throne shall there be peace for ever from the Lord.
34. So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up and fell upon him and slew him, and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
35. And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his place over the host; and Zadok, the priest, the king put in the place of Abiathar.