1 Kings 2 - Simple English

1Now the time drew near when David must die. So he gave this charge to Solomon his son:

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

3"Keep the charge of the LORD your God. Walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses. Then you will do well in all that you do and wherever you turn."

4"Then the LORD will keep the word he spoke about me. He said, 'If your children watch their way, and walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'"

5"You also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me. You know 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. He killed them. He shed the blood of war in time of peace, and he put the blood of war on the belt around his waist and on the shoes on his feet."

6"So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his grey head go down to the grave in peace."

7"But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. Let them be among those who eat at your table, for they came to me like that when I fled from Absalom your brother."

8"Look, you also have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim. He cursed me with a bitter curse on the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.'"

9"So now do not treat him as innocent. You are a wise man, and you know what you ought to do to him. Bring his grey head down to the grave with blood."

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

11David reigned over Israel for forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

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

13Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you come in peace?" He said, "In peace."

14Then he said, "I have something to say to you." She said, "Say it."

15He said, "You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel looked to me to be king. But the kingdom has been turned about and has become my brother's, for it was his from the LORD."

16"Now I ask one request of you. Do not refuse me." She said to him, "Say it."

17He said, "Please speak to Solomon the king, for he will not say no to you. Ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife."

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

19So Bathsheba went to king Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king stood up to meet her and bowed to her. Then he sat down on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king's mother, and she sat at his right hand.

20Then she said, "I ask one small request of you. Please do not say no to me." The king said to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not say no to you."

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

22King Solomon answered his mother, "And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask the kingdom for him as well, for he is my older brother. Ask it for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah."

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

24"Now then, as the LORD 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, Adonijah shall be put to death this day."

25So king Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he fell on him, and he died.

26The king said to Abiathar the priest, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you shared in all the suffering of my father."

27So Solomon drove out Abiathar from being priest to the LORD. This fulfilled the word of the LORD which he spoke about the house of Eli in Shiloh.

28Then the news came to Joab. Joab had gone over to Adonijah, though he had not gone over to Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.

29King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tabernacle of the LORD, and that he was beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, fall on him."

30Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD and said to him, "This is what the king says: 'Come out.'" He said, "No. I will die here." Benaiah brought word back to the king: "This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me."

31The king said to him, "Do as he has said. Fall on him and bury him. In this way take away from me, and from my father's house, the innocent blood that Joab shed."

32"The LORD will bring his blood back on his own head. For he fell on two men more righteous and better than himself, and killed them with the sword, and my father David did not know of 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 their blood shall come back on the head of Joab, and on the head of his descendants for ever. But on David, and on his descendants, and on his house, and on his throne, there shall be peace for ever from the LORD."

34So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell on him and killed him. He was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

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

36The king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there. Do not go out from there to any place."

37"On the day you go out and cross the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die. Your blood shall be on your own head."

38Shimei said to the king, "What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do." And Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.

39At the end of three years, two of Shimei's servants ran away to Achish the son of Maachah, king of Gath. Shimei was told, "Look, your servants are in Gath."

40Shimei got up, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath, to Achish, to look for his servants. Shimei went and brought his servants back from Gath.

41Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back.

42The king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, "Did I not make you swear by the LORD, and warn you, 'Know for certain that on the day you go out and travel anywhere, you shall surely die'? And you said to me, 'What I have heard is good.'"

43"Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD and the command I gave you?"

44The king also said to Shimei, "You know in your own heart all the evil you did to David my father. So the LORD will bring your evil back on your own head."

45"But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever."

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