What Does 2 Samuel 20:3 Mean?
And David came to his house in Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his concubines, whom he had left to guard the house, and set them in a house of guard, and fed them, but did not go in to them. And they were bound until the day of their death, living as widows.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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 ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.THE KEY
The root of “keep” is the root of “ward”: the women move from guarding the house to being held under guard.
THE MEANING
A person can be kept alive while being denied freedom and intimacy. The women receive food, yet they are shut away, and widowhood becomes the condition under which they live until death.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that provision alone proves someone is being cared for: food can sustain life while control removes agency and relationship.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁמָר
mishmar
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
shamar
Guard, keep watch, preserve by watching over.
“guard the house” in this verse is mishmar. English makes “keep” and “ward” sound unrelated, but both grow from שׁמר (shamar), meaning “to keep or guard.” The women first keep the house, then are placed under keeping themselves, a reversal of who is guarding whom.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To keep, guard, or watch.
שָׁמַר
This verb describes the task the women are left to do for the house, linking their former role to their later confinement.
mishmeret: A watch, guard duty, or charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This related noun carries the sense of being held under watch, showing the confinement within “ward.”
THE PATTERN
Keeping a person alive, watching over them, and releasing them are distinct acts.
And he put them under guard in the house of the chief of the slaughterers, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.Psalm 121 uses שׁמר (shamar, “keep” or “guard”) for preservation, while 2 Samuel uses the same root for the women’s former task and their ward. The shared root shows its range; what the keeping does to the person gives it its force.
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