SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:1
¶ Cuando el rey David era viejo, y entrado en días, le cubrían de vestidos, mas no se calentaba.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Kings 1:1
Verse 1. Now King David was old] He was probably now about sixty-nine years of age. He was thirty years old when he began to reign, reigned forty, and died in the seventieth year of his age, 2 Sam. v. 4, and chap. ii. 11; and the transactions mentioned here are supposed to have taken place about a year before his death. But he gat no heat.] Sixty-nine was not an advanced age; but David had been exhausted with various fatigues, and especially by family afflictions, so that he was much older in constitution than he was in years. Besides he seems to have laboured under some wasting maladies, to which there is frequent reference in the Psalms.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 1. Now King David was old, [and] stricken in years , etc.] Was seventy years of age; for he was thirty years of age when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years, ( 2 Samuel 5:4); this was just the age of man, ( Psalm 90:10); and they covered him with clothes ; not wearing apparel, but bed clothes; he seems to have been bedridden and paralytic: but he got no heat ; by them; having no natural heat in him, clothes could not communicate any to him, only keep the cold from him, (see Haggai 1:6); there are many persons at the age he was, that are lively, healthful, and robust, comparatively speaking at least; but David’s strength was impaired, and his natural force abated by his many wars, fatigues by night and day in campaigns, and the many sorrows and afflictions he met with from his family and his friends, as well as enemies; which exhausted his natural moisture, weakened his nerves, and drank up his spirits, and brought upon him the infirmities of a decrepit old age very soon. Ver. 2 . Wherefore his servants said unto him , etc.] His physicians; so Joseph’s physicians are called his servants, ( Genesis 50:2); let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin ; not only a young woman, but a virgin, that has more natural heat than women that have bore children have, which is abated thereby: and let her stand before the king : minister to him, serve him with whatsoever he should want to eat or drink; and so by being in his presence, and taking things at her hand, she might be the more ingratiated into his affections: and let her cherish him ; as the husband the wife, so she her husband, as doubtless David was; and that by giving him cordials to cheer his spirits, and everything that was convenient for him, and particularly by lying with him. Kimchi interprets the word of her being profitable to him, in which sense the word is used, ( Job 22:2 35:3); that is, by warming him; Ben Gersom understands it of her being made mistress of his treasures, according to the sense of the word in ( Isaiah 22:15); that she might have the command of his purse, and provide anything proper for him, without being taken notice of or obstructed; but the Targum is better, “and let her be near him,” lie close unto him, and even in his bosom, as in the next clause: and let her lie in his bosom ; which shows that it was proposed that he should marry her, at least that she should become his concubine wife, since this phrase is descriptive of a wife, ( Micah 7:5); nor can it be thought his physicians would advise, or he agree to have a young woman admitted to his bed, without marriage; and if this had not been the case, it would not have answered the design of Adonijah in requesting her in marriage after his father’s death, which was to make way to ascend the throne when opportunity should offer; nor would his request have been so much resented by Solomon as it was, ( 1 Kings 2:17-24); that my lord the king may get heat : and somewhat similar to this, Galen, that great physician, prescribed in like cases f4 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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.
Original Hebrew
והמלך 4428 דוד 1732 זקן 2204 בא 935 בימים 3117 ויכסהו 3680 בבגדים 899 ולא 3808 יחם׃ 3179
