1 Kings 2:26

DEMOTION AND EXPULSION FROM JERUSALEM OF ABIATHAR

"And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord Jehovah before David my father, and because thou wast afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto Jehovah, that he might fulfil the word of Jehovah, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh."

Solomon lost no time in moving against others whom he considered members of the conspiracy. It is not even stated here that he sent for Abiathar, for he had evidently done that when he ordered the execution of Adonijah.

It should be noted that Solomon did not promise to execute Abiathar, but merely that he would not then do so. He banished the last of Eli's posterity to Anathoth a village of priests, which later became known as the residence of Jeremiah. It was not very far from Nob and only about three miles northeast of Jerusalem.

The great significance of 1 Kings 2:27 here should be stressed. Solomon's action against Abiathar is here stated by the author of Kings to have fulfilled the prophecy uttered by the "man of God" against the house of Eli (1 Samuel 2:27-36). This emphasis is repeatedly stressed throughout Kings, because one primary purpose of the inspired narrator was that of demonstrating in the history of Israel the utmost dependability of prophecies spoken through the prophets of the Lord. With this removal of Abiathar, the last descendant of the house of Ithamar served as a high priest in Israel.

In a practical sense, however, Solomon's appointment of Zadok (related in 1 Kings 2:35, below) to the position formerly held by Abiathar was loaded with evil consequences for Israel. "This established a precedent of the high priesthood's being at the disposal of the king, another step down the slippery slope of being like the nations around them."[13] In N.T. times it will be remembered that this very thing led to the Roman procurator's privilege of removing Annas and appointing Caiaphas (and others) in his place.