So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David's mule and brought him to Gihon.
David's men carry out his dying order at once: the priest, the prophet and the trusted soldier take Solomon down to Gihon on the king's own mule. Every detail matters here — who goes, what he rides, where they stop — and each one shows whose will is being done.
The men who were not at the rival feast
Adonijah had already held his own coronation banquet, and his guest list was as telling as David's. The three men named here are exactly the three he had left out.
H. L. RossierZadok, Benaiah, Nathan, and the mighty men of David are not with Adonijah. Zadok is the true priest. Nathan is the prophet, the messenger of God. Benaiah is the true servant who walks in the footsteps of his master. What do they have to do with Adonijah? The priest looks to God, the prophet to the Spirit of God, the servant to David, to Christ. Do they need anything else? Those mighty men found their strength in David — will they go after Adonijah, who cannot give it to them?
God's will, not man's planning
Careful human planning can still collide with God's own choice.
J. N. DarbySolomon, the elect of God, who held his rights from God, did not suit them. But after all, man's prudence fails before the judgment of God. God arranges events in such a manner as, sooner or later, to show the most prudent in their true light.
The prophet's work did not stop at speaking.
J. N. DarbyGod uses the prophet, the witness to His will, to carry that will out. Solomon is proclaimed king and installed before David's own eyes.
The king's own mule
Two things gave the crowd its proof: what Solomon sat on, and who walked beside him.
William KellySolomon rides on the king's mule. The trumpet sounds. The real men who had fought the battles of the kingdom and guided the counsels of the king — and above all the king himself — put their seal on this great transaction. Solomon is properly seated as king on the throne of Jehovah in Israel.
David is the one giving the order, and what he orders is his own retirement.
The Bible TreasuryThe throne in Jerusalem meant no more to him than his shepherd's tent at Bethlehem. In both he only wanted to fill his day like a hired worker. He gives up the throne his own hands had built, and all its honours. They counted for nothing with him. He had finished his work and his service, and that was everything to him.
Down to Gihon
The place they chose was not neutral ground.
Leslie M. GrantDavid gave orders that they were to take the servants of David (the Cherethites and Pelethites) and have Solomon ride on David's mule down to Gihon. This was the same valley in which Adonijah had proclaimed himself king — the Kidron Valley — but east of Jerusalem instead of south.
Zadok, the priest who is trusted
Abiathar had served David for years, yet at this moment it is Zadok who is sent for. Loyalty tested at the right hour receives its reward.
Michael HardtKing David, though weak and at death's door, rises to the occasion. He knows who he can trust: "Call me Zadok the priest …" (v. 32). He gives command that Solomon should be king and that Zadok should have the honour of anointing him. Zadok receives his reward already in his own lifetime.
The change at Gihon reached further than one man's appointment.
The Christian's FriendAfter the king is brought in, the position of the priesthood changes. It is no longer the usual link between the people and God. When God sets Eli aside, He says, "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest … and he shall go in and out" — not before Me, but "before my anointed forever" (1 Samuel 2:35).
A rehearsal of a greater day
Commentators read this procession as a small picture of something still ahead.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe priest anointed him king and the people rejoiced with great joy. But what joy will come to this earth when He who is greater than Solomon takes His throne and receives His great kingdom! Solomon's glorious reign gives only a faint picture of it.
Summary
- Chosen — Solomon's right to the throne came from God, not from ambition. Those with no room for God's will gathered elsewhere.
- Called — the three men who stayed away from Adonijah are the three David sends. Each one looked to someone higher than himself.
- Carried — David's own mule and David's own servants show that the old king is handing over what his own hands had built.
- Confronted — the trumpet sounds in the valley where Adonijah had claimed the crown. God answers him on his own ground.
- Coming — the joy at Gihon is only a faint sketch of the joy when One greater than Solomon takes His kingdom.