I Kings 1:5

Adonijah seized the opportunity of David's decrepitude to make himself king. Although he was David's fourth son (Sa2 3:4), yet after the death of Ammon and Absalom he was probably the eldest, as Chileab, David's second son, had most likely died when a child, since he is never mentioned again. Adonijah therefore thought that he had a claim to the throne (cf. Kg1 2:15), and wanted to secure it before his father's death. But in Israel, Jehovah, the God-King of His people, had reserved to Himself the choice of the earthly king (Deu 17:15), and this right He exercised not only in the case of Saul and David, but in that of Solomon also. When He gave to David the promise that his seed should rule for ever (Sa2 7:12-16), He did not ensure the establishment of the throne to any one of his existing sons, but to him that would come out of his loins (i.e., to Solomon, who was not yet born); and after his birth He designated him through the prophet Nathan as the beloved of Jehovah (Sa2 12:24-25). David discerned from this that the Lord had chosen Solomon to be his successor, and he gave to Bathsheba a promise on oath that Solomon should sit upon the throne (Kg1 1:13 and Kg1 1:30). This promise was also acknowledged in the presence of Nathan (Kg1 1:11.), and certainly came to Adonijah's ears. Adonijah said, "I will be king," and procured chariots and horsemen and fifty runners, as Absalom had done before (Sa2 15:1). רכב, in a collective sense, does not mean fighting or war chariots, but state carriages, like מרכּבה in Sa2 15:1; and פּרשׁים are neither riding nor carriage horses, but riders to form an escort whenever he drove out. Kg1 1:6 "And (= for) his father had never troubled him in his life (מיּמיו, a diebus ejus, i.e., his whole life long), saying, "Why hast thou done this?" Su…

David had much affliction in his children. Amnon and Absalom had both been his grief; the one his first-born, the other his third, Sa2 3:2, Sa2 3:3. His second, whom he had by Abigail, we will suppose he had comfort in; his fourth was Adonijah (Sa2 3:4); he was one of those that were born in Hebron; we have heard nothing of him till now, and here we are told that he was a comely person, and that he was next in age, and (as it proved) next in temper to Absalom, Kg1 1:6. And, further, that in his father's eyes he had been a jewel, but was now a thorn. I. His father had made a fondling of him, Kg1 1:6. He had not displeased him at any time. It is not said that he never displeased his father; it is probably that he had done so frequently, and his father was secretly troubled at his misconduct and lamented it before God. But his father had not displeased him, by crossing him in his humours, denying him any thing he had a mind to, or by calling him to an account as to what he had done and where he had been, or by keeping him to his book or his business, or reproving him for what he saw or heard of that he did amiss; he never said to him, Why hast thou done so? because he saw it was uneasy to him, and he could not bear it without fretting. It was the son's fault that he was displeased at reproof and took it for affront, whereby he lost the benefit of it; and it was the father's fault that, because he saw it displeased him, he did not reprove him; and now he justly smarted for indulging him. Those who honour their sons more than God, as those do who keep them not under good discipline, thereby forfeit the honour they might expect from their sons. II. He, in return, made a fool of his father. Because he was old, and confined to his bed, he thought no notice was to be taken of hi…

1:5-6 Adonijah was David’s fourth son. Because his older brothers, Amnon, Daniel, and Absalom, were all dead, Adonijah assumed he would succeed his father. Yet, in keeping with ancient Near Eastern custom, Solomon—the son of David’s favored wife, Bathsheba—was to succeed him as king. David had already communicated this fact to Solomon (1:13, 17; 1 Chr 22:6-10). Adonijah’s self-seeking nature, likely encouraged by his father’s lax discipline, surfaced in his declaration, “I will make myself king.”