And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an uproar?
Adonijah ... heard it as they had made an end of eating. The loud shouts raised by the populace at the joyous proclamation at Gihon, and echoed by assembled thousands, whose voices, carried down the valley from Zion to En-rogel, were easily heard at that distance by Adonijah and his confederates. It is even in the present day the scene of frequent festivities, and is within the range of sounds such as were made at the proclamation of Solomon's inauguration (see Stewart's 'Tent and Khan,' p. 316; Drew's 'Scripture Lands,' p.
149). The valley of Hinnom, through which the shouts of the multitude thus rang, is little more than a mile in its circuit to the spot where Adonijah and his friends were carousing. The arrival of a trusty messenger, who gave a full detail of the coronation ceremony, spread dismay in their camp. The wicked and ambitious plot they had assembled to execute was dissipated, and each one of the conspirators consulted his safety by flight.