1 Kingschapter 2
46 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
Introduction
Jeremiah, by tradition, History, 1 Kings Overview.
The same historian writes this chapter for readers who knew that blood left unanswered lay on the land. It holds a dying father's last charge and the first acts of a new reign. Its first hearers expected a new king to deal with the men who had crossed his house, and they would weigh how he did it. Listen for the terms each man is given before his case is closed. Notice how often the chapter says that the kingdom is established. It is the record of a court beginning its work, and its justice is severe.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who knew that an unavenged killing left a legal debt resting on the land
- What
- David's last charge to Solomon, David's death, and the settling of the cases of Adonijah, Abiathar, Joab and Shimei.
- Where
- Jerusalem, with the altar where Joab takes refuge, the priestly town of Anathoth to the north, and the Kidron valley that bounds Shimei's confinement.
- When
- The first years of Solomon, about 971 to 968 BC, with Shimei's case closed three years into the reign.
- Why
- To show the new king keeping the law of Moses and closing the open accounts of his father's reign, so that the kingdom stood firm in his hand.
Historical context
The chapter is Solomon's, and he is a new king with a charge from a dying father and four open cases to close.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The time is the turn from David's reign to Solomon's, about 971 to 970 BC, with the last case settled three years later. The places are the palace where David gives the charge, the altar where Joab takes hold of the horns, Anathoth a few miles north of Jerusalem where Abiathar is sent, and the city itself, which is the boundary of Shimei's confinement at the Kidron.
The occasion is a formal testament, since a dying king's charge to his heir was a binding instruction, and this one reads as a docket. Two of the cases are killings Joab carried out in peacetime under the cover of war, and one is a curse Shimei shouted at the king during Absalom's revolt.
A first hearer knew several things the text assumes. Blood shed and never answered rested on the land and on the house that failed to act, so these were open legal files rather than private grudges. Asking for a former king's woman was a recognized way of pressing a claim to the throne, which is what Absalom did in public at 2 Samuel 16:21 and 16:22. Anathoth was a Levitical town, so sending a priest there stripped the office while leaving the man his standing among his own. Slaves running to a neighbouring city were common enough that treaties between kingdoms carried clauses for returning them.
Significance
First hearers would read this as a court beginning to work. Cases that had stayed open for twenty years were heard and closed, and the chapter states twice that the kingdom was established.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
They would also notice what kind of establishment it was. Every man who died had first been given terms, and Shimei was told his boundary and his penalty and crossed the line himself for two runaway slaves.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard once a year, and both rites read it. It stands in the reading from the Prophets that follows the last Torah portion of Genesis, the portion called Vayechi, in which Jacob blesses his sons and dies. A congregation hears a dying father charge his sons in the morning reading and then hears David charge Solomon. That the pairing sets one deathbed charge beside another is the writer's reading of src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, and it is marked as the writer's reading until a source for it is filed. This book has no weekly portion of its own, so the chapter is heard as one passage on one Sabbath.
How it is read
Rashi is quoted here from the Metsudah Tanach series of Lakewood, New Jersey, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The charge against Joab is the note a Christian reader should hear whole, because the classical reading turns it into mercy. On the order that Joab's grey head should not go down to the grave in peace, Rashi writes, "Do not let him die a natural death" (Rashi on I Kings 2:6:1). The translation's note explains the reasoning it carries, that a death by the court spares a man the judgment after it. What Joab had done to David, Rashi takes from the Midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma. Joab kept the letter David had sent by the hand of Uriah, and showed it. The blame for Uriah's death then fell where David had put the plan (Rashi on I Kings 2:5:1).
Shimei's curse is read the same way, as a thing with a size. Rashi reads the word the text uses for it as a short word standing for five. He lists the five names Shimei called David: adulterer, Moabite, murderer, oppressor and abomination (Rashi on I Kings 2:8:1). The instruction that follows, that Solomon is wise and will know what to do, Rashi reads without softening. "Turn your attention to find for him a capital iniquity on account of another matter" (Rashi on I Kings 2:9:1). That is the classical sense of a wise king in this chapter, a man who can find the lawful ground for what justice already requires.
Two smaller notes set the reign in its frame. Where the text says the kingdom was firmly established in Solomon's hand, Rashi extends the rule past the earth, saying he ruled also over the heavenly creatures (Rashi on I Kings 2:12:1). On Adonijah's request for Abishag, he explains why it was read as a bid for the throne. "From the moment the scepter of the king is used, that is the beginning of authority" (Rashi on I Kings 2:22:1). The house God made for David, Rashi reads as the house of royalty promised through Nathan (Rashi on I Kings 2:24:1). The banishment of Abiathar he reads as the word against the house of Eli coming due. It waited while Shiloh lay waste, and was paid once a house fit for the service was to be built (Rashi on I Kings 2:27:1).
The corpus records two places where the classical readings part. On Bathsheba going in to Solomon, Rashi holds that she spoke for Adonijah. The translation notes Malbim against him, that she spoke for Solomon, judging his throne would be strengthened by granting the request (Rashi on I Kings 2:19:1). On the report that reached Joab, Rashi takes it as David's charge to kill him. The translation notes Radak against him, that Joab heard of Adonijah's death and Abiathar's banishment (Rashi on I Kings 2:28:1). Thirteen further notes stand in the corpus without an English text, and are cited and unquoted. Radak stands at Radak on I Kings 2:2:1, 2:3:1, 2:7:1, 2:10:1, 2:15:1, 2:21:1 and 2:25:1. Metzudat David stands at 2:4:1, 2:11:1, 2:13:1, 2:16:1, 2:18:1 and 2:23:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. David's dying charge draws the heaviest run. On the first verse the corpus holds Aggadat Bereshit 35:1 and 82:4 with Bereshit Rabbah 96:3, and on the second, the verse about going the way of all the earth, Midrash Tehillim 116:8. On the sixth, where Rashi set the mercy in the sentence, it holds Bereshit Rabbah 84:20. On the seventh, the kindness owed to the sons of Barzillai, it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 102:23 with a passage of the Introductions to Tanaitic Literature at Eruvin 198.
Shimei carries his own set. On the eighth verse the corpus holds Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 12:4, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 16:29:212 and Midrash Tehillim 3:3. The oath put to him and broken draws four passages of the Introductions to Tanaitic Literature. On the forty-second verse the corpus holds Introduction to Tosefta 150 and Rosh HaShanah 15. On the forty-third it holds Remains of Ancient Tannaitic Compilations 173 and Sotah 52. On the forty-fourth it holds two more of them, at Introduction to Tosefta 177 and Our Mishnah 292, and on the forty-fifth Esther Rabbah, Petichta 6. The last verse of the chapter, where the kingdom is established, draws Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 1:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Ki Teitzei 1:1.
The length of David's reign draws Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:105 and Zevachim 14:3, with Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:8, on the eleventh verse. Bathsheba's errand draws Bava Batra 91b:12 on the nineteenth, with Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 5:41 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 5:39. On the twenty-second, Solomon's answer about the throne, the corpus holds Sanhedrin 48b:12 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:3:1. On the twenty-fourth it holds Midrash Shmuel 16:1 and Midrash Tehillim 15:3, and on the twenty-fifth Chullin 18b:11. Abiathar's banishment to Anathoth draws Esther Rabbah 1:8 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 23:32:1 on the twenty-sixth verse. Joab at the horns of the altar carries the longest run. On the twenty-eighth verse the corpus holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:13 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Makkot 2:10. On the thirtieth it holds Sanhedrin 48b:13 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 6:18. On the thirty-second it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 6:20 and the Glick Edition at the same place. On the thirty-fourth it holds Sanhedrin 49a:16. On the thirty-ninth, the slaves who ran to Gath, it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 756:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and this site reports it as theirs. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Kings 2:5:1 to 2:28:1, the Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Kings 2:2:1 to 2:25:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Kings 2:4:1 to 2:23:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; Malbim, Malbim, noted against Rashi at Rashi on I Kings 2:19:1 by the Metsudah translation; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-kings/2.json, fetched 2026-09-19, the forty Midrash and Talmud locators cited above, 2026; MannaFest, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the Haftarah use and its rite, printed in this lane, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Be strong, and show thyself a man: David's charge and death
1 Kings 2:1-2
the days of David drew nigh: David's charge opens with the verb Moses used to commission Joshua at Deuteronomy 31:23, and 1 Chronicles 28 to 29 already recorded a public farewell before the assembly; this is the private word given son to son. Be strong and shew thyself a man echoes the courage given Joshua at Deuteronomy 31:6-7 and Joshua 1:6-9, where strength is tied to keeping the law rather than to raw nerve.
the way of all the earth: David calls his death the way of all the earth. Matthew Henry reads the phrase as a road, a passage out of this life into a better one. Albert Barnes places Solomon at about nineteen or twenty, a man of peace facing a strong party and older brothers, and so the charge calls him to prove himself a man.
1 Kings 2:2
“I go the way of all the earth--a beautiful and impressive periphrasis for death. be thou strong, . . . show thyself a man--This counsel is similar to the apostolic direction (1Co 16:13) and refers to the fortitude or strength of mind that was required to discharge the onerous functions of king.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Kings 2:2
“We never let fall the promise till we let fall the precept. God had promised David that the Messiah should come from his loins, and that promise was absolute: but the promise that there should not fail him a man on the throne of Israel was conditional--if his seed behave themselves as they should.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 2:3-4
keep the charge of the Lord: thy God, to walk in his ways sets the whole reign under Deuteronomy 17:18-20, the statute requiring every king to copy and read the law all his days; David hands Solomon the same charge Moses gave every future king of Israel. Verse 4 makes the dynasty's future conditional on it, the Lord will continue his word only if Solomon's children walk before him in truth, the same terms 2 Samuel 7:14-15 set on the house of David. The covenant tested king by king begins here, before Solomon has judged a single case.
1 Kings 2:3
“The “statutes” have been explained to be the positive ordinances of the Law; the “commandments” the moral precepts, not to steal, etc.; the “judgments” the laws belonging to civil government; and the “testimonies” the laws directing the commemoration of certain events. Compare Psa 19:7-8.”
a man on the throne of Israel: Matthew Henry separates two promises made to David. The promise that the Messiah would come from his line was absolute, and the promise of a man on the throne of Israel hung on obedience. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace the second to Jeremiah 33:17, where it is repeated with its spiritual meaning.
1 Kings 2:4
“That the Lord may continue his word - The prosperity which God has promised to grant to my family will depend on their faithfulness to the good they receive; if they live to God, they shall sit for ever on the throne of Israel. But alas! they did not; and God’s justice cut off the entail made by his mercy.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 2:5-6
Joab the son of Zeruiah: carries a weight the reader has watched build since 2 Samuel 3:39, where David called the sons of Zeruiah too hard for him even as king; the debt for Abner and Amasa comes due only now. Both captains were killed under a truce, the blood of war put on a belt and shoes worn in peace, and David leaves the settling of it to Solomon's own wisdom rather than acting himself. The charge names no method, only that Joab's hoar head not go down to the grave in peace, the same phrase used of Shimei two verses later.
1 Kings 2:5
“Magistrates are the avengers of the blood of those they have the charge of. It aggravated Joab's crime that he was neither ashamed of the sin nor afraid of the punishment, but daringly wore the girdle and shoes that were stained with innocent blood, in defiance of the justice both of God and the king.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:5
“In his directions with respect to certain important persons, David, anxious for the security of his young successor’s kingdom, allows old animosities to revive, and is willing to avenge himself indirectly and by deputy, though he had been withheld by certain scruples from taking vengeance in his own person. We must not expect Gospel morality from the saints of the Old Testament. They were only the best men of their several ages and nations.”
Albert Barnes judges that Joab, though David's nephew, was near David's own age. Adam Clarke faults David for the long delay and allows that the state of his government may have forced it. Matthew Henry adds that time wears away no guilt of blood.
1 Kings 2:6
“Let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace - It would have been an insult to justice not to have taken the life of Joab. David was culpable in delaying it so long; but probably the circumstances of his government would not admit of his doing it sooner. According to the law of God, Joab, having murdered Abner and Amasa, should die. And had not David commanded Solomon to perform this act of justice, he could not have died in the approbation of his Maker.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Barzillai the Gileadite: Barzillai's sons receive the opposite charge, kindness rather than reckoning, for the hospitality shown at Mahanaim during Absalom's revolt in 2 Samuel 17:27-29 and 19:31-39. The two charges sit side by side, mercy for a debt of loyalty and justice for a debt of blood, and David treats both as unfinished business owed rather than as grudges held.
1 Kings 2:7
“One of the sons of Barzillai here intended was probably Chimham (see the margin reference). Who the others were is not known. The family continued down to the return from the captivity, and still held property in Israel (compare Ezr 2:61 and Neh 7:63).”
1 Kings 2:8-9
Shimei the son of Gera: Shimei cursed David with a grievous curse at Bahurim in 2 Samuel 16:5-13 and was sworn safety at the Jordan in 2 Samuel 19:16-23; David keeps his own oath to the letter while telling Solomon the account is still open. Thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do leaves the method open, and Solomon's eventual sentence in verses 36 to 46 will rest on a new oath Shimei breaks himself rather than on the old curse.
1 Kings 2:8
“He has no less malice than he had then, though he has more sense to conceal it. He is still a debtor to the public justice for what he did then; and, though I promised him that I would not put him to death, I never promised that my successor should not.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke carries the negative of the first clause into the second, so that David forbids a violent death for the aged Shimei. Albert Barnes reads the charge as punishment in Solomon's own time, leaving Shimei room to give just cause for death. The readings part over the Hebrew particle lo.
1 Kings 2:9
“Hold him not guiltless - i. e. “Do not treat him as an innocent man. Punish him as in thy wisdom thou deemest best. Not capitally at once; but so that he may be likely to give thee in course of time a just occasion to slay him.” So, at least, Solomon seems to have understood the charge. (See 1Ki 2:36-46.)”
1 Kings 2:10-11
David slept with his fathers: Slept with his fathers becomes Kings' standard notice of a king's death, repeated for nearly every reign that follows across both books. Verse 11 totals the forty years, seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem, the same figures 2 Samuel 5:4-5 already gave, closing the reign that book opened.
1 Kings 2:10
“So David slept with his fathers,.... Died as his ancestors before him did; for, buried with them he was not; and therefore cannot be understood of his lying with them in the grave, but in the state of the dead; he died according as the Jews say (q) on the day of Pentecost, and according to Bishop Usher (r) A. M.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:10
“The interval was spent in developing his ideas and plans for the future glory of the kingdom and providing for the permanent worship of God (see on 1Ch 22:1, and following). was buried in the city of David--Sepulchres were not allowed within the precincts of cities.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
David reigned seven years and six months in Hebron, as 2 Samuel 5:5 counts it, so the forty years of this verse are a round number. Albert Barnes notes that Jewish writers drop such odd months. John Gill adds that the Hebron years were over Judah alone, and the thirty-three in Jerusalem over all Israel.
1 Kings 2:11
“And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years,.... So says Eupolemus (s), an Heathen writer, which are thus reckoned: seven years reigned he in Hebron; the six months over are omitted, 2Sa 5:5; this part of his reign was over Judah only: and thirty three years reigned he in Jerusalem; over the twelve tribes, in all forty, which round number is only given; though in fact he reigned six months more. (s) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 30.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:11
“Forty years - In all forty years and six months. See 2Sa 5:5, and 1Ch 3:4. The Jewish writers almost universally omit the fractions of a year.”
his kingdom was established greatly: states in one line the subject the rest of the chapter proves case by case, and the same verb returns at the chapter's own close in verse 46. It answers 2 Samuel 7:12-13's promise that the Lord would establish the throne of David's seed, now beginning to be kept in the plainest sense, one settled account at a time.
1 Kings 2:12
“Having been born after his father became monarch of the whole kingdom, his claim, according to the notions of Oriental people, was preferable to that of all, even his elder brothers. The Hebrew kingdom enjoyed internal prosperity; it was respected and renowned abroad, and Solomon well knew how to improve these advantages.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:12
“The “establishment” of the kingdom here intended is probably its universal acceptance both by the tribe of Judah and the other Israelites.”
Adonijah asks for Abishag and loses his life
1 Kings 2:13-15
Comest thou peaceably?: is the same question Jehu will ask twice at 2 Kings 9:17-22, and in both settings it answers a threat rather than a greeting. The kingdom was mine, and it was his from the Lord is Adonijah's own confession to the queen mother, that his claim failed because the Lord had already given the throne to Solomon at 1 Kings 1:29-30. He raises no objection to that outcome here; the scene turns instead on the request that follows.
1 Kings 2:13
“The right hand is the place of honor; and as it expressly said to have been assigned to "the king's mother," it is necessary to remark that, when a husband dies, his widow acquires a higher dignity and power, as a mother over her son, than she ever possessed before. Besides, the dignity of "king's mother" is a state office, to which certain revenues are attached.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Adonijah comes to the queen mother with formal words. John Gill hears a man announcing that he has come on business, and in Bathsheba's two-word answer he hears her readiness to listen.
1 Kings 2:14
“He said, moreover, I have something to say unto thee,.... Signifying that he came upon business: and she said, say on; intimating her readiness to hear what it was.”
Adam Clarke grants Adonijah three claims, the right of the eldest son, the voice of the people and the consent of the high priest. God's right stood above all three. Matthew Henry hears a pretended contentment from a man still working to unsettle Solomon's throne.
1 Kings 2:15
“Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine - It certainly was his by the right of primogeniture, and it was his by the voice of the people, and the consent of the high priest. But there was a right paramount to all these, the right of God; it was his kingdom; the kings were his lieutenants, and he had a right to give the crown to whomsoever he pleased, and he was pleased to give it to Solomon.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Kings 2:16-18
one petition of thee: Adonijah asks for Abishag the Shunammite, the young woman brought to warm David in his old age at 1 Kings 1:1-4 but never known by him, and the request carries royal weight in the ancient world, where a former king's concubine passing to his successor could stand as a claim on the throne, the reading Absalom acted on publicly at 2 Samuel 16:20-22. Bathsheba agrees to carry the petition without raising that danger, whether she misses it or simply leaves Solomon to judge it himself.
1 Kings 2:16
“And now I ask one petition of thee,.... And but one, and a small one too, as Bathsheba herself after calls it: deny me not, or "turn not away my face" (t); with shame and sorrow, which would be the case should he be denied: and she said unto him, say on; let me hear it. (t) תשיבי את פני "ne avertere facias faciem meam", Pagninus.”
Adam Clarke notes that Abishag, counted David's wife or concubine, was still a virgin. He reports a view that Joab and Abiathar put Adonijah up to the request, hoping the marriage would turn the people back to him. On that view Solomon's severity answers a plot.
1 Kings 2:17
“That he give me Abishag - to wife - He cheerfully gives up all right to the kingdom, and only desires to have this young woman, who, though she had been his father’s wife or concubine, was still in a state of virginity. Some think that Joab and Abiathar had advised Adonijah to make this application, not doubting, if he got Abishag, that the popular tide would again turn in his favor, and that Solomon, whom they did not like, might soon be deposed; and that it was on this account that Solomon was so severe.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Bathsheba agrees at once. John Gill takes her answer as approval of the request itself, given out of pity for a man who had lost the kingdom, with no sight of his design. Solomon sees that design in verse 22.
1 Kings 2:18
“And Bathsheba said, well,.... Very well spoken, the thing is good and right: I will speak for thee unto the king; and use her interest with him, not seeing into his design, but pitying an unfortunate man.”
1 Kings 2:19-21
sat on his right hand: Solomon rises to meet his mother and seats her at his own right hand, the one place in Scripture where a queen mother, the gebirah, receives that specific honor, a pattern the record of later reigns keeps by naming the queen mother in almost every notice. The honor and the answer sit together, Solomon bows to Bathsheba before he refuses her request, so the refusal is weighed on its own merits rather than on whose mouth carried it.
1 Kings 2:19
“Solomon received her with all the respect that was due to a mother, though he himself was a king: He rose up to meet her, bowed himself to her, and caused her to sit on his right hand, according to the law of the fifth commandment.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:19
“A seat - Or, “a throne.” We have here a proof of the high dignity of the Queen-mother. Compare also 1Ki 15:13; 2Ki 11:1-3. In the Persian court the Queen-mother had often the chief power.”
Bathsheba calls the request small. Solomon promises before he hears it, and John Gill reads that promise as bound by what is fit and lawful. Matthew Henry notes that even the dearest friend must never bring a king to do a wrong thing.
1 Kings 2:20
“Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee,.... It was but one, and a little one, and therefore she hoped it would be granted: I pray thee, say me not nay; do not refuse it, or deny it me, or turn away my thee with shame and disappointment: and the king said, ask on, my mother, for I will not say thee nay; since it is a small one, as thou sayest, and provided it is fit and lawful to be granted.”
Bathsheba names Adonijah as the king's brother, and John Gill hears her using the family tie to move him. Matthew Henry holds that Solomon could refuse her and still keep his promise of verse 20. A general promise binds only to what is right.
1 Kings 2:21
“And she said, let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. For so Adonijah was by his father's side; and Bathsheba makes use of the relation, the more to move upon him to grant the request.”
1 Kings 2:22-25
ask for him the kingdom also: Solomon reads Abishag's request the way 2 Samuel 16:20-22 read Absalom's, a claim on the throne dressed as a family favor, and in the same breath names Abiathar and Joab as the men who had already backed Adonijah's first attempt at 1 Kings 1:7. God do so to me, and more also is Solomon's own oath of self-cursing, and it was his from the Lord in Adonijah's mouth at verse 15 is answered by who hath made me an house, as he promised in Solomon's mouth here. Benaiah carries out the sentence the same day, with no gap between the word and the deed anywhere in this chapter.
1 Kings 2:22
“Ask for him the kingdom also - Bath-sheba had not seen anything dangerous or suspicious in Adonijah’s request. Solomon, on the contrary, takes alarm at once. To ask for Abishag was to ask for the kingdom. To the Oriental mind a monarch was so sacred, that whatever was brought near to him was thenceforth separate from common use. This sacred and separate character attached especially to the Royal harem. The inmates either remained widows for the rest of their lives, or became the wives of the deceased king’s successor.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:22
“This was, in both, an intolerable affront both to God and to the government, and the worse because of their high station and the great influence their examples might have upon many. They therefore come next to be reckoned with. They are both equally guilty of the treason, but, in the judgment passed upon them, a difference is made and with good reason.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adonijah is snared by his own words, in Matthew Henry’s phrase. Albert Barnes ties the sentence to 1:52, where King Solomon spared Adonijah’s life on condition of his conduct. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the request for David’s wife was a crime against the state by Eastern custom, whatever the intent.
1 Kings 2:23
“God do so to me, and more also--the common form of introducing a solemn oath. if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life--Whether there was a treasonable design to conceal under this request or not, the act, according to Eastern notions, was criminal, and of dangerous consequence to the state.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:23
“Against his own life - Adonijah had forfeited his life by his former conduct, and his pardon had been merely conditional 1Ki 1:52.”
The Hebrew behind dynasty is house. Albert Barnes explains making a house as keeping a man's descendants on the throne. Matthew Henry reads the oath as a pledge that the LORD who established Solomon will also remove those who would unsettle his throne.
1 Kings 2:24
The phrase “making a house” means “continuing the posterity” of a person, and, in the case of a royal person, “maintaining his descendants upon the throne.”
Adam Clarke called the killing of Adonijah an act of cruelty. Theodoret of Cyrus answered those who blamed Solomon by noting that a king's way of life differs from a philosopher's. John Gill notes that great men such as Gideon and Doeg carried out executions in person, as Benaiah does here.
1 Kings 2:25
“And King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,.... Orders to execute him, and proper persons to do it; perhaps some of the Cherethites and Pelethites under him, to assist at least in it: and he fell upon him, that he died; Benaiah rushed in upon him with his men, and thrust his sword into him, and killed him; executions used to be done in those times and countries by great personages, as the instances of Gideon, Doeg, and others, show, and not by common executioners.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:25
“Solomon sent - Benaiah - and he fell upon him that he died. - Benaiah seems to have been the public state executioner, and yet he was generalissimo of all the forces. See him employed in a similar work, 1Ki 2:34 (note), 1Ki 2:46 (note). I suppose him to have been such another general as Suwarrow, butcher-general of the Turks and Poles to the late Empress Catharine of Russia: like mistress, like man. But they have long since been called to an impartial tribunal. That this was an act of cruelty towards Adonijah, needs no proof.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abiathar banished; Joab dies gripping the horns of the altar
Get thee to Anathoth: Abiathar is spared execution for having carried the ark before David and shared his afflictions, the loyalty already recorded at 2 Samuel 15:24-29, but he is stripped of the priesthood and sent to his own fields at Anathoth, a Levitical town a few miles from Jerusalem. Jeremiah is later called from a priestly family at Anathoth in Jeremiah 1:1, and the commentators note the coincidence of place without claiming a direct line back to Abiathar himself.
1 Kings 2:26
“The depriving of Abiathar was the fulfilling of the threatening against the house of Eli ( 1 Sam. ii. 30 ), for he was the last high priest of that family. It was now above eighty years since the ruin was threatened; but God's judgments, though not executed speedily, will be executed surely.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
thrust out Abiathar from being priest: One sentence closes a thread a century old, the word spoken against the house of Eli at Shiloh, that his family would be cut off from the priesthood for the sin of his sons in 1 Samuel 2:27-36 and 3:11-14, reaches its stated fulfilment here. Abiathar was Eli's last descendant to hold the office, and the priesthood passes whole to Zadok, named in verse 35, keeping the promise of a faithful priest raised up in Eli's place at 1 Samuel 2:35.
1 Kings 2:27
“That he might fulfil the word of the L RD - We need not understand this as stating that the fulfillment of the old prophecy was Solomon’s motive, or even one of his motives. The reference is to the overruling providence of God, which thus brought about the fulfillment of the prophecy. (Compare Mat 1:22; Mat 2:15; Mat 27:35, etc.) The deposition of Abiathar involved the rejection of the house of Ithamar 1Ch 24:3, to which Eli belonged, and the reestablishment of the high priesthood in the line of Eleazar.”
1 Kings 2:28-30
caught hold on the horns of the altar: Joab had not backed Absalom's revolt but did back Adonijah's, and news of Adonijah's death sends him to the horns of the altar, the asylum Exodus 21:14 explicitly denies a man guilty of premeditated murder rather than accidental killing. Benaiah's summons and Joab's flat refusal, Nay, but I will die here, force the question whether the altar can shelter a man the law already excludes from it.
1 Kings 2:28
“Tidings came to Joab - He heard that Adonijah had been slain and Abiathar banished, and probably he had heard of David’s dying charge to Solomon. Fearing therefore for his personal safety, he takes refuge at the tabernacle, as claiming Divine protection, and desiring to have his case decided by God alone; or perhaps a spark of remorse is now kindled; and, knowing that he must die, he wishes to die in the house of God, as it were under the shadow, that he might receive the mercy of the Almighty.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 2:28
“The debt he owed to the innocent blood that was shed, by answering its cries with the blood of him that shed, he could not pay himself, but left it to his son to pay it, who, having power wherewithal, failed not to do it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 2:28
“He now fled to the altar, which, though a recognized asylum, afforded no sanctuary to the rebel and murderer (Ex 21:14). And, as he refused to leave it, he seems to have cherished some faint hope that a religious scruple would have been felt at the thought of violating the sanctity of the place by bloodshed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Solomon sends Benaiah to strike Joab at once. Adam Clarke notes that altars were so sacred among all peoples that even the worst man usually found safety at one. The abuse led at last to the rule that the guilty must die even at the altar.
Benaiah carries Joab’s refusal back to the king. Matthew Henry reads this as a scruple about killing a man at the altar, and he adds that the altar sheltered sins the blood of beasts could atone for. Joab’s murders lay outside that.
1 Kings 2:30
“Benaiah made a scruple of either killing him there or dragging him thence; but Solomon knew the law, that the altar of God should give no protection to wilful murderers. 14 , Thou shalt take him from my altar that he may die, may die a sacrifice. In case of such sins as the blood of beasts would atone for the altar was a refuge, but not in Joab's case.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 2:31-33
take away the innocent blood: Solomon states the legal ground plainly, innocent blood shed by Joab must be removed from David's house rather than left to stain it, the principle Deuteronomy 21:1-9 sets over even an unsolved killing found in the land. Verse 33 balances the two houses against one another, Joab's blood on his own head and his seed forever, David's house given peace forever from the Lord, settling the account verse 5 first opened.
1 Kings 2:31
“By returning the innocent blood that had been shed upon the head of him that shed it, it was taken away from him and from the house of his father, which implies that the blood which is not required from the murderer will be required from the magistrate, at least there is danger lest it should.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:31
It was only a murderer to whom the tabernacle was to be no protection (margin reference). Hence, the reference to the “innocent blood.”
Albert Barnes reads his bloodshed as the blood Joab shed. Solomon names the two victims as commanders of Israel's army and of Judah's, so Joab had cut down the heads of both halves of the kingdom.
1 Kings 2:32
Shalt return his blood - i. e. “his shedding of blood.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown trace the words to the curse David spoke over Joab's house at 2 Samuel 3:28 and 29. Albert Barnes notes that the history never mentions Joab's descendants again. Matthew Henry applies Proverbs 25, where removing the wicked from before the king establishes his throne.
1 Kings 2:33
“Their blood shall . . . return upon the head of Joab, &c.--A reference is here made to the curse publicly and solemnly pronounced by King David (2Sa 3:28, 29).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:33
"Now that justice is done, and the cry of blood is satisfied, the government will prosper." Thus righteousness and peace kiss each other. Now that such a turbulent man as Joab is removed there shall be peace. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness, Prov. xxv.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 2:34-35
buried in his own house: Joab is buried in his own house in the wilderness rather than among the kings, and Benaiah takes his place over the host while Zadok takes Abiathar's place over the priesthood in the same verse. Zadok's appointment keeps the promise of 1 Samuel 2:35, a faithful priest who shall do according to that which is in the Lord's heart, standing before the Lord's anointed forever.
1 Kings 2:34
“So Benaiah - went up - and slew him - It appears he slew him at the very altar. Joab must have been both old and infirm at this time, and now he bleeds for Abner, he bleeds for Amasa, and he bleeds for Uriah. The two former he murdered; of the blood of the latter he was not innocent; yet he had done the state much service, and they knew it. But he was a murderer, and vengeance would not suffer such to live.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:34
“But the truth is, that the sanctity of the altar was violated as much by the violence used in forcing the criminal from the place as in shedding his blood there; the express command of God authorized the former and therefore by implication permitted the latter. was buried in his own house--or family vault, at his property in the wilderness of Judah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Benaiah moves from the king’s bodyguard to command the army. John Gill notes that with Zadok in Abiathar’s place the high priesthood returns to the line of Eleazar from the line of Ithamar. Albert Barnes adds that Zadok now serves as the one high priest, where 1:8 had found two.
1 Kings 2:35
“And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host,.... Advanced him from being captain of his bodyguards to be general of the army: and Zadok the priest did he put in the room of Abiathar; from a common priest he promoted him to the high priesthood; whereby that office was restored to its ancient line, the family or Eleazar, having been in the line of Ithamar for many years; and the prediction of the destruction of Eli's house, made eighty years ago, began to be fulfilled, 1Sa 2:31.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Kings 2:35
“The high priesthood had been for some time in a certain sense divided between Zadok and Abiathar. (See the 1Ki 1:8 note). Henceforth, Zadok became sole high priest.”
1 Kings 2:35
“Joab being put to death, Benaiah was advanced to be general of the forces in his room, and, Abiathar being deposed, Zadok was made high priest in his room, and therein was fulfilled the word of God, when he threatened to cut off the house of Eli ( 1 Sam. ii. 35 ), I will raise me up a faithful priest, and will build him a sure house.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Shimei confined to Jerusalem, until the day he crossed the brook
1 Kings 2:36-38
Build thee an house in Jerusalem: Solomon's sentence on Shimei is confinement rather than death, house arrest bounded by the brook Kidron at the edge of the city, and the terms are stated so plainly that Shimei can only answer, the saying is good. Three years pass without incident, the longest quiet stretch in the chapter, before the terms are tested.
1 Kings 2:36
“Build thee a house - Thus he gave him the whole city for a prison, and this certainly could have reduced him to no hardships.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
John Wesley notes that the Kidron lay on the road to Bahurim, Shimei's old home, though the order barred every exit from the city. Adam Clarke reads the blood on his own head as making Shimei answerable for his own death. Solomon kept a seditious man under his eye.
1 Kings 2:37
“Thy blood shall be upon thine own head - Thou knowest what to expect; if thou disobey my orders thou shalt certainly be slain, and then thou shalt be considered as a self-murderer; thou alone shalt be answerable for thy own death. Solomon knew that Shimei was a seditious man, and he chose to keep him under his own eye; for such a man at large, in favorable circumstances, might do much evil. His bitter revilings of David were a sufficient proof.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:37
“Kidron - A brook nigh Jerusalem, which he particularly names, because that was the way to Bahurim, his former habitation: but this is not all, for the restraint was general, that he should not go forth thence any whither. Thy blood - The blame and guilt of thy blood shall lie upon thyself only.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Shimei accepts the terms in his own words. Verse 42 shows he also swore to them by the LORD. Matthew Henry reads it as a man owning that the conditions of his life were fair, so his blood would rest on his own head.
1 Kings 2:39-40
two of the servants of Shimei ran away: Shimei's own servants flee to Achish king of Gath, a vassal ruler with no real power to shelter them against Solomon, and Shimei crosses the very boundary his oath forbade in order to fetch them back himself. The distance mattered to the commentators, some thirty miles each way, an errand no emergency required and a bound he could have sent another man to cross.
1 Kings 2:39
“Achish - A king, but subject and tributary, to Solomon. Permitted to enjoy the title and honour of a king, but not the full power; whence it was, that Achish could not keep these servants though they had fled to him for protection; but suffered Shimei to take them away from his royal city.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Matthew Henry notes that Shimei saddled his donkey himself, as a man who hoped to go and return unseen. Henry quotes Bishop Hall, who said that in seeking his servants Shimei lost himself. Adam Clarke marvels that he ran open-eyed into death.
1 Kings 2:40
“For the keeping of it private he saddled his ass himself, probably went in the night, and came home he thought undiscovered. "Seeking his servants," says bishop Hall, "he lost himself; those earthly things either are, or should be, our servants. How commonly do we see men run out of the bounds set by God's law, to hunt after them, till their souls incur a fearful judgment!" 4.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 2:41-44
gone from Jerusalem to Gath: Solomon confronts Shimei with the exact oath he swore, then reaches back past the broken bound to the old debt, thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, tying the sentence to Bahurim after all. No witness is needed, since Shimei's own conscience already convicts him, and the sentence returns his wickedness upon his own head, the same formula used of Joab in verse 33.
1 Kings 2:41
“And it was told Solomon,.... By the spies he set to watch and observe his motions, or by some others who had seen him go out and return, and knew that it was contrary to the king's orders: that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again; which was thirty four miles from Jerusalem (h); whereas his utmost bounds, whither he might go, was the brook Kidron, about half a mile from it. (h) Bunting's Travels, &c. p. 124.”
Verse 37 records no oath, and Albert Barnes notes that the Septuagint adds a clause there saying Solomon made Shimei swear. Matthew Henry held that Solomon expected the breach. In his reading God let Shimei break his bond so that he would answer for his old sins.
1 Kings 2:42
“Did I not make thee to swear - The Septuagint add to 1Ki 2:37 a clause stating that Solomon “made Shimei swear” on the day when he commanded him to reside at Jerusalem.”
Solomon names two charges. John Gill reads the broken oath as perjury against the LORD, who was called to witness it, and the broken command as disobedience to his sovereign. Gill counts both as grounds for death.
1 Kings 2:43
“Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord,.... Which was made by him, and in his presence, and in which he was appealed to, and so by not keeping it was guilty of perjury: and the commandment that I have charged thee with? and so guilty of disobedience to him as his sovereign; for which two reasons he ought to die.”
John Wesley reads the LORD's hand in Shimei's own choice. God punished the old cursing at Bahurim by letting Shimei expose himself to the death he had earned. Matthew Henry adds that God is greater than the heart and knows all things.
1 Kings 2:44
“There was no need to examine witnesses for the proof of the fact, his own conscience was instead of a thousand witnesses. That wickedness which men's own hearts alone are privy to is enough, if duly considered, to fill them with confusion, in expectation of its return upon their own heads; for if the heart be privy to it, God is greater than the heart and knoweth all things.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Kings 2:45-46
king Solomon shall be blessed: Solomon's own word, the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever, answers David's conditional charge at verse 4 with the confidence of a promise already being kept in his hearing. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon closes every account opened at David's deathbed, and hands the phrase to chapter 3, where Solomon is secure enough to ask for wisdom rather than protection.
1 Kings 2:45
“And King Solomon shall be blessed,.... With a long and peaceable reign, and large dominions, notwithstanding all the attempts to make him unhappy: and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever; the kingdom of David over Judah for a long time, in his natural line; and the kingdom of Israel, spiritual Israel, for ever in his son the Messiah; and that in the presence of the Lord, he observing, ordering, and succeeding all things to that purpose.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Kings 2:45
“And the throne of David shall be established, by taking away those that would undermine it. It is a comfort, in reference to the enmity of the church's enemies, that, how much soever they rage, it is a vain thing they imagine. Christ's throne is established, and they cannot shake it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Adam Clarke describes Solomon's kingdom now with no foe inside it or on its borders, its people bound to him and its neighbours unwilling to make him an enemy. Matthew Henry reads Benaiah's last errand as a figure of Christ's judgment on his enemies. Benaiah has now struck three times.
1 Kings 2:46
“All judgment is committed to the Lord Jesus, and, though he be King of peace, he will be found a King of righteousness; and this will shortly be his word of command concerning all his enemies, that would not have him to reign over them: Bring them forth, and slay them before me; the reproaches of those that blasphemed him will fall on themselves, to their eternal condemnation.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a deathbed charge followed by the four judgments that carry it out, as Henry classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The kingdom was firmly established | The same sentence closes the opening section at verse 12 and closes the chapter at verse 46, counted in the Berean text in the store. Verse 12 states the fact and verse 46 proves it, and the four judgments stand between the two as the working out of one claim. Solomon uses the same verb of the LORD at verse 24, so the establishing is credited to God in the middle of the chapter that shows the king doing it.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 2:46. | 1 Kings 2:12, 1 Kings 2:24, 1 Kings 2:46 |
| Blood returned on the head that shed it | The formula runs through the judgments at verses 32, 33 and 37, counted in the Berean text in the store. Solomon states the ground for Joab in the first two and states the same ground in advance for Shimei in the third, so a reader is told the rule before the case that tests it. Matthew Henry reads the removal of innocent blood from David's house as a legal duty laid on the crown rather than a family score.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 1 Kings 2:31. | 1 Kings 2:31, 1 Kings 2:32, 1 Kings 2:33, 1 Kings 2:37, 1 Kings 2:44 |
| Four names, four cases, one order | David's charge at verses 5 to 9 names Joab, the sons of Barzillai and Shimei, and the chapter takes up Adonijah, Abiathar, Joab and Shimei in turn at verses 13 to 25, 26 to 27, 28 to 35 and 36 to 46. Each case is given the same four steps, the act, the hearing, the sentence and the execution by Benaiah. John Gill notes that Barzillai's sons are the one name on the list who receive kindness rather than judgment.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Kings 2:7. | 1 Kings 2:5, 1 Kings 2:7, 1 Kings 2:8, 1 Kings 2:22, 1 Kings 2:27, 1 Kings 2:34, 1 Kings 2:46 |
| Do you come in peace | Adonijah is met at verse 13 with a question rather than a greeting, and the same question is put twice by Jehu at 2 Kings 9 when a rider approaches an army. In both places the question answers a threat. Adonijah replies that he comes peaceably and then asks for Abishag, so the scene turns on what follows the answer rather than on the answer itself.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on 1 Kings 2:13. | 1 Kings 2:13, 1 Kings 2:15, 1 Kings 2:16 |
| Be strong and show yourself a man | David's charge at verses 2 and 3 uses the words Moses used over Joshua at Deuteronomy 31:6 and 31:23 and the words the LORD used at Joshua 1:6 to 9, where strength is tied to keeping the law. Verse 3 sends Solomon to the law of Moses by name, and verse 4 makes the future of the house conditional on it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the charge as a commissioning rather than a farewell.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Kings 2:2. | 1 Kings 2:2, 1 Kings 2:3, 1 Kings 2:4 |
Where the chapter stands in the book
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Chapter 2 closes the first era of the book's arc, David's Throne, Secured, which the book page runs from 1:1 to 2:46. The chapter hands the reign to a king with no rival left, which is the condition chapter 3 needs before Solomon can ask for wisdom rather than for safety.
The historical value
Anathoth, where Abiathar is sent at verse 26, is a Levitical town a few miles north of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah is called from a priestly family there at Jeremiah 1:1. John Gill records the connection of place, and the commentators stop short of claiming a line of descent from Abiathar himself. The horns of the altar at verse 28 are the projections at the four corners of the altar of burnt offering described at Exodus 27:2, and taking hold of them was a recognized appeal for asylum.
The debated concept
Whether Solomon's judgments were just is the chapter's contested point, and it was already contested in the early church. Theodoret of Cyrus reports that some blamed Solomon for killing his brother, and answers by distinguishing the callings of men, so that what a ruler must do in office differs from the counsel given to a man seeking the higher life. Ephrem the Syrian and Ishodad of Merv both read David's charge as foresight, holding that David knew what Joab would do to a young king.
Matthew Henry takes each sentence on its own stated ground, the innocent blood of Abner and Amasa for Joab and a broken oath for Shimei. The text supplies a legal reason in every case and passes no verdict on the king's motive.
The request for Abishag is the second question. Solomon reads it at verse 22 as a claim on the throne, and the reading has a parallel in Absalom's public act at 2 Samuel 16:21 and 16:22. Matthew Henry holds that Bathsheba carried the petition without seeing the danger in it. Whether Adonijah meant the claim or only wanted the woman is left open by the text.
The word fulfilled
Verse 27 states its own fulfilment. The word spoken against the house of Eli at Shiloh, that his line would be cut off from the priesthood, stands at 1 Samuel 2:27 to 36 and 1 Samuel 3:11 to 14, and this verse says the removal of Abiathar fulfils it. Zadok takes the office at verse 35, which answers the promise of a faithful priest at 1 Samuel 2:35. The chapter is one of the few places in the historical books where the narrator names an earlier prophecy and declares it kept.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Ephrem the Syrian, On the First Book of Kings, on 2:39; Ishodad of Merv, Books of Sessions, on 1 Kings 2:5 and 2:6; Matthew Henry and Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on 1 Kings, question 7.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; F. W. Farrar, The First Book of Kings (Expositor's Bible); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theodoret of Cyrus, QUESTIONS 7, ON 1 KINGS.