At this stage, Adonijah, ‘taking advantage of David’s sickness... assembled his followers’ (http://rinahshal.tripod.com/id161.html) and proclaimed himself as King Adonijah in Ein Rogel, ‘one of Jerusalem’s sources of water’ (ibid). However, ‘Many of the court dignitaries refused to attend while others, including Solomon…, were not even invited. Because Adonijah’s claim to the throne lacked legitimacy, Nathan, David’s spiritual leader, moved at once to install Solomon on the throne’ (ibid). In this way, ‘David ordered his servants to bring Solomon to the Gihon spring where the priest anointed him’ (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Solomon.html) publicly and this finalised ‘the failure of Adonijah’s rebellion and Solomon’s ascent to the throne after his father’s death’ (http://rinahshal.tripod.com/id161.html).
Thus, Solomon inherited his father’s kingdom after the death of David but Adonijah’s attempted rebellion continued to overshadow the new king’s authority. Actually, ‘Two of David’s closest advisors, Joab… and the priest Abiathar, sided with Adonijah’ (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Solomon.html) and it looks like they were planning a conspiracy. Therefore, ‘When Adonijah came to Solomon and requested the king’s servant as a wife, Solomon saw that this was a veiled threat to take over his kingdom and sent a messenger to kill Adonijah. He banished Abiathar to the city of Anathoth. Solomon then followed his father’s last instructions in which David had ordered him to kill both Joab and one of his father’s enemies, Shimei… Solomon thus overcame the last potential threats to his kingdom. He then appointed his friends to key military, governmental and religious posts’ (ibid).
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| Adonijah You can read the full text at: http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/succession-from-king-david-to-king-solomon/ |
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