Absalom is occupying David's palace in Jerusalem with many of his top officials and soldiers. But he doesn't know what to do next in regard to taking over the kingdom so he asks Ahithophel, who used to be his father's chief counselor, what he thinks he should do. "Absalom said to Ahithophel, 'Give us your advice. What should we do?'" (2 Samuel 16:20)
We might expect Ahithophel to begin by laying out political or battle strategy. He will get to that in Chapter 17 but first he prompts Absalom to do something so offensive against David that there's no going back from it. "Ahithophel answered, 'Sleep with your father's concubines whom he left to take care of the palace.'" (2 Samuel 16:21a)
You'll recall that David left ten concubines at the palace when he took his leave of Jerusalem. He had no reason to believe these women and the citizens of Jerusalem would not be safe when Absalom arrived; with David gone, no one resisted Absalom's entry into the city. It never entered David's mind that his son would have sexual contact with these women. Had a man of some other culture been trying to usurp David's throne, such a thing would have been commonplace, for that's what heathen kings did: they took over the harem that belonged to their predecessor. Also in heathen cultures, a son who succeeded his father would inherit his father's harem. But in Leviticus 18:8 such a relationship was forbidden by the Lord, who then made it a capital offense in Leviticus 20:11 for a man to sleep with any of his father's wives. The Lord clearly stated that a man could not have sexual relations with his father's wife, because although a step-mother or a concubine was not related to the man by blood, she was to be considered off limits to him out of respect for his father. Apparently this rule held true even if the man's father had divorced the woman or if the man's father was dead, for when the Apostle Paul discusses such a case regarding a church member in 1 Corinthians 5, scholars believe the man's incestuous relationship with his step-mother began either after his father divorced the woman or after his father died.
Why does Ahithophel encourage Absalom to commit such immorality? For one thing, until Absalom commits this act, there's a possibility of reconciliation between him and David. Even now, when he's had himself declared king and is sitting on David's throne in David's palace, if he had repented to his father and asked for forgiveness I believe David would have granted forgiveness and spared his life. After all, David has already pardoned him for premeditated murder, which was a death-penalty crime. No doubt he would also have pardoned him for the current rebellion, although the likelihood of David naming him as his successor might have been off the table. But David would probably not have pardoned Ahithophel or any other top officials who betrayed him. Ahithophel knows that if Absalom and David reconcile, his head is on the chopping block and Absalom will probably not stand up for him. By inciting Absalom to sleep with his father's concubines, he is causing Absalom to irreparably sever his ties to his father because this act displays a thorough repudiation of his father and a complete lack of respect for David not only as his father but as the leader of the nation.
A second reason Ahithophel advises Absalom to do such a thing is to rally the people behind Absalom. Absalom's willingness to do whatever it takes to sever the relationship with his father and to take over all that belongs to his father is meant to show everyone he means business. Anyone who may be harboring doubts that Absalom is capable of following through on his intentions to usurp David will have their doubts put to rest. Ahithophel says, "Then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself obnoxious to your father, and the hands of everyone with you will be more resolute." (2 Samuel 16:21b)
Absalom does what Ahithophel advises. "So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel." (2 Samuel 16:22) This thing was done publicly, as the prophet Nathan foretold when he said to David when he came to confront him and reprimand him for committing adultery and murder, "This is what the Lord says: 'Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight." (2 Samuel 12:11) The Lord allows Absalom to sleep with ten of David's wives because David slept with another man's wife and then had that man killed so he could take his wife for himself. This doesn't mean the Lord approves of Absalom's sin against his father. It doesn't mean the Lord approves of Absalom's sin against these women. (It may be that they willingly slept with Absalom, thinking it's to their advantage to sleep with the man they believe will soon be king over all Israel, but Absalom is in a position of having undue influence over them and that means he bears most or all of the blame for these women being unfaithful to David.) No, the Lord doesn't approve of sexual immorality but when he allows Absalom to disrespect David in this way it means He's allowing David to reap what he has sown.
David lived in front of his sons in a manner that did not encourage sexual morality or a respectful attitude toward women. He was a man of above-average sexual appetites, evidently, and as a wealthy king he could afford to indulge those appetites with numerous wives and concubines even though the Lord commanded Israelite kings not to take many wives as the heathen kings did. (Deuteronomy 17:17) As if disobeying the Lord in this matter wasn't bad enough, David even took the wife of another man. He set a poor example for his sons where sex and marriage are concerned and he is now reaping the natural consequences of those mistakes.
Why does Absalom do the thing Ahithophel tells him to do? Because Ahithophel has never given bad advice before. Because Ahithophel's counsel was so wise in the past that David obeyed his advice the same as he would have obeyed the words of a prophet. Absalom also had obeyed him as if his words came directly from the Lord. "Now in those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of the Lord. That was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Ahithophel's advice." (2 Samuel 16:23) Until Ahithophel betrayed David and gave his allegiance to Absalom, he truly did give advice worthy of being followed. But David prayed to the Lord when he found out Ahithophel had turned against him and he asked the Lord to frustrate the advice of Ahithophel---to make it unwise, worthless, foolhardy. That's exactly what's happening here: the Lord has turned Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness. Absalom, not being a man of much godly discernment, doesn't realize the Lord is not with Ahithophel and does not recognize foolish, ungodly advice when he hears it. That's why, in the sight of all Israel, he takes David's ten concubines one by one into a tent with him on the palace rooftop and sleeps with each of them as a way of permanently severing his relationship to his father and as a way of announcing his intention to take over everything that belongs to his father---including the kingdom of Israel.
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