What is going on with David and Abishag?
Smokey expressed perplexion today over this passage:
And king David was old, entering into days, and they covered him with garments, and he had no heat, 2 and his servants said to him, “Let them seek for my lord the king a youngster, a virgin, and let her stand before the king, and be unto him a steward, and lie in thy bosom, and my lord the king shall have heat.” 3 And they sought a beautiful youngster in all the border of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her in to the king, 4 and the young woman was really very beautiful, and she was to the king a companion, and served him, and the king knew her not. (1 Kings 1:1–4)
What is going on here? A few rough thoughts that move toward an answer…
The story of Abishag really revolves around Adoniyah, rather than David. It introduces Adoniyah’s attempted coup in chapter 1, and when this fails, Adoniyah apparently thinks he can play a longer game, starting by asking for Abishag as his wife in chapter 2. Solomon interprets this as a move to take the kingdom, akin to asking for his military commander or high priest — “ask the kingdom also” (vv. 22–23).
Solomon’s response to Adoniyah’s request only makes sense if Abishag is actually (at least optically) David’s youngest wife or concubine; to take one’s father’s woman is a means of usurpation repeatedly employed by wicked sons in scripture: Ham, Reuben, Absalom, and here Adoniyah.
Since this story revolves around Adoniyah’s insurrection, the purpose of telling us that David knew Abishag not, seems to be therefore to emphasize his impotence, rather than his virtue. In fact, what this passage is showing is — at least in part — is David receiving back the treatment he gave to Uriah the Hittite.
To see this, consider first that Abishag “lies in David’s bosom” — the same expression used by Nathan of Bath-sheba in relation to Uriah, in his analogy of the poor man with the ewe-lamb:
And it grew up with him, and with his sons together; of his morsel it ate, and from his cup it drank, and in his bosom it lay, and it was to him as a daughter. (2 Sam 12:3)
In verse 8, the phrase is repeated, as Uriah’s one wife is compared with all of Saul’s wives, who God “gave into David’s bosom” (again, showing the significance of taking possession of a patriarch’s women in order to replace him).
To see the connection between Bath-sheba and Abishag, it is helpful to know that, by James Jordan’s calculations, Bath-sheba was only 19 or 20 when David took her from her husband — while he was 49 or 50. Hence, while not a virgin like Abishag, Bath-sheba was certainly a “youngster.” And, like Abishag, she was very beautiful (1 Sam 11:2).
A further connection is made — and through it to Adoniyah again — by the mention of David’s bed. The reason that David sees Bath-sheba in the first place is because he is lazing about on his bed, instead of going to war (2 Sam 11:1). And when he sees her, which instigates an existential threat to the kingdom, it is on account of rising from his bed:
and it came to be, at evening time, that David arose from off his bed, and walked up and down on the roof of the king’s house, and saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was of very good appearance. (2 Sam 11:2)
By contrast, in the passage describing Abishag, we see David bowing himself on his bed (1 Ki 1:47); and of course we read that Abishag lies in his bosom. So there is an ironic reversal going on: in 2 Samuel 11, at the height of his strength and potency, David is on his bed illegitimately. He arises from it to use that strength and potency, not to war against his enemies, but to war against one of his chief warriors by stealing his young wife back to that bed. But in 1 Kings 1, at the height of his weakness and impotency, David is on his bed legitimately. He is unable to rise from it — and though they bring a young woman right to his bed, he is still unable to take her. Again, I don’t think the text is lionizing him when it notes that he knew her not; it is rather noting the shameful end to which he has been brought in fitting parallel to how he misused his bed before.
Yet whereas David’s taking Bath-sheba to bed created an existential threat to the kingdom before, now, his inability to take Abishag to bed creates another existential threat. Adoniyah is ready to take the kingdom from him.
Threats to kings and kingship and kingdoms are frequently associated with beds. In the kingdom era, the bed is connected with kings and death in various ways, almost exclusively (i.e., there are very few mentions of beds where this pattern does not appear):
King Saul tries to assassinate his rival, David, in bed — and is thwarted by Michal replacing him with an idol (1 Sam 19:13–15).
Later, after the dead Samuel “ascends” from the earth to deliver his oracle of Saul’s death, Saul himself “arises” from the earth to “dwell” on a bed and eat (1 Sam 28:23).
Ish-bosheth, the son of a king, is assassinated in bed (2 Sam 4:7), as Joash later is also (2 Chr 24:25).
King David “arises” from his bed to see Bath-sheba bathing, leading to a whole story of death: Uriah’s and the baby’s (another son of a king) — plus of course symbolically David’s, since he deserves to die for his sin, and must have his kingship resurrected.
Uriah himself goes to lie on his bed, rather than going to his house — thus thwarting David’s initial plan, and leading to his murder (2 Sam 11:13).
Later, Amnon, the son of a king, feigns illness in bed to trap and rape Tamar.
King Ahab lies on his bed and turns away his face after being rebuffed by Naboth, which leads to Jezebel’s plot and Naboth’s murder.
King Ahaziah goes up onto his bed to die (2 Ki 1:16); and we see the same pattern with King Hezekiah; although a bed is not explicitly mentioned, he combines Ahaziah and Ahab, in that after learning he will die, he “turns his face to the wall” (Isa 38:2).
Finally, King Asa is laid on a bed of spices in his tomb (2 Chr 16:14).
There are, however, also two intriguing non-kingly connections (as far as I can tell) that seem to reverse the pattern of death: the two widows who receive their sons back from the dead.
The bed here is still associated with the grave, but in these cases, the grave is defeated. The widow of Zarephath’s son is laid on Elijah’s bed, and resurrected (1 Ki 17:19) — notably, after Elijah takes him “out of her bosom.” Similarly, the Shunammite woman lays her dead son on Elisha’s bed, where he is resurrected (2 Ki 4:21, 32). When we combine these two accounts, there is a striking resonance with Abishag, the Shunammite virgin, who keeps David warm by lying in his bosom. Is there some kind of symbolic reversal or inversion between the two passages that would shed light on the meaning of 1 Kings 1:1–4…or 1 Kings 1:1–4 on them?
Perhaps. The Shunammite’s son is clearly a type of Isaac. He is promised in the same way that Isaac is promised to Sarah, and he dies and is received back from the dead just like Isaac symbolically is (cf. Heb 11:19). In the same way, David’s kingdom dies and is resurrected in connection to both Bath-sheba and Abishag — through his own son of promise. Solomon is born through Bath-sheba, and crowned in connection with Abishag.
Perhaps someone with sharper eyes or better perspective can fill out the connections here for me.
There is also something, I think, in Leithart’s idea that David is reverting to a “pre-Eve” state. He is cold like the earth (adamah), and his servants seek to “fire him up” with a woman — the Hebrew ish (man), and issah (woman) are related to the word fire (esh). This does fit with the emphasis on her beauty: I have translated it as, “really very beautiful,” but the Hebrew suggests something that dynamically could be taken as, “she was beautiful to the max.”
If we combine these various threads, the pattern that emerges points to something like David descending into the cold grave of his bed. This bodes ill, for as the king goes, so goes his kingdom: the story that follows is a story of Israel nearly falling into the chill hand of Adoniyah, and thus death. David’s servants seek to solve the problem by bringing him the hottest woman they can find, hoping to restore him to a kind of Adamic glory. But David’s kingdom is reborn through Solomon instead, who becomes the new Adam (1 Ki 4:33).