2 Sam 3 - The house of David was growing stronger and the house of Saul was weakening. 2023

2 Sam 3:1
Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; and David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew
weaker continually.

This verse is one to keep in mind in this early section of 2 Samuel. The house of David was growing stronger and the house of Saul was weakening.

2 Sam 3:2
Sons were born to David at Hebron: his first-born was Amnon,
by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;

David married six women that are mentioned here. The first mentioned is Ahinoam who was from Jezreel, which is in Israel. It is the area of the Valley of Megiddo. She had David's first son by the name of Ammon. He had a miserable end and it is described in chapter 13.

2 Sam 3:5 NASB) and the sixth, Ithream, by David's wife Eglah. These were born to David at Hebron.

The nationality of the last three wives listed is not given. It can be safely assumed that David married all Hebrew women. We are told in Torah that a king may not multiply wives

Deut 17:15-17

The Hebrew word for "multiply" is rabah. It means to have in abundance. We are never told that one of David's sins was that he had too many wives. At this time, he is actually growing in favor in the eyes of Elohim. That passage in Torah apparently does not mean that the king shall not have more than one wife, but he shall not have an abundance of wives. For instance, 1000 wives, like Solomon had. This command is only given once in Torah, which is unusual. That is likely because of the vagueness of the command. How many wives is an "abundance?" Three, four, or twelve? In looking at that entire passage, how much silver and gold is considered an amount that is "greatly increased?" Can a king have more than one gold coin for himself? How about two? Or one hundred? How many horses are an "abundance?" It is difficult to say exactly. But compared to the thousand wives that Solomon had, David did not have an abundance. It would appear that this passage in Deuteronomy is directed at Solomon, who broke all of these commands

1 Kings 4:26

1 Kings 10:28

1 Kings 11:1-4

1 Kings 10:14-15

2 Chron. 9:20, 27

Let's look at the passage in Torah again. It speaks of wives turning the king's heart away

Deut. 17:17

This is done by foreign wives

Deut. 7:3-4

The wives of David is not mentioned as a sin against him any place in Scripture. There were six mentioned here in this chapter and they were all from the land of Israel. David's wives did not turn his heart from Elohim to follow foreign gods, as Solomon's pagan wives did. Therefore, it would appear that the warnings in

Deut 17:15-17

that are somewhat non-specific, were not broken by David, but were broken by Solomon

River Valley Torah Assembly