Bible Strands
1 Kings 1:50
But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Adonijah flees to the altar after his banquet guests scatter in terror upon learning of Solomon’s coronation. He physically approaches the sanctuary to seek protection from the newly anointed king.
The words — The Hebrew verb יָרֵא (ya.Re') conveys his terror, while וַֽ/יַּחֲזֵ֖ק (va/i.ya.cha.Zek) and בְּ/קַרְנ֥וֹת (be./kar.Not) literally record him taking hold of the horns of the altar.
The thread — The altar horns serve as a recognized place of asylum, a pattern that reappears when Joab flees to the same sanctuary in 1 Kings 2:28 and originates in the altar’s construction in Exodus 27:2. The legal exception for removing fugitives from the altar to face execution is established in Exodus 21:14.
Why it lands — The text records a defeated claimant’s physical grasp of a sacred object as a desperate bid for survival. It establishes the altar as a tangible boundary that political violence must acknowledge before royal judgment proceeds.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 2:28 When 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.
- Exodus 21:14 But if a man schemes and acts willfully against his neighbor to kill him, you must take him away from My altar to be put to death.
- Exodus 27:2 Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
- Exodus 38:2 He made a horn at each of its four corners, so that the horns and altar were of one piece, and he overlaid the altar with bronze.
- Psalms 118:27 The LORD is God; He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.