2 Samuel 12:23

I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. These words indicate, first of all, much personal feeling for the child. Hence some have supposed that, as Solomon is placed last of Bathsheba's four sons in 2 Samuel 5:14 and 1 Chronicles 3:5 , three other sons had already been borne by her, and that consequently this child, the fruit of their adultery, would now have been seven or eight years of age. It is certainly remarkable that in 1 Chronicles 3:16 David calls him "the lad" (so the Hebrew), though in every other place he is styled "the child." On the other hand, we gather from 1 Chronicles 3:14 that probably he was as yet the only child, and this is the more reasonable view, even if Solomon was the youngest son (but see note on 1 Chronicles 3:24 ). But secondly, the words indicate a belief in the continued existence of the child, and even that David would recognize and know him in the future world. Less than this would have given no comfort to the father for his loss. Now, it is true that we can find no clear dogmatic teaching in the early Scriptures upon the immortality of the soul. Job could give expression to no such hope in Job 7:6-10 , and the belief in a world to come would have solved the difficulties of himself and his friends, which really are left unsolved. Even in the Psalms there are words that border on despair (see Psalms 6:5 ; Psalms 30:9 ; Psalms 88:11 ; Psalms 115:17 ); nor had Hezekiah any such belief in continued existence as could solace him in the expectation of an early death ( Isaiah 38:18 , Isaiah 38:19 ). This hopelessness was not unnatural at a time when the doctrine had not been as yet clearly taught. On the other hand, in Psalms 17:15 and Psalms 16:9-11 We find proof that David did believe in his own immortality. For though the latter words have a second and higher meaning, yet the primary sense of Psalms 16:10 is that David's own soul (or self) would not always remain in Sheol, the abode of the departed, nor would he, Jehovah's anointed one, see such corruption as would end in annihilation.