The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible

2 Samuel5:12–16

David’s Family Grows

Generated by AI. It can be wrong, and it has no authority. Every note here is fallible commentary — never the Word itself. Public-domain sources are quoted and named; machine synthesis is marked and meant to be checked. Weigh all of it against Scripture. “They received the word with all readiness… and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” — Acts 17:11
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2 Samuel 5:12–16 — David’s Family Grows. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

12“And David realized that the LORD had established him as king ove…”+

12And David realized that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

dā·wiḏ way·yê·ḏa‘ kî- Yah·weh hĕ·ḵî·nōw lə·me·leḵ ‘al- yiś·rā·’êl wə·ḵî niś·śê mam·laḵ·tōw ba·‘ă·ḇūr ‘am·mōw yiś·rā·’êl

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-knew, David, that YHWH had-established-him for-king over Israel, and-that he-had-lifted-high his-kingdom for-the-sake-of his-people Israel.

Where the English smooths the original

  • וַיֵּ֣דַע וַיֵּ֣דַע (way·yê·ḏa‘, Qal consecutive imperfect of yâdaʻ, H3045) — flatly “knew.” Strong's defines the root as “to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing),” so the knowledge is evidential, read off events. BSB's “realized” and the older versions' “perceived” are both attempts at that evidential force; Poole names the evidence as “the promises which God had made him, and the constant course of God's providence favouring him,” and K&D supplies the ellipsis outright: “(sc., from the success of his enterprises).” Note also that the interlinear lists David first for English readability; the Hebrew clause opens with the verb, so the sentence begins with the act of knowing and only then names the knower.
  • הֱכִינ֧וֹ הֱכִינ֧וֹ (hĕ·ḵî·nōw, Hifil perfect + 3ms suffix, kûwn, H3559) — the root is “properly, to be erect.” The Hifil makes it causative: YHWH did not merely approve David, He set him upright and made him stand. English “established him as king” turns a physical image of being stood up and braced into an administrative status. K&D keeps the force: “Jehovah had firmly established him king over Israel.”
  • נִשֵּׂ֣א נִשֵּׂ֣א (niś·śê, Piel perfect, nâsâʼ, H5375) — “to lift, in a great variety of applications.” The Piel intensifies: lifted-high, heaved up. “Exalted” is correct but abstract; the Hebrew is the verb you would use of raising a weight. The same subject who stood David up (v. 12a) now lifts his kingdom — two physical verbs for one divine act, and in both David is the object, never the agent.
  • בַּעֲב֖וּר בַּעֲב֖וּר (ba·‘ă·ḇūr, ʻâbûwr, H5668) — Strong's glosses the noun as “properly, crossed,” i.e. on account of, for the sake of. English “for the sake of His people Israel” reads as a polite dedication; the Hebrew makes Israel the reason the transaction crossed over to David at all. Ellicott, Benson, Gill, Henry and the Pulpit all fasten on exactly this preposition: the kingdom was not given to David for David.
Word by word14 · parsed+
דָּוִ֔דdā·wiḏAnd DavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
וַיֵּ֣דַעway·yê·ḏa‘realizedH3045
√ yâdaʻ — to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
yâdaʻ — to know, properly to ascertain by seeing (Qal) The verb of evidential knowing, not of revelation: no prophet speaks here, no oracle is cited. David reads the hand of God off the outcome of his own reign. That is the note of danger as well as comfort — the same method of reading providence will, four chapters and a rooftop later, tell him nothing at all. Gill grounds it in “the prosperity and success which attended him in everything he set his hand to.”
כִּֽי־kî-thatH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
יְהוָ֛הYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉhôvâh — the covenant name The divine name is the grammatical subject of both perfects that follow. The verse has exactly one actor.
הֱכִינ֧וֹhĕ·ḵî·nōwhad established himH3559
√ kûwn — properly, to be erect (iVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular
kûwn — properly, to be erect (Hifil, causative) Hifil of a root meaning to stand firm: God caused David to stand. The same root will govern the dynastic promise of ch. 7, where what is made to stand is not a man but a throne; here the establishing is still personal and provisional, and 2 Samuel will spend eight chapters testing whether the man so stood up can remain standing.
לְמֶ֖לֶךְlə·me·leḵas kingH4428
√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine singular
melek — a king (with preposition lᵉ) The lᵉ is a lamed of product or office: established him into kingship. David is not called king, he is made into one.
עַל־‘al-overH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
וְכִי֙wə·ḵî. . .H3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
נִשֵּׂ֣אniś·śêand had exaltedH5375
√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular
nâsâʼ — to lift (Piel) The intensive stem of the ordinary verb for picking something up and carrying it. The object lifted is mamlaktô, his kingdom — an institution, not a mood. Where the Hifil of v. 12a raised the man, the Piel here raises the realm, and the pairing is what lets Henry read the verse forward: “David was established king; so is the Son of David.”
מַמְלַכְתּ֔וֹmam·laḵ·tōwhis kingdomH4467
√ mamlâkâh — dominion, iNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
mamlâkâh — dominion, sovereignty (fs construct + 3ms suffix) “His kingdom” — and the suffix is the whole problem the second half of the verse exists to solve. It is David's kingdom by possession and Israel's by purpose.
בַּעֲב֖וּרba·‘ă·ḇūrfor the sake ofH5668
√ ʻâbûwr — properly, crossed, iPreposition-bNounmasculine singular
ʻâbûwr — properly, crossed; hence on account of The hinge of the verse. Everything before it is about David; everything after it is about Israel. Benson turns the clause into a political theology: the kings “have believed, not that the people were created and ordained by God for the king, but the king for the people.” K&D grounds it further back, in election: “because He had chosen Israel as His people.”
עַמּ֥וֹ‘am·mōwHis peopleH5971
√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)Nounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
ʻam — a people as a congregated unit (construct + 3ms suffix) The suffix is God's, not David's: His people. In a verse where David has just been given a kingdom, the possessive on the nation is pointedly reassigned.
יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃סyiś·rā·’êlIsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
Yisrâʼêl The name closes the verse as it closed the first clause — the frame within which David's exaltation is allowed to mean anything. The Masoretic samekh (ס) attached to the word marks a setumah, a closed section break, here in the received text.
The Voices✦ public domain+
But gradually his fears passed away; and when he had twice defeated the Philistines, and been able to establish his rule, and with it some degree of orderly government throughout the twelve tribes, David saw in all this, and in the embassies from foreign nations, the proof, not of his own ability, but of Jehovah's purpose to exalt his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.
The Pulpit reaches this line only after a long paragraph reconstructing David's despondency; the excerpt is the conclusion of that argument, not a stand-alone claim.
that Jehovah had firmly established him king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for His people Israel's sake," i.e., because He had chosen Israel as His people, and had promised to make it great and glorious.
By the prosperity and success which attended him in everything he set his hand to: and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake; for their advantage and glory more than for his own.
13“After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and…”+

13After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’a·ḥă·rê bō·’ōw mê·ḥeḇ·rō·wn dā·wiḏ way·yiq·qaḥ ‘ō·wḏ pi·laḡ·šîm wə·nā·šîm mî·rū·šā·lim ‘ō·wḏ bā·nîm ū·ḇā·nō·wṯ way·yiw·wå̄·lə·dū lə·ḏā·wiḏ

Literal — word-for-word from the original

After his-coming from-Hebron, David took yet concubines and-wives from-Jerusalem; and-yet sons and-daughters were-born to-David.

Where the English smooths the original

  • בֹּא֣וֹ בֹּא֣וֹ (bō·’ōw, Qal infinitive construct + 3ms suffix, bôwʼ, H935) — not a finite verb at all: “after his coming.” BSB's “After he had arrived from Hebron” manufactures a clause where Hebrew has a bare verbal noun hung on the preposition ʼachar. The construction subordinates the move from Hebron to what follows: the harem is dated from the day he entered the new capital.
  • וַיִּקַּח֩ וַיִּקַּח֩ (way·yiq·qaḥ, Qal consecutive imperfect, lâqach, H3947) — “took,” the broadest Hebrew verb of taking (Strong's: “to take in the widest variety of applications”). English “took more concubines and wives” reads as a marriage notice; the Hebrew verb is the same neutral seizing/fetching word used of any acquisition, and it governs women as its object. The narrator supplies no comment — the entire moral weight is carried by the reader's memory of Deuteronomy 17:17, which every commentator in this apparatus supplies for him.
  • ע֜וֹד ע֜וֹד (‘ō·wḏ, ʻôwd, H5750) — Strong's: “properly, iteration or continuance.” It occurs twice in this one verse (w. 5 and w. 9), rendered “more” and then “and more.” English flattens both into comparatives; Hebrew is hammering a beat — yet again … and yet again. The doubled adverb, not any adjective, is where the excess lives.
  • פִּֽלַגְשִׁ֤ים פִּֽלַגְשִׁ֤ים (pi·laḡ·šîm, pîylegesh, H6370, feminine plural) — concubines stand before wives in the Hebrew sequence, which is not the English instinct. K&D reads the order historically: “The concubines are mentioned before the wives, probably because David had taken many of them to Jerusalem, and earlier than the wives.” Gill defines the term itself: “a sort of half wives, as the word may signify, or secondary ones.”
  • וַיִּוָּ֥לְדּוּ וַיִּוָּ֥לְדּוּ (way·yiw·wå̄·lə·dū, Nifal consecutive imperfect 3mp, yâlad, H3205) — passive: “and they were born.” Only one verb in this verse has David as its subject, and it is took. The children simply happen to him. Note too that the final word is לְדָוִ֖ד, literally “to David” — the Hebrew repeats the name where BSB writes “to him.”
Word by word14 · parsed+
אַחֲרֵ֖י’a·ḥă·rêAfterH310
√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition
ʼachar — properly, the hind part; hence after A preposition of sequence, here governing an infinitive: the clock starts at the move to Jerusalem.
בֹּא֣וֹbō·’ōwhe had arrivedH935
√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular
bôwʼ — to go or come (Qal infinitive construct + suffix) “In his coming.” The whole notice is deliberately pinned to the change of capital: what follows is presented as court practice adopted with the court. K&D uses this very phrase to settle the ambiguity of “out of Jerusalem”: the wives cannot all have been Jerusalemites, “as the words which follow, ‘after he was come from Hebron,’ clearly show.”
מֵחֶבְר֑וֹןmê·ḥeḇ·rō·wnfrom HebronH2275
√ Chebrôwn — Chebron, a place in Palestine, also the name of two IsraelitesPreposition-mNounproperfeminine singular
Chebrôwn — Hebron The abandoned capital, where six sons were already born (2 Samuel 3:2); it functions here as a date, not a place.
דָּוִ֨דdā·wiḏDavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּקַּח֩way·yiq·qaḥtookH3947
√ lâqach — to take (in the widest variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
lâqach — to take, in the widest variety of applications (Qal) The verse's only active verb with David as subject, and its object is people. Scripture will use the same ordinary verb when Nathan's parable has the rich man take the poor man's one ewe lamb, and when David sends and takes Bathsheba; the narrator here files the habit without judgment, and lets the sequel pass the verdict. Benson, unusually, both excuses and indicts it in a single paragraph.
ע֜וֹד‘ō·wḏmoreH5750
√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb
ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuance “Yet more.” Its first of two occurrences in the verse; the adverb is the verse's real subject matter.
פִּֽלַגְשִׁ֤יםpi·laḡ·šîmconcubinesH6370
√ pîylegesh — a concubineNounfeminine plural
pîylegesh — a concubine (fp) A legally recognized secondary wife, whose sons were counted in the household but, per 1 Chronicles 3:9 as read by Ellicott, Gill and Pulpit, were kept out of the register that follows in vv. 14-16. The word's placement ahead of ʼishshâh is deliberate and is the detail K&D pauses over.
וְנָשִׁים֙wə·nā·šîmand wivesH802
√ ʼishshâh — a womanConjunctive wawNounfeminine plural
ʼishshâh — a woman, a wife (fp) The ordinary word for woman doing duty for wife; Hebrew has no separate term, and the distinction from pîylegesh is legal, not lexical.
מִיר֣וּשָׁלִַ֔םmî·rū·šā·limfrom JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-mNounproperfeminine singular
ע֛וֹד‘ō·wḏand moreH5750
√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb
ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuance The second stroke of the same adverb in fourteen words: women again, and children again. Hebrew has no comparative adjective here at all — the sense BSB renders as “more … and more” is carried entirely by a repeated particle of continuance, so the verse's excess is a matter of rhythm rather than statement. It is the nearest thing the narrator offers to a comment, and the commentators hear it: JFB calls the conduct an express transgression, and the Pulpit observes that “this enlargement of his harem was gradual” — which is precisely what an iterative adverb, rather than a number, would record.
בָּנִ֥יםbā·nîmsonsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural
וּבָנֽוֹת׃ū·ḇā·nō·wṯand daughtersH1323
√ bath — a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawNounfeminine plural
וַיִּוָּ֥לְדּוּway·yiw·wå̄·lə·dūwere bornH3205
√ yâlad — to bear youngConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural
yâlad — to bear young (Nifal, passive) The passive stem removes every human agent from the clause: sons and daughters were born. The Chronicler's parallel keeps the same reticence. It is worth noticing what the Nifal does theologically — a king busy acquiring is himself the recipient of what he cannot manufacture, and the son who matters most in this list will be given, not taken.
לְדָוִ֖דlə·ḏā·wiḏto himH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JessePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Dâvid — the name, with preposition lᵉ Hebrew writes “to David,” not “to him”: the name closes the sentence that the name also opened, framing the acquisitions between two Davids.
The Voices✦ public domain+
But the many wives and concubines he took did not preserve him from coveting his neighbour’s wife. On the contrary, they inclined him to it; for men who have once broken the fence, will wander carelessly.
Benson spends most of his entry extenuating David on grounds of dynastic policy; this closing sentence is where he withdraws the excuse. Quoting only the extenuation would misrepresent him.
David certainly came perilously near a violation of this law, although he did not, like his son Solomon, take wives and concubines in enormous number for the sake of having a great harem—an important element in the Oriental ideas of regal magnificence.
The use of it seems to have been his policy, that hereby he might enlarge his family, and strengthen his interest by alliances with so many considerable families. And the number of wives being not limited, Deu 17 , he might conceive this was no transgression of that law.
Poole is reporting the plea David might have made (“he might conceive this was no transgression”), not endorsing it; he has already called the practice one of “David's miscarriages.”
In this conduct David transgressed an express law, which forbade the king of Israel to multiply wives unto himself (De 17:17).
JFB states the transgression without qualification — the plainest verdict in this apparatus, set here deliberately against Poole's and Benson's extenuations.
14“These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Sh…”+

14These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·’êl·leh šə·mō·wṯ hay·yil·lō·ḏîm lōw bî·rū·šā·lim šam·mū·a‘ wə·šō·w·ḇāḇ wə·nā·ṯān ū·šə·lō·mōh

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-these are-the-names of-the-born-ones to-him in-Jerusalem: Shammua, and-Shobab, and-Nathan, and-Solomon.

Where the English smooths the original

  • שְׁמ֛וֹת שְׁמ֛וֹת (šə·mō·wṯ, masculine plural construct, shêm, H8034) — Strong's: “an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality.” The Hebrew does not say “these are the children”; it says “these are the names.” What the text preserves is the memorial, the record — which is precisely why the variants between this list and Chronicles occupy so much of the apparatus below.
  • הַיִּלֹּדִ֥ים הַיִּלֹּדִ֥ים (hay·yil·lō·ḏîm, article + masculine plural of yillôwd, H3209) — a rare passive form, “the born-ones,” occurring in only five verses in the whole Hebrew Bible. English “the children born to him” is accurate but ordinary; the Hebrew uses a word reserved for solemn registers of the newly-born, one of whose other five appearances is the doom pronounced on David's own child in 2 Samuel 12:14.
  • ל֖וֹ ל֖וֹ (lōw, preposition + 3ms suffix) — the interlinear assigns this word no Strong's number at all: it is a bare lᵉ plus suffix, “to him.” The register is built on a dative of possession, not a verb of begetting; the sons are listed as accruing to David, which is exactly how the Nifal of v. 13 framed them.
  • וּשְׁלֹמֹֽה׃ וּשְׁלֹמֹֽה׃ (ū·šə·lō·mōh, Shᵉlômôh, H8010) — Solomon stands last in a list joined throughout by simple waw, with no ordinal and no comment. Cambridge draws the natural inference (“as Solomon is always placed last it is natural to suppose that he was the youngest,” with Josephus adduced); Ellicott argues the opposite from 2 Samuel 12:24 and from the need for Solomon to be old enough to reign. The Hebrew itself decides nothing — the waw-chain is not a birth order.
Word by word9 · parsed+
וְאֵ֗לֶּהwə·’êl·lehTheseH428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thoseConjunctive wawPronouncommon plural
ʼêl-leh — these, those (common plural pronoun) The formula that opens a register; it points forward, not back.
שְׁמ֛וֹתšə·mō·wṯare the namesH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityNounmasculine plural construct
shêm — an appellation, a mark or memorial of individuality Construct plural: “the names of.” In Hebrew narrative a name is a memorial rather than a label, and a list of names is an act of preservation. What is being preserved here is the line through which, on the reading Ellicott and Cambridge both record, the Messiah's descent would afterwards be traced twice over.
הַיִּלֹּדִ֥יםhay·yil·lō·ḏîmof the children bornH3209
√ yillôwd — bornArticleAdjectivemasculine plural
yillôwd — born (adjective, mp, with article) A genuinely rare word: the Verifier finds it in only five verses. Its company is severe — the sons born to be drowned in Exodus 1:22, the sons and daughters born in a doomed Jerusalem in Jeremiah 16:3, the generation born in the wilderness in Joshua 5:5, and the child born to David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12:14. The register of David's Jerusalem sons is written with the vocabulary of birth under threat.
ל֖וֹlōwto him
Prepositionthird person masculine singular
lᵉ + 3ms suffix (no Strong's entry) “To him” — a dative of accrual holding the whole list together.
בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerusalem The second naming of the city in two verses. The point of the register is not merely who was born, but where: these are the capital-born sons, distinguished from the six of Hebron (2 Samuel 3:2).
שַׁמּ֣וּעַšam·mū·a‘ShammuaH8051
√ Shammûwaʻ — Shammua, the name of four IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Shammûwaʻ — Shammua (rare; 5 vv) Written Shimea in 1 Chronicles 3:5. K&D calls this “a different pronunciation”; Gill and Cambridge note the same. First of the four whom 1 Chronicles 3:5 assigns to Bathsheba.
וְשׁוֹבָ֔בwə·šō·w·ḇāḇShobabH7727
√ Shôwbâb — Shobab, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Shôwbâb — Shobab (rare; 4 vv) Nothing further is recorded of him in Scripture; the name recurs for an unrelated Judahite at 1 Chronicles 2:18.
וְנָתָ֖ןwə·nā·ṯānNathanH5416
√ Nâthân — Nathan, the name of five IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Nâthân — Nathan (39 vv) The name of the prophet who will confront David in ch. 12 is also the name of one of his sons — and, on the genealogy in Luke 3:31 as read by Ellicott and Cambridge, of the ancestor through whom Joseph's line is traced. Cambridge: “It was through the latter that Joseph traced his lineal descent from David.” The brief does not identify the son with the prophet, and neither do we.
וּשְׁלֹמֹֽה׃ū·šə·lō·mōhSolomonH8010
√ Shᵉlômôh — Shelomah, David's successorConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Shᵉlômôh — Solomon, David's successor (263 vv) The most attested name in the unit's lexicon, set here without title, without prophecy, without a word of distinction, at the end of a waw-chain of four. Its position is the whole problem Ellicott and Cambridge dispute, and the narrative restraint is the point: the son of the promise enters Scripture's record as the fourth item in a list.
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The first four were sons of Bathsheba, and as Solomon is always placed last it is natural to suppose that he was the youngest.
Solomon and Nathan are the two sons through whom St. Matthew and St. Luke trace our Lord’s genealogy.
these four were by Bathsheba; the first of these is called Shimea
15“Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,”+

15Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·yiḇ·ḥār we·’ĕ·lî·šū·a‘ wə·ne·p̄eḡ wə·yā·p̄î·a‘

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Ibhar, and-Elishua, and-Nepheg, and-Japhia.

Where the English smooths the original

  • וְיִבְחָ֥ר וְיִבְחָ֥ר (wə·yiḇ·ḥār, Yibchar, H2984) — Strong's says only “Jibchar, an Israelite,” and the Verifier finds the name in just three verses of the whole canon: here and the two Chronicles parallels. BSB prints “Ibhar” as flat English; the Hebrew form carries an initial consonantal waw like every other item, so the verse is not a sentence but a chain — and … and … and … and.
  • וֶאֱלִישׁ֖וּעַ וֶאֱלִישׁ֖וּעַ (we·’ĕ·lî·šū·a‘, ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ, H474) — the name opens with the divine element אֵל (El, “God”), the same element Cambridge and K&D isolate when they observe that Eliada appears in 1 Chronicles 14:7 as Beeliada, “compounded with Baal = lord instead of El = God.” English transliteration hides the theophory entirely. The brief's lexicon supplies no gloss for the second element, and we do not supply one.
  • וְנֶ֥פֶג וְנֶ֥פֶג (wə·ne·p̄eḡ, Nepheg, H5298) — another four-verse rarity. Strong's gives only “Nepheg, the name of two Israelites,” the other being a brother of Korah at Exodus 6:21. English renders both identically and thereby suggests a connection the Hebrew does not assert; the shared lexeme is homonymy, not kinship.
  • וְיָפִֽיעַ׃ וְיָפִֽיעַ׃ (wə·yā·p̄î·a‘, Yâphîyaʻ, H3309) — Strong's: “Japhia, the name of a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place in Palestine.” The lexicon itself warns that the form is shared across a Canaanite king (Joshua 10:3), a son of David, and a town. Nothing in the consonants tells the three apart; only context does. The sof pasuq closes the half-list without any verb having appeared since v. 13.
Word by word4 · parsed+
וְיִבְחָ֥רwə·yiḇ·ḥārIbharH2984
√ Yibchar — Jibchar, an IsraeliteConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Yibchar — Jibchar, an Israelite (rare; 3 vv) The name exists in Scripture only in this register and its two Chronicles copies. That is the whole of what is known about him, and the honest note is the silence: Cambridge states flatly that “nothing is known of any of these sons except Solomon and Nathan.”
וֶאֱלִישׁ֖וּעַwe·’ĕ·lî·šū·a‘ElishuaH474
√ ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ — Elishua, the son of King DavidConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ — Elishua, the son of King David (rare; 2 vv) Attested in only two verses in the canon. In 1 Chronicles 3:6 the name appears instead as Elishama — which K&D judges an outright error: “Elishua is written incorrectly in 1 Chronicles 3:6 as Elishama, because Elishama follows afterwards,” a scribe's eye skipping ahead down his own column. Cambridge concurs (“probably by a scribe's error”). This is the unit's clearest visible textual seam.
וְנֶ֥פֶגwə·ne·p̄eḡNephegH5298
√ Nepheg — Nepheg, the name of two IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Nepheg — the name of two Israelites (rare; 4 vv) Shared with a son of Izhar in Exodus 6:21; the Verifier flags the lexeme, but the identification is not available.
וְיָפִֽיעַ׃wə·yā·p̄î·a‘JaphiaH3309
√ Yâphîyaʻ — Japhia, the name of a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place in PalestineConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
Yâphîyaʻ — a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place The one name in the list whose Strong's entry openly records three distinct referents, including the king of Lachish at Joshua 10:3. A caution built into the lexicon itself against reading shared spelling as shared identity — the same caution that governs how we tier this unit's threads.
The Voices✦ public domain+
it has evidently been done deliberately on account of their having died in infancy, or at a very early age. This also furnishes a very simple explanation of the fact, that the name Eliphalet occurs again at the end of the list, namely, because a son who was born later received the name of his brother who had died young.
K&D is arguing against the assumption of scribal accident: he holds the two missing Chronicles names were dropped on purpose because those sons died young. It is an inference, offered as such.
Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia. Elishua is called Elishama
16“Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.”+

16Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

we·’ĕ·lî·šā·mā‘ wə·’el·yā·ḏā‘ we·’ĕ·lî·p̄ā·leṭ

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-Elishama, and-Eliada, and-Eliphelet. (פ — the scribes' closing mark)

Where the English smooths the original

  • וֶאֱלִיפָֽלֶט׃פ וֶאֱלִיפָֽלֶט׃פ (we·’ĕ·lî·p̄ā·leṭ, ʼĔlîypheleṭ, H467) — the surface form carries a pe (פ) after the verse divider: the Masoretic petuchah, an open-section break. No English edition shows it. The mark is the scribes' own paragraphing, and it tells us the tradents read vv. 11-16 as one closed unit ending exactly here, precisely as Henry's heading (“5:11-16”) does.
  • וְאֶלְיָדָ֖ע וְאֶלְיָדָ֖ע (wə·’el·yā·ḏā‘, ʼElyâdâʻ, H450) — the same name is written Beeliada at 1 Chronicles 14:7. Cambridge: “Beeliada in 1 Chronicles 14 is another form for Eliada compounded with Baal = lord instead of El = God”; K&D says the same. English “Eliada” conceals a real divergence in the Hebrew tradition over which divine title stood in a son of David's name.
  • וֶאֱלִישָׁמָ֥ע וֶאֱלִישָׁמָ֥ע (we·’ĕ·lî·šā·mā‘, ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ, H476) — a commoner name (17 verses) borne by seven Israelites per Strong's. Its presence here, two names after the place where 1 Chronicles 3:6 wrongly substitutes it for Elishua, is what let K&D diagnose that substitution as anticipation. The English list gives no clue that one of these names is doing double duty across the parallel texts.
Word by word3 · parsed+
וֶאֱלִישָׁמָ֥עwe·’ĕ·lî·šā·mā‘ElishamaH476
√ ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ — Elishama, the name of seven IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĔlîyshâmâʻ — the name of seven Israelites (17 vv) The only well-attested name of the three, and the accidental key to the textual problem in the previous verse: because Elishama genuinely stands here, its wrong appearance three names earlier in 1 Chronicles 3:6 is explicable as a copyist reading ahead. The theophoric element El stands first, as in both its neighbours.
וְאֶלְיָדָ֖עwə·’el·yā·ḏā‘EliadaH450
√ ʼElyâdâʻ — Eljada, the name of two Israelites and of an Aramaean leaderConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼElyâdâʻ — Eljada (rare; 4 vv) Written Beeliada in 1 Chronicles 14:7 — El exchanged for Baal. Cambridge and K&D both record the variant without embarrassment, and it is worth not softening: in the house of the king who brought the ark to Zion, a son's name could be handed down in two forms, one of them carrying the title of the rival god. Strong's notes the same name later belongs to an Aramaean leader (1 Kings 11:23) and a Benjamite captain (2 Chronicles 17:17); those are other men.
וֶאֱלִיפָֽלֶט׃פwe·’ĕ·lî·p̄ā·leṭand ElipheletH467
√ ʼĔlîypheleṭ — Eliphelet or Elpelet, the name of six IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĔlîypheleṭ — the name of six Israelites (9 vv) The list's last name, and by K&D's reading a name given twice in one family: “a son who was born later received the name of his brother who had died young.” Gill reports Kimchi to similar effect. The register that began in v. 14 with the vocabulary of birth thus closes on a name that quietly records a death. The petuchah (פ) follows immediately, sealing the section.
The Voices✦ public domain+
Seven more by some other wife or wives; nine are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:6 ; there being in that account two Eliphalets, and another called Nogah; which two, one of the Eliphalets, and Nogah, might die without sons, as Kimchi thinks, and so are not mentioned here.
Gill is relaying Kimchi's proposal, not asserting it on his own authority; note also that his arithmetic (“seven more”) counts differently from K&D's nineteen-son total.
David had therefore nineteen sons, six of whom were born in Hebron ( 2 Samuel 3:2 .), and thirteen at Jerusalem. Daughters are not mentioned in the genealogical accounts, because as a rule only heiresses or women who acquired renown from special causes were included in them.
Many have the favour and love of God, yet do not perceive it, and so want the comfort of it; but to be exalted to that, and to perceive it, is happiness.
Henry's entry is a single block written over 5:11-16, so this sentence comments on the whole section (and chiefly on v. 12) rather than on the three names of v. 16.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

Grand Commentary — the unit, read wholesynthesis · verify+

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The one verb with God as subject — 5:12

The unit opens with a man doing almost nothing. Of the two perfect verbs in v. 12, הֱכִינ֧וֹ (kûwn, Hifil — “properly, to be erect,” made causative) and נִשֵּׂ֣א (nâsâʼ, Piel — “to lift”), both have YHWH as subject and David or David's kingdom as object. David's own verb is וַיֵּ֣דַע, “and he knew.” K&D supplies the unstated evidence — “(sc., from the success of his enterprises)” — and Gill names it concretely: “By the prosperity and success which attended him in everything he set his hand to.” Poole locates it in two places at once, in “the promises which God had made him, and the constant course of God's providence favouring him.” Cambridge points to Hiram: “The friendly co-operation of so powerful a king as Hiram, and the success of his enterprises in general, were unmistakeable proofs of divine favour” — and Barnes, in a note attached to the preceding verse, explains why Tyre was watching at all: the fall of the Jebusite citadel “had doubtless reached Tyre, and created a great impression of David's power.” The Pulpit alone supplies the psychology, reconstructing the despondency of the fugitive years before concluding that David at last “saw in all this, and in the embassies from foreign nations, the proof, not of his own ability, but of Jehovah's purpose.” ⚙ Every one of those readings is an inference about how David knew; the Hebrew states only that he did, using the verb Strong's defines as knowledge “properly, to ascertain by seeing.” And the whole verse then turns on a preposition: בַּעֲב֖וּר (ʻâbûwr, “properly, crossed”). Benson builds a doctrine of kingship on it — “not that the people were created and ordained by God for the king, but the king for the people” — and Ellicott says the same more soberly: “David's prosperity had not blinded him to the fact that his blessings came to him as the head of the theocracy.” K&D pushes the reason one step further back than the people, into election itself: “because He had chosen Israel as His people.”

ii. And yet more — the acquiring verb — 5:13

Then the subject changes. In v. 13 the only active verb David governs is וַיִּקַּח֩ (lâqach, H3947, “to take in the widest variety of applications”), and its object is women; the children arrive in the Nifal, וַיִּוָּ֥לְדּוּ, “they were born.” Twice the adverb ע֜וֹד falls — Strong's: “properly, iteration or continuance” — yet more wives, yet more children. The narrator passes no sentence. The commentators, unanimously, do. JFB is blunt: “In this conduct David transgressed an express law, which forbade the king of Israel to multiply wives unto himself (De 17:17).” Gill: “which was not to his honour, and contrary to the law of God.” Ellicott grants the distinction that David “did not, like his son Solomon, take wives and concubines in enormous number,” while still holding that he “came perilously near a violation of this law.” Poole and Benson both offer the dynastic defence — alliances, heirs, political weight — and Poole even records the plea David himself might have made, that “the number of wives being not limited, Deu 17, he might conceive this was no transgression of that law.” Benson then takes the excuse back in one sentence: “the many wives and concubines he took did not preserve him from coveting his neighbour's wife. On the contrary, they inclined him to it.” K&D is the harshest and the most historical at once: the harem was “considered from time immemorial as part of the court of an oriental monarch,” and “David suffered himself to be seduced by that custom to disregard this prohibition, and suffered many a heartburn afterwards in consequence, not to mention his fearful fall in consequence of his passion for Bathsheba.” The Pulpit adds the observation that the enlargement “was gradual.” ⚙ What the Hebrew contributes to their argument is the bare grammar: a chapter that has just insisted twice that God does the lifting turns immediately to a king doing the taking.

iii. The register, and the seams in it — 5:14-16

Eleven names follow, strung on simple waw, with no verb from v. 13 to the end of the chapter. The heading is שְׁמ֛וֹת הַיִּלֹּדִ֥ים — “the names of the born-ones,” using yillôwd (H3209), a passive form the Verifier finds in only five verses of the canon. The four leading names are assigned to Bathsheba by 1 Chronicles 3:5, a point Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and K&D all record, which means the register quietly presupposes chapters 11 and 12 that have not yet been narrated. On Solomon's position the sources divide honestly: Cambridge argues from placement that “as Solomon is always placed last it is natural to suppose that he was the youngest,” adducing Josephus; Ellicott argues from 2 Samuel 12:24 and from the age needed to succeed that “he appears … to have been the oldest of Bathsheba's sons.” ⚙ The Hebrew waw-chain decides neither. The list is also where the text visibly wears. K&D calls the Chronicler's Elishama at 1 Chronicles 3:6 an error of anticipation — “because Elishama follows afterwards” — and Cambridge independently calls it “a scribe's error.” K&D further insists the two names missing here, Eliphalet and Nogah, were not lost by accident but dropped “deliberately on account of their having died in infancy,” which also explains why Eliphelet reappears at the end: “a son who was born later received the name of his brother who had died young.” Gill reports Kimchi to the same effect. Cambridge and K&D both note that Eliada stands in 1 Chronicles 14:7 as Beeliada, “compounded with Baal = lord instead of El = God.” And K&D explains the missing daughters by the convention of the genealogies, “because as a rule only heiresses or women who acquired renown from special causes were included in them” — before naming the exception the book itself will supply, Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:1. ⚙ The unit ends on the Masoretic pe (פ) attached to Eliphelet's surface form: the scribes closed the paragraph exactly where Henry's heading closes it.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested. Read the five verses as one sentence and they say: God stood David up, God lifted David's kingdom, and it was for Israel's sake — and then David took, and took again. The Hebrew builds the contrast without a syllable of comment. In v. 12 David is the object of two divine verbs and the subject only of knowing; in v. 13 he is the subject of taking, and the children are the subject of nothing at all, arriving in a Nifal passive. The commentators are right that Deuteronomy 17:17 stands over this, and right that no shared vocabulary makes the link — the Verifier finds no common lexeme, only a common subject. But there may be something the law itself had already said and the narrator is relying on. Deuteronomy's charge against multiplied wives is that the king's heart will be turned; the danger named is not appetite but diverted trust. And that is exactly the thing v. 12 says David had just got right. A man who has genuinely perceived that his kingdom was established by another does not need a harem to secure it. Benson's defence — that David married to build a house and an interest — is therefore the most damaging thing anyone in this apparatus says about him, because it concedes that David set about doing for himself precisely what v. 12 confesses God had already done. ⚙ Then notice what the register does with that. The rare word yillôwd that heads the list of sons appears elsewhere for children born under a death sentence, including the child of 2 Samuel 12:14; the four names at the head of the list belong, per the Chronicler, to Bathsheba, whom the story has not yet introduced. Which is to say: the record of David's self-secured house is written in the vocabulary of vulnerable birth, and the line that will actually carry the promise runs through the one union the book will spend chapter 11 condemning. That is not David's policy succeeding. It is God, in the teeth of David's policy, keeping the clause he already announced in v. 12 — for the sake of His people Israel. The taking was David's. The giving, then as at the start, was not.

A man who has truly perceived that his kingdom was established by another does not need a harem to secure it.

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripturecross-refs · verify+

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same eleven names, copied twice into Chronicles verbal / quotation — confirmed

Every name in vv. 14-16 recurs in the Chronicler's two lists, 1 Chronicles 14:4-7 and 1 Chronicles 3:5-8, and the Verifier's overlap is built on lexemes that scarcely exist elsewhere: יִבְחָר (Yibchar, H2984) in three verses of the whole canon, אֱלִישׁוּעַ (ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ, H474) in two, נֶפֶג (Nepheg, H5298) in four, יָפִיעַ (Yâphîyaʻ, H3309) in five. This is a copied register, not a coincidence of theme — and the copying shows its seams. K&D: “Elishua is written incorrectly in 1 Chronicles 3:6 as Elishama, because Elishama follows afterwards.” Cambridge reaches the same verdict independently (“probably by a scribe's error”) and adds the Beeliada/Eliada divergence. Ellicott and Gill note Shammua/Shimea. ⚙ The link is verbal in the strict sense — shared, rare lexemes — but it is a shared source document, not a quotation of Samuel by Chronicles; we claim no direction of dependence.

1 Chronicles 14:4 · 1 Chronicles 14:5 · 1 Chronicles 14:6 · 1 Chronicles 3:5 · 1 Chronicles 3:6 · 1 Chronicles 3:7 · 1 Chronicles 3:8

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2984 Yibchar (in 3 vv), H474 ʼĔlîyshûwaʻ (in 2 vv), H5298 Nepheg (in 4 vv), H3309 Yâphîyaʻ (in 5 vv), H7727 Shôwbâb (in 4 vv), H450 ʼElyâdâʻ (in 4 vv), H467 ʼĔlîypheleṭ (in 9 vv), H8051 Shammûwaʻ (in 5 vv) — a cluster of very rare lexemes in identical order; a shared register, not a citation

“The born-ones” — a rare word, and the company it keeps verbal / quotation — confirmed

הַיִּלֹּדִים (yillôwd, H3209), the passive form heading the register in v. 14, stands in only five verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the Verifier names four of them. Every one concerns birth under threat or under judgment: Pharaoh's decree that every son born be cast into the Nile (Exodus 1:22); the people born in the wilderness who had not been circumcised (Joshua 5:5); the sons and daughters born in a Jerusalem about to fall, whom Jeremiah is forbidden to father (Jeremiah 16:3); and Nathan's sentence on David — “the child born to you shall surely die” (2 Samuel 12:14). ⚙ We do not claim any of these texts cites another. We claim what the Verifier can show: that Samuel chose, for David's roll of Jerusalem-born sons, a word that the canon otherwise reserves for the newly born in peril — and that the nearest other use in the same book is the death of David's own child by the mother of four names on this very list.

Exodus 1:22 · Joshua 5:5 · Jeremiah 16:3 · 2 Samuel 12:14

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H3209 yillôwd (in 5 vv) — a genuinely rare lexeme, so the verbal link is real; no quotation is claimed in either direction, and the thematic resonance is ⚙ ours

The law of the king: “neither shall he multiply wives” structural / thematic — confirmed

Not one commentator in this apparatus reads v. 13 without Deuteronomy 17:17. Ellicott quotes the statute (“Neither shall he multiply wives to himself”); JFB says David “transgressed an express law”; Benson calls it “expressly forbidden”; Gill, “contrary to the law of God”; Poole files it among “David's miscarriages”; Cambridge more mildly says the law “imposes some limitation on the practice”; K&D says David “suffered himself to be seduced by that custom to disregard this prohibition.” ⚙ But honesty requires a downgrade: the Verifier returns no shared Strong's lexeme between 2 Samuel 5:13 and Deuteronomy 17:17, and Samuel gives no verbal signal — no quotation formula, no distinctive vocabulary. The link is a shared legal subject, carried by seven independent witnesses and by the obvious narrative logic, and that is what we record it as: structural, not verbal.

Deuteronomy 17:17

basis: No shared lexeme in the Verifier's candidates; the recorded basis is subject-matter identity (a king multiplying wives) attested by Ellicott, Benson, JFB, Poole, Gill, Cambridge and K&D independently — deliberately not tiered verbal

Two sons in v. 14, two genealogies in the Gospels structural / thematic — confirmed

Ellicott: “Solomon and Nathan are the two sons through whom St. Matthew and St. Luke trace our Lord's genealogy.” Cambridge, on Nathan: “It was through the latter that Joseph traced his lineal descent from David, according to the genealogy of our Lord given by St Luke.” ⚙ The link cannot be verbal in the Verifier's sense: the Gospels are Greek and no Strong's lexeme can be shared across the Testaments. What is shared is the referent — two personal names standing side by side in a Hebrew register that the two evangelists later take up as the fork of a single line. We tier it structural, and we note the disagreement the sources themselves leave open: Cambridge and Ellicott differ on whether Solomon was Bathsheba's youngest or eldest son, and neither position affects the genealogical point.

Matthew 1:6 · Luke 3:31

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew), so shared Strong's numbers are impossible by definition and no verbal tier is available; the recorded basis is the identity of the two named persons in the register, attested by Ellicott (Matthew and Luke) and Cambridge (Luke 3:31)

Names that repeat without persons repeating flagged — verify source

The Verifier also returns four candidate links that we decline to promote, and it is worth recording why. Shôwbâb (H7727, 4 vv) is shared with a Judahite son of Caleb at 1 Chronicles 2:18; Nepheg (H5298, 4 vv) with a brother of Korah at Exodus 6:21; ʼElyâdâʻ (H450, 4 vv) with the father of Rezon, Solomon's Aramaean adversary, at 1 Kings 11:23 and a Benjamite captain at 2 Chronicles 17:17; Yâphîyaʻ (H3309, 5 vv) with the king of Lachish at Joshua 10:3, in a verse that also shares Chebrôwn (H2275). ⚙ Every one of these is a true shared lexeme and a false connection. Strong's own entries say so — “Nepheg, the name of two Israelites”; “Japhia, the name of a Canaanite, an Israelite, and a place.” A rare proper noun is rare because few men bore it, not because the men who bore it were related. We flag these for the reader precisely so the machine's own strongest signal can be seen failing.

1 Chronicles 2:18 · Exodus 6:21 · 1 Kings 11:23 · 2 Chronicles 17:17 · Joshua 10:3

basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes are real (H7727 in 4 vv; H5298 in 4 vv; H450 in 4 vv; H3309 in 5 vv; H2275 Chebrôwn in 66 vv) but the referents are different persons and places; the link is homonymy, and no commentator in the apparatus asserts any of these connections

Christ in the Unittypology · verify+

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The fork in the line: Solomon and Nathan ancient/widely-held

Two of the four names in v. 14 are the two through which the Gospels trace the descent of Jesus. Ellicott states it without argument, as settled: “Solomon and Nathan are the two sons through whom St. Matthew and St. Luke trace our Lord's genealogy.” Cambridge specifies the second: “It was through the latter that Joseph traced his lineal descent from David, according to the genealogy of our Lord given by St Luke.” ⚙ What the Hebrew adds is the total absence of emphasis. The register makes no distinction between these two and Ibhar or Nepheg; they are the third and fourth items in a waw-chain, and Cambridge notes that “nothing is known of any of these sons except Solomon and Nathan.” The line that carries the promise is, at this point in the text, indistinguishable from the line that carries nothing.

2 Samuel 5:14 · Matthew 1:6 · Luke 3:31

Established king, kingdom lifted — and for whose sake ancient/widely-held

The two divine verbs of v. 12 are the vocabulary the book will use again in ch. 7, when what is established is no longer a man but a throne “forever.” Matthew Henry makes the move explicitly on this very passage: “David was established king; so is the Son of David, and all who, through him, are made to our God kings and priests” — an allusion to Revelation 1:6 and the reason Henry can also read Hiram's Tyrian builders through Isaiah 60:10, “The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls.” ⚙ The decisive clause, though, is בַּעֲב֖וּר עַמּ֥וֹ, “for the sake of His people.” Benson draws from it the general rule that a king exists “for the people”; K&D grounds it in election. Read forward, it is the shape of the greater King's reign exactly: a kingdom received, not seized, and held for the sake of the people rather than the sovereign — which is what the Son of David will say of himself when he comes not to be served but to serve.

2 Samuel 5:12 · 2 Samuel 7:12-13 · Isaiah 60:10 · Luke 1:32-33 · Revelation 1:6

The promise carried through the house David built wrongly novel

⚙ This reading is offered more tentatively, marked novel, and should be weighed rather than assumed. The register of v. 14 puts four sons of Bathsheba at the head of the list — Ellicott, Cambridge, Gill and K&D all record the identification from 1 Chronicles 3:5 — and the acquisitive verb of v. 13, וַיִּקַּח֩ (lâqach, “to take”), is the very habit that K&D says ended in David's “fearful fall in consequence of his passion for Bathsheba” and that Benson says “inclined him” to covet his neighbour's wife. The Messianic line therefore runs, by the text's own arrangement, straight through the marriage the book will condemn. ⚙ We do not claim Samuel intends that irony here; the chapter is silent and the narrator passes no sentence. We claim only what the arrangement shows: that the promise of v. 12 — the kingdom lifted for the sake of His people — was kept through, and not because of, the house David was busy securing for himself. Grace runs in the line it is given, not in the line that was earned.

2 Samuel 5:13 · 2 Samuel 5:14 · 1 Chronicles 3:5 · 2 Samuel 12:24

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Text. Hebrew per the Berean interlinear with Strong's tagging. Two Masoretic section marks survive in the surface forms and appear in no English edition: a samekh (ס) attached to יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ס at the end of v. 12 and a pe (פ) attached to וֶאֱלִיפָֽלֶט׃פ at the end of v. 16. One word carries no Strong's number at all, ל֖וֹ in v. 14 (bare preposition plus suffix); its note reflects that.

Word order. The interlinear for v. 12 lists David at index 0 and the verb at index 1 for English readability. The Hebrew clause is verb-initial (wayyêdaʻ Dāwid). Our note keys follow the brief's indices; our literal rendering follows the Hebrew.

What the sources disagree about. Solomon's birth order: Cambridge argues from the list's shape and Josephus that he was Bathsheba's youngest; Ellicott argues from 2 Samuel 12:24 and from his age at accession that he was the oldest. We record both and settle neither. The two names present in Chronicles and absent here (Eliphalet/Elpalet and Nogah): K&D holds the omission deliberate, on account of infant death, and Gill relays Kimchi to similar effect; the Pulpit says only “perhaps because they died young.” It is an inference in every case. Totals also differ — Gill counts “seven more by some other wife or wives,” JFB heads the section “Eleven Sons Born to Him,” and K&D reckons nineteen sons overall, six at Hebron and thirteen at Jerusalem.

Voices used out of their strict verse. Matthew Henry's entry is one block covering 5:11-16, so his line quoted at v. 16 comments on the section, chiefly v. 12. Barnes's note at every verse in this unit is about Hiram of Tyre (v. 11) and is cited only in the commentary as background, never as a comment on vv. 13-16. JFB's note at vv. 14, 15 and 16 is the same block written on v. 13. The Geneva entries in this unit contain only the verse text plus the heading “EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)” and carry no commentary, so Geneva is not quoted.

What is uncertain. The etymologies of the second elements in Elishua, Elishama and Eliphelet are not supplied by the brief's lexicon and are not supplied by us; only the initial theophoric El is sourced, from Cambridge's and K&D's note that Beeliada is the same name “compounded with Baal = lord instead of El = God.” The identification of the son Nathan (v. 14) with the prophet Nathan is nowhere asserted in the sources and is not asserted here. The Verifier's homonym candidates are recorded in the threads as declined, with reasons.

= human, public-domain source, quoted and named. = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)