Solomon began his reign by cleaning house—and he did it with terrifying efficiency.
His half-brother Adonijah, who had already tried to seize the throne once, made the fatal mistake of asking Bathsheba to arrange his marriage to Abishag—the beautiful young woman who had warmed the dying David's bed. Solomon saw through it instantly. Marrying a king's consort was a claim to the throne. He sent Benaiah, captain of the guards, and Adonijah was killed.
Abiathar the priest, who had backed Adonijah, was stripped of his office and exiled to his estates—spared only because he had carried the Ark alongside David through years of hardship. The high priesthood passed to Zadok, fulfilling the prophecy God had delivered to Eli generations earlier (1 Samuel 2:30).
Joab, David's ruthless general, heard about Adonijah's execution and knew he was next. He fled to the altar and grabbed its horns, declaring he would die there rather than face trial. Solomon did not hesitate. He ordered Benaiah to cut him down where he stood—punishment for the murders of Abner and Amasa that David had been unable to avenge in his lifetime.
Shimei, who had cursed David during his flight, received a strange sentence: build a house in Jerusalem and never cross the brook Kidron. For three years he obeyed. Then two of his servants ran away to Gath, and Shimei chased after them. When he returned, Solomon confronted him: "Did you not swear never to leave? You have broken your oath to God." Benaiah carried out the execution.
With his enemies removed, Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh and expanded Jerusalem's walls. Then came the night that changed everything. He traveled to Hebron to sacrifice a thousand burnt offerings on the bronze altar Moses had built. That night, God appeared to him and offered him anything he wanted.
Solomon did not ask for gold. He did not ask for military victory. He did not ask for long life. He was young enough that Josephus notes the court would have understood any of those requests. Instead, he said: "Give me, O Lord, a sound mind and a good understanding, whereby I may speak and judge the people according to truth and righteousness."
God was so pleased that He gave Solomon everything he had not asked for—riches, glory, victory over enemies—on top of the wisdom that would surpass every mortal who ever lived.
The proof came almost immediately. Two women—both harlots, both mothers, sharing a single room—appeared before the king. One had rolled onto her infant in the night and killed it. She swapped the dead baby for her roommate's living child while the other woman slept. Both claimed the living boy. There were no witnesses. The court was stumped.
Solomon called for a sword and ordered the living child cut in half. The real mother screamed—give him to the other woman, just let him live! The false mother agreed to the division. Solomon handed the baby to the woman who had been willing to lose him rather than see him die.
Josephus adds that the crowd had privately laughed at the king's order, dismissing him as "no more than a youth." After the verdict, they attended to him "as to one that had a divine mind."
Solomon's wisdom extended far beyond jurisprudence. He composed a thousand and five songs, three thousand parables, and treatises on every kind of tree, beast, fish, and bird. Most remarkably, Josephus claims God taught Solomon the art of expelling demons—a skill still practiced in Josephus's own day. He personally witnessed a man named Eleazar cure demoniacs in front of the emperor Vespasian by holding a ring containing one of Solomon's roots to the patient's nose and drawing the spirit out, commanding it to overturn a basin of water as it departed to prove it had truly left.
With his kingdom secure and his wisdom renowned, Solomon sent word to Hiram, king of Tyre, requesting timber and laborers for the great project his father had only dreamed of—the Temple. Hiram, who had been David's friend, responded with enthusiasm. Cedar and cypress logs would be floated down the coast; Solomon would supply wheat, oil, and wine in return. The workforce numbered thirty thousand Israelites working in monthly rotations, plus a hundred and fifty thousand foreign laborers cutting and hauling stone. The building that David had spent his last breath preparing for was finally underway.