So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.
Parallel translations
- WEB Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don’t let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.
- KJV Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
- NKJV Therefore do according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace.
- NASB So act as your wisdom dictates, and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.
- NLT Do with him what you think best, but don’t let him grow old and go to his grave in peace.
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
David instructs Solomon to act wisely and not let Joab die peacefully in old age. He charges his son to bring Joab to justice.
Overview
David commits the matter of Joab to Solomon's wisdom, directing that the guilty commander not escape judgment through a peaceful natural death. The charge reflects the seriousness of unavenged bloodshed in the land. Faithful readers recognize both the demand for justice and the difficulty of disentangling it from political concerns in David's house.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Kgs 2:9Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You know what you ought to do to him to bring his gray head down to Sheol in blood.”
- Isa 48:22“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
- Prov 20:26A wise king separates out the wicked and drives the threshing wheel over them.
- Ps 37:37Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
- Isa 57:21“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
- Eccl 8:11When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
- Prov 28:17A man burdened by bloodguilt will flee into the Pit; let no one support him.
- 1 Kgs 2:28–34When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah but not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.
- Isa 65:20No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
- Isa 57:2Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest, lying down in death.
- 2 Kgs 22:20‘Therefore I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.
- Num 35:33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- Gen 42:38But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If any harm comes to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”
- Gen 9:6Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
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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 2:6 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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