CLX. 1 Kings, Chap. I, II.
Adonijah affects the Kingdom. Solomon
anointed King. Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei slain, &c.
But
Kings as well as Empires have their Date,
And all must yield to Time and Age and Fate:
Broken with Cares, the Monarch now appears,
And sinks beneath the Weight of Seventy Years:
Languid and Cold, almost a Carcass grown,
He lives by Warmth and Vigour not his own:
This Adonijah heard, fair Haggith's Son,
In Beauty only next to Absalon:
Ensigns of Royalty like him prepar'd,
High on his Chariot rais'd, and circled with a Guard:
Abiathar the Pontiff with him joyns,
And Joab aids in his unjust Designs:
By Rogel's-Well he at Zoheleth staid,
His Brethren call'd, a Kingly Feast he made;
But Solomon he left with conscious Fear,
Nor Zadok, Nathan, or Benaiah there:
To David, Bathsheba and Nathan bring
The Tidings first, that he assum'd the King:
The Monarch rous'd, by Israel's God he swears,
And Solomon his Successor declares:
On his own Royal Mule he rides in State,
The Guards and Council him to Gihon wait:
The sacred Oyl with Joy they thither bring,
Anoint him there, and shout—God save the King!
The hollow Vales restor'd the distant Sound,
Shook lofty Olivet, and shook the Ground:
This to Zoheleth's Stone the Traitors hear,
Vanish'd their Mirth, their Hearts dissolv'd with Fear:
Their King Himself, and they their King disown,
He quits his short-liv'd Reign, and quits his Throne.
For Refuge he to God's High-Altar flies,
And sues for Life, when Solomon, replies,
If Loyal he's secure, if false he dies:
In Peace he thence did to his House retreat;
But soon the curs'd Ambition to be Great,
The Royal Mercy did, and his Resolves defeat:
For David now to his Fore-fathers gon,
Agen he seeks by Wiles to mount the Throne:
To strengthen thus his Title, seeks to wed,
The beauteous Relict of the Royal Bed:
Nor this young Solomon, whose piercing Eyes
The Treason saw, tho' veil'd in Loves disguise,
And by Benaiah's Hand his Rival dies:
Next Joab, vainly to God's Altar fled,
Who Abner's Blood, and Amasa's had shed:
Just Vengeance, sure tho' slow, did him pursue,
Benaiah there, the hoary Murtherer slew:
Nor railing Shimei scap'd, but Kidron cross'd,
His solemn Oath he broke, his Life he lost:
Abiathar with milder Doom depriv'd,
To his own native Fields confin'd he liv'd;
The righteous Fate of Eli's House he bore,
And Zadok in his Room, great Aaron's Ephod wore.
