ause
it introduces us to the maiden who is believed by some commentators to
be the same as the Shulamite, the heroine of the _Song of Songs_.
After Solomon had become king his elder brother, Adonijah, went to the
mother of Solomon, Bath-sheba, and said:

"Thou knowest thy kingdom was mine, and that all Israel
set their faces on me, that I should reign: howbeit the
kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's:
for it was his from the Lord. And now I ask one
petition of thee, deny me not.... Speak, I pray thee,
unto Solomon the king (for he will not say thee nay)
that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife."

But when Solomon heard this request he declared that Adonijah had
spoken that word against his own life; and he sent a man who fell on
him and killed him.

Who was this Abishag, the Shunammite? The opening lines of the First
Book of Kings tell us how she came to the court:

"Now King David was old and stricken in years; and they
covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat. Wherefore
his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my
lord the king, a young virgin, and let her stand before
the king and cherish him; and let her lie in thy bosom,
that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for
a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and
found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the
king. And the damsel was very fair; and she cherished
the king, and ministered to him; but the king knew her
not."

THE SONG OF SONGS

Now it is plausibly conjectured that this Abishag of Shunam or Shulam
(a town north of Jerusalem) was the same as the Shulamite of the _Song
of Songs_, and that in the lines 6:11-12 she tells how she was
kidnapped and brought to court.

I went down into the garden of nuts,
To see the green plants of the valley,
To see whether the vine budded,
And the pomegranates were in flower,
Or ever I was aware, my soul [desire] set me
Among the chariots of my princely people.

She also explains why her face is tanned like the dark tents of Kedar:
"My mother's sons were incensed against me, They made me keeper of the
vineyards." The added words "mine own vineyard have I not kept" are
interpreted by some as an apology for her neglected personal
appearance, but Renan (10) more plausibly refers them to her
consciousness of some indiscretion, which led t