Verse 16. - And Bathsheba bowed, and did obeisance [cf. 2 Samuel 14:4. But we are hardly justified in seeing here "more than the ordinary Eastern salutation" (Rawlinson). The Jewish court seems to have been very ceremonious and stately (1 Samuel 24:8; 2 Samuel 19:24). The king was the representative of Heaven]. And the king said, What wouldest thou [marg., What to thee? Not necessarily, What thy supplication? (as Rawlinson). It rather means generally, "What thy business?" Quid tibi, not quid petis.

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.And Bathsheba bowed, and did obeisance to the king,.... Not only as being her husband, but her sovereign; and this behaviour might intimate, that she had something to say to him, and more than to inquire of his health:

and the king said, wouldest thou? what hast thou to say to me? or to ask of me? what is thy will and pleasure, or thine errand to me?