| Geneva Study Bible Now king David was {a} old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no {b} heat. The Argument - Because the children of God should expect no continual rest and quietness in this world, the Holy Spirit sets before our eyes in this book the variety and change of things, which came to the people of Israel from the death of David, Solomon, and the rest of the kings, to the death of Ahab. Declaring that flourishing kingdoms, unless they are preserved by God's protection, (who then favours them when his word is truly set forth, virtue esteemed, vice punished, and concord maintained) fall to decay and come to nothing as appears by the dividing of the kingdom under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, who were one people before and now by the just punishment of God were made two. Judah and Benjamin were under Rehoboam, and this was called the kingdom of Judah. The other ten tribes held with Jeroboam, and this was called the kingdom of Israel. The king of Judah had his throne in Jerusalem, and the king of Israel in Samaria, after it was built by Omri Ahab's father. Because our Saviour Christ according to the flesh, comes from the stock of David, the genealogy of the kings of Judah is here described, from Solomon to Joram the son of Jehoshaphat, who reigned over Judah in Jerusalem as Ahab did over Israel in Samaria. (a) He was about 70 years old, 2Sa 5:4. (b) For his natural heat was worn away with travels. Wesley's Notes 1:1 Old - Being in the end of his seventieth year. No heat - Which is not strange in a person who had been exercised with so many hardships in war, and with such tormenting cares, and fears, and sorrows, for his own sins (as divers of his Psalms witness) and for the sins and miseries of his children and people. Besides, this might be from the nature of his bodily distemper. King James Translators' Notes stricken...: Heb. entered into days Scofield Reference Notes SCOFIELD REFERENCE NOTES (Old Scofield 1917 Edition) Book Introduction The First Book of The Kings commonly called The Third Book of the Kings First Kings records the death of David, the reign of Solomon, the building of the temple, death of Solomon, division of the kingdom under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and the history of the two kingdoms to the reign of Jehoram over Judah, and Ahaziah over Samaria. Includes the mighty ministry of Elijah. The book is in seven parts: I. From the rebellion of Adonijah to the death of David, 1.1-2.11. II. From the accession of Solomon to the dedication of the temple, 2.12-8.66. III. From the division of the kingdom to the death of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, 12.1-14.31. V. The kingdoms to the accession of Ahab, 15.1-16.28. VI. Accession of Ahab to his death, 16.29-22.40. VII. From the reign of Jehoshaphat to the accession of Jehoram over Judah, and Ahaziah over Samaria, 22.41-53. The events recorded in First Kings cover a period of 118 years (Ussher). Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary THE FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS, COMMONLY CALLED THE THIRD BOOK OF THE KINGS. Commentary by Robert Jamieson CHAPTER 1 1Ki 1:1-4. Abishag Cherishes David in His Extreme Age. 1, 2. Now king David was old-He was in the seventieth year of his age (2Sa 5:4, 5). But the wear and tear of a military life, bodily fatigue, and mental care, had prematurely, if we may say it, exhausted the energies of David's strong constitution (1Sa 16:12). In modern Palestine and Egypt the people, owing to the heat of the climate, sleep each in a "separate" bed. They only depart from this practice for medical reasons (Ec 4:11). The expedient recommended by David's physicians is the regimen still prescribed in similar cases in the East, particularly among the Arab population, not simply to give heat, but "to cherish," as they are aware that the inhalation of young breath will give new life and vigor to the worn-out frame. The fact of the health of the young and healthier person being, as it were, stolen to support that of the more aged and sickly is well established among the medical faculty. And hence the prescription for the aged king was made in a hygienic point of view for the prolongation of his valuable life, and not merely for the comfort to be derived from the natural warmth imparted to his withered frame [Porter, Tent and Khan]. The polygamy of the age and country may account for the introduction of this practice; and it is evident that Abishag was made a concubine or secondary wife to David (see on [282]1Ki 2:22). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 1:1-4 We have David sinking under infirmities. He was chastised for his recent sins, and felt the effects of his former toils and hardships. | 
