2 Samuel 20:3

3 When David arrived home in Jerusalem, the king took the ten concubines he had left to watch the palace and placed them in seclusion, under guard. He provided for their needs but didn't visit them. They were virtual prisoners until they died, widows as long as they lived.

2 Samuel 20:3 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 20:3

And David came to his house at Jerusalem
His palace there, which was in that part of the city called the fort of Zion, and city of David:

and the king took the ten women [his] concubines, whom he had left to
keep the house;
when he fled from Jerusalem because of Absalom, ( 2 Samuel 15:16 ) ;

and put them in ward;
partly as a punishment for easily yielding to the lust of Absalom, and partly that they might not be seen, which would bring to remembrance his sin:

and fed them;
he did not put them to death, nor put them away, but kept them thus confined, and made a proper provision for them, not suffering them to marry any other, and be maintained by them:

but went not in unto them:
into their apartments to lie with them, having been defiled by his son, ( 2 Samuel 16:22 ) ;

so they were shut up unto the day of their death;
kept in the ward till they died:

living in widowhood;
neither used by the king as his concubines, as they had been before, nor suffered to many any other; or "in the widowhood of life" ^F15, which is so expressed, to distinguish it from widowhood made by death; this was such sort of widowhood as obtained while their husband was living; so the Targum,

``widows of their husband alive,''

or remaining.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (twyx twnmla) "in viduitate vitae", Pagninus, Montanus.

2 Samuel 20:3 In-Context

1 Just then a good-for-nothing named Sheba son of Bicri the Benjaminite blew a blast on the ram's horn trumpet, calling out, We've got nothing to do with David, there's no future for us with the son of Jesse! Let's get out of here, Israel - head for your tents!

2 So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stayed committed, sticking with their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

3 When David arrived home in Jerusalem, the king took the ten concubines he had left to watch the palace and placed them in seclusion, under guard. He provided for their needs but didn't visit them. They were virtual prisoners until they died, widows as long as they lived.

4 The king ordered Amasa, "Muster the men of Judah for me in three days; then report in."

5 Amasa went to carry out his orders, but he was late reporting back.