(24) Hast thou said.--The question here and in 1 Kings 1:27 is, of course, merely intended to draw out denial; but it is singularly true to nature that it does so by the assumption (natural in court language) that nothing of such a kind could be even conceived as done without the king's will. There is something striking in the contrast of the deference of Nathan as a counsellor on state business with the bold superiority of his tone in the discharge of his true prophetic office (as in 2 Samuel 7:2-17; 2 Samuel 12:1-14).
Verse 24. - And Nathan said, My Lord, O king, hast thou said [the Hebrews has no question, but a strong affirmation: "thou hast said," i.e., "thou must have said (Du hast wohl gesagt." Bahr). Nathan puts it thus forcibly, in order to draw from the king a disclaimer], Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? [Same words as in vers. 13, 17, and possibly designedly so. The coincidence conveys the meaning, "Thou hast sworn Solomon shall reign," etc. "Thou hast said, Adonijah shall reign," etc.]
1:11-31 Observe Nathan's address to Bathsheba. Let me give thee counsel how to save thy own life, and the life of thy son. Such as this is the counsel Christ's ministers give us in his name, to give all diligence, not only that no man take our crown, Re 3:11, but that we save our lives, even the lives of our souls. David made a solemn declaration of his firm cleaving to his former resolution, that Solomon should be his successor. Even the recollection of the distresses from which the Lord redeemed him, increased his comfort, inspired his hopes, and animated him to his duty, under the decays of nature and the approach of death.
And Nathan said, my lord, O king,.... He addresses him as with great veneration and respect due to his office, so as if he knew noticing of Bathsheba's application to him; and therefore begins and tells his story, as if the king had never heard anything relative to it:
hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? surely it can never be, because of the notice which he himself had given him from the Lord, that one to be born should succeed him, plainly pointing to Solomon; and also because of the oath which he had sworn, to which Nathan was privy, that Solomon should reign after him; and yet if he had not given such orders, it was exceeding strange that Adonijah should presume to do what he had done.
hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? surely it can never be, because of the notice which he himself had given him from the Lord, that one to be born should succeed him, plainly pointing to Solomon; and also because of the oath which he had sworn, to which Nathan was privy, that Solomon should reign after him; and yet if he had not given such orders, it was exceeding strange that Adonijah should presume to do what he had done.