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2 Samuel 16:22

in 2 Samuel 16

So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

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.

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.

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This verse in 2 Samuel 16

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
So they spread Absalom a tent on the top of the house,.... On the top of his father's palace; this, as houses in Jerusalem and Judea were, was built flat, Deu 22:8; and it was on the very spot from whence David had a sight of Bathsheba, and conceived an impure lust after her.

This site's exposition

Give me counsel. What should we do

on 2 Samuel 16:20-22

Ahithophel counsels Absalom to “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace”. The deed fulfills Nathan's word at 12:11 that David's wives would be given to another. They pitch a tent on the roof, and it is done “in the sight of all Israel”.

This site's exposition

a tent for Absalom

Absalom's men pitched a tent on the palace roof, and all Israel saw him go in to his father's concubines. John Gill notes that Jerusalem's roofs were flat, as Deuteronomy 22:8 assumes. Nathan's word at 12:11 came true.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Salvian the Presbyter

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 2.5 · Written before 500.

proposed

He was expelled from his kingdom and fled as an exile to escape murder. You do not know of a son more wicked and bloodthirsty. Because he could not kill his father in his attempt to murder him, he defiled him with incest. By heaping …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

Israel - Who saw him go into the tent; and thence concluded, that he lay with them, as he had designed to do. God had threatened by Nathan, that for his defiling Bathsheba, David's own wives should be defiled in the face of the sun. This is now fulfilled: the Lord is righteous; and no word of his shall fall to the ground.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Ahithophel advised him to do it, that all Israel shall see it. A tent is accordingly spread on the top of the house for the purpose; so impudently does he declare his sin as Sodom. Yet, in this, the word of God was fulfilled in the letter of it: God had threatened, by Nathan, that, for defiling Bath-sheba, David should have his own wives publicly debauched ( ch. xii.

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The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּטּ֧וּand they pitched

    vaiyatuH5186 →214 times

  • לְאַבְשָׁל֛וֹםfor Absalom

    leavshalomH53 →110 times

  • הָאֹ֖הֶלthe tent

    haohelH168 →345 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • הַגָּ֑גthe roof

    hagagH1406 →30 times

  • וַיָּבֹ֤אand he went

    vaiyavo'H935 →2568 times

  • אַבְשָׁלוֹם֙Absalom

    ʾavshalomH53 →110 times

  • אֶל־into

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • פִּֽלַגְשֵׁ֣י[the] concubines of

    pilagsheiH6370 →37 times

  • אָבִ֔יוfather his

    ʾavivH1 →1212 times

  • לְעֵינֵ֖יto [the] eyes of

    leeineiH5869 →887 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃Israel

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

15 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

2 Samuel 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.5 works2 Samuel 15:16Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.5 works2 Samuel 12:12You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”5 works2 Samuel 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.4 worksJeremiah 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.2 worksNumbers 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 works
The other 9 cross-references, with their words ▾
Ezekiel 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.2 works2 Samuel 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.2 worksPhilippians 3:19Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.2 worksIsaiah 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.2 worksJeremiah 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.2 works1 Corinthians 5:1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.2 worksDeuteronomy 27:20‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’2 worksGenesis 38:26Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.2 worksJudges 19:1Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 20:3

    When 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,…

    it leads to

    • 2 Samuel 16:21–22

      Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 2 Samuel 15:16

      Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 8:12

    Are 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…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 3:3

      Therefore 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.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Deuteronomy 32:35

      Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

    • Jeremiah 6:15

      Are 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…

  • Through

    2 Samuel 15:16

    Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.

    it leads to

    • 2 Samuel 20:3

      When 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,…

    • Psalms 3:1

      O LORD, how my foes have increased! How many rise up against me!

  • Through

    Numbers 25:6

    Just 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…

    it leads to

    • Joel 2:17

      Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among…

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Samuel

David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Samuel: the study guide →Read 2 Samuel 16 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Salvian the Presbyter, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 2.5.

Read on in 2 Samuel 16 →