Amnon’s Rape of Tamar

13 Sometime after this, David’s son Amnon fell in love with David’s other^[a] son Absalom’s beautiful sister Tamar. ² Amnon became so emotionally distressed that he fell sick over his half-sister Tamar. She was a virgin, and Amnon found it difficult to do anything to her.

³ Meanwhile, Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, who was the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Now Jonadab was a very shrewd man. ⁴ “Why are you so depressed these past few mornings,”^[b] Jonadab^[c] asked Amnon, “since you’re a son of the king? Why not tell me?”

Amnon replied, “I’m in love with my brother Absalom’s sister Tamar.”

⁵ Jonadab advised him, “Lie down and pretend to be sick. When your father visits you, ask him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat that she prepares especially for me,^[d] and after she makes dinner for me, let her feed it to me personally.’”^[e]

⁶ So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to visit him, Amnon asked the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make some of her bread especially for me,^[f] so she can feed it to me personally.”^[g]

⁷ So David sent for Tamar back at the palace, telling her, “Please go to your brother Amnon’s home and prepare some food for him.” ⁸ Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s home, where he was lying down. She brought along some dough, kneaded it, prepared some cakes especially for him,^[h] baked them, ⁹ and emptied the baking skillet just for him, but he refused to eat.

“Send everybody out of here,” Amnon said. So everyone left the room. ¹⁰ Amnon told Tamar, “Bring the food into my private bedroom, so I can eat it with you personally.”^[i] So Tamar took the cakes she had prepared and brought them into the private bedroom for her brother Amnon.

¹¹ But as soon as she brought them near him to eat, he overpowered her and told her, “Come here and have sex with me, my sister!”

¹² “No, my brother!” she kept telling him. “Don’t humiliate me like this! This just isn’t done in Israel! Don’t do this utterly foolish thing! ¹³ And what about me? Where will I go to escape^[j] this disgrace? And as for you, you’ll be known as one of Israel’s greatest fools! So please talk to the king, because he won’t withhold me from you!”

¹⁴ But he was unwilling to listen to what she was saying. Since he was stronger than she was, he forced her into having sex with him. ¹⁵ Afterwards, though, Amnon hated her very intensely. As a result, his hatred for her exceeded the love that he had previously for her. So Amnon told her, “Get up! Leave!”

¹⁶ Even so, she tried to tell him, “No! After all, it’s more wrong to send me away than what you just did to me!”

But he was unwilling to listen to her. ¹⁷ So he called out to a young man who was serving him, and told him: “Send this woman away from me and lock the door after her.”

¹⁸ Now she was clothed in a long sleeved, multi-colored ornamental tunic, commonly worn by the king’s virgin daughters. When Amnon’s^[k] servant threw her out and locked the door after her, ¹⁹ Tamar rubbed her head with ashes, tore her tunic that she was wearing, put her hand to her head, and ran off, crying aloud as she went away.

Absalom’s Plans Revenge

²⁰ Later, her brother Absalom asked her, “Has Amnon, that brother of yours, raped^[l] you? Then keep quiet about your half-brother for now, my sister. Stop taking this so personally.”^[m] From that time on, Tamar lived in continuous desolation within her brother Absalom’s house. ²¹ When King David heard all about these developments, he flew into a rage over it. ²² But Absalom never said a word, either good or bad, to Amnon. Nevertheless, he hated Amnon because he had humiliated his sister Tamar.