“Now Absalom, David’s son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar. And after a time Amnon, David’s son, loved her” (2 Samuel 13:1).
Absalom rebelled out of revenge for his sister, Tamar, who was raped by his half-brother, Amnon. The story unfolds in 2 Samuel 13:2: “And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.”
Amnon schemed a fake sickness to lure Tamar to his bedside, dismissed everyone else in the room and then raped her. After he got what he wanted, Scripture says: “Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her” (2 Samuel 13:15). King David was furious when he learned what had happened, and poor Tamar - shamed and disgraced - went to live with her brother Absalom, who “hated Amnon, because he had violated his sister Tamar” (2 Samuel 13:22).
Two years later (2 Samuel 13:23), Absalom schemed to murder Amnon for raping his sister, and he was successful (2 Samuel 13:23-29). Easton’s Bible Dictionary explains that “David mourned his absent son, now branded with the guilt of fratricide.”
“You could tell by looking at Absalom that he had made up his mind to do this from the time that Amnon raped his sister Tamar,” 2 Samuel 13:32. This verse recorded Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shammah, reporting from the scene of Amnon’s murder.
The author of 2 Samuel wrote, “David mourned a long time for his son Amnon; but when he got over Amnon’s death, he was filled with longing for his son Absalom” (2 Samuel 13:39).
Absalom fled to Geshur, where his mother’s father was king (1 Chronicles 3:1-8; 2 Samuel 13:37). Eventually, David allowed him to come back to Jerusalem. But for two years, he was forbidden to be in the presence of his father, the king (2 Samuel 14:1-28). Eventually, Absalom got what he wanted, and “he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom” (2 Samuel 14:33). For the next four years, however, he launched a conspiracy against King David, which culminated in a battle, and Absalom’s death (2 Samuel 15-18).
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