More concubines and wives. — In Deuteronomy 17:17, the law had been given for the future king, “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself.” David certainly came perilously near a violation of this law, although he did not, like his son Solomon, take wives and concubines in enormous number for the sake of having a great harem — an important element in the Oriental ideas of regal magnificence. Any possible ambiguity in the phrase “out of Jerusalem” is removed by the expression in the parallel place (1 Chronicles 14:3), “at Jerusalem.” Altogether, here and in Chronicles, the names of nineteen sons are mentioned; those of the daughters are not given, although one, Thamar, is mentioned in the story in 2 Samuel 13.

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