1 Kings 1:2 - Exposition

Wherefore [Heb. and ] his servants [according to Josephus (Antiq. 7.14, 3), his physicians] said unto him, Let there be sought [lit. as marg; " let them seek "] for my lord the king [the singular pronoun is used as representing the servant who was spokesman for the rest] a young virgin [marg; " a damsel, a virgin. " She must be young, to impart heat, and a virgin, as befitted a king. Though she was recommended as a nurse, they would naturally suppose she might be taken as a concubine] and let her stand before the king [ i.e; as servant (Verse 4). Cf. 1 Kings 12:6 , 1 Kings 12:8 ; Genesis 41:46 ; Daniel 1:5 ; Deuteronomy 1:38 (with Joshua 1:1 ) 1 Kings 10:8 . In the East, servants still stand and wait their masters' pleasure. Cf. 2 Kings 5:25 ], and let her cherish him [So also the LXX ; καὶ ἔσται αὐτὸν θάλπουσα . But Gesenius, al, "be a companion to him"] and let her lie in thy [or "his," LXX . αυτοῦ , Vulg. sue ] bosom [the expression is generally, but not invariably (see 1 Kings 3:20 ; Ruth 4:16 ) used de complexu venereo ] that my lord the king may get heat. [This close embrace of youth was an obvious way of imparting animal heat to age ("Color a corpore juvenili ac sane maxime prodest senibus." Grotius), and was the more favoured because other and internal remedies were not then known. It is recognized by Galen, and is said to have been prescribed by a Jewish physician to the Emperor Frederick Bar-baressa (Bähr). It is stated by Roberts that it is still largely followed in the East.]