Then the king said to him, “Do as he has said, and strike him down and bury him, that you may take away from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood which Joab shed.
Parallel translations
- WEB The king said to him, “Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father’s house.
- KJV And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father.
- BSB And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed.
- NASB And the king said to him, “Do just as he has spoken, and execute him and bury him, so that you may remove from me and from my father’s house the blood which Joab shed without justification.
- NLT “Do as he said,” the king replied. “Kill him there beside the altar and bury him. This will remove the guilt of Joab’s senseless murders from me and from my father’s family.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Solomon orders Joab's execution and burial, removing from David's house the guilt of innocent blood Joab had shed. Justice cleanses the dynasty of long-standing defilement.
Overview
Joab had murdered Abner and Amasa in peacetime, treacheries that left bloodguilt clinging to David's house. Solomon executes Joab to remove that guilt from himself and his father's line, fulfilling David's deathbed charge. The verse reflects the biblical conviction that unavenged innocent blood pollutes a people until justice is done.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Deut 21:8–9Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them.
- Num 35:33“‘So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land. No atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him who shed it.
- Exod 21:14If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
- 2 Sam 3:28Afterward, when David heard it, he said, “I and my kingdom are guiltless before Yahweh forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner.
- Prov 28:17A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.
- Deut 19:12–13then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
- Acts 28:4When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.”
- 2 Kgs 9:26‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
- Gen 9:5–6I will surely require your blood of your lives; at the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man.
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 2:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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