The Death of David and the Accession of Solomon
As the aged David fades, his eldest surviving son Adonijah proclaims himself king. The prophet Nathan and Bathsheba intervene in time, and Solomon is anointed at the Gihon spring.
David reached seventy and "could not get warm." At that moment his son Adonijah—handsome, and never once asked by his father "why are you doing this?"—acquired chariots and runners, won over Joab and Abiathar, and held a feast at the stone of Zoheleth beside the spring of En-rogel at which he was proclaimed king. Nathan, Zadok and Solomon were not invited, which gave the plot away.
Nathan moved fast. He sent Bathsheba to remind the king of his oath that Solomon would reign, then followed her in, feigning surprise. Weak as he was, David gave precise orders: put Solomon on the royal mule, bring him to Gihon, anoint him with the horn of oil, sound the shofar and cry "Long live King Solomon!" The crowd came up after them with such joy that "the earth split with their noise." At Adonijah's feast the sound was heard, and the guests scattered.
Before dying, David charged his son: "I go the way of all the earth; be strong and be a man, keep the charge of the Lord your God"—followed by very worldly instructions concerning Joab and Shimei.
David died after forty years and was buried in the City of David. In his lifetime Israel became a state—capital, borders, army, a service prepared for a Temple—and gained the book of Psalms.
How we know
On the chronology
Academic history dates this event differently. In the age of the kings the divergence is not the one familiar from the Persian period, where Seder Olam runs about a hundred and sixty-five years short. Here academic chronology reckons some reigns as overlapping — father and son on the throne together — so its span from the division of the kingdom to the destruction of the Temple comes out nearly three decades shorter. The gap therefore grows: a hundred and thirty-five years at the division, a hundred and fifty-four at Sennacherib, a hundred and sixty-four at the destruction. The anchors of the academic count are external documents: the battle of Qarqar (853), Jehu's tribute on the Black Obelisk (841), the fall of Samaria (722), Sennacherib's campaign (701), Megiddo and Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns in the Babylonian Chronicles (609, 605, 597). Both dates appear on the timeline when the divergence layer is on.
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim I 1 — Adoniyahu’s attempt and the anointing of Shlomo at the Gichon
- Melachim I 2:1–12 — David’s testament, his death, and forty years of reign
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Shabbat 30a — David asks to be told the day of his death; he dies on Shabbat over his learning
- Ruth Rabbah 3:2 — the midrash on David’s last day — the reference needs checking
- Seder Olam Rabbah 14 — the year 2924 in the overall count
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
King David · Bathsheba · King Solomon · Kings · Psalms · Benaiah son of Jehoiada · Abiathar the Priest · Nathan the Prophet · Zadok the Priest · Joab son of Zeruiah · Shimei son of Gera · Barzillai the Gileadite · Adonijah son of David