She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”
Parallel Translations
-
She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”
-
And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.
-
And she said: 'Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.'
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to 1 Kings 2:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Samuel 16:21-22 Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.” So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
- 1 Kings 1:3 So they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (4 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ki 2:21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite…
1Ki 2:21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.
Ver. 21. Let Abishag … be given to Adonijah to wife.] Overcome by Adonijah’s fair words and her own melting thoughts of compassion towards him, Bathsheba, not considering the consequents, proposeth the suit, and presseth it by the relation that was betwixt Solomon and Adonijah his brother. But was not David Adonijah’s father also? and will none serve his turn but his father’s concubine was not this to attempt against natural honesty and common decency? What if Abishag were καλη και σοφη - as Aelian saith Aspasia Milesia, Cyrus’s concubine, was - both fair and discreet, which is a rare mixture, yet she was not so fit for Adonijah; but he had a further fetch in this incestuous desire of his.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thy brother, by the father’s side, whom brotherly affection…
Thy brother, by the father’s side, whom brotherly affection and relation obligeth thee to gratify, at least, in small things.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And she said, let Abishag the Shunammite be given…
And she said, let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. For so Adonijah was by his father's side; and Bathsheba makes use of the relation, the more to move upon him to grant the request.
And she said, let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. For so Adonijah was by his father's side; and Bathsheba makes use of the relation, the more to move upon him to grant the request.
Read full note →
1 Kings 2:22
kg1 2:22
kg1 2:22
kg1 2:22And King Solomon answered and said unto his mother,.... With as much gentleness and mildness as he could, but inwardly fired at her request, and amazed at it, and could not forbear using some degree of tartness and resentment:
and why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? is this a small petition? is this a fit and lawful one?
ask for him the kingdom also; for this is what he means by it, that by marrying the king's widow he may step into the throne whenever any opportunity offers, as any uneasiness, or insurrection in the kingdom, or the death of Solomon; for none but a king, the Jews say (b), might marry a king's widow, not any private man; and therefore for Adonijah to ask this was interpreted affecting the kingdom, and aspiring to it, and taking his measures to obtain it; yea, it is said (c), that none but another king, the successor, might make use of his servants, handmaids, and ministers; and it is observed, that Abishag was free to Solomon, but not to Adonijah:
for he is mine elder brother; and has that to plead in his favour, and if he could obtain this, it would strengthen his title, or at least be a plausible pretence, which he might make use of, when opportunity served, to gain the people to his interest:
even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah; she might as well ask for them as for him; whose interest it was, and therefore desirous it might be that he should be king, that so the one might be continued in the office of high priest, and the other as general of the army; who, Solomon knew, bore him no good will, but were secretly his enemies; and he suspected that this was a scheme of theirs, and that it was by their advice Adonijah made this request; so the Targum,
"are not he, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the son of Zeruiah, in the counsel?''
in this counsel; it is what they had consulted among themselves as a preparation to bring about a design they are contriving; probably Solomon had private notice that they were plotting against him, and this confirmed him in the truth of it; and therefore all of them were upon this punished with deprivation of office, or loss of life.
(b) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 2. (c) Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given…
And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. For the construction (tae with a nominative, or, as some think, T"yu used impersonallyman gebe), cf. Gen_27:42; Exo_10:8; and especially Num_32:5; and see Gesen., Lex. s.v. tae, and Ewald, Syntax, 295 b.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.