Verse 27. - Is this thing done [אִם = an, or perhaps, num, "Is it then the case that," etc.] by [lit., from with] my lord the king [i.e., with his privity and by his appointment], and thou hast not showed it unto thy servant [Hebrews "made thy servant know." Nathan submits that he has a strong claim (2 Samuel 12:25) to be informed, should there be any change in the king's plans], who should sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him? [Same expression as in ver. 20. The repetition was well calculated to impress upon the king the importance of nominating a successor at once.

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.Is this thing done by my lord the king,.... With his knowledge and consent, and by his orders:

and thou hast not showed it unto thy servant; meaning himself, who had brought him a message from the Lord, signifying that Solomon should succeed him; and therefore if that had been countermanded, it seemed strange that he should not have acquainted him with it: or "to thy servants", as the Arabic version; for the word has a plural ending, though pointed as singular; and so it may mean not only himself, but the rest of David's faithful servants that were about him at court, as Kimchi observes:

who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? if he had altered his mind, or had had any direction from the Lord to make any change, he wondered at it that he should neither acquaint him, nor any of his trusty friends, with it.