1 Kings 1:27 (ESV)

27 Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not told your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

Nathan concluded his words by returning to the question with which he began. Was this according to David’s purpose? Did David choose Adonijah, and did he sanction the coronation feast? Did David determine who would be invited, and did he determine those who would not be informed to their own peril?

Nathan asked this question in language that suggests that he could not believe that the king could have done something so improbable. Adonijah’s plot was constructed so that an outsider might have concluded that there was no question as to the legitimacy of his claim. But Nathan presented the matter in terms so that David must have seen rebellion behind the scheme.