establish his kingdom. He had pardoned Adonijah for his consj)iracy against him, on the express condition that he should act the part of a good and loyal subject : but seeing speedily his restless ambition, and that the request to have Abishag for his wife was but a device to increase his influence in the state, and to pave the way for his attainment of the throne, he very properly recalled the promise he had made to Bathsheba respecting him (which by no construction whatever could be supposed to extend to such a case as that); and inflicted on him that punishment which his treasonable intentions deserved.
In Adonij all's late conspiracy Abiathar and Joab had joined, though they all knew that the appointment of Solomon to the throne was not from any partiality in David, but from God himself Solomon therefore now thrust out Abiathar from the priesthood, and banished him to his native town. This was a mild sentence, in consideration of the services he had rendered unto David in his afflictions.
Joab now saw that justice was coming home to him also : and he fled to the altar, hoping to find the same protection there that Adonijah had found before him: but he was a murderer ; and God had expressly ordered that his altar should be no sanctuary for such persons^: accordingly Solomon ordered that, if he would not come from thence, he should be slain there ; that so he inight the more manifestly appear to be sacrificed to the justice of his God.
The person spoken of in our text is Shimei, who cursed Dand in the day of his calamity; but had received from David a free pardon for his offence. This was a very powerful man ; for no less than a thousand men attended him when he came to ask pardon : and he retained all his former enmity to David, though he had not been able to manifest it with effect. Him therefore Solomon also pardoned, on condition that he should never go out of the city of Jerusalem, where he might be con- stantly under the eye of the government. This condition he thankfully accepted : but after three years he violated it, and thus forfeited his life, which Solomon therefore, agreeably to the advice given him by David, required at liis hands.
Now, whilst we acknowledge that these acts of retributive justice woTild have been bad, if they had proceeded from a vindictive spirit, we must affirm that they were both just and necessary, in order to prevent disturbances in the state, and to secure the welfare of the whole nation.]
Such is the way in which retributive justice should be exercised by man. Let us now consider,
f Exod. xxi. 14.
y2