Amnon, Tamar and Absalom

When the king had returned to Jerusalem, a sad misfortune befell his house, in the following way. He had a daughter who was still a virgin and very beautiful, so much so that she surpassed all the most beautiful women; her name was Tamar, and she had the same mother as Absalom. Now Amnon, David’s eldest son, fell in love with her; and since he could not obtain what he desired, because of her virginity and the watch kept over her, he became quite ill. Indeed, his grief so ate away at his body that he grew thin and his color changed. Now there was a certain Jonadab, a kinsman and friend of his, who found out this passion of his, for he was an extraordinarily wise man and very shrewd. So when he saw that every morning Amnon was not in the health he ought to be, he came to him and asked him to tell him the cause of it, though he said he guessed that it came from the passion of love. Amnon confessed his passion: that he was in love with a sister of his, who had the same father as himself. So Jonadab suggested to him a method and a scheme by which he might obtain his desire. He persuaded him to pretend to be sick, and told him that when his father came to him, he should beg him to let his sister come and wait on him; for if that were done he would be better and would quickly recover from his illness. So Amnon lay down on his bed and pretended to be sick, as Jonadab had suggested. When his father came and asked how he was, he begged him to send his sister to him. David at once ordered her to be brought to him; and when she had come, Amnon told her to make cakes for him and fry them in a pan, and to do it all with her own hands, because he would take them better from her hand. So she kneaded the flour in her brother’s sight, made him cakes, baked them in a pan, and brought them to him. But at that time he would not taste them, and ordered his servants to send everyone who was there out of his room, because he wanted to rest, free from noise and disturbance. As soon as his command had been carried out, he asked his sister to bring his supper to him in the inner room; and when the girl had done this, he took hold of her and tried to persuade her to lie with him. At this the girl cried out and said, “No, brother, do not force me, and do not be so wicked as to break the laws and bring the utmost shame on yourself. Curb this unrighteous and impure lust of yours, from which our house will get nothing but reproach and disgrace.” She also advised him to speak to his father about this matter, for he would permit it. She said this because she wanted to escape her brother’s violent passion for the moment. But he would not yield to her; burning with love and goaded on by the stings of his passion, he forced his sister. But as soon as Amnon had satisfied his lust, he hated her at once, and abusing her with reproachful words, he told her to get up and be gone. And when she said that this was a more injurious treatment than the first, if, now that he had forced her, he would not let her stay with him until evening, but told her to go away in the daytime while it was light, so that she would meet people who would be witnesses of her shame, he ordered his servant to turn her out of his house. She was bitterly grieved at the injury and violence done to her, and tore her robe (for the virgins of old wore robes with sleeves, reaching down to the ankles, so that they would not be seen), and sprinkled ashes on her head, and went up through the middle of the city, crying out and lamenting the violence done to her. Now Absalom her brother happened to meet her, and asked her what sad thing had happened to her that she was in such a state. When she had told him what injury had been done her, he comforted her and urged her to be quiet and bear it all patiently, and not to regard being defiled by her brother as an injury. So she yielded to his advice, and stopped crying out and making known to the crowd the force done to her; and she lived on as a widow with her brother Absalom for a long time. [a]

When David her father learned of this, he was grieved at what Amnon had done; but because he had an extraordinary affection for him, since he was his eldest son, he felt bound not to distress him. But Absalom secretly watched for a fit opportunity to take revenge on him for this crime, for he hated him thoroughly. Now when the second year after this wicked affair concerning his sister had passed, and Absalom was about to go and shear his own sheep at Baal-hazor, a city in the territory of Ephraim, he invited his father, as well as his brothers, to come and feast with him. But when David excused himself, not wanting to be a burden to him, Absalom asked him at least to send his brothers; and he did send them. Then Absalom ordered his own servants that when they saw Amnon befuddled and drowsy with wine, and he gave them a signal, they should fear no one but kill him. [e]

When they had done as they were commanded, the rest of his brothers were astonished and alarmed and afraid for themselves, so they immediately mounted their horses and rode off to their father. But someone got there ahead of them and told their father that they had all been killed by Absalom. At this he was overcome with sorrow, as for so many of his sons destroyed at once, and by their own brother too; and the thought that it was their brother who seemed to have killed them made his sorrow for them heavier still. So he neither asked the cause of this slaughter nor waited to hear anything more, though it would have been only reasonable to do so when so very great a misfortune was reported to him, one made incredible by its very greatness. He tore his clothes and threw himself on the ground, and lay there lamenting the loss of all his sons, both those who, as he had been told, were killed, and the one who had killed them. But Jonadab, the son of his brother Shimeah, begged him not to give way so far to his sorrow; as for the rest of his sons, he did not believe they had been killed, for he found no cause for such a suspicion, but he said it might be worth inquiring about Amnon, for it was not unlikely that Absalom would venture to kill him because of the injury he had done to Tamar. Meanwhile a great noise of horses, and the commotion of some people coming, turned their attention toward them: they were the king’s sons, who had fled from the feast. So their father met them in their grief, and grieved with them himself; but it was more than he had expected to see those sons of his again, whom he had heard a little before had perished. Still, there were tears on both sides: they lamenting their brother who had been killed, and the king lamenting his son who had been killed too. But Absalom fled to Geshur, to his grandfather on his mother’s side, who was king of that country, and he stayed with him three whole years. [f]

Now David had a mind to send for Absalom, not so that he might come to be punished, but so that he might be with him; for the force of his anger had abated with the length of time. It was Joab, the commander of his army, who chiefly persuaded him to do this. He put up an ordinary woman, advanced in years, to go to the king in mourning clothes, and she spoke to him as follows. Two of her sons, she said, had fallen out with each other in the country and come to an open quarrel, and with no one there who could stop them, one was struck by the other and was dead. She asked him to intervene in this case and do her the favor of saving this son of hers from her relatives, who were very eager to have the one who had killed his brother put to death; so that she might not be robbed any further of the hope she had of being cared for by him in her old age. If he would prevent this killing of her son by those who wanted it, he would do her a great favor, because the relatives would not be held back from their purpose by anything but fear of him. And when the king had granted what the woman had begged of him, she made him this reply: “I owe you thanks for your kindness to me in pitying my old age and preventing the loss of my only remaining child. But to assure me of this kindness of yours, first be reconciled to your own son and stop being angry with him. For how can I persuade myself that you have really granted me this favor, while you yourself go on in the same way in your anger against your own son? For it is a foolish thing to add another to your dead son willfully, when the death of the other came about without your consent.” Then the king perceived that this made-up story had been put up by Joab and was his contrivance; and when, on questioning the old woman, he found that it really was so, he called for Joab and told him he had obtained what he asked, just as he wished, and told him to bring Absalom back; for he was not displeased now, but had already stopped being angry with him. So Joab bowed down to the king, received his words gratefully, and went at once to Geshur, took Absalom with him, and came to Jerusalem. [h]

However, the king sent a message to his son ahead of time, as he was coming, and ordered him to withdraw to his own house, for he was not yet in the mood to see him at present. So in obedience to his father’s command he kept away from his presence and was content with the respects paid him by his own household alone. Now his beauty had not been impaired, either by the grief he had been through or by the lack of the care proper for a king’s son; for he still surpassed and excelled all men in looks and in the size of his body, and outshone those who lived in the greatest luxury. Indeed, so thick was the hair of his head that it was hard work to cut it every eighth day, and his hair weighed about five pounds. He lived in Jerusalem two years, and became the father of three sons and one daughter. This daughter was of very great beauty, and Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, afterward took her as his wife and had by her a son named Abijah. But Absalom sent to Joab and asked him to pacify his father toward him entirely, and to beg him to give him leave to come to him, to see him and speak with him. When Joab neglected to do this, he sent some of his own servants and set fire to the field adjoining his; and when Joab learned of it, he came to Absalom, accused him of what he had done, and asked him why he had done it. Absalom replied, “I have found out this stratagem to bring you to us, since you have taken no care to carry out the charge I laid on you, which was to reconcile my father to me. And I earnestly beg you, now that you are here, to pacify my father toward me; for I count my coming here more grievous than my banishment, while my father’s anger against me continues.” Joab was persuaded by this, and pitied the distress Absalom was in, and became an intercessor with the king for him. When he had talked with his father, he soon brought him to so friendly a disposition toward Absalom that he at once sent for him to come to him; and when Absalom had thrown himself down on the ground and begged forgiveness for his offenses, the king raised him up and promised to forget what he had done before. [i]