2 Samuel 20:3

_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._ The king took the ten women his concubines. Jewish writers say that the widowed queens of Hebrew monarchs were not allowed to marry again, but were obliged to pass the rest of their lives in strict seclusion. So are the wives of the emperor of China. On the death of the reigning sovereign all his women are transferred from the palace to a separate mansion, where they live in seclusion during the rest of their lives (Macarlney, p. 375). David treated his concubines in the same manner, after the outrage committed on them by Absalom. They were not divorced, because they were guiltless; but they were no longer publicly recognized as...

1-3 One trial arises after another for our good, till we reach the place where sin and sorrow are for ever done away. Angry disputers misunderstand or misconstrue one another's words; proud men will have every thing their own way, or wholly refuse their assistance. The favour of the many is not to be depended upon; and what have others to expect, when Hosanna to the Son of David was soon changed to Crucify him, crucify him?...

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....

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 20:1 THERE HAPPENED TO BE THERE A MAN OF BELIAL. The fierce words of the men of Judah led to evil results. It was a time when all wise and thoughtful persons would have laboured for peace, and tried to soothe and appease the angry passions fomented by the late war. Instead of this, the men of Judah irritated the Israelites with insult and contumely, and the day, intended as one of rejoicing and of the restoration of David to his throne by common consent, saw the rebellion break forth afresh. Among those who had taken part in the discussion with Judah was Sheba, a man of Belial, that is, a worthless fellow, but possibly possessed of rank and influence; for, according to many commentators, _ben-Bichri _does not mean THE SON OF BICHRI, but "a descendant of Becher," the second son of Benjamin ...

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,...

10. THE REVOLT OF SHEBA CHAPTER 20 _ 1. Sheba's revolt (2 Samuel 20:1)_ 2. The ten concubines shut up (2 Samuel 20:3) 3. Amasa's failure (2 Samuel 20:4) 4. Joab and the death of Amasa (2 Samuel 20:7) 5. Joab, the wise woman and the death of Sheba (2 Samuel 20:14) 6. David's officials (2 Samuel 20:23) The final revolt in David's reign was headed by a wicked man, whose name was Sheba. Israe

1 SAMUEL 20. THE REVOLT OF SHEBA (J). 2 SAMUEL 20:1 F. The result of this altercation was a fresh rebellion under a Benjamite, Sheba ben Bichri. 2 SAMUEL 20:3. The members of the king's harem whom he had left in Jerusalem are condemned to pass the rest of their days in seclusion (_cf._ 2 Samuel 16:21). 2 SAMUEL 20:4. David bade his new commander-in-chief, Amasa, assemble the general levy of Judah by a given day; the day came, but Amasa and the army did not appear. A few days before Amasa had been in command of an army fighting against Judah, and the men of Judah might be slow to tru

David's return to Jerusalem 3. _living in widowhood_ Either IN WIDOWHOOD FOR LIFE, or as the Targum explains it, IN WIDOWHOOD WHILE THEIR HUSBAND WAS STILL ALIVE. Since they had been appropriated by Absalom, they could no longer be regarded as members of the royal harem, nor could they be set at liberty....

THE KING TOOK THE TEN WOMEN HIS CONCUBINES, &C.— As soon as David arrived at Jerusalem, one of his first cares was to remove those _concubines,_ or secondary wives, whom Absalom had so scandalously abused. He ordered them, therefore, to be separated from the palace, and maintained in a proper place of seclusion and retirement, where they ended their lives as widows. The Jews say, that the widows of their kings could never marry again. David treated them as widows, and allowed them not to appear again in public, that there might be as little renewal as possible in the minds of men of the opprobrious infamy of his son. Mahomet, who borrowed a variety of his laws from the Jews, forbade his wives to marry again after his death. See Selden, Uxor. Heb. lib. 1: cap. 10. REFLECTIONS.—When men's spirits are exasperated in popular tumults, some crafty and ambitious head fails not to improve the c...

V. DAVID'S LAST DAYS AND SONG, 2 Samuel 20:1 to 2 Samuel 24:25. 1. The Reorganization of the Kingdom, 2 Samuel 20:1-26. _Sheba's Revolt._ 2 Samuel 20:1-3 And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name _was_ Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel. 2 So every man of Israel went up from after David, _and_ followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem. 3 And David came to