What Does 1 Kings 1:15 Mean?
And Bathsheba came in to the king, into the chamber, and the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite attended the king.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Bath-sheba went in unto the king into the chamber: and the king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king.THE KEY
Bathsheba, whose name can be heard as “daughter of the oath”, enters a private chamber where the king’s age and need for care stand beside the promise her name carries.
THE MEANING
The verse places oath-language beside a king described as very old: promise is present while the body is vulnerable. Abishag’s service makes visible that royal authority still depends on another’s care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Rank does not make a person self-sufficient; even a king receives care.
THE ROOT
בַת־שֶׁבַע
bat-sheva
GROWS FROM
שׁבע
sh-b-ʿ
Shavaʿ: to swear or bind oneself by an oath; the name’s final element can carry this oath-sense.
“Bath-sheba’s name” in this verse is bat-sheva. The name can be heard as “daughter of the oath,” placing oath-language at the threshold before anyone speaks the promise aloud. The next verse makes that echo audible in the word “swarest.”
ALSO GROWS
shevuah: oath
שְׁבוּעָה
This noun gives explicit form to the oath carried in Bathsheba’s name.
nishbaʿ: swore; took an oath
נִשְׁבַּע
This verb appears in David’s oath in the next verse, turning the name’s quiet echo into spoken words.
זָקֵן
zaqen
GROWS FROM
זקן
z-q-n
To be old or to be an elder.
The root holds bodily age and elder standing together. Here “very old” brings the king’s vulnerable body into view beneath his royal title.
ALSO GROWS
zaqen: old; elder
זָקֵן
The word directly describes the king’s age while also carrying the sense of senior standing.
zeqenim: elders
זְקֵנִים
The plural form shows the root’s connection between age and recognized standing.
מְשָׁרַת
mesharet
GROWS FROM
שרת
sh-r-t
To attend, serve, or wait upon.
“attended” in this verse is mesharet. This root names attendance and service, making Abishag’s care concrete. The verse places the king’s authority beside his dependence on someone attending him.
ALSO GROWS
sharat: to serve or attend
שָׁרַת
The verb’s basic action is the service Abishag gives the king.
mesharet: attendant; one who serves
מְשָׁרֵת
This related form names the person who carries out such service.
THE PATTERN
The language of an oath gives a promise a shape that can hold through changing circumstances.
Therefore he called that place the well of the swearing, Beersheba, because there the two of them swore.I have cut a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn to David my servant.For humankind swears by the greater, and an oath for steadying is for them the boundary of every word set against.THE THREAD
And she said to him, My lord, you swore by the LORD your God to your handmaid, saying, Surely Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne.Bathsheba’s name carries the oath-root שׁבע (sh-b-ʿ, “to swear”), and “thou swarest” in the next verse comes from that same root. The next verse gives spoken form to the oath-language already present in her name.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us