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.
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.
- BSB So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with 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 15:16And the king went forth, and all his household after him. And the king left ten women, which were concubines, to keep the house.
- 2 Sam 12:11–12Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
- 2 Sam 20:3And 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.
- Phil 3:19Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
- Isa 3:9The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
- Num 25:6And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
- 2 Sam 11:2And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
- Ezek 24:7For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust;
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith 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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