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2 Samuel 20 · a question people ask

What happened to the ten women David had left in Jerusalem?

In the text

When David fled, "The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house" (15:16), and Absalom went in to them (16:21-22). When David came back to his house at Jerusalem, he "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" (20:3). The chapter tells what David did. It gives no reason for it and passes no judgment on it, and this answer doesn't add one.

The verses

“The king went out, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.”
2 Samuel 15:16 · World English Bible
“Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.” 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.”
2 Samuel 16:21-22 · World English Bible
“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 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.”
2 Samuel 20:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Samuel 20

2 Samuel 20: A mother in Israel

Sheba's revolt opens with "neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse" (20:1) and ends with a wise woman asking Joab, "Why will you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?" (20:19): the same Hebrew word, nachalah. And her "a mother in Israel" is, in Hebrew, the two words Deborah used of herself (Judges 5:7).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions