(5) В¶ Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. (6) And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare him after Absalom.
New afflictions arise to David. But Reader! observe how the divine sentence is fulfilled in them; Evil shall arise against thee out of thine own house. The afflictions of David, from the commission of his sin with Bath-sheba, always carried with them this mark. See 2 Samuel 12:10-11. It is somewhat very singular that David should call a son of his by such a name as Adonijah, which is a compound of two sacred names of Jehovah, Adonai, Lord, and Jah, which is the incommunicable name, implying the divine essence of God. We find indeed, in the Old Testament scriptures, the saints of God giving names to their children of somewhat significant, to denote their views of divine grace and favor. It is very profitable and becoming to call our children by such names as every time we look upon them may refresh the memory with the recollection of God's mercies. Hannah's Samuel, and Leah's, Judah; furnished out continued occasions of this sort. See 1 Samuel 1:20; Genesis 29:35. But there seems somewhat unbecoming in taking the divine names for our children. The messengers and servants of the Lord are perhaps exceptions to this; for we find Elijah distinguished by a name similar to Adonijah. Elijah, or as it is in the original, Elijahu; being a compound word also, and signifying "My God, Jehovah, is he; " which may be considered as if it expressed the authority of his commission; My God Jehovah is he that hath sent me. With respect to Adonijah, most undeserving was he of such a distinction; and justly proved himself a second Absalom, whose brother he was, both in nature and in folly.