So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
Parallel translations
- WEB So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
- KJV So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
- NKJV So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
- NASB So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom had relations with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
- NLT So they set up a tent on the palace roof where everyone could see it, and Absalom went in and had sex with his father’s concubines.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Absalom publicly takes David's concubines on the palace roof in sight of all Israel. This fulfills Nathan's prophecy of judgment on David's house.
Overview
On the very rooftop near where David had watched Bathsheba (11:2), Absalom defiles his father's concubines before the nation, an unmistakable claim to the throne. This act precisely fulfills the LORD's word through Nathan (12:11-12), demonstrating that God's prophetic judgments come to pass. It is a grave example of sin's generational fallout, while also magnifying the grace that one day provides in Christ a King who is wholly righteous.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 2 Sam 15:16Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.
- 2 Sam 12:11–12This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.
- 2 Sam 20:3When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to care for 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.
- Phil 3:19Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
- Isa 3:9The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- Num 25:6Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
- 2 Sam 11:2One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Ezek 24:7For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.
- Jer 8:12Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.
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Christ at the center
God's covenant with David — a son whose throne and kingdom would last forever (7:12–16) — finds its yes in Jesus, the Son of David who reigns without end.
How 2 Samuel 16:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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