352 THE KING'S MIRROR 



came to God's sanctuary and said: " Come forth, Joab, 

 the king commands you to come forth out of God's 

 tabernacle." But Joab replied: "I have come hither 

 into God's protection, and I will suffer death here, if I 

 cannot remain in security." Then Benaiah reported his 

 answer to the king through his messenger; and when the 

 messenger came before the king bringing the bishop 

 Abiathar and related all these things, King Solomon 

 said to him: " Give my command to Benaiah to slay 

 Joab wherever he be found, for his deeds and the de- 

 crees of the sacred law slay him and not we." Benaiah 

 did as King Solomon commanded and slew Joab where 

 he then stood.* 



But the king spoke in this wise to the bishop Abia- 

 thar: " You know that you have deserved death accord- 

 ing to the rules of the holy law; but whereas you lost 

 your father and all your kinsmen in Nob in a single day, 

 because your father had given my father David food, 

 and whereas you also bore the ark of God before my 

 father when he fled before the face of my brother Ab- 

 salom, therefore it is right that for once you should 

 profit from this and not suffer a sudden death. And for 

 this once you shall purchase your life on the following 

 terms, which you must keep as a constant reminder 

 that you owe penance for the treason which you com- 

 mitted against David: go now to your own fields and 

 abide there as a husbandman and enjoy all your pos- 

 sessions, on the condition, however, that you remain a 

 tiller of the soil. But if you ever stretch forth your hand 

 to perform any priestly service or office, the righteous 



* Cf. 7 Kings, ii, 28-34. 



