The rest of the book deals with the bloody consequences of David’s sin. This is likely the second darkest chapter of the Bible as we are called to witness the rape of one of David’s daughters from her eyes. 

• Tamar was held hostage to Amnon’s lust (11).

• Her protests were ignored (12).

• She was raped (14).

• She was scorned (15).

• She was banished (17).

• Her life was ruined (19). 

The author of this story wants the pain of the story to sink in deeply, telling it from Tamar’s point of view. No doubt, the story is not added as a piece of intrigue nor to satiate the appetite of those twisted minds that feed on scandal. The writer wants the reader to feel the pain of the event. 

Amnon’s Scheme (1-9)

Amnon, David’s firstborn, noticed his beautiful half-sister, Tamar (sister to Absalom) with lust. Being so stricken with lust and unable to devise a way to be alone with her, he became sickened with his own selfish lust. 

Jonadab, a “crafty man” and cousin to Amnon, noticed his ill countenance and extended depression. It was this man Jonadab who gave Amnon the idea of feigning physical sickness and then having King David request his industrious daughter Tamar come and feed his pretentious son. It was conniving Jonadab who knew all the angles, who knew how to make evil succeed into what a foolish heart would claim as good. The evil in Amnon was one thing—you find him from bed to bed tending to his hormones. The evil of Jonadab is far more wicked and sinister, for he could show someone how to seduce another to the bed of their lust. Many a great man has seduced many an offering into their own pockets, making themselves appear virtuous in the process (1-6).  All at once, a Jonadab can pimp for one person, disgrace another, and be disloyal to another. In a few short verses, Jonadab shows up again showing his utter disloyalty to his uncle and the king. 

The scheme worked; Tamar came and made ready food to serve Amnon, who refused to eat it in the company of his attendants. Amnon then sent all of his servants out and took Tamar into his private bedroom. The author seeks to make it clear that the dumb-minded accusation that some make—she should not have been alone in the room, or she is partly to blame—is senseless rambling, grasping for justifications that are godless. When a man forces himself on a woman, any place and any time, it is both evil and vile, for which there is not a shred of justification (7-9).

Tamar’s Scheme (10-19)

In the bedroom, Amnon desired sex (10-11). Tamar intensely objected, stating:  

• “NO! Do not ‘violate’ or force sex on me against my will.”

• “Do not do this ‘outrageous,’ grave, and forbidden sin of sleeping with your sister; it is not done in Israel” (Leviticus 18:9, 11; 20:17; Deuteronomy 27:22) (12).

• She would be “shamed,” ruined, and would live perpetually reproached and dishonored. 

• He would be considered an “outrageous fool,” a “nabal,” or vile pervert and godless wretch (13).

Desperate, she begged him to ask King David for her hand in marriage if he could not control his lust, surmising marriage to a sibling to be more honorable than premarital sex with his half-sister. Amnon was the already spoiled son of the king, so Tamar surmised the king would certainly not deny such a necessary request.  

Amnon, being overcome with brutal, sociopathic lust, refused to listen to her and raped his sister (14). 

We do not know if David and Tamar were naive or suspicious of Amnon’s desire. It’s hard to believe David’s naiveté. 

At any rate, after the rape, Amnon, in two Hebrew words, told her to “get up” and “get out” (15).  She pleaded for some shred of compassion, some morsel of feeling, and even offered to be his wife. She sought to reason with him, explaining that his throwing her out was a greater sin than the rape (16). 

Her pleas fell on the depraved heart of a senseless man; Amnon summoned his servants to be accomplices by throwing her out to live as a “desolate woman,” a woman whose life was completely ruined (17).

In the end, his hatred was greater than his love, for when a man makes his genitalia the almighty expression of his being, then his life is lost, submerged in the murky waters of lewdness.

She tore her robes, put ashes on her head, and publicly announced that she had encountered some disgrace (18-19). 

Absalom’s First Scheme (20-29)

When Absalom heard of the rape, he offered his comfort in the form of horrible advice, not to “take it to heart,” or to deny and pretend it didn’t happen. He then invited Tamar to live in his home. 

Her father, David, was angry but passive. He was certainly stung by his own sin, so he allowed what many parents do, to allow their affection for their child to blind them to their need to correct and train in merciful justice, and in this case, justice and then mercy. Absalom, on the other hand, patiently held his tongue and festered injustice in the form of murderous hatred (14-18).

After two years, it happened. Absalom held a sheep-shearing celebration fourteen miles from Jerusalem and asked for the king to attend. David declined, not wanting Absalom to bear the burden of the cost of his entourage. Then Absalom asked for his brother Amnon and the king’s sons to attend in David’s place. At the feast, during happy hour, Absalom got Amnon drunk and had him killed (20-29).

Jonadab’s Scheme (30-36)

When David first heard the news, he was told all the king’s sons were murdered by Absalom. It was Jonadab, David's nephew, the inventor of the original scheme for Amnon to sleep with Tamar, who clarified who was actually dead—Amnon. Jonadab was aware of Absalom’s scheme to kill Amnon and could have chosen to warn the king of the difficulty among his sons and the king’s need to train his house in justice and then mercy, but instead, he never mentioned it to David (30-36).

Jonadab was just a soul among the great counselors in David’s court whose hearts were loyal to their ambition alone, seeking their own advancement wherever they could find a scrap. Men like Jonadab were the fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy of disloyalty and betrayal in David’s own family (2 Samuel 12:11).

Absalom’s Second Scheme (37-39)

David mourned Amnon. Absalom fled to his maternal grandfather’s home in Geshur. He remained there in exile for three years. Eventually, we are told, David’s spirit “longed to go out” to Absalom. The verb for “long” here does not mean David desired Absalom to return but more likely meant his longing to go out and deal with Absalom’s murder of his brother had subsided (37-39).