1 Kings 2:26
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 GOD before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.
The verse belongs to the first eleven chapters of 1 Kings which record the life of Solomon, coming after Saul whose history is in 1 Samuel and David whose history is in 2 Samuel, and before the division of the kingdom at Solomon's death when Rehoboam took the throne and the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah continued until Israel was obliterated in 721 B.C. and Judah was conquered and carried captive by Babylon. It belongs to the account of Solomon's reign and records Solomon carrying out, after David's death, the measures David had charged him to take for securing the throne. It belongs to the settlement shortly after Solomon was crowned king, when Adonijah's unholy ambition to take advantage of David's old age to seize the throne was stopped by Nathan the prophet acting on the Lord's will and David's mind, with Joab disloyal to his king. A little later Adonijah and Joab were slain, and Shimei, who had cursed David, was put to death for failing to keep his conditions of life.
Abiathar was retired from his office when Solomon received the throne peaceably amid general rejoicing, after Adonijah fled to the horns of the altar and was pardoned for the time. Adonijah was later put to death for a further offense and insult to the king, as was Joab. The verse is part of the record of David's later history, which shows the judgments that followed his great transgression involving Uriah and the fulfillment of Nathan's denunciation. Abiathar's fate is included among the events following Adonijah's failed attempt to take the throne, illustrating that the sword and calamity continued in David's house.
The verse records that Solomon declared Abiathar the priest worthy of death but would not at that time put him to death, instead sparing his life and sending and banishing him from Jerusalem to his own fields at Anathoth. This sparing was because he had served as priest and had borne the ark of the Lord before David his father and had been afflicted and shared hardships in all wherein David was afflicted. The verse records Solomon removing Abiathar from the high priesthood and putting Zadok in his place. Abiathar had cared for the ark at Jerusalem, while Zadok had ministered at the tabernacle in Gibeon.
Abiathar belonged to Eli's priestly line and had been the only son of Ahimelech to escape Saul's slaughter of their family, while Zadok was descended from Eleazar, Aaron's son. The verse, with the next verse, shows Abiathar being removed from the priesthood in fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Eli and his sons, ending the priesthood's unbroken succession in Aaron's family.