By: Emil G. Hirsch, Bernhard Pick
One of David's wives; known also as the mother of Adonijah (II Sam. iii. 4; I Kings i. 5, 11; ii. 13; I Chron. iii. 2), but apparently married to David after his accession to the throne. Adonijah is commonly designated as "the son of Haggith" (I Kings i. 5, 11; ii. 13) who was born at Hebron. In II Samuel Haggith and her son Adonijah are fourth in the list of David's wives and sons respectively.
This is the ordinary form of the name in the English Bible; it corresponds better to the Hebrew Haggith, "Festive", than Aggith, as the name is spelled in I Par., iii, 2. Haggith was one of David’s wives (2 Samuel 3:4). Whose daughter she was, we are not told. The Bible records only that she born to him Adonias, the fourth of his sons, in Hebron, before he was king over all Israel. That she was an uncommonly remarkable woman, seems to be suggested from the custom of Biblical writers to speak usually of Adonias as "the son of Haggith". Although harem intrigues have ever played a great part in the East, nothing indicates, however, that Haggith had anything to do either with the attempt of her son to secure for himself the crown of Israel (III Kings, I, 5-53), or with his fatal request, likely also prompted by political motives, to obtain his father’s Sunamite concubine, Abisag, from Solomon (1 Kings 2:13-25).-----------------------------------CHARLES L. SOUVAY Transcribed by Christine J. Murray The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York