1 Kings 1:2

_WHEREFORE HIS SERVANTS SAID UNTO HIM, LET THERE BE SOUGHT FOR MY LORD THE KING A YOUNG VIRGIN: AND LET HER STAND BEFORE THE KING, AND LET HER CHERISH HIM, AND LET HER LIE IN THY BOSOM, THAT MY LORD THE KING MAY GET HEAT._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-4 We have David sinking under infirmities. He was chastised for his recent sins, and felt the effects of his former toils and hardships....

Verse 1 Kings 1:2. _LET THERE BE SOUGHT - A YOUNG VIRGIN_] This was the best remedy which in his state could be prescribed. His nearly exhausted frame would infallibly absorb from her young and healthy body an additional portion of animal heat, and consequently trim and revive the flame of animal life. This is properly, as I have elsewhere expressed it, Friar Bacon's secret for the cure of old age....

Since the Jewish law allowed polygamy, David’s conduct in following - what has been said to have been - physician’s advice, was blameless....

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

WHEREFORE HIS SERVANTS SAID UNTO HIM,.... His physicians; so Joseph's physicians are called his servants, Genesis 50:2; LET THERE BE SOUGHT FOR MY LORD THE KING A YOUNG VIRGIN; not only a young woman, but a virgin, that has more natural heat than women that have bore children have, which is abated thereby: AND LET HER STAND BEFORE THE KING: minister to him, serve him with whatsoever he should want to eat or drink; and so by being in his presence, and taking things at her hand, she might be the more ingratiated into his affections: AND LET HER CHERISH HIM; as the husband the wife, so she her husband, as doubtless David was; and that by giving him cordials to cheer his spirits, and everything that was convenient for him, and particularly by lying with him. Kimchi interprets the word of her being profitable to him, in which sense the wor

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 ...

SERVANTS: i.e. his advisers, probably medical. VIRGIN. damsel. Hebrew. _bethulah_....

_his servants_ The word, though primarily applied to those who were occupied in servile work, had come by this time to be used regularly of those who were about a royal person, and in such a position as to venture on giving him counsel. Josephus (_Ant._vii. 15.3) says they were the king's physicians. (Cf. Genesis 1:2.) _Let there be sought_ Literally -Let them seek." This kind of variation is frequent in the A.V. for the sake of the English; as also the personal form of a sentence, put where the Hebrew verb is impersonal. Thus the last clause in 1 Kings 1:1 is literally -and it grew not warm to him." As such literal renderings are very often noticed on the margin, no special mention will hereafter be made of them. _a young virgin_ This device, whereby it was thought to communicate vital heat