---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 341 of 914
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/341/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 341. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/341/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2.

## 341. 1 Kings · 2 of 30

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/341/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/341/#p-N

[¶0] Solomon - to ride upon mine own mule - No subject could use any thing that belonged to the prince, without forfeiting his life. As David offered Solomon to ride on his own mule, this was full evidence that he had appointed him his successor.

### Verse 34

[¶2] Blow ye with the trumpet - After he has been anointed, make proclamation that he is king.

### Verse 36

[¶4] Sit upon my throne - The matter of conducting a business of this kind seems to have been this:

[¶5] 1. The king elect was placed on the mule of his predecessor, and caused to ride abroad to one of the public wells, or to a river where there was the greatest concourse of people, that they might see who he was that was appointed. Solomon was here taken to the river Gihon, in order to be anointed; the continual stream or constantly running fountain, denoting the perpetuity of the kingdom.

[¶6] 2. The priest and the prophet anointed him in the name of the Lord; and thereby signified that he should be endued with all the kingly virtues; that he should reign by, under, and for the Lord.

[¶7] 3. The trumpet was then to be blown, and solemn proclamation made, that he was anointed king.

[¶8] 4. He was then brought and solemnly placed on the throne, to signify that he had now assumed the reins of government, and was about to administer justice and judgement to the people.

### Verse 37

[¶10] Make his throne greater than the throne of - David - A wish of this kind a king will suffer in behalf of his son, but it is never in ordinary cases considered a compliment to say, "I hope this child will make a better man than his father," because it seems to insinuate some reflections on his father's conduct or character. Many foolish people deal in such compliments, and they may rest assured, for the reasons given above, that they are far from being either welcome or agreeable.

[¶11] Claudian, in his panegyric De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti, ver. 428, has words something similar to those of Benaiah, when he describes a father, worn out with toils and difficulties, committing the reins of government to the hands of his son: -

[¶12] Adspice, completur votum: jam natus adaequat

[¶13] Te meritis; et, quod magis est optabile, vincit. "Behold, thy desire is accomplished.

[¶14] Even now thy son equals thee in worth; and what is still more desirable, surpasses thee.

### Verse 39

[¶16] Zadok - took a horn of oil - Pottery and glass were little in use in those times; and horns were frequently used to hold oil and wine. The oil used here was the holy anointing oil, which was laid up in the tabernacle, and which was used for the anointing of both priests and kings.

### Verse 40

[¶18] The people piped with pipes - They danced, sang, and played on what instruments of music they possessed.

[¶19] The earth rent - We use a similar expression in precisely the same sense: They rent the air with their cries.

### Verse 43

[¶21] Jonathan answered - He was properly a messenger about the court; we have met with him and Ahimaaz before, [2Sam 15:36]. He had now been an observer, if not a spy, on all that was doing, and relates the transactions to Adonijah, in the very order in which they took place.

[¶22] 1. David has nominated Solomon his successor.

[¶23] 2. Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah, have been appointed to set him on the king's mule.

[¶24] 3. They have taken him to Gihon, and anointed him there.

[¶25] 4. They have brought him up to Jerusalem and placed him on the throne of the kingdom.

### Verse 47

[¶27] Moreover, the king's servants came - The king himself was at this time confined to his own house, and probably to his bed, and could not possibly see these ceremonies; therefore his confidential servants came and told him. We know not how Jonathan, in so short a time, possessed himself of so much information.

### Verse 50

[¶29] Adonijah feared - He knew he had usurped the kingdom, and had not his father's consent; and, as he finds now that Solomon is appointed by David, he knows well that the people will immediately respect that appointment, and that his case is hopeless; he therefore took sanctuary, and, fleeing to the tabernacle, laid hold on one of the horns of the altar, as if appealing to the protection of God against the violence of men. The altar was a privileged place, and it was deemed sacrilege to molest a man who had taken refuge there. See [1Kgs 2:28].

### Verse 52

[¶31] If he will show himself a worthy man - If, from henceforth, he behave well, show himself to be contented, and not endeavor to make partisans, or stir up insurrections among the people, he shall be safe; but if wickedness be found in him - if he act at all contrary to this - he shall die; his blood shall be upon him.

### Verse 53

[¶33] Go to thine house - Intimating that he should have no place about the king's person, nor under the government. Adonijah must have seen that he stood continually on his good behavior.

[¶34] Friar Bacon's method of restoring and strengthening the Natural Heat "I have read many volumes of the wise: I find few things in physic which restore the natural heat, weakened by dissolution of the innate moisture, or increase of a foreign one. "But certain wise men have tacitly made mention of some medicine, which is likened to that which goes out of the mine of the noble animal. They affirm that in it there is a force and virtue which restores and increases the natural heat. As to its disposition, they say it is like youth itself, and contains an equal and temperate complexion. "And the signs of a temperate complexion in men are when their color is made up of white and red, when the hair is yellow, inclined to redness and curling. "This medicine indeed is like to such a complexion, for it is of a temperate heat: its flame is temperate and sweet, and grateful to the smell. When it departs from this temperature, it departs so far from its virtue and goodness. "This medicine therefore temperately heats, because it is temperately hot; it therefore heals because it is whole. When it is sick, it makes a man sick; when it is distempered, it breeds distempers, and changes the body to its own disposition, because of the similitude it has with the body. "For the infirmity of a brute animal rarely passes into a man, but into another animal of the same kind; but the infirmity of man passes into man; and so does health, because of likeness. "This thing is seldom found; and although sometimes it be found, yet it cannot commodiously be had of all men. "Now, when this thing is like to youth, that is, of temperate complexion, it has good operations; if its temperature be better, it produces better effects: sometimes it is even in the highest degree of its perfection, and then it operates best; and then there is that property whereof we have spoken before. "This differs from other medicines and nutriments, which heat and moisten after a certain temperate manner, and are good for old men. For other medicines principally heat and moisten the body; and, secondarily, they strengthen the native heat, and after that refresh the body, by moistening and heating it. For it brings back this heat in old men, who have it but weakly and deficient, to a certain stronger and more vehement power. "If a plaster be made hereof, and applied to the stomach, it will help very much, for it will refresh the stomach itself, and excite an appetite; it will very much recreate an old man, and change him to a kind of youth; and will make complexions, by what means soever depraved or corrupted, better. But it is to be observed, that Venus doth weaken and diminish the power and virtue of this thing! "And it is very likely that the son of the prince, in his second canon of the Operations of Simple Medicines spoke of this thing, where he saith, that there is a certain medicine, concealed by wise men, lest the incontinent should offend their Creator. There is such a heat in this thing, as is in young men of sound complexion; and if I durst declare the properties of this heat, this most hidden secret should presently be revealed. For this heat doth help the palsical, it restores and preserves the wasted strength of the native heat, and causeth it to flourish in all the members, and gently revives the aged. "But the simple medicine which restores the native heat, when wasted and weakened, is that which is likened to the complexion of a healthy young man."

[¶35] All this covered and enigmatical description is intended simply to point out that very medicine recommended by the Jewish physicians to restore and invigorate the dying king. I could show the bearing of every sentence, but I must leave something to the good sense of my readers. By attending to the words in italics, the sense will be more easily discovered. See my note on [Rut 4:16] (note).

### Introduction

[¶37] David leaves his dying charge with Solomon, relative to his own personal conduct, [1Kgs 2:1-4]; to Joab, [1Kgs 2:5], [1Kgs 2:6]; to Barzillai, [1Kgs 2:7]; to Shimei, [1Kgs 2:8], [1Kgs 2:9]. He dies, and Solomon is established in the kingdom, [1Kgs 2:10-12]. Adonijah requests to have Abishag to wife, and is put to death by Solomon, [1Kgs 2:13-25]. Abiathar the priest is banished to his estate at Anathoth, [1Kgs 2:26], [1Kgs 2:27]. Joab, fearing for his life, flees to the horns of the altar, and is slain there by Benaiah, [1Kgs 2:28-34]. Benaiah is made captain of the host in his stead, [1Kgs 2:35]. Shimei is ordered to confine himself to Jerusalem, and never leave it on pain of death, [1Kgs 2:36-38]. After three years he follows some of his runaway servants to Gath, and thereby forfeits his life, [1Kgs 2:39], [1Kgs 2:40]. Solomon sends for him, upbraids him, and commands him to be slain by Benaiah, [1Kgs 2:41-46].

### Verse 2

[¶39] I go the way of all the earth - I am dying. All the inhabitants of the earth must come to the dust. In life, some follow one occupation, some another; but all must, sooner or later, come to the grave. Death is no respecter of persons; he visits the palace of the king as well as the cottage of the peasant.

[¶40] Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

[¶41] Regumque turres. -

[¶42] Hor. Odar. lib. i., od. iv., ver. 13. "With equal pace, impartial fate

[¶43] Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate."

[¶44] Francis. - Sed omnes una manet nox,