1 Kings 1 · a question people ask
Had David really sworn that Solomon would reign, or was it Nathan's plan?
No earlier chapter records the oath. It is first spoken of in Nathan's counsel to Bathsheba, in the words he gives her to say: "Didn’t you, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then does Adonijah reign?" (1:13). Bathsheba says it to the king (1:17). Nathan, coming in after her, asks instead, "My lord, King, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne’?" (1:24). Then David himself says, "most certainly as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place;’ I will most certainly do this today" (1:30). In the next chapter Adonijah says of the kingdom, "it was his from the LORD" (2:15). Christians read the oath in two main ways. Both agree that the text doesn't record it before 1:13, that David swears it in 1:30, and that the chapter passes no judgment on Nathan or Bathsheba.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
An oath David had made
Those who read it this way take David at his word: "as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel" (1:30). The king who answers gives exact orders (1:32-35). 2 Samuel said of Solomon at his birth, "The LORD loved him" (2 Samuel 12:24). In Chronicles David says the LORD told him, "his name shall be Solomon" (1 Chronicles 22:8-9), and that "he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the LORD’s kingdom over Israel" (1 Chronicles 28:5). On this reading Nathan and Bathsheba bring back to the king what he had sworn, and Nathan's question (1:24) leaves the king to say it himself (1:30).
1 Kings 1:30 · 1 Kings 1:32-35 · 2 Samuel 12:24 · 1 Chronicles 22:8-9 · 1 Chronicles 28:5
A moment Nathan shaped
Those who read it this way note that the oath is first spoken of by Nathan, who gives Bathsheba the words to say (1:13) and tells her, "I will also come in after you and confirm your words" (1:14). "The king was very old" (1:15), and Bathsheba tells him, "you, my lord the king, don’t know it" (1:18). The shout "Long live King Adonijah!" is given only in Nathan's report (1:25), not in the chapter's own telling of the feast (1:9). At Solomon's birth, "he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah, for the LORD’s sake" (2 Samuel 12:25). On this reading Nathan, who had been sent at Solomon's birth, acted for Solomon now, and the text leaves open whether David had sworn before.
1 Kings 1:13-15 · 1 Kings 1:18 · 1 Kings 1:9 · 1 Kings 1:25 · 2 Samuel 12:25
The verses
“Go in to King David, and tell him, ‘Didn’t you, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne”? Why then does Adonijah reign?’”
“She said to him, “My lord, you swore by the LORD your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’”
“Nathan said, “My lord, King, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne’?”
“most certainly as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place;’ I will most certainly do this today.””