1 Kings 1

1 Kings 1:1-4 . ABISHAG CHERISHES DAVID IN HIS EXTREME AGE.

1, 2. Now king David was old--He was in the seventieth year of his age ( 2 Samuel 5:4 2 Samuel 5:5 ). But the wear and tear of a military life, bodily fatigue, and mental care, had prematurely, if we may say it, exhausted the energies of David's strong constitution ( 1 Samuel 16:12 ). In modern Palestine and Egypt the people, owing to the heat of the climate, sleep each in a "separate" bed. They only depart from this practice for medical reasons ( Ecclesiastes 4:11 ). The expedient recommended by David's physicians is the regimen still prescribed in similar cases in the East, particularly among the Arab population, not simply to give heat, but "to cherish," as they are aware that the inhalation of young breath will give new life and vigor to the worn-out frame. The fact of the health of the young and healthier person being, as it were, stolen to support that of the more aged and sickly is well established among the medical faculty. And hence the prescription for the aged king was made in a hygienic point of view for the prolongation of his valuable life, and not merely for the comfort to be derived from the natural warmth imparted to his withered frame [PORTER, Tent and Khan]. The polygamy of the age and country may account for the introduction of this practice; and it is evident that Abishag was made a concubine or secondary wife to David

3. a Shunammite--Shunem, in the tribe of Issachar ( Joshua 19:18 ), lay on an eminence in the plain of Esdraelon, five miles south of Tabor. It is now called Sulam.

1 Kings 1:5-31 . ADONIJAH USURPS THE KINGDOM.

5, 6. Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself--Nothing is said as to the origin or rank of Haggith, so that it is probable she was not distinguished by family descent. Adonijah, though David's fourth son ( 2 Samuel 3:4 , 1 Chronicles 3:2 ), was now the oldest alive; and his personal attractions and manners ( 1 Samuel 9:2 ) not only recommended him to the leading men about court, but made him the favorite of his father, who, though seeing him assume an equipage becoming only the heir-presumptive to the throne ( 2 Samuel 15:1 ), said nothing; and his silence was considered by many, as well as by Adonijah, to be equivalent to an expression of consent. The sinking health of the king prompted him to take a decisive step in furtherance of his ambitious designs.

7. he conferred with Joab--The anxiety of Adonijah to secure the influence of a leader so bold, enterprising, and popular with the army was natural, and the accession of the hoary commander is easily accounted for from his recent grudge at the king
and with Abiathar the priest--His influence was as great over the priests and Levites--a powerful body in the kingdom--as that of Joab over the troops. It might be that both of them thought the crown belonged to Adonijah by right of primogeniture, from his mature age and the general expectations of the people ( 1 Kings 2:15 ).