³ David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David became the father of more sons and daughters.

⁸ He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

⁴ He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’^{(A) 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?^(B)

¹⁴ You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.^(A)

⁹ Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun,^[a] because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.^(A)

²⁶ I found more bitter than death the woman who is a trap, whose heart is nets, whose hands are fetters; one who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.^{(A) 27} See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thing to another to find the sum,^{(B) 28} which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. ²⁹ See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.^(C)

Descendants of David and Solomon

3 These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite;^{(A) 2} the third Absalom, son of Maacah daughter of King Talmai of Geshur; the fourth Adonijah, son of Haggith; ³ the fifth Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth Ithream, by his wife Eglah;^{(B) 4} six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months. And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.^(C)

³ Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.

¹³ In Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives, and more sons and daughters were born to David.^(A)