“Sons were born to David in Hevron. His firstborn was Amnon, whose mother was Achino‘am from Yizre‘el; his second, Kil’av, whose mother was Avigayil the widow of Naval from Karmel; the third, Avshalom, whose mother was Ma‘akhah the daughter of Talmai king of G’shur…”-2 Samuel 3:2-5
Verse 2 explains how David began to establish his house of power.
It went through different stages, beginning with his marriage to Michal, the daughter of King Saul.
But Saul, out of anger, took Michal away from David and gave her to another man.
Later, while David was on the run from Saul, he married two other women:
Avigail, the widow of Nabal, and a woman named Achino’am from Jezreel.
The point of this passage is to show how David began to build his royal harem.
The sons mentioned here were all born in Hebron, David’s capital city.
So the most important son was Amnon, David’s firstborn, and his mother was Achino’am.
Amnon’s name means “faithful.”
The second son was born to David’s other wife, Avigayil, and his name was Ki’lav, which means “the father wins.”
Next was Avshalom, whose name means “the father is peace.”
He was born to Ma’akhah, a foreign woman from Geshur.
It’s important to know the kingdom of Geshur was under Ishbosheth’s control at this time.
David married Ma’akhah for political reasons, to create a strong bond with Geshur and outsmart Ishbosheth.
That’s why we’re being told that Ma’akhah was the daughter of the King of Geshur.
This leads us to the takeaway for today.
In an earlier article, I pointed out the Bible is the only book you need to succeed in business.
Why?
Because it gives us deep insight into human nature and more importantly, how to deal with human behavior.
The passage we looked at today is a good example of this.
Here, we see David strategically marrying to build strong political alliances.
Putting aside the argument of whether polygyny is acceptable or not (I do believe the Torah permits it)…
The point is in business…
The most dangerous number is ONE.
It is important to be prayerfully strategic in building alliances as we seek business success.
I’ll leave it at that for today…
But we’ll pick up this discussion again the next time we meet.
Stay frosty.
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