Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
David, about to die, gives his final instructions to Solomon. First, to observe God's precepts, for thus he would be prosperous in the kingdom; second, to punish the crimes of Joab and Shimei; third, to repay the kindness to the sons of Barzillai who had shown him favor. Finally, with David dead, Solomon reigns (verse 11), and orders Adonijah, who asked that Abishag be given to him as wife, to be put to death. Then, at verse 26, he banishes Abiathar the high priest, who had conspired with Adonijah, to Anathoth; and at verse 28, he commands Joab to be killed; finally, at verse 36, he orders Shimei, who violated his commands, to be put to death.
Vulgate Text: 3 Kings 2:1-46
1. Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying: 2. I am going the way of all the earth; be strong, and show yourself a man. 3. And keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; 4. that the Lord may confirm His word which He spoke concerning me, saying: If your children take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel. 5. Moreover you know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put the blood of battle on his belt that was about his waist, and in his sandals that were on his feet. 6. Therefore act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace. 7. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table; for they came to meet me when I fled from your brother Absalom. 8. And behold, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse on the day when I went to the camp; but because he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying: I will not put you to death with the sword; 9. do not hold him guiltless. For you are a wise man, and you know what you ought to do to him; and you shall bring his gray head down to the grave with blood. 10. So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. 11. And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12. Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. 13. And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said to him: Is your coming peaceable? And he said: Peaceable. 14. He added moreover: I have a word for you. And she said: Speak. 15. And he said: You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel had set their faces on me as king; but the kingdom has been turned about, and has become my brother's, for it was his from the Lord. 16. And now I ask one petition of you; do not refuse me. And she said to him: Speak.
17. And he said: I pray you, speak to King Solomon (for he can deny you nothing), that he may give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife. 18. And Bathsheba said: Very well, I will speak to the king for you. 19. Bathsheba therefore went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah; and the king rose up to meet her and bowed to her, and sat down on his throne; and a throne was set for the king's mother, and she sat at his right hand. 20. Then she said: I ask one small petition of you; do not refuse me. And the king said to her: Ask, my mother; for I will not refuse you. 21. She said: Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife. 22. And King Solomon answered and said to his mother: Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my older brother, and he has Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah on his side. 23. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, saying: May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life. 24. Now therefore, as the Lord lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as He promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today. 25. So King Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he struck him down, and he died. 26. And to Abiathar the priest the king said: Go to Anathoth, to your own field, for you are deserving of death; but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because you endured hardship in all that my father endured. 27. So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest of the Lord, that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. 28. Then the news came to Joab, for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he had not turned after Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and took hold of the horns of the altar. 29. And it was told King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and was beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying: Go, strike him down. 30. And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the Lord and said to him: Thus says the king: Come out. But he said: No, I will die here. And Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying: Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. 31. And the king said to him: Do as he has said, and strike him down and bury him, that you may take away the innocent blood which Joab shed, from me and from the house of my father. 32. And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword — my father David not knowing of it — Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. 33. So shall their blood return upon the head of Joab and upon the head of his descendants forever. But upon David and his descendants, and his house and his throne, may there be peace forever from the Lord. 34. So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck him and put him to death, and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness. 35. And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar. 36. Then the king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him: Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and dwell there, and do not go out from there anywhere. 37. For on the day you go out and cross the brook Kidron, know for certain you shall surely die; your blood shall be on your own head. 38. And Shimei said to the king: The saying is good; as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. So Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. 39. Now it happened at the end of three years, that two slaves of Shimei fled to Achish the son of Maacah, king of Gath. And it was told Shimei that his slaves had gone to Gath. 40. So Shimei arose, saddled his donkey, and went to Achish at Gath to seek his slaves. And he went and brought them from Gath. 41. And Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned. 42. Then the king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him: Did I not make you swear by the Lord, and warn you, saying: On the day you go out and travel anywhere, know for certain you shall surely die? And you said to me: The word I have heard is good. 43. Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the commandment that I commanded you? 44. The king said moreover to Shimei: You know all the wickedness of which your heart is conscious, which you did to my father David; the Lord has returned your wickedness upon your own head.
45. And King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever. 46. So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, who went out and struck him, and he died.
Verse 2: I Am Going the Way of All the Earth
2. I AM GOING THE WAY OF ALL THE EARTH — that is, of all those born of earth, or all people living on earth; that is, I am heading toward death, as all other people who inhabit the earth, to return to the earth and dust from which I was formed. It is a metonymy meaning the same as what is said elsewhere: "I am going the way of all flesh," that is, the way of death, which all who are made of flesh enter. This recollection of death and the grave is salutary, according to Sirach 7:40: "In all your works remember your last end, and you shall never sin." And chapter 14:12: "Remember that death does not delay, etc., for this is the testament of this world," that every person "shall surely die." In a similar manner St. Anthony on his deathbed, as St. Athanasius attests, said to his disciples: "I indeed, dear children, according to the words of the Scriptures, am going the way of the fathers. For the Lord now summons me, and I desire to see the heavenly things; but I admonish you, O my beloved, not to suddenly lose the labor of so long a time. Consider that today you have embraced the religious life, and let the strength of your begun resolve continue to grow." And St. Paul the first hermit, visited near death by divine prompting by St. Anthony, as St. Jerome attests: "Behold," he said, "him whom you sought with such great labor; unkempt gray hair covers limbs rotting with age. Behold, you see a man who will soon be dust." And shortly after: "Because the time of my falling asleep has come, and what I always desired — to be dissolved and to be with Christ — now that the race is finished, there remains for me the crown of justice; you have been sent by the Lord to cover my poor body with earth, or rather to return earth to earth." And St. Mary of Egypt to Zosimas: "Bury," she said, "Father Zosimas, the poor body of Mary. Return to the earth what is its own, and add dust to dust. Yet pray to the Lord for me." And Barlaam to Josaphat: "No longer," he said, "dearest son, will the same house and table join us in this life. For I am now entering the last way of my fathers. Therefore you must, through the observance of the divine commandments and by remaining in this place until the last day of your life, show proof of your love for me; thus indeed ordering the course of your life as you have learned, and never intermitting the memory of my lowly and sluggish soul. Therefore farewell greatly, and delight and exult in Christ; for you have exchanged earthly things subject to destruction for eternal goods free from destruction, and the reward of your works is near, and He who brings the reward is already at hand." So Damascenus in their history.
Verse 3: Keep the Charge of the Lord Your God
3. AND KEEP THE CHARGE OF THE LORD YOUR GOD. — "The charge," that is, the commandments which God ordered to be observed and kept by you and all others. This is clear from what follows. "Charges" here are therefore called the things to be guarded, by metonymy.
THAT YOU MAY PROSPER IN ALL THAT YOU DO — that is, that you may act intelligently and prudently in whatever you do; for this is what the Hebrew word maskil means, whence the Chaldean translates it: that you may make prosperous all that you do; others: that you may be successful in all that you do. For he who acts prudently in his affairs acts prosperously in them. For prudence is the mother of prosperity and happiness, just as imprudence is of unhappiness.
Verse 5: He Shed the Blood of War in Peace
5. AND HE SHED THE BLOOD OF WAR (which could have been a cause of war) IN PEACE, AND PUT THE BLOOD OF BATTLE ON HIS BELT, ETC., AND IN HIS SANDALS. — That is, Joab treacherously killed Abner and Amasa, feigning friendship and so close an embrace that while embracing them he treacherously stabbed them, and his belt and sandals were stained with the blood of the slain. So Lyranus, Vatablus, and others. He calls this blood "of war and battle" because there was a danger of war from this slaughter; namely that all Israel might rebel against David and wish to avenge this treacherous murder of their commanders Abner and Amasa committed by Joab, and therefore David here commands him to be put to death. Again, "of war" alludes to the battle in which Abner justly killed Asahel the brother of Joab, whose death Joab then avenged by killing Abner; that is, Joab wished to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel by killing Abner, but wrongly and unjustly. For Abner justly killed Asahel in battle; but Joab unjustly and treacherously killed Abner in peacetime, when Abner had already been reconciled to David and was indeed bringing all Israel back to him. Therefore Joab killed Abner and Amasa in peace as though in battle, and thus treacherously turned peace into battle, in which fighting and drawing his sword he fraudulently killed both, when they thought themselves at peace and all things between them and David and Joab to be peaceful on account of the peace entered into with him, and Joab showed this by treacherously embracing and kissing both — which was Joab's great fraud, injustice, and perfidy.
Verse 6: Act According to Your Wisdom
6. THEREFORE ACT ACCORDING TO YOUR WISDOM (that is, seeking a suitable occasion and just pretext to punish him), AND DO NOT LET HIS GRAY HEAD GO DOWN TO THE GRAVE IN PEACE — that is, do not allow him to die peacefully as an old man in his bed, but punish him with a violent death; for before Christ all who died descended to the underworld, at least to the limbo of the fathers. For the law of retaliation was established by natural, divine, and human law, that he who kills another should himself be killed.
You will say: Why did David not kill Joab himself, but entrusted this to Solomon? I respond, because when Joab killed Abner and Amasa, David did not have sufficient power and strength for it. For he was not yet fully established in his kingdom, but feared Joab, lest he stir up Israel against him, as Abner had shortly before stirred them up; but afterward David, involved in continual wars, could not do it, especially because he needed Joab, for he had no one else so capable to put in command of the army. Therefore he entrusted this to Solomon, who enjoyed full peace and therefore possessed full dignity and authority. So Josephus. Theodoret gives another reason why David ordered Joab to be killed: because he feared, he says, that Joab, exercising his customary malice, would despise the youth of Solomon, and would either kill him under the appearance of benevolence, as he had killed the aforementioned men, or would openly draw up an army and divide Israel by imposing Adonijah as king, whom he favored, and who had not entirely given up hope for the kingdom, as the following events will show.
Verse 8: Who Cursed Me with a Grievous Curse
8. WHO CURSED ME WITH A GRIEVOUS CURSE. — The Septuagint has odoloroso, that is, painful; the Chaldean, bitter. In Hebrew it is nimretset, which the Hebrews as reported by St. Jerome explain so that through the five letters of which this word consists, five insults which Shimei hurled at David are signified. Namely, through the first letter nun is signified noeph, that is, adulterer, on account of the adultery with Bathsheba; through the second, mem, Moabi, that is Moabite, because David traced his lineage from the lowly Ruth the Moabitess; through the third, resh, rotseach, that is murderer, on account of Uriah and so many others put out of the way; through the fourth, tsade, tsarua, that is leper, because David, now cast out of the city, appeared no differently than lepers are accustomed to be, whose company everyone dreads and curses; through the fifth, tau, is designated toaba, which means abominable.
I WILL NOT PUT YOU TO DEATH WITH THE SWORD. — From this it is clear that when David said to Shimei: "You shall not die," he did not give him full pardon and immunity, but one limited and restricted to the time of David's life; that is, I will not kill you; for all my life I will spare your life; but after my death, beware, because my son Solomon at my urging will seek an occasion to punish your crime and curse. For since this promise was not owed but gratuitous and free, it must be interpreted and limited according to the mind of the one who promised, says Abulensis. Therefore David here commends to Solomon justice toward all, but especially toward malefactors, whom he himself had hitherto mercifully allowed to live, so that Solomon might now satisfy justice; which was tacitly understood in his merciful permission, according to Psalm 71:1:
"O God, give Your judgment to the king, and Your justice to the king's son."
Verse 10: David Slept with His Fathers
10. SO DAVID SLEPT WITH HIS FATHERS AND WAS BURIED IN THE CITY OF DAVID — namely in Zion. "He slept." Sacred Scripture calls death a sleep, on account of faith and hope in the resurrection. For on the day of judgment we shall awake from death as from sleep to eternal life. Hence the pious custom of the faithful has it that when someone dies they say: "He fell asleep in the Lord."
Furthermore, Josephus at the end of book 7 gives David this eulogy as an epitaph: David was "a most excellent man and endowed with all the virtues which a king looking after the welfare of so many nations ought to have. For he was brave as no other: and in the combats undertaken for the protection of his subjects he was the first to expose himself to dangers, by his own example inspiring the soldier to glorious deeds, and not merely as a master compelling them to duty by his authority. He was likewise most prudent in counsel, and excellently discerning what was expedient for the present and what for the future. Moreover, he was temperate, gentle, kind toward the unfortunate, just, humane — which indeed are the chief virtues of kings — and in so great power he never deviated from equity, except as regards the wife of Uriah. Furthermore, he left behind such great riches as no other king, whether of the Hebrews or of other nations."
Concerning his burial, he then immediately adds: "Solomon buried him in Jerusalem magnificently, besides the customary rites at kings' funerals, also placing in his monument very great riches, whose magnitude may easily be conjectured from what we shall say. For after 300 years, Hyrcanus the high priest, besieged by Antiochus surnamed Pius, son of Demetrius, wishing to give him money so that he would withdraw his army and lift the siege, and being unable to obtain it elsewhere, opened a chamber of David's monument and brought out three thousand talents from it, and having paid a part of them to Antiochus, freed himself from the danger of the siege, as we have indicated elsewhere. And again after many years had passed, King Herod, opening another chamber, took away a great sum of money. Yet neither of them reached the coffers which contained the ashes of the kings. For by singular art they were so buried underground that they could not be found by those entering the monument." But the credibility of these accounts rests with Josephus: for so great a quantity of talents buried in a tomb seems almost incredible; and the chambers could scarcely have contained it.
Furthermore, 1 Chronicles 29:28 says of David: "And he died in a good old age, full of days, and riches, and glory." For he was the model and exemplar of all kings, and therefore in almost everything a type of Christ, as our Salianus shows at length in detail at the year of the world 3021, numbers 92 and following. See the praises of David in Sirach 47:2 and following, where I explained the same.
Verse 17: Give Me Abishag the Shunammite as Wife
17. THAT HE MAY GIVE ME ABISHAG THE SHUNAMMITE AS WIFE. — Abishag had been the wife of King David: hence Adonijah the son of David asks for her, so that through her, as queen, he might attain the kingdom, and be acclaimed king by the people who favored him. That Joab, who supported his party and was a shrewd and cunning man, suggested this plan to Adonijah is the view of Theodoret, Hugo, Abulensis, and Dionysius; for Joab feared Solomon, and rightly so, as will shortly become apparent.
One may ask how Adonijah dared to seek his father's wife, when this is forbidden in Leviticus 18:7? Josephus, Cajetan, and Serarius respond that only this is forbidden there: that no one should take as wife a woman who was known by his father. But Abishag was not known by David, and remained a virgin. Hence her marriage was not forbidden by that law of Leviticus. Be that as it may, Adonijah, ignorant of this law, seems to have thought this marriage was lawful, or at least, blinded by love of Abishag's beauty and by ambition to reign, he disregarded it.
Furthermore, whether by natural law the marriage of a son taking his father's wife is licit and valid, there are various opinions among the Doctors. For our Thomas Sanchez, book 7 On the Impediments of Marriage, disputation 66, teaches that marriage in the first degree of affinity in the direct line — namely, of a father-in-law with a daughter-in-law, or a mother-in-law with a son-in-law — is not invalid by natural law, and therefore can be dispensed. He proves this because such would have been the marriage of Adonijah with Abishag the wife of his father David. For if this had been invalid, Adonijah would certainly not have asked for her as his wife. Sanchez cites in favor of this opinion St. Thomas, Alexander of Hales, Abulensis, Gabriel, Tapper, and many others.
On the contrary, Bellarmine, book 1 On Marriage, chapter 28, teaches that such a marriage is invalid by natural law and cannot be dispensed, because we never read of a dispensation being granted for it. For it is plainly against natural decency and the reverence owed to father and mother. Father Giles Coninck holds the same view, who from Joseph de Acosta, book 6 on the Indies, chapter 21, relates that Pope Paul IV together with the Council of Lima decided that the Peruvian Indians who had contracted marriage with a stepmother or daughter-in-law should not be admitted to baptism unless they first dissolved such a marriage, as being invalid by natural law. To the case of Abishag, Bellarmine responds: first, that she was not David's wife, for in Scripture she is not called a wife but merely the old man's warmer; second, if she was a wife, that Adonijah unlawfully sought her, as contrary to the law of Leviticus 18:7 and 15, and therefore was justly ordered to be put to death by Solomon: for the judgment of Solomon the wisest king ought to carry more weight here than the demand of Adonijah. Paludanus, Soto, Valentia, Navarrus, Covarruvias, Sylvester, Vasquez, and very many others follow this opinion, as cited by Sanchez at the place cited and by Giles Coninck, disputation 32 On the Impediments of Marriage, doubt 4, conclusion 3.
The question therefore is whether the marriage of a father-in-law with a daughter-in-law, or of a son-in-law with a mother-in-law, is invalid by natural law. For there are weighty authorities on both sides — these, and indeed the majority, affirming it, and those denying it. Both opinions are therefore probable, and the Pope in practice can follow either, either granting a dispensation if a just and pressing cause exists, or denying the dispensation, as he has done hitherto (and indeed recently in these very days while I am staying in Rome) on account of the indecency of the matter. Certainly no public instance of such a dispensation exists, to my knowledge.
This is certain among all: that this marriage is forbidden by natural law, and much more by the old law, as is clear from Leviticus 18:15 and 20:14 and Deuteronomy 27:20. Therefore Adonijah, wishing to violate this law, could and should justly have been repelled and punished by Solomon, especially because through this he was tacitly seeking the kingdom.
Much more is it forbidden and invalid by natural law, and therefore beyond dispensation, a marriage in the first degree of consanguinity in the direct line — as if a father should wish to marry his daughter, or a mother her son — as all doctors teach. Wherefore St. Dymphna is venerated and celebrated by the Church, who, being the daughter of the king of Ireland, was desired by him as a wife on account of her beauty; when she steadfastly refused, she was beheaded by her father with a sword and died a martyr for chastity, whose holiness God has illustrated with many miracles and still illustrates today; hence there is a great concourse of demoniacs and the insane at her tomb (which exists at Geel in Brabant), as I have seen with my own eyes.
Infamous therefore and swinish was the response of that courtier and flatterer who, when Henry VIII, King of England, wished to marry Anne Boleyn (whom there was strong suspicion of being his illegitimate daughter), was asked what kind of sin it would be if someone should know a mother and her daughter, and responded: The same as if someone should eat a chicken with the hen. But God showed the contrary, when He most grievously afflicted Henry and all England on account of this marriage, and utterly extinguished all of Henry's posterity. So Sanders, book 1 On the English Schism.
Verse 19: The King Rose Up to Meet Her
19. AND THE KING ROSE UP TO MEET HER AND BOWED TO HER — inclining himself to her and showing filial reverence. For he received and honored her privately as his mother. For, as the philosopher Taurus says in Gellius, book 2, chapter 2: "In private between a son who is a magistrate and a father who is a private citizen, public honors cease, and natural and genuine ones arise." It should be done differently in public. Hence Gellius at the same place praises the son of Fabius Maximus, who, being Consul and meeting his father the Proconsul on a public road, ordered him to dismount from his horse; and Fabius obeyed his son's authority and praised him for maintaining the authority that belonged to the people.
Likewise among the Persians it was not permitted for a son to sit in his mother's presence, unless she gave leave. Hence Alexander the Great thus addresses Sisygambis, the mother of Darius, whom he honored as a mother, in Curtius, book 5: "As often as I came to you, I stood until you nodded for me to be seated."
Verse 20: Ask, My Mother, for I Will Not Refuse You
20. ASK, MY MOTHER; FOR IT IS NOT RIGHT THAT I SHOULD REFUSE YOU. — In Hebrew: for I will not cause your face to turn back, that is, so as to confuse you and put your face to shame by denying what you ask. For when something is denied to someone, he is confused and draws back his face, turns away, and goes home. Solomon promises to grant everything his mother asks; understand, if she asks what is fair and useful: but not if it is harmful to himself and his mother, as was the giving of Abishag as wife to Adonijah.
If Solomon fulfills all his mother's requests, how much more does Christ grant His mother all that she asks in supplicating for us. Let us therefore approach her, and through her we shall obtain all things. For Christ will not confuse and put to shame the face of His mother, as St. Bernard often emphasizes; for she neither asks nor can ask anything that would be beneath the dignity of her Son and her own.
Verse 22: Ask for Him the Kingdom Also
22. ASK FOR HIM THE KINGDOM ALSO — that is, if you ask that Abishag be given as wife to Adonijah, you are asking the kingdom for him. For he seeks the wife of our father King David, so that through her as queen he may be elevated to royal eminence and become king; especially because Abiathar the high priest and Joab the commander of the army are helping him in this. So Rupert and others.
Verse 25: Solomon Sent by the Hand of Benaiah
25. SO KING SOLOMON SENT BY THE HAND OF BENAIAH — that is, he sent Benaiah so that Adonijah might be killed by his hand. It is a Hebraism. Cajetan asserts that Solomon sinned by rashness of judgment, in that by a single judgment he condemned his brother for treason, unless this was the custom. But even one offense, says Serarius, if it is certain, should suffice today, especially where there is a danger that the king may be deprived of the kingdom by a rival, as was the case here. Add that Solomon here punished the first invasion of the kingdom made by Adonijah, by which he had arranged to be anointed and crowned king. For although Solomon had pardoned him for this, he did so under the condition that he would henceforth be faithful to him, and keeping quiet at home would give no further suspicion of ambition and seeking the kingdom; but if he did give such suspicion, he would be punished not only for the suspicion but also for the past invasion of the kingdom. But Adonijah, by asking for Abishag as wife, gave Solomon just cause for suspecting that he was again seeking the kingdom. For why does he shamelessly and arrogantly ask, against the law of nature and divine law, for the queen, the wife of his father, unless through her to seize his father's throne and become king? Therefore he was justly and deservedly punished by Solomon. For Solomon feared him as an ambitious and restless person who would always be plotting new things and aspiring to the kingdom owed to him by right of primogeniture: therefore he would never be secure in his kingdom while Adonijah lived. He therefore killed him to secure his own safety and the peace of the kingdom. See here again how unfortunate David was in his sons. For Amnon violated Tamar, Absalom killed him and rebelled against his father, Adonijah sought the kingdom and was therefore put to death by his brother. This was the punishment and penance inflicted on David by God for the adultery and murder of Uriah, 2 Samuel 12:10, saying: "Therefore the sword shall never depart from your house." Behold what great calamities a brief and small pleasure brought upon him, and what a long train and tail of disasters it dragged after it.
Verse 26: Go to Anathoth, to Your Own Field
26. AND TO ABIATHAR THE PRIEST (high priest) THE KING SAID: GO TO ANATHOTH, TO YOUR OWN FIELD; YOU ARE INDEED DESERVING OF DEATH — that is, you deserve to be killed, because you conspired against me with Adonijah and anointed him king. Yet I will not kill you, because as high priest you were faithful to David my father; but I will only banish you from Jerusalem, lest in it you should again stir up new troubles among my brothers and fellow citizens against me. Go therefore to your field in Anathoth, and there be at peace and attend to your own affairs, and do not henceforth involve yourself in my affairs and those of the kingdom. Furthermore, by this very act Solomon indirectly deposed and deprived Abiathar of the high priesthood, because the high priest had to reside in Jerusalem, to direct the priests ministering in the temple, to preside over the Synagogue and the Sanhedrin council, to be the king's advisor, to teach the people, etc. Therefore, with Abiathar banished, Solomon appointed Zadok in his place.
Verse 27: That the Word of God Might Be Fulfilled
27. THAT THE WORD OF GOD MIGHT BE FULFILLED WHICH HE SPOKE CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF ELI IN SHILOH — 1 Samuel 2:30, where God threatens Eli and his descendants with the loss of life as well as the high priesthood, and adds in verse 35: "And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest," namely Zadok. Therefore Solomon, a wise man, using this occasion of Abiathar's rebellion, by divine inspiration fulfilled these threats of God against Eli, and His promise of restoring Zadok to the high priesthood, and thus brought the high priesthood back from the family of Ithamar and Eli, to which Abiathar belonged, to the original and genuine line of Eleazar, to which Zadok belonged. He did this as punishment for the sins both of Eli and of Abiathar; for Abiathar was guilty of a capital offense and treason, because he had favored Adonijah against Solomon, who had been established as king by God and by his father David: therefore he sent him into exile, but an honorable one; for he sent him to his homeland and to his own estates, so that there he might live out in peace the life which he was sparing him.
Let no one therefore conclude from this that emperors and kings have jurisdiction over popes, so that they can create and depose them. For Solomon deposed Abiathar not by his own authority, but by God's. For God had originally assigned the high priesthood to Aaron, and thence to Eleazar as the firstborn, and to his descendants. From there the high priesthood had deviated to Eli, who was of the line of Ithamar; therefore God commanded it to be restored to the family of Eleazar, namely to Zadok; and Solomon did this by God's prompting and command, not as a king but as a prophet, as an executor of divine justice, as Bellarmine shows, book 2 On the Pope, chapter 29. Add that now in the new law the pontificate is far holier and more sublime than it was in the old law: therefore even if at that time the high priest was subject to the king, as Abulensis thinks, he is no longer so, because the Pope is now the vicar of Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords. See what I said at Numbers 27:21.
Verse 28: The News Came to Joab
28. THEN THE NEWS CAME TO JOAB THAT JOAB HAD TURNED AFTER ADONIJAH AND HAD NOT TURNED AFTER SOLOMON — thus it should be read with the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, Roman and other editions: therefore it is incorrectly read in the Royal and certain other editions: Then the news came to Solomon. The meaning is: A messenger came to Joab, reporting to him that Adonijah had been killed, so that he, who had favored Adonijah and had conspired with him against Solomon, might take counsel for himself by flight, lest he too, as an associate and participant in Adonijah's conspiracy, should be killed by Solomon.
AFTER SOLOMON — thus it should be read with the Septuagint, Roman and other editions. But the Hebrew and Chaldean texts now have "after Absalom," which Vatablus explains as follows: Joab, although at first he was faithful to David and did not turn after Absalom, nevertheless afterward was unfaithful, because he conspired with Adonijah against Solomon, who had been established as king by David. Others think Solomon is called Absalom, because Absalom in Hebrew means the same as "father of peace," while Solomon means the same as "peaceful," and therefore "father and arbiter of peace." Thus Ahaziah by metathesis was called Jehoahaz.
It is more likely that the modern Hebrew and Chaldean texts are corrupt, and that St. Jerome in the Hebrew text read "after Solomon" instead of "after Absalom." For thus the Septuagint read, and the antithesis requires it. So Sanchez.
Verse 30: I Will Not Come Out
30. I WILL NOT COME OUT. — Joab hoped that the sanctity of the place would protect him, and that Solomon's piety would not permit him to be killed there; therefore he refused to come out. But his expectation deceived him: for on account of the atrocity of his crimes he was killed there.
Verse 31: Do as He Has Said, and Strike Him Down
31. DO AS HE HAS SAID, AND STRIKE HIM DOWN — in the tabernacle, from which Joab refuses to come out, but wishes to be killed and die in it. For a willful murderer, such as Joab was, who treacherously killed Abner and Amasa, did not enjoy the impunity and immunity of a sacred place, according to that saying: "If a man willfully kills his neighbor by cunning and treachery, you shall take him from My altar, that he may die" (Exodus 21:14). Much more has this been established by law — not divine but human — in the New Testament, in which Christians ought to be holier than Jews and more averse to deliberate homicide. See the chapter Inter alia, On the Immunity of Churches, and Francisco Suarez, treatise On Ecclesiastical Immunity, chapters 9 and 10. Furthermore, at that time no law had been enacted that the tabernacle would be polluted by human bloodshed, as has now been enacted that a Christian church in which a murder has been committed is considered polluted and must be blessed again. Nor, says Salianus, could that altar justly have been profaned by shed blood, since it was constantly accustomed to be stained with blood: the entire violation of the place consisted in the violence which directly annulled the place's privilege; for it is certain that places are called Asylums because it was not permitted to drag the accused from their embrace, as it were. And therefore Solomon rightly believed it was the same whether Joab was killed at the altar or dragged out and killed elsewhere; for in either case the place was violated, unless a dispensation of the law had intervened, which here was not required on account of the enormity of the crimes, as I said.
Verse 44: The Lord Has Returned Your Wickedness
44. THE LORD HAS RETURNED YOUR WICKEDNESS UPON YOUR OWN HEAD — that is, God has caused the punishment for the wickedness and the curse with which you cursed my father David to fall back upon your guilty head. For He so arranged all things that you, by accepting the penalty of death proposed by me if you should cross the Jordan, have condemned yourself by your own sentence, and by crossing the Jordan have made yourself guilty of death. Therefore Shimei was guilty of death on a double count. First, because he had crossed the Jordan in violation of Solomon's command given under penalty of death and accepted by him. So Theodoret, Josephus, Serarius, and others. Second, because he had cursed David, and this especially Solomon intended to punish here by his father's command; but nevertheless, because David his father had given him pardon for all his own lifetime, Solomon did not wish simply to change the pardon given by his father, but to limit it by an honorable condition; and because Shimei violated this, Solomon therefore revoked his father's pardon and restored Shimei's guilt and punishment.