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2 Kings 16:21

And Achitophel said to Absalom: Go in to the concubines of thy father, whom he hath left to keep the house: that when all Israel shall hear that thou hast disgraced thy father, their hands may be strengthened with thee.

Challoner: Their hands may be strengthenedThe people might apprehend lest Absalom should be reconciled to his father, and therefore they followed him with some fear of being left in the lurch, till they saw such a crime committed as seemed to make a reconciliation impossible.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Et ait Achitophel ad Absalom : Ingredere ad concubinas patris tui, quas dimisit ad custodiendam domum : ut cum audierit omnis Israël quod fœdaveris patrem tuum, roborentur tecum manus eorum.
Septuagint (Swete): καὶ εἶπεν Ἀχειτόφελ πρὸς Ἀβεσσαλώμ Εἴσελθε πρὸς τὰς παλλακὰς τοῦ πατρός σου ἃς κατέλειπεν φυλάσσειν τὸν οἶκον, καὶ ἀκούσεται πᾶς Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι κατῄσχυνας τὸν πατέρα σου, καὶ ἐνισχύσουσιν αἱ χεῖρες πάντων τῶν μετὰ σοῦ.
Hebrew (WLC): וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל֙ אֶל אַבְשָׁלֹ֔ם בּ֚וֹא אֶל פִּלַגְשֵׁ֣י אָבִ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הִנִּ֖יחַ לִשְׁמ֣וֹר הַבָּ֑יִת וְשָׁמַ֤ע כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ כִּֽי נִבְאַ֣שְׁתָּ אֶת אָבִ֔יךָ וְחָ֣זְק֔וּ יְדֵ֖י כָּל אֲשֶׁ֥ר אִתָּֽךְ

Haydock's commentary

Their hands may be strengthened, &c. The people might apprehend lest Absalom should be reconciled to his father; and therefore they followed him with some fear of being left in the lurch, till they saw such a crime committed, as seemed to make a reconciliation impossible. (Challoner)

This was the most heinous outrage that a son could offer to his father. Jacob resented it to the last, Genesis xlix. 4. Amyntor devoted his son Phœnix to all the furies, for a similar offence. (Homer, Iliad ix.) Armais treated the wives of his brother Sesostris in this manner, when he had resolved to rebel. (Josephus, contra Apion i.)

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.