So act as your wisdom dictates, and do not let his gray hair 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.
- BSB So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.
- NKJV Therefore do according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave 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 don’t hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”
- Isa 48:22“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”
- Prov 20:26A wise king winnows out the wicked, and drives the threshing wheel over them.
- Ps 37:37Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.
- Isa 57:21“There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.”
- Eccl 8:11Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
- Prov 28:17A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.
- 1 Kgs 2:28–34This news came to Joab; for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he didn’t follow Absalom. Joab fled to Yahweh’s Tent, and held onto the horns of the altar.
- Isa 65:20“No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.
- Isa 57:2He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.
- 2 Kgs 22:20‘Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.’”’” So they brought this message back to the king.
- 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.
- Gen 42:38He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
- Gen 9:6Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
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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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.