How Could King David Take Avishag?

The Aish Rabbi Replies

Thank you for the good question. In those days the belief was that a virgin girl produced more warmth than a married woman, and this was considered a medical necessity for the ailing king – as nothing else was effective in keeping him warm. The commentator Malbim also suggests that they didn’t want one of his wives to be so close to him because marital relations would have further weakened him. Also, David didn't marry Avishag, not only because he was likely too old to consummate the marriage, but because he had already married the maximum number of wives permitted to a king – 18 (see Talmud Sanhedrin 21a). In addition, since divorce is so serious in the eyes of the Torah, he did not divorce one of his other wives before she came to serve him. The Sages in fact derive from here that it’s better for a man to be in seclusion with a single woman (a Rabbinical prohibition only first forbidden in King David’s time) than divorce his wife (ibid., 22a). (This obviously should not be taken as practical advice. David needed this for a serious medical condition.) Some alternatively suggest that Avishag became the king’s concubine, as kings were accustomed to have in Biblical times. Avishag was thus permitted to David, but as the verse attests, he was old and did not “know” her.

(It should be noted that King David was only 70 at this time. The commentators discuss why despite his great righteousness David aged relatively young and lived a relatively brief life.)

(Sources: Talmud Sanhedrin 21a, 22a; Radbaz IV 225: She'eilat Ya'avetz II 15.)