Kings says Solomon's mother and the prophet Nathan had the dying David name Solomon over his elder brother Adonijah, who was later executed

The first book of Kings says King David was old and could not get warm. His servants brought him a young woman, Abishag the Shunammite, to attend him. His eldest surviving son, Adonijah, declared "I will be king." He gathered chariots, horsemen and fifty runners. The army commander Joab and the priest Abiathar backed him. He held a sacrificial feast at the stone of Zoheleth and invited his brothers, except Solomon. The prophet Nathan told Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, to remind David of an oath that Solomon would reign. She went in, and Nathan followed to confirm her report. David swore that Solomon would be king that day. Zadok the priest anointed Solomon at the Gihon spring, and the crowd shouted so loudly the earth seemed to split. Adonijah's guests heard the horn and scattered. Adonijah ran to the altar and held its horns. Solomon spared him on condition of good behaviour. After David died, Adonijah asked Bathsheba to ask Solomon for Abishag as his wife. Solomon treated it as a claim to the throne and had Benaiah kill him. He banished Abiathar and had Joab killed at the altar. Carl Ehrlich of York University points out that the Bible never records David making the oath, and cites scholars who read the whole account as a defence of Solomon's seizure of the throne. Solomon reigned, and the text says the kingdom was "established in the hand of Solomon."