Adonias

ADONIAS (Hebrew 'Adonijah[ā], «My Lord is Yahweh»). - Fourth son of David (and of Haggith), born in Hebron after David had been proclaimed king of Judah (II Sam. 3:4; I Chron. 3:2).

When David was by then old, A., about 48 years old, handsome and vain, attempted to secure his father's throne, to which he believed he had a right after the death of Absalom. He was supported by Joab and by Abiathar, the former already commander of David's army and the latter high priest, who had fallen into disfavor with the king. He was already about to be proclaimed king with the ordinary religious rite at the spring of Rogel, when Bathsheba, eager to have her son Solomon raised up, revealed the plan to the king. The prophet Nathan confirmed David in his resolve to have his successor Solomon anointed at once. On hearing the acclamations for the consecration of the young Solomon at the spring of Gihon by the high priest Zadok, A., dismayed, fled and clung to the horns of the altar as a place of asylum (I Kings 1:5-53). He implored and obtained from the new king his life spared; but, after the death of David, following his request to Bathsheba to marry Abishag (v.), the king's last concubine, Solomon, suspecting in his elder brother hidden aspirations to the throne, immediately had him killed (I Kings 2:13-25).

Angelo Penna