"'The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule.'" — Jonathan catalogs the forces David mobilized: priest, prophet, and military commander—the very authorities absent from Adonijah's gathering. The phrase *va-yarkin otho 'al-pirdah melek* (they caused him to ride upon the king's mule) repeats the symbolic gesture—Solomon is authenticated as the king-elect by riding David's mule. The enumeration reminds Adonijah's faction that they have *lost* the institutions of power.

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