2 Samuel 5:11–16, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Samuel 5:11–16
Palace, Reputation, and Household Expansion
Tyre helps build a house, and David reads his establishment
Hiram king of Tyre sends messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons, and they build David a house. David perceives that the LORD has established him king over Israel, and that he has exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.
Palace, international craft, and theological interpretation arrive together. David reads cedar walls as the LORD's establishing, for the people's sake, not as a private monument only. The reading is the king's. It will be tested when he later wants to house the ark in cedar too.
More wives, concubines, sons, and daughters in Jerusalem
David takes more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem after he has come from Hebron, and more sons and daughters are born. The names include Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphalet.
Household expansion is listed as royal establishment. The wives, concubines, sons, and daughters are persons in a growing court, not evidence that every relationship was equal or freely chosen. Reputation and cedar do not prove moral health. Solomon's name sits in the list without yet carrying the later weight of promise and failure.
How this should shape us
When a leader's public success expands control over households, examine consent, legal rights, material security, and the voices missing from the official account. Do not treat a palace, a famous name, or a growing family list as proof that the house is just.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Samuel 5:11–16 in your own words. Include its narrative movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one person or cost power can obscure, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters differ over source layers, chronology, historicity, characterization, textual readings, and whether the court story mainly legitimates, indicts, or holds David in sustained tension. The package states the received movement first and labels reconstructions.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
2 Samuel 5:11-16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 5:11-16
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 550–552, translation and all translator notes attached to 5:11-16
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Supports: The bounded epigraphic case for reading a house-of-David reference in the Tel Dan inscription, not proof of 2 Samuel's detailed events, territorial scale, or royal morality.
Halpern, 'The Stela from Dan: Epigraphic and Historical Considerations,' Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296 (1994), pp. 63–80; official bibliographic record and abstract
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 2 Samuel 5:11-16, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 5:11-16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Samuel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 550–552, translation and all translator notes attached to 5:11-16
Open source ↗modern scholarly handbook limited access
The Oxford Handbook of King David
Edited by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman and Christine Mitchell
Oxford University Press, 2026
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Exact location: Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5, 2010; published online 2011
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Exact location: Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Open source ↗peer reviewed epigraphic article abstract
The Stela from Dan: Epigraphic and Historical Considerations
Baruch Halpern
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296, pp. 63-80, 1994
Supports: The bounded epigraphic case for reading a house-of-David reference in the Tel Dan inscription, not proof of 2 Samuel's detailed events, territorial scale, or royal morality.
Exact location: Halpern, 'The Stela from Dan: Epigraphic and Historical Considerations,' Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296 (1994), pp. 63–80; official bibliographic record and abstract
Open source ↗