What Does 2 Samuel 3:7 Mean?
And Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?
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 Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Wherefore hast thou gone in unto my father’s concubine?THE KEY
“Gone in unto” turns sexual access into entry into the father’s house, and therefore a claim on its power.
THE MEANING
This verse shows how access to a woman’s body can be made to carry a claim over a household’s authority. Ish-bosheth’s question names the act as entry into his father’s domain, while Rizpah’s name holds the image of a glowing coal and exceeds the role the accusation assigns her.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that sexual access stays private and carries no meaning beyond the act. Here, it becomes a claim upon the father’s household and power.
THE ROOT
בָּאתָ אֶל
bāʾtā ʾel
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
To come, enter, or arrive.
“gone in to” in this verse is bāʾtā ʾel. The Hebrew says “you came to” the concubine. The verb’s sense of entering makes the sexual act also sound like an entrance into Saul’s household, where access carries a claim to power.
ALSO GROWS
bōʾ: To come or enter.
בּוֹא
The basic verb keeps the sense of movement into a place that the phrase carries here.
mābōʾ: Entrance or approach.
מָבוֹא
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s language of entry more visible: the disputed act crosses into the father’s household.
רִצְפָּה
riṣpāh
GROWS FROM
רצף
r-ṣ-p
To glow or burn; the related noun names a glowing coal or hot stone.
Rizpah’s name is also the Hebrew word rendered “live coal” in Isaiah 6:6. The ember image gives her a vivid presence in a verse where the men’s dispute frames her as a claim on Saul’s authority.
ALSO GROWS
rāṣaph: To glow or burn.
רָצַף
This verbal form carries the heat at the root of Rizpah’s name.
riṣpāh: A live coal or hot stone.
רִצְפָּה
The same noun names the live coal in Isaiah 6:6, showing the image held in Rizpah’s name.
THE PATTERN
An entrance into a household can be read as a claim to the authority held by that household.
And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's concubines, whom he left to guard the house. And all Israel will hear that you have become a stench to your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.And King Solomon answered and said to his mother, Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zeruiah.Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up from elsewhere, that one is a thief and a robber.THE THREAD
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.Rizpah is the same Hebrew word rendered “live coal” here: רִצְפָּה (riṣpāh). The ember image lets her name remain vivid while the accusation reduces her to the royal claim she represents.
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