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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Kings 1:5 - 1:5
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Adonijah seized the opportunity of David's decrepitude to make himself king. Although he was David's fourth son (2Sa 3:4), yet after the death of Ammon and Absalom he was probably the eldest, as Chileab, David's second son, had most likely died when a child, since he is never mentioned again. Adonijah therefore thought that he had a claim to the throne (cf. 1Ki 2:15), and wanted to secure it before his father's death. But in Israel, Jehovah, the God-King of His people, had reserved to Himself the choice of the earthly king (Deu 17:15), and this right He exercised not only in the case of Saul and David, but in that of Solomon also. When He gave to David the promise that his seed should rule for ever (2Sa 7:12-16), He did not ensure the establishment of the throne to any one of his existing sons, but to him that would come out of his loins (i.e., to Solomon, who was not yet born); and after his birth He designated him through the prophet Nathan as the beloved of Jehovah (2Sa 12:24-25). David discerned from this that the Lord had chosen Solomon to be his successor, and he gave to Bathsheba a promise on oath that Solomon should sit upon the throne (1Ki 1:13 and 1Ki 1:30). This promise was also acknowledged in the presence of Nathan (1Ki 1:11.), and certainly came to Adonijah's ears. Adonijah said, “I will be king,” and procured chariots and horsemen and fifty runners, as Absalom had done before (2Sa 15:1). רֶכֶב, in a collective sense, does not mean fighting or war chariots, but state carriages, like מֶרְכָּבָה in 2Sa 15:1; and פָּרָשִׁים are neither riding nor carriage horses, but riders to form an escort whenever he drove out.
1Ki 1:6
“And (= for) his father had never troubled him in his life (מִיָּמָיו, a diebus ejus, i.e., his whole life long), saying, “Why hast thou done this?” Such weak oversight on the part of his father encouraged him to make the present attempt. Moreover, he “was very beautiful,” like Absalom (see at 2Sa 14:25), and born after Absalom, so that after his death he appeared to have the nearest claim to the throne. The subject to יָֽלְדָה is left indefinite, because it is implied in the idea of the verb itself: “she bare,” i.e., his mother, as in Num 26:59 (vid., Ewald, §294, b.). There was no reason for mentioning the mother expressly by name, as there was nothing depending upon the name here, and it had already been given in Num 26:5.
1Ki 1:7
He conferred (for the expression, compare 2Sa 3:17) with Joab and Abiathar the priest, who supported him. אַהֲרֵי עָזַר, to lend a helping hand to a person, i.e., to support him by either actually joining him or taking his part. Joab joined the pretender, because he had fallen out with David for a considerable time (cf. 1Ki 2:5-6), and hoped to secure his influence with the new king if he helped him to obtain possession of the throne. But what induced Abiathar the high priest (see at 2Sa 8:17) to join in conspiracy with Adonijah, we do not know. Possibly jealousy of Zadok, and the fear that under Solomon he might be thrown still more into the shade. For although Zadok was only high priest at the tabernacle at Gibeon, he appears to have taken the lead; as we may infer from the fact that he is always mentioned before Abiathar (cf. 2Sa 8:17; 2Sa 20:25, and 2Sa 15:24.). For we cannot imagine that Joab and Abiathar had supported Adonijah as having right on his side (Thenius), for the simple reason that Joab did not trouble himself about right, and for his own part shrank from no crime, when he thought that he had lost favour with the king.
1Ki 1:8
If Adonijah had powerful supporters in Joab the commander-in-chief and the high priest Abiathar, the rest of the leading officers of state, viz., Zadok the high priest (see at 2Sa 8:17), Benaiah, captain of the king's body-guard (see at 2Sa 8:18 and 2Sa 23:20-21), the prophet Nathan, Shimei (probably the son of Elah mentioned in 1Ki 4:18), and Rei (unknown), and the Gibborim of David (see at 2Sa 23:8.), were not with him.
1Ki 1:9-10
Adonijah commenced his usurpation, like Absalom (2Sa 15:2), with a solemn sacrificial meal, at which he was proclaimed king, “at the stone of Zocheleth by the side of the fountain of Rogel,” i.e., the spy's fountain, or, according to the Chaldee and Syriac, the fuller's fountain, the present fountain of Job or Nehemiah, below the junction of the valley of Hinnom with the valley of Jehoshaphat (see at 2Sa 7:17 and Jos 15:7). E. G. Schultz (Jerusalem, eine Vorlesung, p. 79) supposes the stone or rock of Zocheleth to be “the steep, rocky corner of the southern slope of the valley of Hinnom, which casts so deep a shade.” “The neighbourhood (Wady el Rubâb) is still a place of recreation for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” To this festal meal Adonijah invited all his brethren except Solomon, and “all the men of Judah, the king's servants,” i.e., all the Judaeans who were in the king's service, i.e., were serving at court as being members of his own tribe, with the exception of Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, and the Gibborim. The fact that Solomon and the others mentioned were not included in the invitation, showed very clearly that Adonijah was informed of Solomon's election as successor to the throne, and was also aware of the feelings of Nathan and Benaiah.