Bible Strands
2 Samuel 14:27
Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — This narrative statement records Absalom’s family after his return to Jerusalem but before his two-year estrangement from King David. It functions as a genealogical footnote within the broader account of Absalom’s life and political maneuvering.
The words — The name תָּמָר (ta.Mar) literally denotes a palm tree, while the verb וַיִּוָּלְדוּ (va.yi.val.Du) simply records that they were born. These terms ground the genealogical record in concrete, everyday language without embellishment.
The thread — Tamar’s beauty and identity resurface in 2 Samuel 13:1 when Amnon pursues her, and Absalom’s lack of a son in 2 Samuel 18:18 explains his earlier construction of a memorial pillar. The lineage note thus bridges Absalom’s domestic prosperity with his eventual dynastic failure.
Why it lands — The text states the birth of Absalom’s children before noting Tamar’s beauty, establishing family ties that later drive the narrative’s violence. It asks the reader to track how recorded lineage directly enables the political and personal conflicts that follow.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 18:18 During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.
- 2 Samuel 13:1 After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom.
- Job 18:16 The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away.
- Isaiah 14:22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 22:30 This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”