1 Kings 1:18

_GO AND GET THEE IN UNTO KING DAVID, AND SAY UNTO HIM, DIDST NOT THOU, MY LORD, O KING, SWEAR UNTO THINE HANDMAID, SAYING, ASSUREDLY SOLOMON THY SON SHALL REIGN AFTER ME, AND HE SHALL SIT UPON MY THRONE? WHY THEN DOTH ADONIJAH REIGN?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

11-31 Observe Nathan's address to Bathsheba. Let me give thee counsel how to save thy own life, and the life of thy son. Such as this is the counsel Christ's ministers give us in his name, to give all diligence, not only that no man take our crown, Revelation 3:11, but that we save our lives, even the lives of our souls. David made a solemn declaration of his firm cleaving to his former resolution, that Solomon should be his successor. Even the recollection of the distresses from which the Lord redeemed him, increased his comfort, inspired his hopes, and animated him to his duty, under the decays of nature and the approach of death....

EXPOSITION THE REVOLT OF ADONIJAH AND THE ACCESSION OF SOLOMON.—The first chapter of this book is occupied with the accession of Solomon and with the circumstances which preceded, marked, and followed that event. The author, or compiler, evidently considered that his work properly began with the reign of Israel's third king, and David's illness and death are only introduced into the narrative because they necessitated a hasty and premature coronation of Solomon, and exercised an important influence on the beginning of his reign (1 Kings 2:1). In the natural order of events, Solomon would not have succeeded until his father's death, but Adonijah's attempt to possess himself of the kingdom required the immediate elevation of Sol

AND NOW, BEHOLD, ADONIJAH REIGNETH,.... Has set up himself as king, and is by some saluted as such; but lest it should be thought by David that she suggested by this that he was guilty of the breach of his oath, or on any account to be blamed, she adds: AND NOW MY LORD, O KING, THOU KNOWEST [IT] NOT; which as it acquitted him from all blame, so it made the sin of Adonijah the more heinous, that he should do this without consulting his father about it; and was not only neglect of him as a father, and an act of disrespect and disobedience to him as such, but even of high treason, to assume the throne in his father's lifetime, without his consent....

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. DAVID'S LAST DAYS AND THE CROWNING OF SOLOMON 1. Adonijah's Exaltation to be King CHAPTER 1:1-27 _ 1. David's decrepitude (1 Kings 1:1)_ 2. Adonijah's self-exaltation (1 Kings 1:5) 3. The plot of Nathan and Bath-sheba (1 Kings 1:10) 4. Bath-sheba and Nathan before the king (1 Kings 1:15) David was about 70 years old and extremely feeble. The strenuous life he had led, the exposures and hardships of his youth, the cares and anxieties of his reign, and the chastenings through which he passed on account of his great sin, and much else were responsible for thi

LAST DAYS OF DAVID AND ACCESSION OF SOLOMON. This chapter with the following has many analogies with the court history of David (2 Samuel 11-20). The narrative bears every sign of an authentic account of actual events, told with complete impartiality, and without any attempt to comment favourably or otherwise on the events related. David is represented as a very aged man nursed by his youngest wife, Abishag the Shunammite (1 Kings 1:3). Her beauty is especially noticed as it may have caused the death of David's son, Adonijah. Shunem, her native place, was a slope overlooking the plain of Esdraelon near Jezreel, and she is the Shulammite in the Song of Songs (Ca. 1 Kings 6:13). The pivot around which all revolves is the succession. The chief claimant was Adonijah the son of Haggith ...

NOW.. special reading (Sevir, App-34), with three early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "thou". But the _Massorah_ (App-30) says the scribes were misled in reading _'attah_ (thou) instead of _'attah_ (now)....

_Adonijah reigneth_ i.e. Is being set up for king, and will be accepted, unless some word from David go forth to prevent it. With the commander-in-chief, and the highpriest Abiathar on his side Adonijah's following might well seem powerful. _and now, my lord the king, thou knowest_it _not_ The Hebrew words for _thou_אתה and _now_עתה vary only in one letter, and in sound are very much alike. Hence it has come to pass that in this verse and 1 Kings 1:20 there is a confusion; and here in some copies _thou_is put instead of _now:_-and thou, my lord … knowest it not....

B. BATHSHEBA'S IMPASSIONED PLEA 1:15-21 TRANSLATION (15) Then Bathsheba went unto the king to the chamber (now the king was very old and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering unto the king). (16) And Bathsheba bowed, and did homage unto the king. And the king said, What is your concern? (17) And she said to him, O my lord, you surely swore by the LORD your God to your handmaid, surely Solomon your son shall rule after me, and shall sit upon my throne! (18) But now, behold, Adonijah reigns; and now, my lord the king, you do not know it! (19) And he has slam oxen, fatlings and sheep in abundance, and he has summoned all the sons of the king, Abiathar the priest and Joab the captain of the host; but Solomon your servant he has not summoned. (20) And as for you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are upon you that you might declare to them who shall sit upon the throne of my lord the...

1:18 now, (b-8) Some read 'thou' for 'now.'...