Prayer Vow and Decisive Action: Solomon’s Response to Adonijah’s Scheme (1 Kings 2.23)

Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, “So may God do to me, and more also, for Adonijah has devised this scheme at the risk of his life!

Background

King David is dead, and Solomon’s time as co-regent is over—he is now king. Before his death, David gave Solomon some instructions: be faithful to God’s ways and take care of some unfinished business for him. 

Not long after David’s death, Solomon faces the same problem his father faced with his rebellious son. Adonijah, the son who tried to wrest the kingship away from David, goes to Bathsheba (the Queen mother). He reminds her that he would have been king if God had not chosen Solomon. He asks that he be allowed to marry a woman named Abishag. Bathsheba goes to Solomon with the request, but Solomon sees through the trick. Abishag was a royal concubine of David’s, the one who cared for him in his old age. To take a King’s concubine was to claim kingly power. 

This was the first domestic test of Solomon’s reign. Unlike his father, who failed to take care of family problems, Solomon acts swiftly. He offers the vow above, then acts on it. He sent an officer to execute Adonijah. 

Meaning

The prayer is similar to other prayer vows we have encountered.¹ It is the type where the offerer vows to do something or else be cursed by God. In this passage, the prayer vow serves to emphasize a major point the author wants us to see: Solomon is a strong, decisive leader, even when it comes to his own family. He does not have the flaws that David has. Prayer-vows are not to be made lightly. If we make them, we must keep them.