Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 1:36
And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so [too].
36. and said, Amen ] Expressing as usual a prayer ‘So let it be’; but at the same time expressing concurrence with all the king had said and a determination to carry his orders into effect. Thus the word implies also ‘So it shall be.’ But there is immediately subjoined ‘the Lord God of my lord the king say so too,’ implying that though David might plan and his servants labour for this end it would not be brought about except with God’s will. The sentence may be compared with Jeremiah (Jer 28:6), where the words are ‘The prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the Lord do so’; a reading which one or two MSS give here, but no doubt only as a gloss.
the Lord God of my lord ] R.V. ‘the Lord, the God of my lord.’ See above on 1Ki 1:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Ki 1:36
And Benaiah . . . said Amen.
The Amen of God and of man
Benaiah recognises the necessity that God shall ratify and effectuate mans desires and purposes. Mans Amen means May it be so. Jehovahs Amen alone means It shall be so. His words are the expression of–
I. Human helplessness. Mans plans only succeed when in the way of Gods Providence, and when carried out in His strength. The true, broad view of His Providence shows us a government of the worlds affairs, which takes in the life of the highest and humblest, their aims, their work, their wants, their very sins and opposition, and, as here, makes all contribute to the revelation of His Son and the setting up of His kingdom. At the same time He can fulfil Davids narrower plan, and secure Solomons elevation. He can secure my private wish and His own will; He can harmonise the course, and aims, and wants, of two lives, or twenty, or a hundred, even if not to converge for many years to come. If they harmonise, it is because He says so too. Men must strive in vain against Gods purposes; or for their own, without Jehovahs Amen. Men are, and are not, architects of their own fortune. Except the Lord build the house of David, or Benaiah, or any other, they labour in vain that build it. Babel-builders leave God out of their counsel; they must have Him in their work. Napoleons fall dates from his words at Berlin: I propose, and I dispose. Man proposes, God disposes.
II. Hope. Human effort is not to be paralysed: I cannot make my plan absolutely secure, or any plan, therefore I will do nothing. This is fatalism. There is a responsibility for effort lying on every man. David and Benaiah must propose. This done prayerfully and submissively, man may hope for a blessing on his effort, The godly man proposes, and may hope that God will say so too.
III. Humility. Not the sullen submission which bows, and bears, and yields, because there is no choice, if He does not say so too. But the reverent acknowledgment of a superior will to which a man loves to bow; the glad submission of every plan to the scrutiny and revision of a wise Father.
1. Let all our plans in life be conceived in this spirit. Write D.V. upon every record of purpose and desire.
2. All must be conceived and carried out in His strength. In our vows–
Thou art not only to perform Thy part,
Thou also mine: as when the league was made,
Thou didst at once Thyself indite
And hold my hand, while I did write.
–(Herbert.)
(H. J. Foster.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 36. Sit upon my throne] The matter of conducting a business of this kind seems to have been this:
1. The king elect was placed on the mule of his predecessor, and caused to ride abroad to one of the public wells, or to a river where there was the greatest concourse of people, that they might see who he was that was appointed. Solomon was here taken to the river Gihon, in order to be anointed; the continual stream or constantly running fountain, denoting the perpetuity of the kingdom.
2. The priest and the prophet anointed him in the name of the Lord; and thereby signified that he should be endued with all the kingly virtues; that he should reign by, under, and for the Lord.
3. The trumpet was then to be blown, and solemn proclamation made, that he was anointed king.
4. He was then brought and solemnly placed on the throne, to signify that he had now assumed the reins of government, and was about to administer justice and judgement to the people.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Amen; which was both an approbation of the kings fact, and a profession of his allegiance to the new king, and a petition to God to ratify and confirm it.
The Lord God of my lord the king say so too; the Lord stablish Solomons throne in spite of Adonijah, and all his other enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king,…. In the name of the rest:
and said, Amen; they all assented to it, and expressed their satisfaction in it:
the Lord God of my lord the king say so [too]; let it appear, by the prosperity and success that shall by divine Providence attend the new king, that this is according to the will of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Benaiah responded to the utterance of the royal will with the confirmatory “Amen, thus saith Jehovah the God of my lord the king;” i.e., may the word of the king become a word of Jehovah his God, who fulfils what He promises (Psa 33:9); and added the pious wish, “May Jehovah be with Solomon, as He was with David, and glorify his throne above the throne of David,” – a wish which was not merely “flattery of his paternal vanity” (Thenius), but which had in view the prosperity of the monarchy, and was also fulfilled by God (cf. 1Ki 3:11.).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(36) And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so too. (37) As the LORD hath been with my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David. (38) So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. (39) And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. (40) And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
The anointing Of Solomon is no more typical of Jesus, as the Christ of God, than the anointing of David, or any other of the kings or priests of Israel. But it doth not seem to become a question, but that all the anointings in the church, from the first to the last, were wholly with an eye to Christ. The only difference between them and him being only in the quantity. They all had the anointing of the oil of gladness, as it is called. But Jesus had the Spirit poured out upon him without measure. See Psa 45:7 ; Joh 3:34 . I do not, for my part, hesitate to believe, but that as the Son of God, as Mediator, is uniformly held forth in the old church as the Messiah, that is the anointed, which was to come; all the anointings and services with the holy oil, pointed expressly to him, and to him only. Sweet thought to the believer! Hence the church speaking of Jesus, saith, Because of the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth. Son 1:3 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Ki 1:36 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so [too].
Ver. 36. Amen: the Lord say so too.] Amen is, (1.) Assenting; (2.) Assevering; (3.) Assuring. It is as much as So be it; yea, So it shall be; It must be so, if, as here, the Lord our God say so too. Only we must stretch out our hearts after our Amen, say the Rabbis, and be swallowed up in God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Amen: Deu 27:15-26, Psa 72:19, Jer 11:5, Jer 28:6, Mat 6:13, Mat 28:20, 1Co 14:16
the Lord: 1Sa 25:29, 1Ch 17:27, Psa 18:2, Psa 63:1, Psa 89:20, Psa 89:26
Reciprocal: Psa 41:13 – Amen Rom 9:5 – Amen