And 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 a house under guard, and provided for them, but did not go in to them — So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood — David returns to Jerusalem and deals with the concubines whom Absalom violated. He provides for them but sequesters them, depriving them of conjugal relations with the king. Their status becomes that of living widows—alive but cut off from normal life. The detail shows David's attempt to deal with the shame resulting from Absalom's violation, though the concubines themselves bear the permanent cost.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse