And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.
Ver. 21. Let Abishag … be given to Adonijah to wife.] Overcome by Adonijah's fair words and her own melting thoughts of compassion towards him, Bathsheba, not considering the consequents, proposeth the suit, and presseth it by the relation that was betwixt Solomon and Adonijah his brother. But was not David Adonijah's father also? and will none serve his turn but his father's concubine was not this to attempt against natural honesty and common decency? What if Abishag were καλη και σοφη - as Aelian saith Aspasia Milesia, Cyrus's concubine, was - both fair and discreet, which is a rare mixture, yet she was not so fit for Adonijah; but he had a further fetch in this incestuous desire of his.