The days of David came near for him to die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying, "I am about to go the way of all the world. Be strong and be courageous. You shall keep the charge of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as are written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and everywhere you turn, so that Yahweh may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons take heed of their way, to walk before me in faithfulness, with all their heart and with all their soul, no man of yours will be cut off from the throne of Israel.’"

"Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me when he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner son of Ner and to Amasa son of Jether, and he murdered them and put the blood of war in a time of peace. He put the blood of war on the leather belt that was on his waist and on the sandals which were on his feet. You must act according to your wisdom, but you must not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace. Regarding the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, you shall do loyal love and let them be among those who eat at your table, because they met me when I fled from Absalom your brother. And look, Shimei the son of Gera the son of the Benjaminite from Bahurim is with you. Now he cursed me severely when I went to Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, so I swore to him by Yahweh, ‘I surely will not kill you with the sword.’ So then, do not leave him unpunished, for you are a wise man, and you will know what you must do to him. You must bring his grey hair down to Sheol with blood."

Then David slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.

Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and she said, "Are you coming in peace?" He said, "Peace." Then he said, "May I have a word with you?" Then she said, "Go on." He said, "You know that the kingship was mine and that all Israel had set their face toward me as king, but the kingship turned around and became my brother’s, for it was from Yahweh for him to have it. Now one request I am asking from you, and you must not refuse me." Then she said to him, "Go on." He said, "Please speak to King Solomon, for he will not refuse you, so that he will give to me Abishag the Shunnamite as wife." Then Bathsheba said, "Very well, I will speak to the king concerning you."

Bathsheba came to King Solomon to speak to him concerning Adonijah, and the king got up to meet her, bowed down to her, and then sat on his throne. Then he set up a throne for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. She said, "I have one small request I am asking from you. Do not refuse me." The king said to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you." Then she said, "Let Abishag the Shunnamite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife." King Solomon answered and said to his mother, "Why are you asking Abishag the Shunnamite for Adonijah? Ask for him also the kingdom, for he is my brother, older than I; and ask for him also Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah." Then King Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, "Thus may God do to me and thus may he add, if Adonijah hasn’t spoken this thing at the expense of his life. So then, as Yahweh lives, who has established me and seated me on the throne of my father David and who has established for me a dynasty as he promised, then surely Adonijah will be put to death today." King Solomon sent through the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, so he struck him, and he died.

To Abiathar the priest, the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your field, for you deserve to die, but on this day I will not kill you, for you carried the ark of the Lord Yahweh before David my father, and because you endured hardship in all the hardship that my father endured." So Solomon banished Abiathar from being priest to Yahweh, thus fulfilling the word which Yahweh had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

When the message came to Joab (now Joab had supported Adonijah but had not supported Absalom), he fled to the tent of Yahweh and grasped the horns of the altar. It was told to King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of Yahweh and was beside the altar. So Solomon sent word to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go and fall upon him." So Benaiah went to the tent of Yahweh, and he said to him, "Thus says the king: ‘Come out.’" And he said, "No, for I want to die here." So Benaiah returned a word to the king, saying, "Thus Joab spoke, and thus he answered me." Then the king said to him, "Do as he spoke; fall upon him and bury him, and so you shall remove the innocent blood that Joab shed from on me and from on the house of my father. Yahweh will return his blood on his head, because he fell upon two men, more righteous and better than he, and he killed them with the sword, even though my father did not know it; namely Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. And their blood will return on the head of Joab and on the head of his descendants forever, but for David and his descendants and for his house and his throne, there will be peace forever from Yahweh." So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, and he fell on him and killed him, and he was buried in his house in the wilderness. Then the king appointed Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king appointed Zadok the priest in place of Abiathar.

Then the king sent and summoned Shimei, and he said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but you must not go out anywhere whatsoever from there. It shall happen that on the day you go out and cross over the Wadi Kidron, know for certain that you will surely die. Your blood will be on your head." Shimei said to the king, "The word is good that my lord the king has spoken to me; thus will your servant do." So Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.

It happened that at the end of three years, two of Shimei’s slaves fled to Achish, son of Maacah, the king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, "Your slaves are here in Gath." So Shimei got up and saddled his donkey, and he went to Gath, to Achish, to search for his slaves. So Shimei went and brought his slaves from Gath. When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned, the king sent and summoned Shimei, and he said to him, "Did I not make you swear by Yahweh? I warned you, saying, ‘On the day you go out and you go anywhere whatsoever, know for certain that you will surely die.’ And you said to me, ‘The word is good; I accept.’ Why have you not kept the oath of Yahweh and the command which I commanded you?" Then the king said to Shimei, "You know all the evil which your heart knows, what you did to David my father. Now Yahweh will return the evil on your head, but King Solomon will be blessed and the throne of David will be established before Yahweh forever." Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell upon him, and he died. So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

Then David the king said to all the assembly, "God has chosen Solomon my son alone, a young man and inexperienced, and the work is great, for the citadel is not for humankind, but for Yahweh God. So I have provided for the house of my God according to all my strength, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and the wood for the things of wood, along with an abundance of onyx stones, stones for settings, stones of turquoise, and variegated stones, and all kinds of precious stones and alabaster stones. And moreover, with respect to my provisions for the house of my God I have a treasure of gold and silver that I have given to the house of my God above all that I have provided for the holy house: three thousand talents of gold from the gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the houses, gold for the golden things and silver for the silver things, for all the work by the hand of skilled craftsmen. Now who will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to Yahweh?"

Then the commanders of the families, the commanders of the tribes of Israel, and the commanders of thousands and hundreds, and the commanders of the work of the king offered themselves willingly. And they gave for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of Yahweh under the authority of Jehiel the Gershonite. And the people rejoiced over their freewill offering, for with a whole heart they had willingly offered to Yahweh, and King David also rejoiced with great joy.

Then David blessed Yahweh in the sight of all the assembly, and David said, "Blessed are you, O Yahweh, God of Israel, our father forever and ever! To you, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the splendor and the glory and the strength, for everything in the heavens and in the earth. Yours, O Yahweh, is the kingdom and exaltation over all as head! And wealth and glory are from you, and you rule over all. And in your hand is power and might. And in your hand is power to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and offer praise to the name of your splendor. And indeed, who am I, and who are my people that we retain power to offer according to these offerings willingly? For everything is from you, and from your hand we have given to you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners like all our ancestors. Our days are like the shadow upon earth, and there is no hope of abiding. O Yahweh our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build for you a house for your holy name is from your hand, and all of it is yours. And I know, my God, that you yourself test the heart and are pleased with uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have willingly offered all these things, and now I have seen your people who are found here willingly offer to you. O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep this forever as a plan and thoughts of the heart of your people, and establish their heart toward you. Grant to Solomon my son a heart of peace to keep your commands, your statutes, and your regulations to do everything, and to build the citadel for which I have provided." And David said to all the assembly, "Bless Yahweh your God!" And all the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. And they bowed down and prostrated themselves before Yahweh and the king.

And they offered sacrifices to Yahweh, and on that next day they offered burnt offerings to Yahweh: one thousand bulls, one thousand rams, one thousand lambs, with their libations and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. And they ate and drank before Yahweh on that day with great joy. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and they anointed him commander for Yahweh, and Zadok the priest.

Then Solomon sat upon the throne of Yahweh as king in place of David his father. And he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. And all the officials and mighty warriors, and also all the sons of King David, pledged allegiance to King Solomon. And Yahweh made Solomon exceedingly great in the sight of all Israel, and he bestowed upon him royal splendor that was not bestowed upon any king before him in Israel.

And David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the days that he reigned over Israel were forty years. In Hebron he reigned seven years, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years. And he died in a good old age, full of days, wealth, and honor. And Solomon his son reigned in his place. Now the words of King David, from the first to the last, see, they are written among the words of Samuel the seer, and among the words of Nathan the prophet, and among the words of Gad the seer, with all the accounts of his kingdom, his power, and the times that came upon him, and upon Israel, and upon all the kingdoms of the earth.

Or do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is master of a person for as long a time as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband. Therefore as a result, if she belongs to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she belongs to another man. So then, my brothers, you also were brought to death with respect to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, sinful desires were working through the law in our members, to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter of the law.

What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin is dead. And I was alive once, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died, and this commandment which was to lead to life was found with respect to me to lead to death. For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Therefore, did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be recognized as sin, producing death through what is good for me, in order that sin might become sinful to an extraordinary degree through the commandment. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into slavery to sin. For what I am doing I do not understand, because what I want to do, this I do not practice, but what I hate, this I do. But if what I do not want to do, this I do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me. For I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but the evil that I do not want to do, this I do. But if what I do not want to do, this I am doing, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that lives in me.

Consequently, I find the principle with me, the one who wants to do good, that evil is present with me. For I joyfully agree with the law of God in my inner person, but I observe another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that exists in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself with my mind am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.