20:3 Then David went to his palace 3 in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. 4 Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. 5 They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.
1 tn Part of the Greek tradition wrongly understands Hebrew מַלְכָּם (malkam, “their king”) as a proper name (“Milcom”). Some English versions follow the Greek here, rendering the phrase “the crown of Milcom” (so NRSV; cf. also NAB, CEV). TEV takes this as a reference not to the Ammonite king but to “the idol of the Ammonite god Molech.”
2 tn Heb “and its weight [was] a talent of gold.” The weight of this ornamental crown was approximately 75 lbs (34 kg). See P. K. McCarter, II Samuel (AB), 313.
3 tn Heb “house.”
4 tn Heb “and he placed them in a guarded house.”
5 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.”