Abishag (died 1014 BC) was an Israelite woman from Shunem and a servant of King David. The daughter of Ahab, she was gifted to King David as a sign of loyalty from her father, who was the last of Israel's chiefs to join King David's union. Among her duties was to lie next to David and pass along her body heat to the sickly old man, who was still cold under his blankets. They never consummated their relationship, and, after David's death in 1014 BC, David's son Adonijah had Queen Mother Bathsheba ask his half-brother Solomon for Abishag's hand in marriage. Fearing that his half-brother sought to stake a claim to the throne through this marriage, Solomon had Adonijah executed. That same year, Abishag attempted to persuade King Solomon not to fall for Queen Makeda of Sheba's attempts to bewitch him into adopting pagan worship in Jerusalem, and she revealed how she had come to love Solomon as a man, even as he still saw her as a girl. Solomon, while showing some tenderness, cast her aside to attend a pagan "love festival" with Makeda, causing Abishag to go to the Temple to pray to God for Solomon's salvation. Just then, a violent lightning storm struck the Temple, causing Abishag to be crushed by falling masonry. Her death caused Makeda to feel guilty over betraying the trust of Solomon, and Solomon came to his senses after a deadly famine, his disowning by the High Priest and the prophet Nathan, and an Egyptian invasion.
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