Bible Strands
2 Samuel 20:3
When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David returns to his Jerusalem palace after the rebellion and immediately orders the ten concubines he left behind to be placed under guard. He continues to supply their needs but permanently ends all marital relations, confining them for life.
The words — וַ/יָּבֹא (va/yavo) means "and he came," and וַ/יִּקַּח (va/yikkach) means "and he took." These verbs structurally mark David's physical return to Jerusalem and his immediate administrative action regarding the women.
The thread — The concubines' locked residence directly follows their initial placement in the palace (2 Samuel 15:16) and their public seizure during Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 16:21). The text's confinement language parallels the imprisonment imagery found in Genesis 40:3.
Why it lands — The passage records a political and personal severance that leaves the concubines in permanent isolation. It requires the reader to observe how absolute authority dictates the boundaries of human freedom without moral justification.
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 David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 16:21 Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
- 2 Samuel 15:16 Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.
- Genesis 40:3 and imprisoned them in the house of the captain of the guard, the same prison where Joseph was confined.