20:1 Now a wicked man 1 named Sheba son of Bicri, a Benjaminite, 2 happened to be there. He blew the trumpet 3 and said,
“We have no share in David;
we have no inheritance in this son of Jesse!
Every man go home, 4 O Israel!”
20:2 So all the men of Israel deserted 5 David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River 6 to Jerusalem. 7
20:3 Then David went to his palace 8 in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. 9 Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. 10 They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.
1 tn Heb “a man of worthlessness.”
2 tn The expression used here יְמִינִי (yÿmini) is a short form of the more common “Benjamin.” It appears elsewhere in 1 Sam 9:4 and Esth 2:5. Cf. 1 Sam 9:1.
3 tn Heb “the shophar” (the ram’s horn trumpet). So also v. 22.
4 tc The MT reads לְאֹהָלָיו (lÿ’ohalav, “to his tents”). For a similar idiom, see 19:9. An ancient scribal tradition understands the reading to be לְאלֹהָיו (le’lohav, “to his gods”). The word is a tiqqun sopherim, and the scribes indicate that they changed the word from “gods” to “tents” so as to soften its theological implications. In a consonantal Hebrew text the change involved only the metathesis of two letters.
5 tn Heb “went up from after.”
6 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
7 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
8 tn Heb “house.”
9 tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”
10 tn Heb “he did not come to them”; NAB “has no further relations with them”; NIV “did not lie with them”; TEV “did not have intercourse with them”; NLT “would no longer sleep with them.”