"Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king, and you have not let your servants know who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?" — Nathan's question is devastatingly rhetorical: *ha-me'ittekha ha-dabar ha-zeh* (has this thing come from you?). He is asking whether David authorized Adonijah's coronation or whether it is a usurpation. The phrase *ve-lo higadta le-'avdekha* (and you have not told your servants) emphasizes David's failure to *declare* the succession—a failure that has created the power vacuum into which Adonijah has rushed. The reference to *avdekha* (your servants) includes Nathan and the loyal faction, those who ought to have been the first to know David's will. Nathan's rhetoric transforms David's silence into a dereliction of duty—he has failed to exercise his prerogative as king to name his successor.

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