With this verse Adonijah re-enters the narrative, as does Bathsheba. The readers may question why Bathsheba allowed Adonijah to even enter her presence at all. 1 Kings 1:11–14 informs us that she was aware of the deadly danger that Adonijah posed to her and her son. We have no ready answer to this question.
The text does indicate that she did possess some suspicion of Adonijah and his motives. She did ask, Do you come peacefully?
The question was a natural one to ask. His previous behaviour clearly indicated his intention to eliminate both Bathsheba and her son upon becoming king.
Adonijah answered her question that he came peacefully.
This answer was deceptive, and we need to keep that in mind as we see and evaluate Solomon’s response to the request that Adonijah was about to make. His answer was true in the limited sense that he did not plan to bring immediate harm to her. However, in the long term, his plans for her and Solomon had not changed. For some reason Bathsheba was willing to take Adonijah’s answer at face value, and she did not send him away unheard.
This is a lesson to us, that in dealing with others, it is wise to take their known character into consideration. Well did our Saviour say, Be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves
(Matthew 10:16). Our duty to love our enemies does not require us to be blind to their characters. We have no obligation to fall into the pit that the wicked have dug for us.
By saying this, we do not intend to teach that we should ignore the possibility of genuine repentance. However, that does not mean that we blindly ignore falsehood or wickedness. True repentance carries with it changed behaviour. As we shall see, Adonijah had not changed.
13 Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, “Do you come peacefully?” He said, “Peacefully.”