Abishag

Abishag the Shunammite is brought into the royal household to attend the aged David, and after his death she becomes the focus of a request that costs Adonijah his life.

Brought to King David

The narrative opens with David's failing warmth and the proposed remedy: "Now King David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat. Therefore his slaves said to 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 your bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a beautiful damsel throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king" (1Ki 1:1-3). Her function is bodily warmth and personal attendance.

The narrator is explicit about the limits of the relationship: "And the damsel was very beautiful; and she cherished the king, and ministered to him; but the king didn't have any sex with her" (1Ki 1:4).

Adonijah's request

After David's death, Adonijah approaches Bathsheba and routes a request through her: "Speak, I pray you, to Solomon the king (for he will not say no to you), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife" (1Ki 2:17). Bathsheba carries the petition to Solomon: "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife" (1Ki 2:21).

Solomon reads the request as a claim on the kingdom itself: "And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; and [you ask] for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah" (1Ki 2:22). He swears that Adonijah will die for it: "Now therefore as Yahweh lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, surely Adonijah will be put to death this day. And King Solomon sent by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died" (1Ki 2:24-25).

The request for Abishag is the trigger for Adonijah's execution; she herself does not act in the scene.