1. When the time of David’s death drew near, he gave these instructions to Solomon his son:
2. “I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong and be a man!
3. Keep the mandate of the Lord, your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in whatever you do, and wherever you turn,
4. and that the Lord may fulfill the word he spoke concerning me: If your sons so conduct themselves that they walk before me in faithfulness with their whole heart and soul, there shall never be wanting someone of your line on the throne of Israel.
5. “You yourself know what Joab, son of Zeruiah, did to me—what he did to the two commanders of Israel’s armies, Abner, son of Ner, and Amasa, son of Jether: he killed them and brought the blood of war into a time of peace, and put the blood of war on the belt about his waist and the sandal on his foot.
6. Act with all the wisdom you possess; do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.
7. But be true to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and have them among those who eat at your table. For they were loyal to me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom.
8. You also have with you Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjaminite of Bahurim, who cursed me bitterly the day I was going to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not kill you by the sword.’
9. But you must not let him go unpunished. You are wise; you will know what to do to send his gray head down to Sheol in blood.”
10. David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.
11. David was king over Israel for forty years: he was king seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.