Strange Story: I Kings 1 Why Didn’t David’s Wives Keep Him Warm?

This story is found in I Kings 1:1-4.

In his old age, David had developed some health issue that resulted in his inability to retain body heat. I looked it up online and there are a number of health conditions that can bring about this problem.

The “solution” decided upon was to choose a virgin girl to serve the king be spending all her time snuggling with the old king in bed. The Scripture is very clear about the fact that David did not have sexual relations with her, he simply relied on her body heat because his body was not producing enough of its own.

Question:

Why wasn’t one of his wives or concubines chosen for that role?

I believe the answer is that his wives had responsibilities raising the children they had borne. Concubines were like wives in every way except one – their sons did not get an inheritance. Jewish law (or tradition) was clear that a concubine should be cared for just like a wife, for she had the same rights as a wife, excepting inheritance for her sons. To put it plainly, concubines were not sex slaves, they were a type of wife with rights, responsibilities and roles.

So they could not take one of David’s 18 wives (according to Jewish tradition that is how many he had) or one of his concubines because they were all busy fulfilling the roles they were expected to fulfill by Jewish culture. This business of keeping the king warm was a full-time job in the true sense of the word, 24/7 we would say. So no one could add this to their other tasks the way some people add a part time job on top of a normal job. Abishag was chosen and her sole responsibility was to keep the king warm.

Their solution seems strange to us, but the Bible makes it clear that it was completely free of inappropriate activity.

Why is this mentioned in the Bible?

It is quite likely that the only reason any of this is mentioned in the Bible is that after David’s death, Solomon’s older brother, Adonijah, asked for Abishag to be given to him as a wife. That was a clear attempt at demonstrating that he rather than Solomon should have been king. Solomon had him killed for that request, and rightly so according to most people of ancient times. Had it not been for Adonijah’s request, we would probably not know anything about this young lady named Abishag whose most desirable characteristic was excess body fat.