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1Ki_2:13-25
We have seen that David, on his death-bed, enjoined his youthful heir to put Joab to death; and we have stated the impression which this injunction, from a man on the borders of the grave, is calculated at the first view to make upon the mind. There has, indeed, been a disposition manifested to set aside the reason assigned by David himself, and to substitute others; such as his secret resentment for the slaughter of Absalom, joined to a politic desire to relieve the reign of the young king from the presence of a person so powerful, whose dangerous influence had been felt most oppressively by himself, and whose recent support of Adonijah rendered it doubtful that Solomon could reckon upon his allegiance. It is impossible to deny that these considerations may have had weight upon David’s mind, unconsciously to himself. But if they were consciously entertained by him, there was no reason why he should not have stated them to Solomon; and we are, therefore, driven to the reasons he does give, as those which he deemed sufficient, not only to call for, but to justify, this extreme and apparently harsh measure. In these, there is nothing of private vengeance, but everything rests on the basis of public duty. He refers to the foul murders of Abner and Amasa, whom Joab “slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was upon his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet. Do, therefore, according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.”
Now, it is very possible that we lose the force of this declaration, by estimating it according to the views and sentiments of our own later law of mercy and forgiveness. The sentiment continually set forth in the Old Testament is, that innocent blood cries to God from the ground for vengeance; and that, if suffered to go unpunished, it brings down a curse and judgment upon the land. Let us look at some texts enforcing the view which both David and Solomon were bound to take of this matter. “If a man come presumptuously on his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.” Note: Exo_21:14. This exactly met the case of both murders by Joab; and the neglect of a rule so plain, and so stringently stated, might well appear as a perilous neglect of public duty. Again: “Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death: but he shall surely be put to death.” Note: Num_35:31. After a similar injunction in Deu_19:13, it is added, “Thine eye shall not pity him: but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.” Look, also, to the case of Manasseh, whose punishment and captivity is mainly ascribed to “the innocent blood which he shed (for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood), which the Lord would not pardon.” Note: 2Ki_24:4. That this point of view was, as it ought to be, present to the mind of David, and influenced his conduct, is very clear; for, at the very time of Abner’s murder, he publicly implored that the judgment of this innocent blood might be averted from his house and kingdom, and that it might rest upon Joab and upon his house.” Note: 2Sa_3:28. This, in fact, was formally reserving Joab for the future judgment which he then felt powerless to execute. Besides this, it must not be overlooked that the recent terrible judgment upon the land, on account of the long-past destruction of the Gibeonites by Saul, was well calculated to enforce these views, and give great intensity to David’s apprehensions of the consequences to the realm of these crimson sins of Joab being much longer suffered to pass unpunished. The same instance was likely to bring out, with strong and terrible force, the point of view constantly produced under the theocratic constitution, that more lapse of time weakens nothing, strengthens nothing; and that before Him, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and whose existence knows no morrow nor yesterday, the sin, a generation old, is as fresh as at the time of its committal—even as the holy and blessed thought or aspiration which comes over the mind, or rises from the heart, of any reader at the present moment, will be as fresh to His knowledge a thousand years hence as it is at this instant of time.
If this state of the case be correct, and we are persuaded that it is, no excuse for David’s conduct in this matter is required; but was rather—under the views he was bound to entertain—not only blameless, but laudable, and entirely in accordance with his duty as a theocratic king and a father.
This has reference to David’s injunction; and Solomon places its execution entirely on the same ground, although the immediate occasion was of another sort, and supplied a new ground of offence.
It will be remembered that Adonijah had been remanded by the young king, his brother, to private life. But it seems that after his first alarm had subsided, his hopes began to revive; and it may be collected that his old and powerful supporters, Joab and Abiathar, encouraged his hopes. They seem, however, to have been closely watched, and the king knew much more of their projects than they at all suspected.
The first tangible matter, however, which occurred to afford Solomon an occasion of arresting their designs was of a remarkable nature, and it is difficult for us, trained up in a different class of ideas and associations, to grasp in all its breadth.
While David lay in his last illness, the officious zeal of his attendants recommended that the most beautiful damsel in all Israel should be sought out, and that she, becoming his wife, should remain in constant attendance upon him to cheer and comfort him. This lot fell upon Abishag, the Shunamite, who, at his death, remained a virgin widow. Now, the indicative fact is neither more nor less than this, that Adonijah sought this lady for his wife. Fearing to make any direct application to the king, and being well aware of his mother’s influence with him, he applied in the first instance to her. To one of more suspicious temper and of keener discernment than Bathsheba, some misgiving might have been awakened by the connection of ideas which he suffered to appear when introducing the subject—“Thou knowest the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign over them: howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother’s;”—and then, as if suddenly conscious that he was unwisely committing himself, he added—“for it was his from the Lord.” This was certainly a curious preamble to the request he came to make, and at least evinces his own consciousness of its high importance. The good-natured Bathsheba, anxious to soothe his wounded pride, and to make what seemed to her a harmless atonement for the frustration of his hopes, in which she herself had been an instrument, noticed none of the latent and dangerous meanings involved in these things, but hastened to assure him of her readiness to undertake the mission he proposed. One might suppose that she would have been a little shocked at the grossness involved in the idea of a son espousing his father’s widow—the rather, as she was unconscious of his real object, which would have rendered the matter more intelligible to her. But the truth obviously is, that, strict as was the law respecting intermarriages—strict beyond the law of any nation, a great practical laxity had grown up in these matters, especially in high quarters, and above all at the royal court. Of this we have had some painful instances already in the family of David, even during his life-time.
Nothing can more clearly show the large measure of formal and truly oriental state which had by this time been introduced into the Hebrew court, than the ceremonious manner of the interview between the king and his mother. One would suppose she would have made an application in private; but, whether from choice or necessity, it was not so. She entered the hall in which the king sat on his throne; and when he saw her, he arose, and advanced to meet her, bowed to her, and conducted her to a seat on his right hand. She said that she had a small request to make, and deprecated a refusal; and he assured her that it should be granted, whatever it might be. But he no sooner understood the nature of her application, than his countenance darkened. “Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab, the son of Zeruiah.” These words can mean nothing else than that he discerned in this application the first development of a further design upon the crown, concocted between these men, of which he had already some information, but of which this was the first tangible intimation on which he could act. And he did act—and that with an unhesitating promptitude which justly shocks those who look not beyond the simple fact which appears in the face of the transaction. He sent Benaiah, the captain of the host, to put Adonijah to death wherever he might find him. It was when Joab heard of this that he fled to the altar—his doing which seems to us a sufficient indication of such conscious complicity with Adonijah in a further design, as Solomon had detected. Unless he knew himself guilty, and supposed, from the execution of Adonijah, that all was known to the king, there was nothing in what had happened to lead him to conclude himself in danger. Whatever wrong or treason might be latent in Adonijah’s application for Abishag, there was nothing, taking that matter by itself, to connect Joab with it; but his own act, and the words of the king, show that there was something more, within and beyond this, with which he was connected, and which involved him in the doom of Adonijah. The past offence of this prince had been overlooked. Solomon had pledged his royal word to respect his life so long as he should show himself a worthy man. That he is punished, therefore, shows that there was a new offence of the same nature; and it was Joab’s part in this, not his share in the old offence, for which Adonijah himself had been pardoned, that supplied Solomon with the occasion of executing the injunctions of his father.
Some reader may still be at a loss to perceive how the application which was made by Adonijah, for leave to espouse the widow of his father, afforded the indication of ulterior pretensions which Solomon could so readily recognize. It may therefore be proper to refer back to the instance of Absalom’s taking possession of his father’s concubines at Jerusalem, and to the remarkable words of Nathan, in his rebuke to David—“I gave thy master’s wives into thy bosom.” Connecting these instances with the one before us, we may perceive that among the Jews, as in other Eastern and in various African nations, the harem of the preceding king was regarded as a sort of regalia appertaining to the crown, and so essentially the property of his successor, that the possession of it, or of any essential part of it, gave much strength to a claim that might otherwise be disputable. The process is curious, and so adverse to our own notions, that it is difficult thoroughly to understand. But the fact of the existence of such a custom, and of the notions connected with it, is certain, and might be illustrated by instances which cannot here be produced.
If this explanation of these unpleasant transactions be correct, Solomon stands fully justified for the course taken by him towards Adonijah, Joab, and Abiathar; and Adonijah loses all claim to the degree of sympathy which may have been felt for him in regard to his previous attempt; for we have his own word for his knowledge of the fact that the appointment of Solomon was “from the Lord.” Abiathar was declared by Solomon to be also worthy of death; but his life was spared in consideration of his sacred character, and his long companionship with David. But he was deposed from the honors and emoluments of the priesthood, and was directed to confine himself to his own private estate at Anathoth.