1:1–2:12 The book of 1 Kings opens by emphasizing the continuity of the Lord’s covenant with David (see 2 Sam 7:11-16). Solomon was the legitimate and divinely chosen heir to what God had granted his father David. The challenges to Solomon’s succession to the throne (1 Kgs 1:1–2:46) foreshadowed challenges to his kingship at the end of his reign (11:1-43) and the continuing struggles between Israel and Judah thereafter. 1:1-3 At seventy years of age (2 Sam 5:4-5), David was feeble, perhaps because of years of warfare and stress. He needed a young person to impart warmth, a medical remedy also described in Josephus’s Antiquities and by the Greek physician Galen. David’s diminishing powers encouraged Adonijah’s attempts to take the throne.