Eli recently completed his MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focusing on the Bible .Nowadays, he teaches Bible, Jewish Philosophy and Mathematics in ”The Beit Hinuch high school” in Jerusa
September 08th, 2009 01:26 PM ET

The art of manipulation- Nathan the prophet

In the beginning of the book of Kings we are reading that King David is really old, the maidservant that his slaves sand him doesn't help to recover from his coldness, and this are the days before the old king is giving his thrown to the new one. In this point after that Adonijah the son of Haggith started to make his first moves to be the next king of the people of Israel, we are hearing a conversation between Nathan the prophet and David's favorite wife Bath-Sheba that appears after Adoinijah prepare himself to be a king in a feats that he did in a place closed to his father palace.

When Nathan address to Bath-Sheba he knows in his heart two things: first, he didn't get an invitation to the feats of Adoinijah, so he is feeling angry; second, the one who supposed to be the king after Davis is Solomon.
In order to arrange this he is doing the best manipulation that we can find: he creates a circle of anger against Adoinijah and ac circle of support in favor of Solomon.
Let us see The Scriptures in 1 Kings 1:11-14-

" וַיֹּאמֶר נָתָן, אֶל-בַּת-שֶׁבַע אֵם-שְׁלֹמֹה לֵאמֹר, הֲלוֹא שָׁמַעַתְּ, כִּי מָלַךְ אֲדֹנִיָּהוּ בֶן-חַגִּית; וַאֲדֹנֵינוּ דָוִד, לֹא יָדָע : וְעַתָּה, לְכִי אִיעָצֵךְ נָא עֵצָה: וּמַלְּטִי, אֶת-נַפְשֵׁךְ, וְאֶת-נֶפֶשׁ בְּנֵךְ, שְׁלֹמֹה. לְכִי וּבֹאִי אֶל-הַמֶּלֶךְ דָּוִד, וְאָמַרְתְּ אֵלָיו הֲלֹא-אַתָּה אֲדֹנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲמָתְךָ לֵאמֹר, כִּי-שְׁלֹמֹה בְנֵךְ יִמְלֹךְ אַחֲרַי, וְהוּא יֵשֵׁב עַל-כִּסְאִי; וּמַדּוּעַ, מָלַךְ אֲדֹנִיָּהוּ הִנֵּה, עוֹדָךְ מְדַבֶּרֶת שָׁם--עִם-הַמֶּלֶךְ; וַאֲנִי אָבוֹא אַחֲרַיִךְ, וּמִלֵּאתִי אֶת-דְּבָרָיִךְ. :

"Then Nathan spoke unto Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon, saying: 'Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not? 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. Go and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him: Didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear unto thy handmaid, saying: Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then doth Adonijah reign? Behold, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee, and confirm thy words.'

Nathan is trying and succeeding to scare Bath-Sheba by telling her that her son wouldn't be the king because Adonijah is already a king. Like a magician he tells her that she need to be hurry and lie to her husband that he swore that Solomon will be the king after him , and after she did it, he said it too.
The best trick in the world is to tell someone a lie and then to take another person that will agree with your lies , that will say the lie one more time - the two that are telling a lie are better than one truth!

Main phrases of the post + transcription + translation

Hebrew  Transcription    Translation
נָתָן          nātān                Nathan
שֶׁקֶר        Šeqer               Lie
אֱמֶת         'ĕmet               Truth
דָּוִד          dāwid                David
מָנִיפּוּלַצְיָה  mānîppûlatsyāh Manipulation
יוֹרֵשׁ        yôrēŠ                 successor

Eli@eteachergroup.com

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About this blog
A blog for people who wants to know the Bible through the window of the original Hebrew to gain a deeper understanding of the text.