"Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, 'Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king? Our lord David does not know it.'" — Nathan (*Natan*), the prophetic voice of divine judgment (2 Sam 12), now becomes the instrument of political action, bringing news to Bathsheba (*Bat-Sheva*, "daughter of the oath"). The phrase *ha-yada'ta* (have you not known) is rhetorical—Nathan is alerting her to a fait accompli that threatens her son. The irony deepens: David, the king, remains ignorant of the coronation ceremony in progress. Nathan's approach to Bathsheba rather than directly to David suggests reliance on maternal interest and feminine political agency—a reversal of patriarchal norms yet entirely pragmatic. The verb *halak malakh* (became/has become king) uses the qal perfect, suggesting completed action, but the narrative will immediately show this action as premature and reversible.

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