Bible Strands
1 Kings 1:24
“My lord the king,” said Nathan, “did you say, ‘Adonijah will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne’?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Nathan addresses King David immediately after bowing before him, interrupting the succession crisis triggered by Adonijah’s public coronation feast.
The words — Nathan uses אֲדֹנִ֣/י הַ/מֶּ֔לֶךְ (’ădōnî hammēleḵ, “my lord the king”) to frame his inquiry and אָמַ֔רְתָּ (’āmartā, “have you said?”) to question David’s reported decree.
The thread — The question mirrors Bathsheba’s earlier reminder of David’s oath regarding Solomon (1 Kings 1:13, 17) and directly counters Adonijah’s self-exaltation (1 Kings 1:5).
Why it lands — The text records a direct prophetic challenge to a king’s alleged verbal command, requiring the reader to see how explicit questioning exposes political maneuvering and tests the stability of royal succession.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne?
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 1:5 At that time Adonijah, David’s son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, “I will be king!” And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.
- 1 Kings 1:13 Go at once to King David and say, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to your maidservant, “Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’
- 1 Kings 1:17 “My lord,” she replied, “you yourself swore to your maidservant by the LORD your God: ‘Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne.’