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Chapter 2: David's Death and Solomon Solidifies his Kingship
Prior to David's death, he made preparations for the building of God's holy Temple on the summit of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Decades earlier, after David's throne was secure and he was ruling from Jerusalem, David offered to build Yahweh a "house" in Jerusalem (2 Sam 7:1-3). However, God declined the offer because David had, out of necessity, been a man of war (1 Chr 22:8-10). But, because God was pleased with David's continuing fidelity, God offered to reward David with a "house" (2 Sam 7:11), meaning a royal dynasty, to rule over the covenant people forever. God promised to appoint David's heir to succeed to his throne and to "build a Temple for my name." The Davidic heir would be a "son" to God and from him God would never withdraw his faithful, covenant love (2 Sam 13-16). The first of these godly sons of David was Solomon, a man of peace. God did not let David build His "house," but He did give David the plans for the construction of the Temple and allowed him to collect the materials needed to complete it (1 Chr 22:2-19).
King David in Prayer(Pieter de Grebber)
1 Kings 2:1-4 ~ David Admonishes Solomon to be Faithful to Yahweh
David's last instructions for Solomon are to be obedient to the Law of Moses that is recorded in the Book of the Covenant, the Holiness Code and the Deuteronomic Code that comprise the Torah or Instruction God gave His servant Moses in the first five books of Sacred Scripture. He also refers to the covenant Yahweh established with David and his "house," meaning the Davidic dynasty.
Solomon began his reign during David's lifetime. The Fathers of the Church point out that the promised heir in the prophecy of the Davidic Covenant was to rule after David's death: And when your days are over and you fall asleep with your ancestors, I shall appoint your heir, your own son to succeed you and I shall make his sovereignty secure. He will build a temple for my name and I shall make his royal throne secure forever (2 Sam 7:12-13). Solomon began his rule prior to David's death and his throne was not secure forever. They saw Solomon's kingdom as a Biblical "type" of the Kingdom of Christ.
1 Kings 2:5-9 ~ Settling the ledger of justice for sinners and saints
Joab and David had a complicated relationship. Joab was the son of David's elder sister and since David was the youngest in the family of Jesse, he and Joab were probably about the same age. Joab had always faithfully supported David and was one of the first to join David in his exile when he lived the life of an outcast and outlaw. He was a skilled warrior and when David became the king of Judah, Joab became his commanding general. But Joab was also ruthless and bloodthirsty. He was guilty of two acts of murder. At the time the murders occurred, David publicly chastised Joab but was either unwilling to charge Joab and bring him to trial because he was the son of David's elder sister Zeruiah, or unable to prosecute Joab, perhaps because Joab held too much power over the army (2 Sam 3:39).
David's point to Solomon is that Joab is treacherous and cannot be trusted. He supported Adonijah in the past and might try to deprive Solomon of his throne in the future. It was better to seek justice for the innocent men Joab killed and condemn Joab to death, sending him to Sheol, the abode of the dead. David was also probably motivated by the grudge he held against Joab for killing Absalom when David had given strict orders that his son's life was to be spared (2 Sam 18:5, 9-15).
1 Kings 2:10-11 ~ David's death
To sleep with one's ancestors is a phrase that means "to die peacefully" and does not refer to the burial. For kings who died violently, usually only their interment is recorded (cf., 2 Kng 21:26; 23:30; an exception is Ahab in 1 Kng 22:40). The length of David's reign is repeated from 2 Samuel 5:4-5. To reign for forty years was the ideal number of years; in Scripture forty is a number signifying both testing and consecration and is considered to be the ideal length of time for a king or judge to rule (i.e., Judg 3:11; 5:31; 1 Kng 11:42). The dead were not to be buried within the limits of a city but, according to Jewish tradition an exception was made in the case of King David and the prophetess Huldah (2 Kng 22:14; 2 Chr 34:22). Christian tradition locates the tomb of King David below the Upper Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem. In St. Peter's homily on Pentecost Sunday, standing outside the house of the Upper Room, he speaks of David's tomb and one can image him gesturing to the lower story of the house (Acts 2:29-35). It is a site venerated by both Jews and Christians today.
Solomon Deals with the Threats to His Sovereignty
1 Kings 2:12-18 ~ Adonijah's Request
There is no indication how many years have passed, but enough time has passed that Solomon's "sovereignty was securely established." This phrase brackets the entire section of 2:12-46 in which the narrative records what actions Solomon took to secure his kingdom.
1 Kings 2:19-25 ~ Adonijah's Death
Bathsheba may have been naïve about the motives behind Adonijah's request, but Solomon fully understood the implications of the request. His incensed response to his mother's "small request" shows that he believes Adonijah is about to make another bid for the throne of Israel and takes appropriate action. He declares his intention by swearing a formal oath in the name of Yahweh by using to words "as Yahweh lives ..." Adonijah has failed to heed the warning Solomon gave him in 1:52 and so he sends Benaiah to execute his elder brother. Under the Law, there should have been a trial in which Adonijah could have been condemned for treason against the king, but Adonijah is executed by order of the king who has acted as Adonijah's judge.
1 Kings 2:26-27 ~ The Fate of the Chief Priest Abiathar
Solomon must have had some evidence that Adonijah's former conspirators were part of a new plot to put Adonijah on the throne of David. He does not issue a bill of execution against the priest Abiathar because he had been loyal to his father David and helped to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. Anathoth is a Levitical city within the territory of the tribe of Benjamin near Jerusalem (Josh 21:18).(2)
1 Kings 2:28-35 ~ The Fate of Joab
Solomon judges Joab's action to seek asylum at the altar as an admission of guilt and issues the command for his execution. Benaiah, however, is hesitant to violate the sanctuary of the altar and returns to Solomon for a final decision.
1 King 2:36-38 ~ Shimei is placed under "house arrest" in Jerusalem
Shimei is the Benjaminite who cursed David when he was fleeing Jerusalem during Absalom's revolt (2 Sam 16:5-8). Later, David was pressured into giving him amnesty and in swearing not to bring retribution against him (2 Sam 19:17-24). David kept his oath but he did not forgive Shimei and asked Solomon to see that Shimei paid for his past actions.
1 Kings 2:39-46 ~ Shimei defies Solomon's travel restriction
"Akish" was apparently a hereditary name of the rulers of Philistine cities like Gath (see 1 Sam 21:11; 27:2-3). This Akish [Achish] is probably the grandson of David's patron.(3) Many city states or nations in the Ancient Near East had extradition treaties for escaped slaves.
Jesus used the story of the rejection of Abiathar and his loss of station as a leader of the religious hierarchy as a subtle warning to the chief priests in Mark 2:26. Abiathar supported the father but refused to support the son just as the chief priests supported God the Father but refuse to support God the Son. Fathers of the Church like St. Ephrem saw a parallel between the punishment of Abiathar and the killings of Adonijah, Joab and Shimei. Abiathar and Joab served the father but refused to serve the son just as the religious authority and the temple guards served God the Father but refused to acknowledge God the Son. Shimei's crime was that he cursed God's anointed, David, like the people of Jerusalem cursed God's anointed, Jesus, as He hung on the Cross.
CHALLENGE:“The Bible can’t be the word of God. It has passages where God commands the Israelites to exterminate whole populations when they entered the promised land (Deut. 7:1–2, 20:16–17).”
DEFENSE: The response still depends on whether the passages are meant literally.
Yesterday we considered the view that they are literal. Here we consider the view that they are non-literal. According to this view, God did not literally expect the Israelites to exterminate certain peoples.
Moses is conventionally referred to as the Pentateuch author because he is the principal leader it discusses. The Pentateuch does not say Moses is its author, and it contains material he could not have authored, such as the account of his death (Deut. 34).
Although the Pentateuch may contain material that dates to the time of Moses, it was not put in its final form until later. Consequently, the passages concerning the extermination of the Canaanites may not have been written until later. If they are post-Mosaic then they were not intended to be carried out literally, for Israel was already living in the land. In that case, they would have been meant to communicate a spiritual lesson.
Though not a body of the Church’s Magisterium, the Pontifical Biblical Commission expresses a common view when it writes: As the best interpreters of the patristic tradition [i.e., the Church Fathers] had already suggested, the narration of the conquest epic should be seen as a sort of parable presenting characters of symbolic value; the law of extermination , for its part, requires a non-literal interpretation, as in the case of the command of the Lord to cut off one’s hand or pluck out one’s eye, if they are a cause of scandal (Matt 5:29; 18:9) (The Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture 127).
The portrait given of the Canaanites in the Pentateuch is one of great depravity that even involved child sacrifice (Deut. 12:31, 18:10–12). By contrast, the Israelites are called to holiness, for they are “a people holy to the Lord” (Deut. 7:6, 14:2; cf. Lev. 11:44, 20:26).
The extermination commands may thus be a way of signifying the radical incompatibility of paganism and serving God: Paganism is to be entirely avoided, though this does not mean literal extermination any more than Christ meant we should literally cut off our hand to avoid sin.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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