Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.
Now king David was old. He was in the 70th year of his age (2 Samuel 5:4-5); but the wear and tear of a military life, bodily fatigue, and mental care, had prematurely, if we may say it, exhausted the energies of David's strong constitution (1 Samuel 16:12). In modern Palestine and Egypt, the people, because of the heat of the climate, each sleep in a separate bed. They only depart from this practice for medical reasons (Ecclesiastes 4:11). The expedient recommended by David's physicians is the regimen prescribed in similar cases still in the East, particularly among the Arab population, not simply to give heat, but to "cherish," since they are aware that the inhalation of young breath will give new life and vigour to the worn-out frame. The fact of the health of the young and healthier person being as it were stolen, to support that of the more aged and sickly, is well established in the medical field. And hence, the prescription for the aged king was made from a health point of view, for the prolongation of his valuable life, and not merely for the comfort to be derived from the natural warmth imparted to his withered frame ('Tent and Khan,' p. 108). The polygamy of the age and country may account for the introduction of this practice; and it is evident that Abishag was made a concubine or secondary wife to David (see the notes at 1 Kings 2:22).