📖WEB · 1 Kings 2:20
What does 1 Kings 2:20 mean?
"Then she said, “I ask one small petition of you; don’t deny me.” The king said to her, “Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny you.”"
— 1 Kings 2:20 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
He said, “Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you ‘no’), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”
Bathsheba said, “Alright. I will speak for you to the king.”
Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand.
Then she said, “I ask one small petition of you; don’t deny me.” The king said to her, “Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny you.”
She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”
King Solomon answered his mother, “Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.”
Then king Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, “God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.
Explanation
This verse captures a brief but loaded exchange between Bathsheba, the queen mother, and her son Solomon, who has just become king of Israel. In plain terms, Bathsheba approaches Solomon with what she calls a "small petition," asking him to promise in advance not to refuse her before she even states what it is. Solomon, addressing her respectfully as "my mother," grants her request sight unseen, promising he will not deny her.
The context is critical to understanding the weight of this moment. David has just died, and Solomon has consolidated his rule after his half-brother Adonijah's attempted seizure of the throne (1 Kings 1). Adonijah, though pardoned by Solomon for his earlier rebellion, now sends Bathsheba to ask Solomon on his behalf that he be given Abishag the Shunammite, the young woman who had attended the aging David, as his wife (2:17). In the ancient Near East, taking a former king's concubine or attendant carried strong political implications — it could be seen as a claim to the throne itself, since royal harems were symbolically tied to kingship (compare Absalom's actions in 2 Samuel 16:22,
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