Verse 31. - Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence to the king [see on vers. 16, 23], and said, Let my lord king David live forever. [This hyperbolical expression is here only used of a Hebrew monarch. It was constantly addressed to the Babylonian and Persian kings. See Daniel 2:4; Daniel 3:9; Daniel 5:10; Daniel 6:21; Nehemiah 2:3.

1:11-31 Observe Nathan's address to Bathsheba. Let me give thee counsel how to save thy own life, and the life of thy son. Such as this is the counsel Christ's ministers give us in his name, to give all diligence, not only that no man take our crown, Re 3:11, but that we save our lives, even the lives of our souls. David made a solemn declaration of his firm cleaving to his former resolution, that Solomon should be his successor. Even the recollection of the distresses from which the Lord redeemed him, increased his comfort, inspired his hopes, and animated him to his duty, under the decays of nature and the approach of death.Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence to the king,.... Thereby expressing her veneration of him, and thankfulness to him for his favour to her and her son, in fulfilling his promise and oath:

and said, let my lord King David live for ever; which though a common form of salutation of kings, not only in Israel, but in other nations, is not to be considered as a mere compliment, but as expressing the real desires and affection of her heart to the king; signifying hereby that her solicitations on the behalf of her son did not arise from any desire of the king's death; she heartily wished him health to live long and easy; and all her request was, that Solomon her son might succeed him, whenever it pleased God to remove him; or seeing he was now a dying man as it were, her prayer was that his soul might live for ever in happiness in the world to come; so Kimchi interprets it.