(11) Wherefore Nathan.--The initiative taken by Nathan is especially natural, since he had been the medium both of the prophecy to David of the son who should build the Lord's house (2 Samuel 7:12-15), and also of the blessing on Solomon, embodied in the name Jedidiah ("beloved of Jehovah," 2 Samuel 12:25). Perhaps for this very reason the conspirators had altogether held aloof from him.
Verse 11. - Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon [the person after Solomon most directly concerned and also best fitted to approach the king] saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith [possibly there is a touch of worldly wisdom here, as Rawlinson suggests, "Haggith, thy rival." We may be sure David's harem was not without its fierce jealousies. But (see ver. 5, and 1 Kings 2:13) the patronymic is so common in Hebrews that we cannot safely found an argument upon it. See on chap. 2:5] doth reign [Hebrews did reign. LXX. ἐβασίλευσαεν, aor. = "succeeded." "Schon so gut wie Konig geworden ist." Bahr and Keil] and David our Lord knoweth it not.
1:11-31 Observe Nathan's address to Bathsheba. Let me give thee counsel how to save thy own life, and the life of thy son. Such as this is the counsel Christ's ministers give us in his name, to give all diligence, not only that no man take our crown, Re 3:11, but that we save our lives, even the lives of our souls. David made a solemn declaration of his firm cleaving to his former resolution, that Solomon should be his successor. Even the recollection of the distresses from which the Lord redeemed him, increased his comfort, inspired his hopes, and animated him to his duty, under the decays of nature and the approach of death.
Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon,.... Who not only had an interest in the king, being his wife, and an easy access to him, but had a special concern in this affair, as it affected her son, to whom the succession of the kingdom was designed and promised:
saying, hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign? has usurped the throne, and is proclaimed king by a party, who at least have drank his health as such; has taken the title, and is about to exercise the power of a king; this Bathsheba might not have heard of, and which he expresses in this manner to quicken her to make an immediate application to the king:
and David our Lord knoweth it not; being so infirm, and in his bed, and nobody about him to inform him of it; it was done without his knowledge, and far from being with his consent and approbation.
saying, hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign? has usurped the throne, and is proclaimed king by a party, who at least have drank his health as such; has taken the title, and is about to exercise the power of a king; this Bathsheba might not have heard of, and which he expresses in this manner to quicken her to make an immediate application to the king:
and David our Lord knoweth it not; being so infirm, and in his bed, and nobody about him to inform him of it; it was done without his knowledge, and far from being with his consent and approbation.