¹ Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: and David grew stronger and stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

² To David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;

³ and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

⁴ and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;

⁵ and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.

⁶ It happened, while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner made himself strong in the house of Saul.

⁷ Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and [Ishbosheth] said to Abner, "Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?"

⁸ Then was Abner very angry for the words of Ishbosheth, and said, "Am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? Today I show kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hand of David; and yet you charge me this day with a fault concerning this woman!

⁹ God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as Yahweh has sworn to David, I don't do even so to him;

¹⁰ to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba."

¹¹ He could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

¹² Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, "Whose is the land?" and saying, "Make your alliance with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you, to bring all Israel around to you."

¹³ He said, "Good; I will make a treaty with you; but one thing I require of you. That is, you shall not see my face, unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face."

¹⁴ David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, "Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I pledged to be married to me for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines."

¹⁵ Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Paltiel the son of Laish.

¹⁶ Her husband went with her, weeping as he went, and followed her to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go! Return!" and he returned.

¹⁷ Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, "In times past, you sought for David to be king over you.

¹⁸ Now then do it; for Yahweh has spoken of David, saying, 'By the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.'"

¹⁹ Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin: and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin.

²⁰ So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.

²¹ Abner said to David, "I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your soul desires." David sent Abner away; and he went in peace.

²² Behold, the servants of David and Joab came from a foray, and brought in a great spoil with them: but Abner was not with David in Hebron; for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.

²³ When Joab and all the army who was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.

²⁴ Then Joab came to the king, and said, "What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, and he is quite gone?

²⁵ You know Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do."

²⁶ When Joab had come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah; but David didn't know it.

²⁷ When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

²⁸ Afterward, when David heard it, he said, "I and my kingdom are guiltless before Yahweh forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner.

²⁹ Let it fall on the head of Joab, and on all his father's house. Let there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread."

³⁰ So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.

³¹ David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. King David followed the bier.

³² They buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept.

³³ The king lamented for Abner, and said, "Should Abner die as a fool dies?

³⁴ Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters. As a man falls before the children of iniquity, so you fell." All the people wept again over him.

³⁵ All the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun goes down."

³⁶ All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them; as whatever the king did pleased all the people.

³⁷ So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to kill Abner the son of Ner.

³⁸ The king said to his servants, "Don't you know that there a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

³⁹ I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evildoer according to his wickedness."

¹ Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he commanded Solomon his son, saying,

² "I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man;

³ and keep the instruction of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn yourself.

⁴ That Yahweh may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you,' he said, 'a man on the throne of Israel.'

⁵ "Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was about his waist, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

⁶ Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don't let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

⁷ But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.

⁸ "Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yahweh, saying, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.'

⁹ Now therefore don't hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood."

¹⁰ David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

¹¹ The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty-three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

¹² Solomon sat on the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was firmly established.

¹³ Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably.

¹⁴ He said moreover, I have something to tell you." She said, "Say on."

¹⁵ He said, "You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However the kingdom is turned around, and has become my brother's; for it was his from Yahweh.

¹⁶ Now I ask one petition of you. Don't deny me." She said to him, "Say on."

¹⁷ He said, "Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you 'no'), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife."

¹⁸ Bathsheba said, "Alright. I will speak for you to the king."

¹⁹ Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

²⁰ Then she said, "I ask one small petition of you; don't deny me." The king said to her, "Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny you."

²¹ She said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife."

²² King Solomon answered his mother, "Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah."

²³ Then king Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.

²⁴ Now therefore as Yahweh lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death this day."

²⁵ King Solomon sent by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died.

²⁶ To Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord Yahweh before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted."

²⁷ So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest to Yahweh, that he might fulfill the word of Yahweh, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

²⁸ The news came to Joab; for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he didn't turn after Absalom. Joab fled to the Tent of Yahweh, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

²⁹ It was told king Solomon, "Joab has fled to the Tent of Yahweh, and behold, he is by the altar." Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, fall on him."

³⁰ Benaiah came to the Tent of Yahweh, and said to him, "Thus says the king, 'Come forth!'" He said, "No; but I will die here." Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, "Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me."

³¹ The king said to him, "Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house.

³² Yahweh will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my father David didn't know it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah.

³³ So shall their blood return on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed forever. But to David, and to his seed, and to his house, and to his throne, there shall be peace forever from Yahweh."

³⁴ Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell on him, and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

³⁵ The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army; and Zadok the priest did the king put in the place of Abiathar.

³⁶ The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and don't go out from there anywhere.

³⁷ For on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die: your blood shall be on your own head."

³⁸ Shimei said to the king, "The saying is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do." Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹ It happened at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, "Behold, your servants are in Gath."

⁴⁰ Shimei arose, and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish, to seek his servants; and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.

⁴¹ It was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.

⁴² The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, "Didn't I adjure you by Yahweh, and warn you, saying, 'Know for certain, that on the day you go out, and walk abroad any where, you shall surely die?' You said to me, 'The saying that I have heard is good.'

⁴³ Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I have instructed you with?"

⁴⁴ The king said moreover to Shimei, "You know all the wickedness which your heart is privy to, that you did to David my father. Therefore Yahweh shall return your wickedness on your own head.

⁴⁵ But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before Yahweh forever."

⁴⁶ So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.