2 Samuel 20:3

3 David returned to his palace in Jerusalem. He had left ten concubines there to take care of the palace. He put them in a house and kept them under guard. He gave them what they needed. But he didn't make love to them. They were kept under guard until the day they died. They lived as if they were widows.

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 An evil man who always stirred up trouble happened to be in Gilgal. His name was Sheba, the son of Bicri. Sheba was from the tribe of Benjamin. He blew his trumpet. Then he shouted, "We don't have any share in David's kingdom! Jesse's son is not our king! Men of Israel, every one of you go back home!"

2 So all of the men of Israel deserted David. They followed Sheba, the son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stayed with their king. They remained with him from the Jordan River all the way to Jerusalem.

3 David returned to his palace in Jerusalem. He had left ten concubines there to take care of the palace. He put them in a house and kept them under guard. He gave them what they needed. But he didn't make love to them. They were kept under guard until the day they died. They lived as if they were widows.

4 The king said to Amasa, "Send for the men of Judah. Tell them to come to me within three days. And be here yourself."

5 So Amasa went to get the men of Judah. But he took longer than the time the king had set for him.