Note 2 — Chapter IX · The Song of Songs.

In 1 Chron. iii. 19 Shelomith is a descendant of Solomon. In these studies “Abishag the Shunamith,” 1 Kings i. 2, has been conjecturally connected with Psalm xlv., and the identity of her name with Shulamith has also been mentioned. This identity of the names was suggested by Gesenius and accepted by Fürst, Renan, and others. Abishag is thus also a sort of “Solomona.” In 1 Kings i. there is some indication of a lacuna between verses 4 and 5. “And the damsel (Abishag) was very fair; and she cherished the King and ministered to him; but the King knew her not. Then”—what? why, all about Adonijah’s effort to become king! David did not marry Abishag; she remained a maiden after his death and free to wed either of the brothers. The care with which this is certified was probably followed by some story either of her cleverness or of her relations with Solomon which gave her the name Shunamith—Shulamith—Solomona. Of the Shunamith it is said they found her far away and “brought her to the King,” and in the beginning of the Song Shulamith says “The King hath brought me into his chambers.” This suggests a probability of legends having arisen concerning Abishag, and concerning the lady entreated in Psalm xlv., which, had they been preserved, might perhaps account for the coincidence of names, as well as the parallelism of the situations at court of the lady of the psalm, of Abishag the Shunamith, and of Shulamith in the “song.”

The “great woman” called Shunamith in 2 Kings 4 was probably so called because of her “wisdom” in discerning the prophet Elisha, and the reference to the town of Shunem (verse 8) inserted by a writer who misunderstood the meaning of Shunamith. This story is unknown to Josephus, though he tells the story of the widow’s pot of oil immediately preceding, in the same chapter, and asserts that he has gone over the acts of Elisha “particularly,” “as we have them set down in the sacred books.” (Antiquities. Book ix. ch. 4.) The chapter (2 Kings iv.) is mainly a mere travesty of the stories told in 1 Kings xvii., transparently meant to certify that the miraculous power of Elijah had passed with his mantle to Elisha. There is no mention of Shunem in the original legend. (1 Kings xvii.)