20 Bathsheba sat down and then asked, “Would you do me a small favour?”Solomon replied, “Mother, just tell me what you want, and I will do it.”
21 “Allow your brother Adonijah to marry Abishag,” she answered.
22 Solomon said:What? Let my elder brother marry Abishag? You may as well ask me to let him rule the kingdom! And why don't you ask such favours for Abiathar and Joab?
23 I swear in the name of the Lord that Adonijah will die because he asked for this! If he doesn't, I pray that God will severely punish me.
24 The Lord made me king in my father's place and promised that the kings of Israel would come from my family. Yes, I swear by the living Lord that Adonijah will die today.
25 “Benaiah,” Solomon shouted, “go and kill Adonijah.” So Adonijah died.
26 Solomon sent for Abiathar the priest and said:Abiathar, go back home to Anathoth! You ought to be killed too, but I won't do it now. When my father David was king, you were in charge of the sacred chest, and you went through a lot of hard times with my father.