2 Samuel 13:7 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, "Go to your brother Amnon 's house and prepare food for him."

NIV: David sent word to Tamar at the palace: "Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some food for him."

NASB: Then David sent a messenger to the house for Tamar, saying, 'Go now to your brother Amnon’s house, and prepare food for him.'

CSB: David sent word to Tamar at the palace: "Please go to your brother Amnon’s house and prepare a meal for him."

NLT: So David agreed and sent Tamar to Amnon’s house to prepare some food for him.

KJV: Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go now to thy brother Amnon's house, and dress him meat.

NKJV: And David sent home to Tamar, saying, “Now go to your brother Amnon’s house, and prepare food for him.”

David has learned that Amnon, his eldest son, is terribly sick. David has already lost one son (2 Samuel 12:18). So, David goes to see him and finds him lying in bed. His son has one request: for David to send Amnon's half-sister, Tamar, to make some cakes where he can watch, and feed him (2 Samuel 13:6).

David doesn't know that this is a scheme made up by his nephew Jonadab, or that Amnon is crazed with lust for Tamar. As a young woman of marrying age and the daughter of one of David's other wives, Amnon can't get to her. Jonadab found his friend tormented and came up with this plan (2 Samuel 13:1–5).

In many ways, Tamar's story reflects Bathsheba's. David sent for Bathsheba while her husband was away and slept with her (2 Samuel 11:2–4). David sends Tamar to Amnon who rapes her (2 Samuel 13:8–14).

There are differences. Bathsheba conceived. After a series of schemes, David killed her husband and married her (2 Samuel 11:6–27). Tamar doesn't become pregnant. After Amnon rapes her, he sends her away in disgust. Even when she begs him to mitigate her shame and marry her, he refuses (2 Samuel 13:15–17). David thinks he's hidden his sin; Amnon doesn't care.

Absalom, Tamar's brother, will murder Amnon and try to take the throne from David. David has such intense love for his sons (2 Samuel 12:16–17; 13:36; 18:5) that he's vulnerable to their conspiracies, despite God's warnings (2 Samuel 12:10–12).

Second Samuel 13:7–19 explains how Amnon makes himself a fulfillment of a curse God placed on David (2 Samuel 12:10—11). Using the ruse of being sick, Amnon has his half-sister Tamar alone and vulnerable (2 Samuel 13:1–6). She tries to reason with him, but he's far stronger. Once he's satisfied himself at her expense, he finds her disgusting and sends her away in shame. To her, the rejection is even more painful than the is a crime worse than the rape: she has been violated and will never marry or have children. Her brother Absalom will avenge her by murdering the rapist (2 Samuel 13:22, 28).

In this chapter, God's curse that the sword will strike David's house (2 Samuel 12:10) begins to emerge. David's firstborn son Amnon lusts over half-sister Tamar. Tamar fights back, but Amnon first rapes her and then rejects her. David is angry but does nothing. Two years later, Tamar's full brother Absalom murders Amnon. Three years after that, Absalom returns and becomes the enemy in David's house who takes his wives in public (2 Samuel 12:11–12; 15:1–16; 16:21–23).

This begins fulfillment of some of God's curses against David (2 Samuel 12:10), and sets the scene for others (2 Samuel 12:11–12). David's oldest son, Amnon, rapes his own half-sister, Tamar. Her full brother Absalom murders Amnon, starting a five-year campaign of vengeance against David. By the end, two of David's sons will be dead, his daughter will be desolate, and David will be deeply humbled (2 Samuel 14—19).

Second Samuel continues the story of David, who will become king over Judah. The other tribes of Israel are resistant, eventually sparking a civil war. David wins and makes Jerusalem his capital. Early success is followed by moral failure and controversy in David's house. The book of 1 Kings will begin by detailing David's decline and death.