1 Kings 2:38-46

Context
2:38 Shimei said to the king, “My master the king’s proposal is acceptable.¹ Your servant will do as you say.”² So Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.³

2:39 Three years later two of Shimei’s servants ran away to King Achish son of Maacah of Gath. Shimei was told, “Look, your servants are in Gath.” 2:40 So Shimei got up, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to find his servants; Shimei went and brought back his servants from Gath. 2:41 When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had then returned, 2:42 the king summoned⁴ Shimei and said to him, “You will recall⁵ that I made you take an oath by the Lord, and I solemnly warned you, ‘If you ever leave and go anywhere,⁶ know for sure that you will certainly die.’ You said to me, ‘The proposal is acceptable; I agree to it.’⁷ 2:43 Why then have you broken the oath you made before the Lord and disobeyed the order I gave you?”⁸ 2:44 Then the king said to Shimei, “You are well aware of the way you mistreated my father David.⁹ The Lord will punish you for what you did.¹⁰ 2:45 But King Solomon will be empowered¹¹ and David’s dynasty¹² will endure permanently before the Lord.” 2:46 The king then gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada who went and executed Shimei.¹³

So Solomon took firm control of the kingdom.¹⁴

[2:38] ¹tn Heb “Good is the word, as my master the king has spoken.”

[2:38] ²tn Heb “so your servant will do.”

[2:38] ³tn Heb “many days.”

[2:42] ⁴tn Heb “sent and summoned.”

[2:42] ⁵tn Heb “Is it not [true]…?” In the Hebrew text the statement is interrogative; the rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course it is.”

[2:42] ⁶tn Heb “here or there.”

[2:42] ⁷tn Heb “good is the word; I have heard.”

[2:43] ⁸tn Heb “Why have you not kept the oath [to] the Lord and the commandment I commanded you?”

[2:44] ⁹tn Heb “You know all the evil, for your heart knows, which you did to David my father.”

[2:44] ¹⁰tn Heb “The Lord will cause your evil to return upon your head.”

[2:45] ¹¹tn Or “blessed.”

[2:45] ¹²tn Heb “throne.”

[2:46] ¹³tn “The king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada and he went out and struck him down and he died.”

[2:46] ¹⁴tn “And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.”