appear

horsemen, and fifty men to run before him ;" these were to make him grand, to wait upon him, and to fight for him. He also gained over Joab, David's famous general, and Abiathar, the high priest. But there were three chief men who were faithful to David, and these Adonijah could not get to use him ill; these were Zadok, the priest, and Benaiah, a brave soldier, and Nathan, the prophet, together with some others, and especially David's mighty men.

And Adonijah "slew sheep and oxen, and fat cattle," to make a feast of them at a place called En-rogel, and there he enticed all the king's sons excepting Solomon, and many of the king's servants.

Nathan, the prophet, lost no time in letting Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, know what was doing; for, like all ladies in the East, she lived quite in retirement, and

was ignorant of Adonijah's conduct. He advised her to go directly to the king, and tell him all about it or Solomon, to whom David intended to give the crown, would certainly lose it, and he and his mother would both perish; for cruel deeds have often been done, particularly in the East, by those who have got their crowns in an unfair way, lest the right heirs should rise against them, and obtain their rights.

So Bath-sheba went to the king, and told him all that happened, and reminded him that he had said that Solomon should

THE PROPHET NATHAN.

reign, and not Adonijah, and begged him at once to have his successor proclaimed. And while she was speaking, Nathan contrived to go in to the

king also, and so to urge him the more forcibly to make no delay in so important a business.

Then David told Bath-sheba that he would certainly not break his word, which every good man ought to keep, and, therefore, what he had promised should instantly be done.

And he ordered Zadok, and Nathan, and Benaiah, to take his servants with them, and cause Solomon to ride upon his mule,—which would otherwise have been treason,-and to go to Gihon, a place where there were wells or waters, where many people would be assembled ;-there the priest and the prophet were to anoint Solomon king, by pouring oil upon his head according to custom, and to blow the trumpet, and say, "God save king Solomon."

So they did as David told them; "and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them."

The news soon came to Adonijah that Solomon was proclaimed king, for he had but just done feasting, when Joab heard the sound of a trumpet, and asked what was the cause of it; then Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, arrived with the tidings, and mentioned, as the last act of Solomon's coming to the crown, that he sat upon his father's throne.

All Adonijah's guests were now in a terrible fright, and ran away to their homes. As for this wicked son, he feared that Solomon would do to him as he would have done to Solomon, had he got the throne; and, lest he should be instantly killed, he fled away to the Tabernacle, and laid hold on the horns of the altar, which was always a place of refuge, it being thought a great crime to kill any one there,-nor did he move from his place till Solomon gave his solemn word that his life should not be taken away. However, though Solomon sent for him and saved him for that time, yet he was to behave better in future or take the consequences. "If," said Solomon," he will show himself a worthy man," and never cause any more disturbance, " there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth; but if wickedness shall be found in him," and he does any more such bad deeds, "he shall die." We find in this act of Solomon a great deal of humanity and forbearance; for when we consider the tendency of the times to cruelty, especially when there was any attempt made upon the throne, and any influence brought to bear upon the people which might result in division and endanger the position of the king, we are surprised at the mercy shown.

The Death of David.-The Execution of Adonijah, of Joab, and of

DAVI

Shimei.

1 KINGS II.

AVID, finding himself near death, gave Solomon the best advice he could about managing his kingdom, for he was yet but young,about twenty years of age; and as David knew he was wise and good, he hoped he would continue so, and, though a child in years, be a man in behavior. Especially he told him to walk in God's ways, and keep his commandments, and then he might be sure that God would bless him, and establish his throne.

But there were several things which David had left undone, and he conmanded Solomon not to fail to do them.

Joab had been a bad man, and had not only ill-used David as the Lord's anointed, and disobeyed his commands in slaying Absalom, but he had cruelly and deceitfully murdered Abner and Amasa, as we have before read-" and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet;" he stabbed them while he pretended to embrace them, so that their blood gushed out on his girdle, and fell into his shoes.

Now, David ought to have punished Joab before, but his kingdom was often disturbed, and he perhaps feared the making of fresh enemies; he, however, did not forget that he, as a king, must do justice, and now, with his throne, he transfers his commands to Solomon to execute this wicked "Do, therefore, according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace."

Shimei had also been a base disturber, and had cursed David when he

was in trouble, but, as he had promised to spare his life, he had kept his word; however, his son must guard against him as a dangerous subject, and he would find occasion to visit him at last with the punishment of death.

While David thus remembered to do justice, he also thought of mercy, and was not ungrateful to Barzillai, the Gileadite, who had been very kind to him in his need; and he ordered Solomon to treat Barzillai's sons with great kindness in return, and to let them be provided for, and have the honor of eating at his table.

"So David slept with his fathers," for death is but a long sleep for the body, which is to rise again, as we do in the morning, after having been as if dead during the night. And David "was buried in the city of David. And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem." David had not long been dead when Adonijah again plotted against his brother Solomon, and very cunningly went to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother,

and asked her to beg of Solomon to let him marry Abishag, his father David's last wife. Now this request was altogether bad, and it proved that

he wanted to make himself more great, and so to increase his power. So Solomon ordered him to be executed as a traitor, and Benaiah slew him. Abiathar, the priest, was also probably in this plot, or Solomon would not, as he did, have ordered him instantly to be banished to Anathoth; and in thrusting out Abiathar from the priestly office, he fulfilled the threatening of God against the sons of Eli. God had told Eli that the priesthood should depart from his house, and Abiathar, the last of his house, was now, for his crimes, made to bring the threatening to pass. So will all the threatenings of God against the wicked certainly come to pass at last.

The alarm of Joab, who now fled for safety to the horns of the altar, showed, too, that he had good reason to dread Solomon's vengeance; and though this was a very sacred place, yet, so great a criminal was this man, that the king ordered him not to be allowed to shelter himself even there, and "Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and fell upon him, and slew him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness." Thus was this wicked man punished at last.

The next criminal that we read of in this chapter was Shimei.

Solomon, having been warned about him by his father, sent for him, and told him to go and live at Jerusalem, but, if he ever ventured to leave that place, he would punish him with death. Shimei, who perhaps felt that he deserved death then, for his conduct towards the Lord's anointed, David, was very well pleased with this order, which, having sworn to observe, he went to Jerusalem, and lived there for three years. At the end of that time, two of his servants "ran away unto Achish, son of Maachah, king of Gath," and Shimei, either forgetting his oath in his eagerness to get back his servants, or thinking himself secure after so long a time, rashly ventured to ride off to Achish, and returned with his servants. Solomon, being informed of this, sent for Shimei, told him of his wickedness in breaking a sacred oath, of his disobedience to his royal command, of his past behavior to his father, which merited death, and of the justice of his sentence, and then ordered Benaiah to slay him.

Thus, having punished these wicked and troublesome characters, "the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon."

Benaiah was now made chief captain in the room of Joab, and Zadok priest in the room of Abiathar. All things were in peace at home, and no surrounding enemy dared to attack the wise and prosperous Solomon, whose tact and power had already begun to be known among his own people, as also the nations scattered around him.