CHAPTER 1 Aug. 7 
Adonijah’s Rebellion
Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm. 2Therefore his servants said to him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin. Let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let her lie on your chest, so that my lord the king may keep warm. 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. 4The young lady was very beautiful; and she cherished the king, and ministered to him; but the king didn’t know her intimately. 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. 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. 7He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest:  they followed Adonijah and helped him. 8But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. 9Adonijah killed sheep and 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: 10but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he didn’t call.
Nathan and Bathsheba Persuade David to Pronounce Solomon as King 
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? 12Now therefore come, please let me give you advice, that you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon. 13Go in to king David and tell him, ‘Didn’t you, my lord, king, swear to your handmaid saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then does Adonijah reign?’ 14Whilst you are talking there with the king, I also will come in after you, and confirm your words. 15Bathsheba went in to the king into the room. The king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king. 16Bathsheba bowed, and showed respect to the king. The king said, What would you like? 17She said to him, My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your handmaid, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne’. 18Now, look, Adonijah reigns; and you, my lord the king, don’t know it. 19He has killed cattle, fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the army; but he hasn’t called Solomon your servant. 20You, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, that you should tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. 21Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders. 22Behold, while she still talked with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. 23They told the king, saying, Here is Nathan the prophet! When he had come in before the king, he bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. 24Nathan said, My lord, king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne?’. 25For he is gone down this day, and has killed cattle and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king’s sons, and the captains of the army, and Abiathar the priest. Even now they are eating and drinking before him and saying, ‘Long live king Adonijah!’. 26But he hasn’t called me, even me your servant, nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, nor your servant Solomon. 27Is 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? 28Then king David answered, Call to me Bathsheba. She came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king. 29The king swore and said, As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 30most certainly as I swore to you by Yahweh the God of Israel, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place;’ most certainly so will I do this day. 31Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and showed respect to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live forever! 32King David said, Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. They came before the king. 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. 34Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel. Blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live king Solomon!’. 35Then you shall 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. 36Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, Amen. May Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say so too. 37As Yahweh 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. 
Solomon Is Proclaimed King
38So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and caused Solomon to ride on king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. 39Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet; and all the people said, Long live king Solomon! 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. 41Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet he said, Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar? 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. 43Jonathan answered Adonijah, Most certainly our lord king David has made Solomon king. 44The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they have caused him to ride on the king’s mule. 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. 46Also, Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. 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. 48Also thus said the king, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, my eyes even seeing it’. 49All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and each man went his way. 50Adonijah feared because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. 51It was told Solomon saying, Behold, Adonijah fears king Solomon; for, behold, he has laid hold on the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let king Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword’. 52Solomon said, If he shows himself a worthy man, not a hair of him shall fall to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he shall die. 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. 

Commentary

1:2 This cure for hypothermia seems to leave somewhat to be desired in moral terms. Even if we want to do the best for someone, that genuine motivation shouldn’t lead us to cross moral boundaries; for we may lead others into sin by doing so. There are many such incidents recorded in Biblical history which are left open-ended, as it were, for us to reflect upon as to whether they were sin or not. This is intentional; to provoke our thought and introspection.
1:6 David hadn’t disciplined his son because he wanted to please him- and it resulted in this awful betrayal. The parental role isn’t to please their children, but to raise them to be God’s children.
1:15 There’s something very tragic in this scene; Bathsheba, the one time beautiful woman whom David had risked his salvation to sleep with, comes in and finds a younger woman sexually stimulating David. The sins of youth seem so far away from old men on their deathbeds, but then they like all of us suffer the consequence of our sins. David’s calling of Bathsheba to come to him (:28) recalls how he had called her to come sleep with him many years before.
1:31 Let my lord king David live forever- This is an example of using language without literally believing the truth of the words; for Bathsheba has just pointed out that David is going to die (:21). The language of demon possession in the New Testament and other non-scientific usages of language in the Bible must be considered in this light.
1:42 You are a worthy man, and bring good news- We too can assume that the message carried by a person must be good and true because we perceive them to be a good person. Yet they are only ‘good’ in our eyes, in our experience and perception of them. The messages we receive from others must somehow be separated by us from our perception of them as a person, and in our context, compared against God’s revealed word before we accept them as true.
1:48 My eyes even seeing it- The promise of 2 Sam. 7:16 about David’s great son being established on his throne referred to Christ reigning on David’s throne at His return to earth, when David would be resurrected to see it. But in his old age, David seems to have lost focus upon Christ and become obsessed with the idea of having God’s promises fulfilled in this life, and he came to see Solomon as the fulfilment of the promises more than Christ. No matter how long we have been in Christ, we must be aware that we can always let our focus upon Him slip, and seek for the fulfilment of the Kingdom promises in this life rather than their main, intended fulfilment in the future Kingdom.