Talk:Abishag

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I'd just like to see a reference to the statement that jewish kings were limited to 18 wives ... I'm no expert, but as I recall David was only the very second of all jewish kings, and also his son Solomon is supposed to have had some 700 wives ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.156.36.11 (talk) 17:27, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
 * The whole article want binning as the opinion of a very poor traslation has been given prominence. The Kings were expressly told not to have multiple wives even before there were kings.:

What the article writer has for an opinion is nothing to do with what the actual story in the bible tells:
 * David was old and suffering from poor circulation and having a bedfellow to help keep him warm was nothing to do with his libido. The story says that the marriage was not consummated; if the "marriage" of the time carries any weight.
 * A concubine lying with a king was not mounted, is all we know, she thus became available to other members of his family; with the subsequent political ramifications.
 * And why was the picture of a woman lying uselessly, naked on the bed used?
 * It doesn't say how she was dressed nor is it likely she would be much use cold! Very poorly written/thought out.

Weatherlawyer (talk) 23:27, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

Translation
Strong's Concordance"Since Strong's Concordance identifies the original words in Hebrew and Greek, Strong's numbers are sometimes misinterpreted by those without adequate training to change the Bible from its accurate meaning simply by taking the words out of cultural context. The use of Strong's numbers does not consider figures of speech, metaphors, idioms, common phrases, cultural references, references to historical events, or alternate meanings used by those of the time period to express their thoughts in their own language at the time. As such, professionals and amateurs alike must consult a number of contextual tools to reconstruct these cultural backgrounds." Still, SH49 gives Abiyshag ab-ee-shag from 1 and 7686; father of error (i.e. blundering); Abishag, a concubine of David:--Abishag. If there is objection to putting SH49 in the article, then leave it here. --Pawyilee (talk) 14:32, 31 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I have the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon here, which is much more linguistically-sophisticated and Hebrew-focused than Strong's (though not fully up-to-date), and it gives the suggested translation "My father is a wanderer"... AnonMoos (talk) 18:10, 31 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I once read, "Girl, your name is Trouble," but you know how that goes.--Pawyilee (talk) 06:00, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

LXX reference
The quotation from the Interpreter's Bible claims that the LXX supports its interpretation by quoting 3 Kingdoms 1:2 as saying "let her excite him and lie with him," when in reality it says "let her warm him and lie with him" (καὶ ἔσται αὐτὸν θάλπουσαν καὶ κοιμηθήσεται μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ). Θάλπω can sometimes mean "to inflame with passion," according to LSJ, but such a translation here doesn't work, given that in v. 4 it uses the same word _without_ sexual relations: καὶ ἦν θάλπουσα τὸν βασιλέα καὶ ἐλειτούργει αὐτῷ, καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς οὐκ ἔγνω αὐτήν. Cf. also the non-sexual meaning at 1 Thess. 2:7. I don't want to delete the whole quotation, but am not sure if deleting the questionable claim and inserting an elipsis would be the right way to go. Thoughts? Horatio325 (talk) 18:53, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

David Hypothermic?
The recruitment of Abishag follows (1 Kings 1) the statement that although David was wrapped in blankets, "he gat no heat" (KJV) or "could not keep warm" (New English Bible), which leads me to consider he had hypothermia. A medical article reported in The Guardian in the 1980s mentioned David's case as the one recorded case of hypothermia in the Bible but, being so long ago, I have not got the reference to put in. The article also mentioned that in WWII the Nazi Germans experimented in putting female nurses in bed with Luftwaffe airmen rescued from the sea to revive their body temperatures after the episode of exposure. Worth looking up.Cloptonson (talk) 09:08, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Heat in this context appears to be sexual vitality or even just a cure to low energy to carry on daily tasks. Commentaries I read suggest he was to absorb her vitality. Maybe there was some ancient awareness of scents of fertile females effecting men. The Body odour and sexual attraction article states: "Males are, however, more attracted to the scent of females with rare HLA alleles.[23] Men's arousal can be influenced by a variety of odours. For example; pumpkin pie, liquorice, doughnuts, and lavender can increase penile blood flow consequently causing arousal.[24]".  Abishag could have been a carrier of rare HLA alleles that men found arousing.  174.86.46.86 (talk) 04:20, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

The article doesn't talk about her age or that she was property
As na'arah she would be between 9 and 13 years old having not menstruated but was orgasmic; expectation 12.5 years old. She was inherited as part of the estate so she was owned and not a free person. It's poignant that in David's kingdom, owning and using a child for bed warmers was acceptable. Modern readers need to have this pointed out to them. 174.86.47.221 (talk) 07:05, 13 December 2023 (UTC)


 * I don't know where you get most of this stuff, but it's not in the Bible. Straight-up chattel slavery barely existed according to the Biblical laws governing various types of less free and unfree statuses, and certainly would not apply to her. AnonMoos (talk) 16:03, 14 December 2023 (UTC)