To Four Thousand Years Later

All the soldiers and priests watched from afar as Binaya suddenly drew out his sword and stepped into the tent, and they immediately let out exclamations.

After a very short silence, the crowd burst into a loud voice, and together they shouted at Solomon to attack Benaiah who killed people in the tent.

"Profanity! This is blasphemy!"

"King, Benaya, he actually..."

"—all be quiet!"

Solomon suddenly shouted angrily.

At that moment, the strong sense of existence emanating from him was like substance, choking all the dissatisfied words of the people back into their throats.

However, it was different from what they expected—Solomon couldn’t help but did not condemn Binaiah, but turned around and shouted at all the Israelites: “You are all guilty!”

"You are stupid, you have committed rebellion, and you have committed a great evil!"

The deterrent force brought about by his fight with the demon **** Baal seven days ago has not dissipated at all. At this time, when Solomon said these words, the people became terrified.

At this moment, the actors arranged by Solomon in the crowd knelt down one after another as agreed, and people who didn't know why also knelt down subconsciously. The crowd collapsed to their knees like dominoes. The very few people who were standing were also coerced and knelt down together.

And after speaking to frighten the people, Solomon's voice softened again: "You must have doubts, why I said you have committed disobedience."

"That's because you only see someone's skin being stabbed, but you don't know that the flesh is healthy, so you conclude that the person with the knife is guilty. So when you kill the person who cuts off the carrion, you actually kill two people. "

"You don't know that Joab killed two righteous and good men...that is, Abner and Amasa. He killed these two because David planned to make them captains, which greatly shook Joab. The benefits of eating."

Solomon glanced over the uproarious crowd, and said again: "Now you should see that Joab has no respect for God—he broke into the tent and grabbed the two horns of the altar because his master Adonijah Do this and live by it. So he also wants to revive this transgression in order to live."

"—so I say, Joab is guilty!"

Solomon clanged forcefully and shouted loudly.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud thunder in the air, and a thunderbolt struck the golden altar in front of the tent.

The altar still contained the ointment and flesh and blood left over from the last peace offering, and when it was struck by lightning, a flame immediately ignited.

Seeing the fire behind Solomon who was facing the crowd, the crowd was startled and did not dare to look directly at Solomon. They could only respectfully bow down to Solomon and the tent behind him.

Solomon looked down at the crowd and continued, his voice becoming louder and more majestic under the blessing of Baimon: "Joab was convicted for killing the new marshal, so he should be killed by the new marshal; A righteous and good person deserves the retribution of being killed by the sword! Now the reason why he broke into the tent and desecrated the altar of the Lord without dying is because his retribution has not yet come!"

"—Joab is the piece of carrion, and Benaiah is the one holding the knife! If you can't see the joints clearly, you clamored to judge Benaiah's sin first, and you are guilty!"

Solomon yelled angrily like thunder.

The people were shocked and begged Solomon for mercy. Only a very small number of people showed a little dissatisfaction on their faces, but they stopped making any noise.

Solomon glanced, remembering everyone's reactions and the color of their names in his heart.

As soon as he forced it like this, the rebels who really obeyed Joab or Adonijah were immediately distinguished from the innocent people who just obeyed blindly. The people who were originally red, yellow and green met each other, but now they have completely turned into the vast majority of green and three or four light red.

—Stable.

Solomon thought to himself.

These hidden people who are still hostile to Solomon are the internal enemies that Solomon will first cut off next.

Benaiah finally came out of the tent—even though he was in God's tent, he was very frightened by the thunder that was so close at hand. Now that I have calmed down a little, I dared to leave the tent.

He glanced at the burning altar, raised his blood-stained sword to the worshiping people, and announced to them, "It was I who killed Joab with the sword—just as he killed the two captains of Israel with the sword!"

"in this way-"

Solomon's voice grew louder again, booming.

Dazzling brilliance suddenly shone from his body, and his voice shook people's hearts: "The retribution of Joab is gone!"

"—look up! Joab's punishment has arrived!"

Solomon came back to his senses and pointed to the tabernacle.

As soon as his high voice fell, the second thunder fell from the sky and landed precisely in the tent!

The tent instantly burst into flames, and the body of Joab lying on the altar burst into flames, and the blood on the altar was also dried up. But the altar itself remains intact.

At the moment when the thunder sounded again, the people lying on the ground in panic raised their heads in astonishment.

But all they could see was Solomon who turned his back to them, Benaiah who raised his sword facing them, and the burning tent.

"God bless King Solomon!"

At this moment, the people in the crowd who Solomon had arranged in advance shouted loudly: "God bless Marshal Benaya!"

"God bless King Solomon! God bless Field Marshal Benaya—"

Under the shocking miracle, the people who witnessed the "miracle" also praised Solomon and Benaiah loudly.

Solomon smiled and nodded to Benayah, who was suddenly bowed down and praised by people, who was somewhat panicked, signaling that he didn't need to panic.

— This time the lightning strike technique was surprisingly effective.

Solomon sighed inwardly.

The best part is that the people kneeling on the ground were busy kowtowing to Solomon, and most of them didn't see what it was like when the thunder fell.

This is actually better than letting them witness the giant thunder fall with their own eyes.

A miracle that has not been witnessed is greater than a miracle that has been witnessed; a one-time miracle is more precious than a repeated miracle—the statue of a **** with a physical body will of course last longer than the **** that only exists in the heart.

Anyway, the significance of this lightning strike technique is just to emphasize from a third party that the point of view "Joab is guilty" is correct.

Because the ability of the masses to accept is limited and simple. And as long as they agree with one part of someone's point of view, they will generally agree with the other part-and this habit is an extension of human "learning" behavior, and it is a certain behavioral instinct that is not easy to correct.

Even in the future, there will be very few people who consciously train their ability to think independently. In this ancient era, Solomon possessed unsolvable strength in the battle of public opinion.

Since the huge thunder will fall, it proves that Joab is guilty; since people agree that Joab is guilty, they will naturally subconsciously accept the concept of "Binaiah is not guilty"—even if there is no logical relationship in it. .

In this way, all the prestige accumulated by Joab over the years will be transferred to Solomon and Benaiah. And Solomon, who spoke for the Lord, will receive more than Binaiah, who is just living retribution.

And what Solomon wanted was not just prestige.

Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada and a well-known warrior in Israel. He has no lack of prestige, and Solomon, who just went too far without getting hurt seven days ago and repelled the demon **** Baal head-on, is even less lacking in prestige.

- What he wants is to shake Israel's inherent and backward customary law.

Benaiah murdered in the tent, which undoubtedly violated the commandments of God. But he was not struck by lightning, and he would even get the post of Generalissimo, but Joab, who was killed by him, was punished by lightning and died without a whole body...

This means that the words of Solomon are greater than the words of the priests. The parable he said before was to emphasize to everyone that his explanation would be wiser than ordinary people, and he could see things that ordinary people could not see—thus, when his words conflicted with those of the priests, Solomon’s words should be believed first.

This also means that Solomon finally obtained the "final right to interpret" Israel's traditions.

—Just one useless life of Joab is enough to find an excuse and basis to purge the army and priests at the same time. This is a lucrative business.

Now that the people's hearts are in order and the prestige is high... it's time to start purge Israel's top leaders.

Let's attack the priests first.

Solomon looked at the burning altar, the fire in his eyes was dancing.