Editing Abishag (section)

==Biblical narrative==
1 [[Books of Kings|Kings]] 1:4 notes that David did not engage in sexual intercourse with her.<ref name="AbishagHB">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Abishag of Shunem (fl. 1000 bce) |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2591300062.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313015433/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2591300062.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 March 2016 |encyclopedia=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia |publisher=Gale Research Inc. |access-date=6 January 2013}}{{subscription required}}</ref> When brought to David, she was a ''na'arah'', which indicates youth or virginity but not necessarily both.<ref name="LaCocque">{{cite web|url=https://discover-the-truth.com/2016/09/17/king-davids-marriage-to-12-year-old-abishag-bible/|title=Jesus the Central Jew: His Times and His People|date= 2015|access-date=July 12, 2019|first=André|last=Lacocque|quote=unable to conceive although married because she is not yet pubescent}}</ref><ref name="StudyLight">{{cite web|url=https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rbc/1-kings-1.html|title=Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments 1 Kings 1|date=1857|access-date=July 12, 2019|first=Joseph|last=Benson|website=StudyLight.org|quote=Whose natural heat is fresh and wholesome, and not impaired with bearing or breeding children}}</ref><ref name="John Gill">{{cite web|url=https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/ruth-4-12.html|title=John Gill's Commentary on Ruth 4:12|date=1748–63|access-date=June 2, 2020|first=John|last=Gill|quote=she was a young woman, though a widow: the Jews say she was forty years of age, as observed in (Ruth 3:10) and the elders wish and pray he might have a numerous family of the children the Lord would give him by her; and this might be the rather expected of her, as being a young woman, yet only as the gift of God, as children are, (Psalms 127:3).}}</ref> Nonetheless, there are elements of Jewish exegetical tradition which maintain that David engaged in [[anal sex|anal]] intercourse with Abishag and he was not totally impotent. It is speculated that King David engaged in a multicoital act of intercourse with his wife [[Bathsheba]] in his old age precisely to prove his continued virility.<ref> {{cite journal | last1=Klein |first1=Reuven Chaim |date=January 1, 2024 |title=Male Virility and Biblical Power Dynamics
| url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:65096/CONTENT/jbq_521_kleinmalevirility.pdf |journal=Jewish Bible Quarterly |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=3-19 |doi=10.17613/rb9g-4m16}}</ref>

After David's death, [[Adonijah]] (David's fourth and eldest surviving son) persuaded [[Bathsheba]], King [[Solomon]]'s mother, to entreat the king to permit him to [[Jewish view of marriage|marry]] Abishag. Solomon suspected in this request an aspiration to the throne, since Abishag was considered David's concubine,<ref name="BridgeWayBible">{{cite web|url=https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bbc/1-kings-2.html|title=Bridgeway Bible Commentary|first=Donald C.|last=Fleming|date=2005|access-date=July 12, 2019|quote="Since a new king inherited the former king's concubines, Solomon considered that Adonijah's request to marry Abishag was an attempt to claim David's throne "}}</ref><ref name="AdamClark">{{cite web|url=https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/1-kings-2.html|title=Adam Clark Commentaries|first=Adam|last=Clark|date=1832|access-date=July 12, 2019|quote="He cheerfully gives up all right to the kingdom, and only desires to have this young woman, who, though she had been his father's wife or concubine, was still in a state of virginity."}}</ref> and so ordered [[Adonijah]]'s assassination (1 Kings 2:17–25). In the earlier story of [[Absalom]]'s rebellion, it is noted that having sexual relations with the former king's [[Concubinage|concubine]] is a way of proclaiming oneself to be the new king. Adonijah may have asked to marry her at the suggestion of his mother.<ref name="AbishagHB" />

Some scholars point to the possibility that Abishag is the female protagonist in the [[Song of Songs]].<ref>Christopher W. Mitchell, ''The Song of Songs'' (Saint Louis: Concordia, 2003), 130–132.</ref>

Later Jewish [[midrash]]ic and Christian traditions paid little attention to Abishag's role.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Koplowitz-Breier|date=2018|title=The Power of Words: The Biblical Abishag in Contemporary American Jewish Women's Poetry|journal=Studies in American Jewish Literature |volume=37|issue=1|pages=21–36|doi=10.5325/studamerjewilite.37.1.0021|s2cid=165198923|issn=0271-9274}}</ref> [[Rashi]] refers to her as a ''meḥomemet'', or "warmer". Modern commentaries and translators have variously described her as a "housekeeper", "hot-water bottle", "heating pad," "attendant" or "bedfellow", though she is twice referred to as a ''sokenet'' in the text of Kings. This term, when applied to a male (''soken''), is often translated "administrator" or "palace steward" in Isaiah 22:15, leading some to believe she may have had a broader role and responsibilities.<ref>[[Daniel Bodi]], ''Abishag: Bedwarmer or Bureaucrat?'', Biblical Archeology Review, Summer 2024, Vol. 50., No. 2, p. 64</ref> Other commentaries describe her role as being a nurse to the frail King David.<ref> ''Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary'', Kenneth L. Barker & John Kohlenberger, Consulting Editors, Zondervan  Publishing House, 1994, p. 490. </ref>

Abishag's experiences have provided inspiration for contemporary writers including [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[Itzik Manger]], [[Louise Glück|Louise Gluck]] and [[Shirley Kaufman]].<ref name=":0" /> The story is referred to allegorically at the end of the first part of the final volume (The Cross or in the original Norwegian, Korset) of [[Kristin Lavransdatter]] by [[Sigrid Undset]]. Abishag's name, although not her story, is invoked to begin [[Robert Frost|Robert Frost's]] poem "Provide, Provide."<ref>{{cite book | last = Frost | first = Robert | title = The poetry of Robert Frost : the collected poems, complete and unabridged | publisher = H. Holt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtComZirYE4C&dq=robert%20frost%20collected%20poems&pg=PA307 |accessdate=24 January 2021 |location = New York | year = 1979 | isbn = 9780805069860 |oclc=1004925419}}</ref>