What is described as the 4th Payment of David's Punishment?

• A. David has to retreat from Jerusalem
• B. Absalom lays with David's concubines in a tent on the rooftop
• C. Absalom murders Amnon in revenge
• D. Amnon desires and rapes Tamar

Answer: (A)

The fourth punishment is the king’s public exile from the city, the outward consequence that shows God’s discipline has reached the national level. After David’s sin with Bathsheba, Nathan’s oracle lays out escalating penalties, moving from trouble within David’s house to trouble for the kingdom. The culmination is David having to flee Jerusalem during Absalom’s rebellion, a dramatic act that exposes the king’s authority to public scandal and shows the severity of the discipline. You can see this unfolding in the narrative where David, warned by his advisers, leaves the city and crosses the Jordan as Absalom’s forces approach. The later episode of Absalom sleeping with David’s concubines on the roof is related to the rebellion’s display of power, but the fourth punishment in this sequence is the exile itself, the moment when David is forced to retreat from the capital.