A Throne Secured

"I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways… that thou mayest prosper." Then: Joab's killing of Abner and Amasa — "let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace"; kindness to Barzillai's sons; and Shimei — "his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood." "So David slept with his fathers… And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years."

Adonijah asks Bathsheba to ask for Abishag. Solomon: "Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother." Benaiah kills Adonijah. Abiathar is sent to Anathoth, "that he might fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh."

Joab flees to the tent of the LORD and grasps the horns of the altar. "Nay; but I will die here." Benaiah kills him there. Shimei is confined to Jerusalem; when he goes to Gath after runaway slaves, Solomon has him executed. "And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon."

Why ask for Abishag?

To take a king's woman was to claim his authority (2 Samuel 3:7; 16:21–22). Solomon reads Adonijah's request as a claim to the throne. Whether Adonijah meant it so, or whether Bathsheba foresaw Solomon's reaction, is left open.

Asylum at the altar

Exodus 21:14 says a deliberate murderer may be taken even from the altar. Solomon applies it to Joab for Abner and Amasa.

A longer Greek chapter

The Greek 3 Kingdoms adds long summaries about Solomon's wisdom, wealth and buildings after 2:35 and 2:46 ("2:35a–o" and "2:46a–l" in Rahlfs' edition), partly repeating material found later in the Hebrew. In the library's Greek these additions appear inside verses 35 and 46. They are substantive differences in the book's arrangement, not ordinary translation choices.