Bible Strands
1 Kings 1:53
So King Solomon summoned Adonijah down from the altar, and he came and bowed down before King Solomon, who said to him, “Go to your home.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Solomon addresses Adonijah immediately after Adonijah descends from the altar and prostrates himself, following Solomon’s conditional grant of life in 1 Kings 1:52.
The words — וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּ (va/i.yish.Ta.chu) records the physical act of prostration, while מִזְבֵּחַ (miz.Be.ach) marks the sanctuary boundary where Adonijah sought provisional refuge.
The thread — The pattern of conditional mercy paired with restricted royal access reappears when David deals with Absalom after his return (2 Samuel 14:24, 28) and echoes the submission posture in 2 Samuel 1:2.
Why it lands — Solomon’s brief command to depart requires the reader to observe that physical submission and conditional pardon do not automatically restore full political standing or unmediated access to the throne.
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
So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king Solomon: and Solomon said unto him, Go to thine house.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 1:2 On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
- 2 Samuel 14:24 But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the face of the king.
- 2 Samuel 14:28 Now Absalom lived in Jerusalem two years without seeing the face of the king.
- 1 Kings 1:16 And Bathsheba bowed down in homage to the king, who asked, “What is your desire?”
- 1 Kings 1:31 Bathsheba bowed facedown in homage to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”
- 1 Kings 2:36 Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, “Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else.
- Proverbs 24:21 My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious.