28 Then news came to Joab, for Joab (A)had defected to Adonijah, though he had not defected to Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, and (B)took hold of the horns of the altar. 29 And King Solomon was told, “Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord; there he is, by the altar.” Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, “Go, (C)strike him down.” 30 So Benaiah went to the tabernacle of the Lord, and said to him, “Thus says the king, (D)‘Come out!’ ”

And he said, “No, but I will die here.” And Benaiah brought back word to the king, saying, “Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.”

31 Then the king said to him, (E)“Do as he has said, and strike him down and bury him, (F)that you may take away from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood which Joab shed. 32 So the Lord (G)will return his [a]blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous (H)and better than he, and killed them with the sword—(I)Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and (J)Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah—though my father David did not know it. 33 Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab and (K)upon the head of his descendants forever. (L)But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from the Lord.”

34 So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and struck and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 2:32 Or bloodshed

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