1 Kings 1:47, commentary and pictures

The verse stands in the opening of 1 Kings in the last days of David, recording the transition from David's reign to Solomon's within the history of the undivided kingdom, when Solomon was called to the throne and entered upon his reign. At that time David was old but still reigning, and Solomon was publicly proclaimed king. The setting was the unholy ambition and rebellion of Adonijah, another son of David, who sought to take advantage of David's old age to seize the throne, but whose attempt failed and whose ambitions were checked.

Nathan the prophet, knowing the Lord's will and the king's mind, interfered with Adonijah's plan and helped secure the succession so that Solomon was crowned king. In this affair Joab failed in loyalty to his king. The verse shows David's servants coming to bless him, asking God to make Solomon's name better than David's name and his throne greater than David's throne, while David bowed himself upon the bed.

After Solomon's crowning, Adonijah was ultimately overthrown and killed, and Joab was slain, while Shimei, who had cursed David, was also put to death for failing to abide by his conditions of life. Adonijah's rebellion and death continued the troubles and retribution that followed David through all the rest of his life for his sin and wicked conduct toward Uriah. That retribution fell principally in his own family together with the sad history of Amnon and Tamar and the rebellion and unnatural crimes of Absalom, showing that wrongdoing brings calamity and sorrow back upon the wrongdoer in the same kind and that sin pays only in its own kind.