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 city of David, i.e., upon Mount Zion, where the sepulchre of David still existed in the time of Christ (Act 2:29). On the length of his reign see 2Sa 5:5.

Verse 12
Accession of Solomon and Establishment of his Government. - 1Ki 2:12 is a heading embracing the substance of what follows, and is more fully expanded in 1Ch 29:23-25. Solomon established his monarchy first of all by punishing the rebels, Adonijah (1Ch 29:13-25) and his adherents (1Ch 29:26 -35), and by carrying out the final instructions of his father (vv. 36-46).

Verses 13-18
1Ki 2:13-18Adonijah forfeits his life. - 1Ki 2:13-18. Adonijah came to Bathsheba with the request that she would apply to king Solomon to give him Abishag of Shunem as his wife. Bathsheba asked him, “Is peace thy coming?” i.e., comest thou with a peaceable intention? (as in 1Sa 16:4), because after what had occurred (1Ki 1:5.) she suspected an evil intention. He introduced his petition with these words: “Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had set its face upon me that I should be king, then the kingdom turned about and became my brother's; for it became his from the Lord.” The throne was his, not because he had usurped it, but because it belonged to him as the eldest son at that time, according to the right of primogeniture. Moreover it might have been the case that many of the people wished him to be king, and the fact that he had found adherents in Joab, Abiathar, and others, confirms this; but his assertion, that all Israel had set its eyes upon him as the future king, went beyond the bounds of truth. At the same time, he knew how to cover over the dangerous sentiment implied in his words in a very skilful manner by adding the further remark, that the transfer of the kingdom to his brother had come from Jehovah; so that Bathsheba did not detect the artifice, and promised