Today's Favorite Verse: 1 Kings 2:15, 21-23

Today's Favorite Verse: 1 Kings 2:15, 21-23

"And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother’s: for it was his from the LORD.

And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.

And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.

Then king Solomon sware by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life."

David has died and Solomon is king. His brother Adonijah goes to Solomon's mother Bath-sheba with a request. At first I couldn't understand how Adonijah asking for Abishag the Shunammite to wife would cause Solomon to react so strongly and have him killed. Then I remembered how Absalom had tried to take the kingdom from David and took his father's concubines that had been left to keep the house. Abishag was one of David's last concubines that comforted him in his old age. Adonijah wanted to show he was the rightful successor of his father by being given one of David's concubines.

I then found this information that explains it in better detail.

“Amongst Eastern nations the wives and concubines of a deceased or dethroned king were taken by his successor [see 2 Samuel 12:8; 16:21–22]; and so Adonijah’s request for Abishag was regarded as tantamount to a claim on the throne” (Dummelow, Commentary, p. 212).

Solomon knew and understood this law, as 1 Kings 2:22 makes clear. At first it may seem puzzling that Bath-sheba would take Adonijah’s request to Solomon since she almost certainly knew and understood this law. Perhaps she, knowing how Solomon would react, recognized an opportunity to rid Solomon of the threat that Adonijah continued to be to the throne of Israel. Solomon did react quickly, for this was the second time Adonijah had attempted to take the throne by subtlety.

Solomon meant that Adonijah’s request was either treason or a plan to commit treason and was therefore worthy of death. (Note 1 Kings 2:15, which records that Adonijah knew that the Lord had given the throne to Solomon.)

(Old Testament Student Manual Kings-Malachi, 1 Kings 1-11: Man of Wisdom, Man of Foolishness, [1-9])

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