And Adonijah feared Solomon. So he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar.
A man stuffing himself at table while his rival is crowned, there is the picture of the godless everywhere. They gorge and grow confident while their house burns; the old world ate and drank secure until judgment fell. Adonijah's long feast shows how little he feared what was coming, yet fear should have gripped him the moment the trumpet sounded.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Kings 1:41-53
And Adonijah feared because of Solomon,.... Lest he should seize him as an usurper and traitor, and put him to death: and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar; either that which was at Gibeon, where the tabernacle now was; see Kg1 3:4; so Jarchi; or rather that which was nearest, the altar that David had built in the threshingfloor...
ADONIJAH, FLEEING TO THE HORNS OF THE ALTAR, IS DISMISSED BY SOLOMON. (Kg1 1:50-53) Adonijah . . . went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar--most probably the altar of burnt offering which had been erected on Mount Zion, where Abiathar, one of his partisans, presided as high priest.