DavidΓÇÖs first son, Adonijah, having been deprived of his rights by Solomon, asked Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, to ask Solomon to grant him, Adonijah, Abishag, the Shunammite. Solomon refused and had Adonijah put to death. Abishag, the woman in question, was DavidΓÇÖs bed-warmer in his old age.
"So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king and administered to him: but the king knew her not" (1 Kings 1.3-4). The story blooms most deliciously in its culmination, the expression of SolomonΓÇÖs love for the Shunammite in the Song of Songs.
