2 Samuel 3:5

And the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah David's wife,.... Who also is not spoken of in any other place; only, in a like chronological account as the former, it is remarked that the mother of this only is

And the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron. Eglah, David's wife.

David’ s wife: this is added, either because she was of obscure parentage, and was known by no other title but her relation to David; or to distinguish her from some other person of that name, who possibly might be of no good fame; or because this was his first and most proper wife, best known by her other name of Michal, who, though she had no child by David after she scoffed at him for dancing before the ark, , yet might have one before that time. And she might be named the last of these here, because she was given away from David, and married to another man, when David took the other wives; and therefore though she had been first, yet now she was become the last of them. Or this title, being put in the last place, may belong to all the rest of the women above mentioned, by a figure called zeugma, to distinguish them from his concubines, .

2 Samuel 3:5 And the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah David’ s wife. These were born to David in Hebron. Ver. 5. Eglah David’ s wife.] His wife by a specialty: most dearly beloved. Some make her to be Michel, and her son to be Nathan: but that is not very likely. Praecipua et prima, ac prae aliis dilecta. - Lap.

(2-5) And unto David.—The list of David’s sons born during his seven and a half years’ reign in Hebron rather interrupts the continuity of the narrative, but is quite in accordance with the habit of the sacred historians to insert at the beginning or at some turning point in each reign statistics about the house or family of the king. (See 1 Samuel 14:49-51; 2 Samuel 5:13; 1 Kings 3:1; 1 Kings 14:21; 1 Kings 15:2; 1 Kings 15:9, &c.) Amnon.—Written “Aminon” in 2 Samuel 13:20. His great crime and miserable end are related in 2 Samuel 13. Chileab.—Called “Daniel” in 1 Chronicles 3:1. None of the attempts to explain these as two forms of the same name have been successful. Either, therefore, “Chileab” is an error of the scribe (all but the first letter being the same as the first three letters of the following word), or, more probably, Chileab had a double name. Nothing further is known of him, and as he does not appear in the subsequent troubles, it is supposed that he died early. These two sons were born of the wives whom David had taken while an outlaw. Absalom.—His history, rebellion, and death are narrated in 2 Samuel 13-18. His mother was “the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur,” a petty province north-east of Bashan. How David was brought into connection with him, and whether this alliance had any political object or not, we are not told, but the fact that Absalom in his exile naturally sought refuge with his maternal grandmother (2 Samuel 13:37) may have had a connection with David’s subsequent campaigns in that region. Adonijah.—After the death of his three elder brothers, Adonijah considered himself the rightful heir to the throne, and embittered the last days of his father by a rebellion (1 Kings 1). He was at last put to death by Solomon (1 Kings 2:25). Of the other two sons, Shephatiah and Ithream, and of the mothers of the last three, nothing is known, although there is an absurd Jewish tradition that “Eglah” was another name for “Michal.”

5. Eglah David’s wife] A Jewish tradition as old as the time of Jerome (Quaest. Hebr. in libros Regum) makes Eglah (= heifer, cp. Judges 14:18) another name for Michal, who is supposed to be particularly distinguished both here and in 1 Chronicles 3:3 as David’s wife, because she was his first and best-loved. If so, her position last in the list may be accounted for because she was separated from David for a time, and only returned to him towards the close of his residence in Hebron (2 Samuel 3:13), so that Ithream was the youngest of his sons born there. Polygamy was tolerated by the Mosaic legislation as an existing custom, but discouraged as contrary to the original institution and true ideal of marriage (Deuteronomy 21:15-17; Deuteronomy 17:17; Genesis 2:24, of which perhaps Genesis 31:50 is a corrupt reminiscence). David’s family history is a standing monument of the pernicious effects of this practice, which are perpetuated to this day in Oriental countries, where “contentions, envyings, jealousies and quarrels among the wives, as well as between the different sets of children” still prevail. See Van Lennep’s Bible Lands, II. p. 559.