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.
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.
- 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.
- 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 15:16The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.
- 2 Sam 12:11–12“This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
- 2 Sam 20:3David 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 custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.
- Phil 3:19whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
- Isa 3:9The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- Num 25:6Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
- 2 Sam 11:2At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
- Ezek 24:7For her blood is in the middle of her; she set it on the bare rock; she didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute’s forehead. You refused to be ashamed.
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
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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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