Bible Strands
1 Kings 1:7
So Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, who supported him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Adonijah approaches Joab and Abiathar to secure their backing for his royal ambitions while David remains elderly and the succession is unresolved.
The words — The supplied lexicon lists וַ/יִּהְי֣וּ דְבָרָ֔י/ו עִם (and/ they were/ words/ his/ with), which literally establishes the act of holding counsel or initiating formal dialogue between Adonijah, Joab son of Zeruiah, and Abiathar.
The thread — This alliance is noted in the succession narrative where Zadok and Abiathar serve as priests (2 Samuel 20:25), and Abiathar’s prior flight to David is recorded (1 Samuel 22:20). The political tension continues when Solomon addresses Abiathar’s role in his mother’s petition (1 Kings 2:22).
Why it lands — The text reports the factual gathering of military and religious support for a rival claimant before stating that other key figures refuse to join him, requiring the reader to track the shifting factions without assuming the outcome.
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 he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 20:25 Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
- 1 Kings 2:22 King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my older brother, you might as well request the kingdom for him and for Abiathar the priest and for Joab son of Zeruiah!”
- 1 Samuel 22:20 But one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled to David.
- 2 Samuel 8:16 Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder;
- 2 Samuel 15:12 While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from his hometown of Giloh. So the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept increasing.
- 2 Samuel 15:24 Zadok was also there, and all the Levites with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had passed out of the city.
- 2 Samuel 15:35 Will not Zadok and Abiathar the priests be there with you? Report to them everything you hear from the king’s palace.
- 2 Samuel 20:23 Now Joab was over the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites;
- 1 Kings 2:26 Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death at this time, since you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David, and you suffered through all that my father suffered.”
- 1 Chronicles 11:6 Now David had said, “Whoever is the first to strike down a Jebusite will become chief commander.” And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became the chief.