Day 103 of 364

¹Again the LORD’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” ²The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the sum of the people.” ³Joab said to the king, “Now may the LORD your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel. ⁵They passed over the Jordan and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer; ⁶then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan and around to Sidon, ⁷and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba. ⁸So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹Joab gave up the sum of the counting of the people to the king; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. ¹⁰David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, the LORD, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.” ¹¹When David rose up in the morning, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹²“Go and speak to David, ‘The LORD says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’” ¹³So Gad came to David, and told him, saying, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹⁴David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into the LORD’s hand, for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into man’s hand.” ¹⁵So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and seventy thousand men died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba. ¹⁶When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” The LORD’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.” ¹⁸Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded. ²⁰Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.” ²²Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³All this, O king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” ²⁴The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.

^1:1Now King David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm. ^1:2Therefore his servants said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king. Let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm.” ^1:3So they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. ^1:4The young lady was very beautiful; and she cherished the king, and served him; but the king didn’t know her intimately. ^1:5Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” Then he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ^1:6His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, “Why have you done so?” and he was also a very handsome man; and he was born after Absalom. ^1:7He conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest; and they followed Adonijah and helped him. ^1:8But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. ^1:9Adonijah killed sheep, cattle, and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En Rogel; and he called all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servants; ^1:10but he didn’t call Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother. ^1:11Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, “Haven’t you heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith reigns, and David our lord doesn’t know it? ^1:12Now therefore come, please let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life and your son Solomon’s life. ^1:13Go in to King David, and tell him, ‘Didn’t you, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then does Adonijah reign?’ ^1:14Behold, while you are still talking there with the king, I will also come in after you and confirm your words.” ^1:15Bathsheba went in to the king in his room. The king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite was serving the king. ^1:16Bathsheba bowed and showed respect to the king. The king said, “What would you like?” ^1:17She said to him, “My lord, you swore by the LORD your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’ ^1:18Now, behold, Adonijah reigns; and you, my lord the king, don’t know it. ^1:19He has slain cattle and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the sons of the king, Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the army; but he hasn’t called Solomon your servant. ^1:20You, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, that you should tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ^1:21Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon will be considered criminals.” ^1:22Behold, while she was still talking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. ^1:23They told the king, saying, “Behold, Nathan the prophet!” When he had come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. ^1:24Nathan said, “My lord, King, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne’? ^1:25For he has gone down today, and has slain cattle, fatlings, and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king’s sons, the captains of the army, and Abiathar the priest. Behold, they are eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’ ^1:26But he hasn’t called me, even me your servant, Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon. ^1:27Was this thing done by my lord the king, and you haven’t shown to your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?” ^1:28Then King David answered, “Call Bathsheba in to me.” She came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. ^1:29The king vowed and said, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, ^1:30most certainly as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place;’ I will most certainly do this today.” ^1:31Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth and showed respect to the king, and said, “Let my lord King David live forever!” ^1:32King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” They came before the king. ^1:33The king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. ^1:34Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel. Blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ^1:35Then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne; for he shall be king in my place. I have appointed him to be prince over Israel and over Judah.” ^1:36Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, “Amen. May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, say so. ^1:37As the LORD has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.” ^1:38So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. ^1:39Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent, and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet; and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” ^1:40All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth shook with their sound. ^1:41Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they had finished eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?” ^1:42While he yet spoke, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came; and Adonijah said, “Come in; for you are a worthy man, and bring good news.” ^1:43Jonathan answered Adonijah, “Most certainly our lord King David has made Solomon king. ^1:44The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they have caused him to ride on the king’s mule. ^1:45Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon. They have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard. ^1:46Also, Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. ^1:47Moreover the king’s servants came to bless our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne;’ and the king bowed himself on the bed. ^1:48Also thus said the king, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne today, my eyes even seeing it.’” ^1:49All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and each man went his way. ^1:50Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and hung onto the horns of the altar. ^1:51Solomon was told, “Behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon; for, behold, he is hanging onto the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’” ^1:52Solomon said, “If he shows himself a worthy man, not a hair of his shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.” ^1:53So King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. He came and bowed down to King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, “Go to your house.” ^2:1Now the days of David came near that he should die; and he commanded Solomon his son, saying, ^2:2“I am going the way of all the earth. You be strong therefore, and show yourself a man; ^2:3and keep the instruction of the LORD 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. ^2:4Then the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children are careful of 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.’ ^2:5“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 around his waist and in his sandals that were on his feet. ^2:6Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don’t let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. ^2:7But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. ^2:8“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 the LORD, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ ^2:9Now 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.” ^2:10David slept with his fathers, and was buried in David’s city. ^2:11The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ^2:12Solomon sat on David his father’s throne; and his kingdom was firmly established. ^2:13Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. She said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably. ^2:14He said moreover, I have something to tell you.” She said, “Say on.” ^2:15He 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 the LORD. ^2:16Now I ask one petition of you. Don’t deny me.” She said to him, “Say on.” ^2:17He said, “Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you ‘no’), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.” ^2:18Bathsheba said, “All right. I will speak for you to the king.” ^2:19Bathsheba 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. ^2:20Then 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.” ^2:21She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.” ^2:22King 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.” ^2:23Then 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. ^2:24Now therefore as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on my father David’s throne, and who has made me a house as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death today.” ^2:25King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died. ^2:26To 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 Lord GOD’s ark before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.” ^2:27So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being priest to the LORD, that he might fulfill the LORD’s word which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. ^2:28This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to the LORD’s Tent, and held onto the horns of the altar. ^2:29King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to the LORD’s Tent; and behold, he is by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, fall on him.” ^2:30Benaiah came to the LORD’s Tent, and said to him, “The king says, ‘Come out!’” He said, “No; but I will die here.” Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, “This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me.” ^2:31The 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. ^2:32The LORD 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. ^2:33So their blood will return on the head of Joab and on the head of his offspring forever. But for David, for his offspring, for his house, and for his throne, there will be peace forever from the LORD.” ^2:34Then 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. ^2:35The 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. ^2:36The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and live there, and don’t go anywhere else. ^2:37For on the day you go out and pass over the brook Kidron, know for certain that you will surely die. Your blood will be on your own head.” ^2:38Shimei said to the king, “What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so will your servant do.” Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days. ^2:39At the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, “Behold, your slaves are in Gath.” ^2:40Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his slaves; and Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. ^2:41Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and had come again. ^2:42The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, “Didn’t I adjure you by the LORD and warn you, saying, ‘Know for certain that on the day you go out and walk anywhere else, you shall surely die’? You said to me, ‘The saying that I have heard is good.’ ^2:43Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD and the commandment that I have instructed you with?” ^2:44The king said moreover to Shimei, “You know in your heart all the wickedness that you did to David my father. Therefore the LORD will return your wickedness on your own head. ^2:45But King Solomon will be blessed, and David’s throne will be established before the LORD forever.” ^2:46So 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.