2 Samuel 13 - Introduction
_AMNON FORCETH HIS SISTER, AND AFTERWARDS HATETH HER, AND PUTTETH HER FROM HIM: ABSALOM REVENGES THE INJURY BY THE DEATH OF AMNON, AND FLIES TO THE KING OF GESHUR._ _Before Christ 1034._... [ Continue Reading ]
_AMNON FORCETH HIS SISTER, AND AFTERWARDS HATETH HER, AND PUTTETH HER FROM HIM: ABSALOM REVENGES THE INJURY BY THE DEATH OF AMNON, AND FLIES TO THE KING OF GESHUR._ _Before Christ 1034._... [ Continue Reading ]
IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THIS, &C.— When David had taken Rabbah and all the other cities of Ammon, he had not long returned to Jerusalem before his domestic misfortunes began to multiply upon him, and to verify the terrible threats which Nathan had denounced from the Lord, _I will raise up evil against... [ Continue Reading ]
AMNON WAS SO VEXED, THAT HE FELL SICK— It is natural to think, that the passion of love is nowhere so wasting and vexatious as where it is unlawful. A quick sense of guilt, especially where it is enormous, as in the present instance, strikes the soul with horror; and the impossibility of an innocent... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE TOOK A PAN, &C.— Tamar came and prepared food at Amnon's desire, with all the housewifely skill of those simple ages, when an utter inattention to all the purposes of domestic life made no part even of a princess's praise. See Genesis 18:6 and Herodot. lib. 8: cap. 137. After having baked the ca... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE ANSWERED HIM, NAY, MY BROTHER— Amnon having mentioned his criminal passion to Tamar, she represents to him in the most lively manner the horror of his crime; that it was a violation of the laws, that it would be her destruction, and that it would dishonour him in the highest degree before all Is... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN AMNON HATED HER EXCEEDINGLY— The flux and reflux of passion in a brutal breast are here finely painted. Commentators are at a loss to account for this sudden and excessive hatred; and, indeed, there seems to be something extraordinary in it. Tamar's rape had an effect upon her ravisher directly... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE HAD A GARMENT OF DIVERS COLOURS— See Genesis 37:3 and Martin's Explicat. des Textes Difficiles, p. 172.... [ Continue Reading ]
HATH AMNON THY BROTHER BEEN WITH THEE— Oppressed with sorrow, and overwhelmed with shame, Tamar went to her brother Absalom's house, who, seeing her confusion and distress, easily apprehended the cause of it, and put the question to her, _whether her brother Amnon had been with her;_ covering the gr... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN KING DAVID HEARD OF ALL THESE THINGS, HE WAS VERY WROTH— We may easily conceive what resentment and uneasiness David felt for this crime: but how he punished it we know not. The truth is, he could not punish it without exposing the infamy of his house, and cutting off his eldest son: and how ha... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ABSALOM SPAKE UNTO HIS BROTHER AMNON NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD, &C.— _But Absalom spoke not at all with Amnon, because he was enraged against him for having violated his sister Tamar._ Houb. Though grieved to the soul for the injury done to his sister, and resenting it to death, yet Absalom so well d... [ Continue Reading ]
I PRAY THEE LET MY BROTHER AMNON GO WITH US— As heir presumptive to the crown, Amnon might represent the king; and it was probably upon this pretence that Absalom was so pressing for his attendance. REFLECTIONS.—Such a transaction as this of Amnon's could not be concealed. 1. David heard of it, an... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS HATH BEEN DETERMINED, &C.— What unparalleled impudence and effrontery was this! to speak with such calmness and unconcern of a horrid villany, which he himself had contrived, and of which he now saw the dreadful consequences! Could there be a more miscreant minister?... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT ABSALOM FLED, &C.— As he had committed a wilful murder, he could have no city of refuge in his own country; and therefore he fled out of the kingdom, to his mother's father. Thus did God, by withdrawing his restraining grace from Amnon, and leaving him a prey to his own passions, _raise up evil... [ Continue Reading ]