Page:02.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.A.vol.2.EarlyProphets.djvu/1089

 to fulfil his request (1Ki 2:16.) to intercede with king Solomon for Abishag to be given him to wife. את־פּני אל־תּשׁבי, “do not turn back my face,” i.e., do not refuse my request.

Verse 19
When Bathsheba came to Solomon, he received her with the reverence due to the queen-mother: “he rose up to meet her” (a pregnant expression for “he rose up and went to meet her”), made a low bow, then sat upon his throne again, and bade her sit upon a throne at his right hand. The seat at the right hand of the king was the place of honour among the Israelites (cf. Psa 110:1), also with the ancient Arabian kings (cf. Eichhorn, Monumenta Antiq. Hist. Arab. p. 220), as well as among the Greeks and Romans.

Verses 20-22
To her request, “Let Abishag of Shunem be given to Adonijah thy brother for a wife” (את יתּן, cf. Ges. §§143, 1, a.), which she regarded in her womanly simplicity as a very small one (קטנּה), he replied with indignation, detecting at once the intrigues of Adonijah: “And why dost thou ask Abishag of Shunem for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom, for he is my elder brother; and indeed for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.” The repetition of לו in ולו (1Ki 2:22), for the purpose of linking on another clause, answers entirely to the emotional character of the words. “For him, and for Abiathar and Joab:” Solomon said this, because these two men of high rank had supported Adonijah's rebellion and wished to rule under his name. There is no ground for any such alterations of the text as Thenius proposes. - Although Abishag had been only David's nurse, in the eyes of the people she passed as his concubine; and among the Israelites, just as with the ancient Persians (Herod. iii. 68), taking possession of the harem of a deceased king was equivalent to an establishment of the claim to the throne (see at 2Sa 12:8 and 2Sa 3:7-8). According to 2Sa 16:21, this cannot have been unknown even to Bathsheba; but as Adonijah's wily words had disarmed all suspicion, she may not have thought of this, or may perhaps have thought that Abishag was not to be reckoned as one of David's concubines, because David had not known her (1Ki 1:4).

Verses 23-24
Solomon thereupon solemnly swore (the formula of an oath, and the כּי introducing the oath, as in 1Sa 14:44, etc.), “Adonijah has spoken this word against his own life.” בּנפשׁו, at the cost of his life, as in 2Sa 23:17, i.e., at the hazard of his life, or to his destruction. 2Sa 23:24. “And now, as truly as Jehovah liveth, who hath established me