For Teaching

2 Samuel 13: What the Passage Says

137 claims across 39 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 2 Samuel 13 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Amnon, David's son, desires his half sister Tamar, and on his friend Jonadab's advice he pretends to be sick so that she will be sent to cook for him alone. He rapes her, then hates her and throws her out; David is furious, and Tamar's brother Absalom takes her in and says nothing to Amnon. Two years later Absalom invites the king's sons to a sheepshearing feast and has his servants kill Amnon, then flees to Geshur, where he stays three years while David mourns.

Claim by Claim

13:1
- This happened after the preceding events.
- Absalom son of David had a sister named Tamar.
- Tamar was beautiful.
- Amnon son of David loved her.
13:2
- Amnon was so distressed over his sister Tamar that he made himself ill.
- Tamar was a virgin.
- It seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.
13:3
- Amnon had a friend named Jonadab.
- Jonadab was the son of Shimeah, David's brother.
- Jonadab was a very shrewd man.
13:4
- Jonadab asked Amnon why he, the king's son, was so wasted morning after morning.
- Jonadab asked Amnon whether he would not tell him.
- Amnon said he loved Tamar, the sister of his brother Absalom.
13:5
- Jonadab told Amnon to lie down on his bed and pretend to be sick.
- Jonadab said Amnon's father would come to see him.
- Jonadab told Amnon to ask his father to let his sister Tamar come and give him food.
- Jonadab told Amnon to ask that she prepare the food in his sight so he could watch.
- Jonadab told Amnon to say he would eat from her hand.
13:6
- Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick.
- The king came to see Amnon.
- Amnon asked the king to let his sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in his sight.
- Amnon said he would eat from her hand.
13:7
- David sent word to Tamar at the house.
- David told Tamar to go to the house of her brother Amnon.
- David told Tamar to prepare food for Amnon.
13:8
- Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon.
- Amnon was lying down.
- Tamar took dough and kneaded it.
- Tamar made cakes in Amnon's sight.
- Tamar baked the cakes.
13:9
- Tamar took the pan and emptied it out before Amnon.
- Amnon refused to eat.
- Amnon ordered that every man be sent out from him.
- Every man went out from him.
13:10
- Amnon told Tamar to bring the food into the inner chamber so he could eat from her hand.
- Tamar took the cakes she had made.
- Tamar brought them to her brother Amnon in the inner chamber.
13:11
- Tamar brought the cakes near to Amnon to eat.
- Amnon seized hold of her.
- Amnon told her to come and lie with him.
- Amnon called her his sister.
13:12
- Tamar told Amnon no.
- Tamar called him her brother.
- Tamar told him not to violate her.
- Tamar said such a thing is not done in Israel.
- Tamar told him not to do this outrage.
13:13
- Tamar asked where she could carry her disgrace.
- Tamar said Amnon would become like one of the fools in Israel.
- Tamar urged him to speak to the king instead.
- Tamar said the king would not withhold her from him.
13:14
- Amnon was unwilling to listen to Tamar's voice.
- Amnon was stronger than she was.
- Amnon violated her.
- Amnon lay with her.
13:15
- Amnon then hated Tamar with a very great hatred.
- The hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.
- Amnon told her to get up and go.
13:16
- Tamar answered him that there was no cause for this.
- Tamar said that sending her away was a greater evil than the other thing he had done to her.
- Amnon was unwilling to listen to her.
13:17
- Amnon called his young man who served him.
- Amnon ordered that this woman be put out from him into the street.
- Amnon ordered that the door be bolted after her.
13:18
- Tamar was wearing a long ornamented tunic.
- The king's virgin daughters were dressed in such robes.
- Amnon's servant brought her outside.
- The servant bolted the door after her.
13:19
- Tamar put ashes on her head.
- Tamar tore the ornamented tunic that was on her.
- Tamar laid her hand on her head.
- Tamar went away crying out as she went.
13:20
- Absalom her brother asked her whether Amnon her brother had been with her.
- Absalom told her to keep silent for now.
- Absalom called her his sister.
- Absalom said Amnon was her brother.
- Absalom told her not to set her heart on this matter.
- Tamar remained desolate in the house of her brother Absalom.
13:21
- King David heard about all these things.
- David was very angry.
13:22
- Absalom spoke to Amnon neither bad nor good.
- Absalom hated Amnon.
- Absalom hated him because Amnon had violated his sister Tamar.
13:23
- Two full years passed.
- Absalom had sheepshearers at Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim.
- Absalom invited all the king's sons.
13:24
- Absalom came to the king.
- Absalom said that his servant had sheepshearers.
- Absalom asked that the king and his servants go with his servant.
13:25
- The king told Absalom no, calling him his son.
- The king said they should not all go, so as not to be a burden on him.
- Absalom urged him.
- The king was unwilling to go.
- The king blessed Absalom.
13:26
- Absalom said that if the king would not go, let his brother Amnon go with them.
- The king asked why Amnon should go with him.
13:27
- Absalom urged the king.
- The king sent Amnon with Absalom.
- The king sent all the king's sons with Absalom.
13:28
- Absalom commanded his young men.
- Absalom told them to watch for when Amnon's heart was merry with wine.
- Absalom told them that when he said to strike Amnon, they were to kill him.
- Absalom told them not to be afraid.
- Absalom asked whether it was not he who had commanded them.
- Absalom told them to be strong and be valiant men.
13:29
- Absalom's young men did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded.
- All the king's sons got up.
- Each of them mounted his mule.
- They fled.
13:30
- While they were on the way, a report reached David.
- The report said Absalom had struck down all the king's sons.
- The report said not one of them was left.
13:31
- The king got up.
- The king tore his garments.
- The king lay on the ground.
- All his servants stood by with their garments torn.
13:32
- Jonadab, son of Shimeah David's brother, responded.
- Jonadab said his lord should not think they had killed all the young men, the king's sons.
- Jonadab said Amnon alone was dead.
- Jonadab said this had been determined by Absalom's word since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar.
13:33
- Jonadab told the king not to take to heart the report that all the king's sons were dead.
- Jonadab said Amnon alone was dead.
13:34
- Absalom fled.
- The young man on watch lifted up his eyes and looked.
- He saw many people coming by the road behind him, from the side of the hill.
13:35
- Jonadab told the king that the king's sons had come.
- Jonadab said it had happened just as his servant had said.
13:36
- As soon as Jonadab finished speaking, the king's sons arrived.
- They lifted up their voice and wept.
- The king and all his servants also wept with very great weeping.
13:37
- Absalom fled.
- Absalom went to Talmai son of Ammihud, king of Geshur.
- David mourned for his son continually.
- It is not stated which son was mourned.
13:38
- Absalom fled and went to Geshur.
- Absalom was there three years.
13:39
- King David's soul longed to go out to Absalom.
- David was comforted concerning Amnon, since Amnon was dead.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1: David had children by several wives, so his sons were often only half brothers. Tamar was Absalom's full sister (both were children of Maacah) and Amnon's half sister. Amnon was David's eldest son and so the expected heir to the throne.
13:2: An unmarried daughter of the king lived in the women's quarters of the household and was watched over by her family; being alone with her was not something an outsider, even a half brother, could arrange. "Virgin" here carries that whole situation, not just the physical fact.
13:3: Jonadab was David's nephew, and so a first cousin to Amnon, Absalom and Tamar. The King James word "subtil" meant shrewd and calculating; it did not yet mean merely delicate or fine.
13:4: "Lean from day to day" means thinner and more worn out each morning. Jonadab is saying that Amnon looks visibly wasted, and that he has been watching it happen.
13:5: Feeding a sick person by hand from food a relative had prepared was ordinary family care, which is what makes the request sound harmless to David.
13:6: The Hebrew word for these cakes appears only in this story. It comes from a root connected with the word for "heart," so it may mean heart-shaped cakes, or food thought to restore a sick man's strength. No one now knows exactly what they were.
13:7: This is not a suggestion but an instruction from the king, sent to Tamar in the palace. Once David has spoken, Tamar has no way to refuse, and the reader is watching a father hand his daughter to the man who has planned this.
13:8: Kneading dough means pushing and folding it with your hands. That is how bread was made every day.
13:9: A royal son's rooms would have had attendants standing in them at all times; dismissing them all was itself a striking order.
13:11: "Lie with me" is an old way of saying he wanted her like a wife. She was his sister, and she said no.
13:12: "Such a thing is not done in Israel" was a set phrase for an act the whole community would regard as intolerable. The word behind "disgraceful thing" (nebalah) does not mean foolishness in the sense of silliness; it means deliberate, shameless outrage, and was used especially of sexual violence.
13:13: A woman who had been raped could not normally expect to marry, so her "shame" would have followed her for life. Tamar's suggestion that David could give her to Amnon is puzzling, since Israelite law forbids marriage between half brother and sister; readers have argued ever since about whether older custom allowed it, whether a king could set it aside, or whether Tamar is simply saying anything that might stop him.
13:14: The verb translated "forced" means to humiliate or violate; it is the standard biblical term for rape.
13:16: The opening words of Tamar's reply are damaged in the Hebrew and cannot be translated with confidence; "No!" or "There is no cause" are guesses. Her point is clear even so: to throw her out compounds the crime, because a man who violated an unmarried woman was at least expected to keep and support her.
13:17: Amnon does not use her name. The Hebrew is literally "this one", a dismissive way of referring to a person. The servant is a young male attendant of the household.
13:18: The Hebrew phrase (ketonet passim) is the same one used of Joseph's famous coat. Its exact sense is uncertain: either a long robe reaching to wrists and ankles, or one decorated with colored strips. Either way it was a costly garment that marked out its wearer, here as an unmarried daughter of the king.
13:19: Three recognized signs of grief: ashes on the head, a torn garment, and hands placed on the head, a gesture of mourning shown in ancient Near Eastern art. She tears the very robe that marked her former status.
13:20: The word behind "a ruined woman" (shomemah) is used of land laid waste. It describes a woman who will not now marry or bear children and who lives on in a male relative's household.
13:21: Ancient Greek manuscripts and a Hebrew scroll from Qumran add a further sentence here: that David did not punish Amnon, because he loved him, since he was his firstborn. The traditional Hebrew text used by the King James translators does not have it.
13:22: "Neither good nor bad" is an idiom meaning he said nothing to him at all, on any subject. Silence of this kind between men of the same household signaled a complete breach.
13:23: Sheepshearing was the year's payday for a flock owner and was celebrated with a large feast and heavy drinking, to which the owner invited guests. It gave Absalom a normal-sounding reason to gather the royal family away from Jerusalem.
13:24: Absalom calls himself "your servant" when talking to his own father. That was the polite way to speak to a king.
13:25: A king traveled with his officials and servants, so hosting a royal visit meant feeding a small crowd. David's refusal is the polite one expected of a guest.
13:28: "His heart is happy with wine" describes the point in a feast when a man is well drunk and off his guard.
13:29: Mules were the mount of the royal family in this period; riding the king's mule was a mark of royal standing. Ordinary people walked or rode donkeys.
13:31: Tearing one's clothes and lying on the bare ground were the standard public acts of mourning for the dead.
13:32: "By the appointment of Absalom" means the killing had been a fixed and settled plan, decided long before the feast. The unsettling detail is who says it: Jonadab, the same cousin who told Amnon how to get Tamar alone, turns out to have known what Absalom intended.
13:34: The watchman stood on the city wall or a gate tower. The Hebrew of the last phrase is obscure, literally "by the road behind him"; the ancient Greek version reads "from the road of Horonaim" and adds the watchman's report to the king, which the Hebrew text does not have.
13:37: Geshur was a small Aramaean kingdom east of the Sea of Galilee, outside David's territory. Talmai was Absalom's own grandfather: David had married Talmai's daughter Maacah, Absalom's mother. Absalom therefore fled to blood relatives beyond the reach of Israelite justice.
13:39: The Hebrew of this verse is difficult and its sense disputed. It may mean that David longed to go out to Absalom, or, reading the verb differently: that his anger toward Absalom subsided. Either way, the reason given is that he had finished grieving for Amnon.

Read 2 Samuel 13