(2) Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. (3) So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. (4) And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.
While the pious Reader feels suitable indignation at the corrupt counsel of the servants of David, let him bless God that he is living under a more gracious dispensation. Though from what is said in the last of those verses, we have authority to conclude that nothing criminal passed between them, yet David had smarted so exceedingly in the former periods of his life, for the indulgence of his lustful passions, one could have wished that he had spurned such advisers from his presence. Reader! see what a degraded state man is reduced to from the fall. Wherein, on this pursuit of carnal desires, doth he differ from the brute that perisheth. Psalms 49:20. Who can read the account of the prostitution of this young woman, and call to mind how very often similar events have taken place in all ages, in gratifying the detestable lust of the great, at the expense of the innocence of the poor, but must feel indignant at it. Oh! precious Jesus, how sweet is it in the recollection of the horrid pollutions of our nature, to behold thee who art holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens. Hebrews 7:26.