1 Kings 2:18

And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:12-25 Solomon received Bathsheba with all the respect that was owing to a mother; but let none be asked for that which they ought not to grant. It ill becomes a good man to prefer a bad request, or to appear in a bad cause. According to eastern customs it was plain that Adonijah sought to be king, by his asking for Abishag as his wife, and Solomon could not be safe while he lived. Ambitious, turbulent spirits commonly prepare death for themselves. Many a head has been lost by catching at a crown.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Deny me not - literally, as in the margin, i. e. "make me not to hide my face through shame at being refused."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13-18. Adonijah … came to Bath-sheba—Her question to him betrays an apprehension which his recent conduct might well warrant; but his pious acknowledgment of the divine will seemed apparently to indicate so entire an acquiescence in the settlement of the succession [1Ki 2:15], that, in her womanly simplicity, she perceived not the deep cunning and evil design that was concealed under his request and readily undertook to promote his wishes.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Bathsheba said, well,.... Very well spoken, the thing is good and right:

I will speak for thee unto the king; and use her interest with him, not seeing into his design, but pitying an unfortunate man.

Geneva Study Bible

And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. I will speak for thee] Bath-sheba does not seem to have suspected Adonijah’s design, and this simplicity of hers he perhaps hoped to trade upon, and thought that his petition, coming to Solomon through her, might appear less dangerous. That she should consent to ask the king was not unnatural. ‘The damsel was very fair’ (1 Kings 1:4) and Adonijah ‘a very goodly man’ (1 Kings 1:6), and such a marriage might appear to her not unfitting.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - And Bathsheba said, Well [there is no reason why the strict rendering "good," should not be preserved here. The A.V. follows the LXX. καλῶς. Similarly Luther, wohl; but Bahr, gut], I will speak for thee [LXX. περὶ σοῦ] unto the king. 1 Kings 2:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Adonijah forfeits his life. - 1 Kings 2:13-18. Adonijah came to Bathsheba with the request that she would apply to king Solomon to give him Abishag of Shunem as his wife. Bathsheba asked him, "Is peace thy coming?" i.e., comest thou with a peaceable intention? (as in 1 Samuel 16:4), because after what had occurred (1 Kings 1:5.) she suspected an evil intention. He introduced his petition with these words: "Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had set its face upon me that I should be king, then the kingdom turned about and became my brother's; for it became his from the Lord." The throne was his, not because he had usurped it, but because it belonged to him as the eldest son at that time, according to the right of primogeniture. Moreover it might have been the case that many of the people wished him to be king, and the fact that he had found adherents in Joab, Abiathar, and others, confirms this; but his assertion, that all Israel had set its eyes upon him as the future king, went beyond the bounds of truth. At the same time, he knew how to cover over the dangerous sentiment implied in his words in a very skilful manner by adding the further remark, that the transfer of the kingdom to his brother had come from Jehovah; so that Bathsheba did not detect the artifice, and promised to fulfil his request (1 Kings 2:16.) to intercede with king Solomon for Abishag to be given him to wife. את־פּני אל־תּשׁבי, "do not turn back my face," i.e., do not refuse my request.