and set me on the throne of my father David, and hath made me a house, as He said (verbatim, 2Sa 7:11): yea, to-day shall Adonijah be put to death.” Jehovah established Solomon, or founded him firmly, by raising him to the throne in spite of Adonijah's usurpation. In ויושׁיביני the central י has got into the text through a copyist's error. בּית לי עשׂה, i.e., He has bestowed upon me a family or posterity. Solomon had already one son, viz., Rehoboam, about a year old (compare 1Ki 11:42 with 1Ki 14:21 and 2Ch 12:13).[1]
Verse 25
Solomon had this sentence immediately executed upon Adonijah by Benaiah, the chief of the body-guard, according to the oriental custom of both ancient and modern times. The king was perfectly just in doing this. For since Adonijah, even after his first attempt to seize upon the throne had been forgiven by Solomon, endeavoured to secure his end by fresh machinations, duty to God, who had exalted Solomon to the throne, demanded that the rebel should be punished with all the severity of the law, without regard to blood-relationship.
Verses 26-27
1Ki 2:26-27Deposition of Abiathar. - The conduct of Solomon towards the high priest Abiathar is a proof how free his actions were from personal revenge or too great severity. Abiathar had also forfeited his life through the part he took in Adonijah's conspiracy; but Solomon simply sent him to Anathoth (i.e., Anata; see at Jos 18:24), to his own fields, i.e., to his property there, telling him, “Thou art indeed a man of death,” i.e., thou hast deserved to die, “but I will not put thee to death to-day, because thou hast borne the ark of Jehovah,” namely, both on the occasion of its solemn conveyance to Jerusalem (1Ch 15:11.) and also on David's flight from Absalom (2Sa 15:24, 2Sa 15:29), that is to say, because of his high-priestly dignity, and because thou didst endure all that my father endured, i.e., thou didst share all his afflictions and sufferings, both in the period of Saul's persecution (1Sa 22:20., 1Sa 23:8.), and during the rebellion of Absalom (2Sa 15:24.). ההוּא בּיּום (to-day) puts a limit upon the pardon, because Solomon could not foresee whether Abiathar would
- ↑ When Thenius denies this, and maintains that Rehoboam cannot have been 41 years old when he began to reign, referring to his discussion at 1Ki 14:21, he answers himself, inasmuch as at 1Ki 14:21 he demonstrates the fallacy of the objections which Cappellus has raised against the correctness of the reading “41 years.”
