ADONIAH (Hebrew 'adoniijjāh[ī], “my Lord is Jahweh”). — Fourth son of David (and of Haggith), born at Hebron after David had been proclaimed king of Judah (2 Sam 3:4; 1 Chr 3:2).
When David was now old, Adonijah, about forty-eight years old, handsome and vain, sought to secure the paternal throne, to which he believed himself entitled 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, both of whom had fallen into disfavour with the king. He was already on the point of being proclaimed king with the customary religious rite at the fountain of Rogel, when Bethsabea, desirous of having her son Solomon elevated, disclosed the plan to the king. The prophet Nathan confirmed David in his resolve to have Solomon anointed immediately as his successor. On hearing the acclamations for the consecration of the young Solomon at the fountain of Gihon by the high priest Zadok, Adonijah, dismayed, fled and clung to the horns of the altar as a place of asylum (1 Kgs 1:5–53). He begged and obtained from the new king his life spared; but after David’s death, when he requested of Bethsabea to marry Abishag (q.v.), David’s last concubine, Solomon, suspecting in the elder brother hidden aspirations to the throne, immediately had him put to death (1 Kgs 2:13–25).