What Does 2 Samuel 16:22 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Absalom makes his father’s household a public stage: sexual access to the concubines becomes a claim of authority before all Israel.
THE MEANING
Here, Absalom uses his father’s concubines to make his claim over the household visible. The wording does not report the women’s consent; it places them within a struggle staged before all Israel. The verse exposes a living pattern: power can use another person’s body to make its claim public.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that visibility proves rightful authority dissolves here: being seen by all Israel does not make sexual possession consent or justice.
THE ROOT
וַיָּבֹא
wayyavo
GROWS FROM
בוא
Come, enter, arrive.
The Hebrew uses a verb of entering in the phrase “went in unto,” a construction that describes sexual intercourse here. The wording does not report the concubines’ consent, while the public staging makes the act a visible claim of power.
ALSO GROWS
boʾ: Come or enter.
בּוֹא
This is the verb used in the verse; with “unto” a woman, it can describe sexual relations rather than a neutral arrival.
biʾah: Coming in; sexual intercourse.
בִּיאָה
This related word makes explicit the sexual sense carried by “went in unto.”
אַבְשָׁלוֹם
ʾAvshalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
Be whole or complete; the root behind wholeness and peace.
“Absalom” in this verse is ʾAvshalom. Avshalom joins av, “father,” with shalom, “wholeness” or “peace.” The name carries wholeness into a scene where he uses his father’s concubines to stage a rupture in the father’s house.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the second element of Avshalom’s name, set against the household rupture in the verse.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This related form shows the root’s sense of an intact whole, sharply contrasted with the divided household on display.
לְעֵינֵי
leʿêney
GROWS FROM
עין
Eye; the same Hebrew word also names a spring or fountain.
“sight” in this verse is leʿêney. The Hebrew phrase is literally “to the eyes of all Israel,” making the people witnesses to the act. The same word also means a spring or fountain; here, the public gaze is where the act emerges as shared knowledge.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye; organ of sight.
עַיִן
The phrase literally puts the act before the eyes of all Israel.
ʿayin: Spring or fountain.
עַיִן
The same Hebrew word carries this second sense, adding the image of a point from which something emerges into view.
THE PATTERN
When power stages a violation before witnesses, public visibility exposes the rupture without making it rightful.
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.THE THREAD
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.Both verses use the Hebrew eye-word: the current verse says the act occurs “to the eyes of all Israel,” while this verse says “before thine eyes” and “in the sight of this sun.” The repeated root makes public witnessing part of the act itself.
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