2 Samuel 20:3

Det Norsk Bibelselskap

Så kom David hjem til Jerusalem. Og kongen tok de ti medhustruer som han hadde latt bli tilbake for å ta vare på huset, og lot dem bo i et hus for sig selv under varetekt; han forsørget dem med det nødvendige, men gikk ikke inn til dem. Der satt de nu innestengt til sin dødsdag og levde hele resten av sitt liv som enker.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ten women: 2 Samuel 15:16, 2 Samuel 16:21, 2 Samuel 16:22

and put: The confinement and retired maintenance of these women was the only measure which in justice and prudence could be adopted. In China, when an emperor dies, all his women are removed to an edifice called the palace of chastity, situated within the palace, in which they are shut up for the remainder of their lives.

ward: Heb. an house of ward, Genesis 40:3

shut: Heb. bound

living in widowhood: Heb. in widowhood of life

Reciprocal: Genesis 35:22 - lay with Genesis 38:26 - And he knew Judges 19:1 - a concubine Psalms 30:1 - at the 1 Corinthians 5:1 - that one

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" o, 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.

o אלמנות חיות "in viduitate vitae", Pagninus, Montanus.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Samuel 20:3. The ten women — He could not well divorce them; he could not punish them, as they were not in the transgression; he could no more be familiar with them, because they had been defiled by his son; and to have married them to other men might have been dangerous to the state: therefore he shut them up and fed them - made them quite comfortable, and they continued as widows to their death.