And Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle,.... To make a feast of for those that were of his party, which was numerous, and some of them persons of the first rank, and therefore a large and elegant entertainment was provided for them:
by the stone of Zoheleth, which [is] by Enrogel; or the fullers' fountain, as the Targum, where the fullers washed their clothes, using their feet in doing it, from whence it had its name; and which they laid upon this stone for the water to drain out of them, "Zoheleth" signifying a slow motion of waters, or on which they beat them to get out the spots; the Targum calls it the stone of a watchtower, on which they could stand and look to a great distance; or, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom suggest, it was a large smooth stone, which young men used to come to, and cast to and fro to try and exercise their strength; it was, as Josephus e says, in or near the king's gardens:
and called all his brethren the king's sons: which David by his wives and concubines had in Hebron and Jerusalem; who were all younger than he, and so had not the pretension he had, and who might be displeased at the appointment of Solomon as well as he; see 1 Chronicles 3:4;
and all the men of Judah the king's servants; excepting those in 1 Kings 1:8.
e Antiqu. l. 7. c. 14. sect. 4.