Now please, come and let me advise you. Save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
Parallel translations
- WEB Now therefore come, please let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life, and your son Solomon’s life.
- KJV Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son Solomon.
- NKJV Come, please, let me now give you advice, that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
- NASB So now come, please let me give you advice, and save your life and the life of your son Solomon.
- NLT If you want to save your own life and the life of your son Solomon, follow my advice.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Nathan offers Bathsheba a plan to save her own life and Solomon's. He recognizes the deadly danger a rival king poses to them.
Overview
Nathan understands that if Adonijah secures the throne, Bathsheba and Solomon would likely be killed as threats. His counsel is both shrewd and protective, aimed at preserving the line through which God's promise to David will run. The verse underscores the real stakes of royal succession in the ancient world.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 2 Kgs 11:1When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.
- Prov 15:22Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
- 2 Chr 22:10When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs of the house of Judah.
- Jer 38:15“If I tell you,” Jeremiah replied, “you will surely put me to death. And even if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”
- Prov 11:14For lack of guidance, a nation falls, but with many counselors comes deliverance.
- Prov 27:9Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the sweetness of a friend is counsel to the soul.
- Judg 9:5He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.
- Acts 27:31But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain with the ship, you cannot be saved.”
- Gen 19:17As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
- Matt 21:38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’
- 2 Chr 21:4When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened himself by putting to the sword all his brothers along with some of the princes of Israel.
- Prov 20:18Set plans by consultation, and wage war under sound guidance.
- 1 Kgs 1:21Otherwise, when my lord the king rests with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be counted as criminals.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 1:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.