1 Kings 1:21

1Ki 1:21 Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.

Ver. 21. Shall be counted offenders.] Heb., Sinners. Erimus Mamzeres - so Jerome senseth it, out of the Hebrew traditions - that is, we shall be accounted bastards and infamous. It is probable that Adonijah had spoken basely of Bathsheba as an adulteress, and of Solomon as illegitimate, and so not fit to be king. Or by sinners here understand rebels, and public enemies.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And so put to the death as wicked transgressors.

Hebrew, sinners.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

I and my son . . . shall be counted offenders--that is, slain, according to the barbarous usage of the East towards all who are rivals to the throne.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. Shall be counted offenders.] When Adonijah and his party shall find that I and my son have had this promise from thee by oath, he will slay us both.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) Shall sleep with his fathers.—Here this phrase, so constantly used in the record of the death of the kings, occurs in these books for the first time. (It is also found in the message of promise by Nathan. 2Sa_7:12, relating to the succession of the son who should build the Temple.) We find corresponding expressions in Gen_15:15; Deu_31:16. Without connecting with the use of this phrase anything like the fulness of meaning which in the New Testament attaches to “the sleep” of the departed servants of God (as known to be a “sleep in Jesus”), it seems not unreasonable to recognise in it, at least, a rudimentary belief in death as rest and not extinction. The addition, “with his fathers,” has probably a reference to “the tombs of the kings;” especially as we find that it is not adopted in the cases of Jehoram (2Ch_21:20) and Joash. (2Ch_24:25), who were not buried therein.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. counted offenders] The Heb. word is literally ‘sinners.’ Bath-sheba does not go so far as Nathan, and say that the lives of herself and her son are in peril, but leaves the king to think what the lot of those offenders would be whom Adonijah knew to have aspired to the throne.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers,.... That is, shall die, and be buried in the sepulchre of his ancestors, where he shall lie till he awakes in the morning of the resurrection:

that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders; or "sinners" (g); not as if she would be reckoned an adulteress, and her son as illegitimate, as some think, and so be branded and treated as such; but as being traitors, making pretensions to the throne, she on the behalf of her son, and he for himself, when he had no right to it, being the younger son, and not declared successor by his father.

(g) "peccatores", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Shall sleep - This euphemism for death, rare in the early Scriptures - being found only once in the Pentateuch (margin reference.), and once also in the historical books before Kings 2Sa 7:12 - becomes in Kings and Chronicles the ordinary mode of speech (see 1Ki 2:10; 1Ki 11:43, etc.; 2Ch 9:31; 2Ch 12:16, etc.). David uses the metaphor in one psalm Psa 13:3. In the later Scriptures it is, of course, common. (Jer 51:39; Dan 12:2; Mat 9:24; Joh 11:11; 1Co 11:30; 1Co 15:51; 1Th 4:14, etc.)

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Offenders. I, as guilty of adultery; and my son, as a mamzer; (Deuteronomy xxiii. 2.; Tirinus) or we shall be accounted pretenders, (Haydock) and condemned as guilty of high treason. (Calmet) --- Our hopes and expectations will be frustrated. (Vatable) (Estius) --- We shall be despised or punished. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Shall sleep with his fathers, i.e. die as his fathers did. See Gen 47:30.

I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders; we shall be punished with death as malefactors, as guilty of practicing against the right heir of the crown, and transferring the kingdom to Solomon, and covering our ambitious designs with a pretence of religion.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Otherwise there is no corresponding word in the Hebrews it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep strictly, "lie down:" see on 1Ki_2:10 with his fathers this phrase, so common in the books of Kings and Chronicles, only occurs "once in the Pentateuch (Deu_31:16) and once in the historical books before Kings" (Rawlinson). It was evidently the product of an age when the nation was settled, and men had their family sepulchres that I and my son Solomon shall be counted Hebrews be offenders Hebrews as marg., sinners. The primary meaning of afj is "to miss the mark." Like aJmartanein, it came to be used of all erring and transgression. Bathsheba and Solomon would be obnoxious to Adonijah, as representing a rival cause; possibly also as guilty of high treason (Clericus, Bahr, al. ) And when I rose in the morning while it was still dusk to give my child suck, behold it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning i.e., in broad daylight; Vulg. clara luce behold this second "behold" marks a second discovery it was not my son which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son and the dead is thy son. And this said, No, but the dead is thy son and the living is my son. It is somewhat difficult to account for the pertinacious claim to the child, preferred even before the king by the pretended mother. The most probable explanation is, that having taken the child in the first instance on the spur of the moment, in order to avoid the reproach of having killed her offspring by her clumsiness and neglect, she found it difficult to draw back from her false position which indeed she could not do without owning herself both child stealer and liar and so she put on a bold face and maintained the imposture even before the monarch himself. That she did not really care for the child is evident from ver. 26. Thus they spake Heb. And they spake," i.e., affirmed and contradicted before the king.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sinners. [They will be] lacking and restrained from any greatness, as in, “[Sling a stone] at a hair, and not miss [יחטיא].”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.