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Context No. 61 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 1:42-48: in context

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 the 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 the LORD, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne today, my eyes even seeing it.’”

King David is old and failing, and the succession is unsettled. His son Adonijah has declared himself king without asking his father, gathering supporters at a feast outside the city, with the army commander Joab and the priest Abiathar behind him. Meanwhile the prophet Nathan and Bathsheba have gone to David and secured the throne for her son Solomon. This passage is the moment the news reaches Adonijah's party, still eating.

Jonathan, son of the priest Abiathar, arrives, and Adonijah greets him as a worthy man bringing good news. The reply demolishes him in a sentence: our lord King David has made Solomon king. Then the details, each one a mark of legitimacy Adonijah does not have. Solomon rode the king's own mule. Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed him at Gihon, the spring outside the city. The crowd's shouting is the very noise Adonijah's guests have been hearing.

The two feasts are the point. Adonijah threw his own coronation party and had to declare himself. Solomon was given the mule, the priest, the prophet, and the spring, and had to declare nothing. In the next verse the guests scatter and Adonijah runs for the altar. What am I in the middle of arranging for myself that would be worth more if I waited to be handed it?

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