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Commentary on 2 Samuel 13 verses 1–20
We have here a particular account of the abominable wickedness of Amnon in ravishing his sister, a subject not fit to be enlarged upon nor indeed to be mentioned without blushing, that ever any man should be so vile, especially that a son of David should be so. Amnon's character, we have reason to think, was bad in other things; if he had not forsaken God, he would never have been given up to these vile affections. Godly parents have often been afflicted with wicked children; grace does not run in the blood, but corruption does. We do not find that David's children imitated him in his devotion; but his false steps they trod in, and in those did much worse, and repented not. Parents know not how fatal the consequences may be if in any instance they give their children bad examples. Observe the steps of Amnon's sin.
I. The devil, as an unclean spirit, put it into his heart to lust after his sister Tamar. Beauty is a snare to many; it was so to her. She was fair, and therefore Amnon coveted her, Sa2 13:1. Those that are peculiarly handsome have no reason, on that account, to be proud, but great reason to stand upon their watch. Amnon's lust was, 1. Unnatural in itself, to lust after his sister, which even natural conscience startles at and cannot think of without horror. Such a spirit of contradiction there is in man's corrupt nature that still it desires forbidden fruit, and the more strongly it is forbidden the more greedily it is desired. Can he entertain the thought of betraying that virtue and honour of which, as a brother, he ought to have been the protector? But what wickedness so vile as not to find admittance into an unsanctified unguarded heart, left to itself? 2. It was very uneasy to him. He was so vexed that he could not gain an opportunity to solicit her chastity (for innocent converse with her was not denied him) that he fell sick, Sa2 13:2. Fleshly lusts are their own punishment, and not only war against the soul, but against the body too, and are the rottenness of the bones. See what a hard master sinners serve, and how heavy his yoke is.
II. The devil, as a subtle serpent, put it into his head how to compass this wicked design. Amnon had a friend (so he called him, but he was really an enemy to him), a kinsman, that had in him more of David's blood (for he was his nephew) than of David's spirit, for he was a subtle man, cunning to carry on any bad design, especially an intrigue of this nature, Sa2 13:3.
1.He took notice that Amnon looked ill, and, being a subtle man, concluded that he was love-sick (Sa2 13:4), and asks him, "Why art thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day? Why dost thou pine, being the king's eldest son, and heir to the crown. Being the king's son," (1.) "Thou hast the pleasures of the court to divert thee; take those pleasures then, and with them drive away the sorrow, whatever it is." Content and comfort are not always to be found in royal palaces. With much more reason may we ask dejected and disconsolate saints why they, who are the children of the King of kings and heirs of the crown of life, are thus lean from day to day. (2.) "Thou hast the power of a prince to command what thou wantest and wishest for; use that power therefore, and gratify thyself. Pine not away for that which, lawful or unlawful, thou, being the king's son, mayest have. Quicquid libet licet - Your will is law." Thus Jezebel to Ahab in a like case (Kg1 21:7), Dost not thou govern Israel? The abuse of power is the most dangerous temptation of the great.
2.Amnon having the impudence to own his wicked lust, miscalling it love (I love Tamar), Jonadab put him in a way to compass his design, Sa2 13:5. Had he been what he pretended (Amnon's friend), he would have startled at the mention of such horrid wickedness, would have laid before him the evil of it, what an offence it was to God and what a wrong to his own soul to entertain such a vile thought, of what fatal consequence it would be to him to cherish and prosecute it; he would have used his subtlety to divert Amnon from it, by recommending some other person to him, whom he might lawfully marry. But he seems not at all surprised at it, objects not either the unlawfulness or the difficulty, the reproach or so much as his father's displeasure, but puts him in the way to get Tamar to his bed-side, and then he might do as he pleased. Note, The case of those is very miserable whose friends, instead of admonishing and reproving them, flatter them and forward them in their sinful ways, and are their counsellors and contrivers to do wickedly. Amnon is already sick, but goes about; he must take upon him to be so ill (and his thin looks will give colour enough to the pretence) as not to be able to get up, and to have no appetite to any thing but just that which pleases his fancy. Dainty meat is abhorred, Job 33:20. The best dish from the king's table cannot please him; but, if he can eat any thing, it must be from his sister Tamar's fair hand. This is what he is advised to.
3.Amnon followed these directions, and thus got Tamar within his reach: He made himself sick, Sa2 13:6. Thus he lieth in wait secretly, as a lion in his den, to catch the poor, and to draw them into his net, Psa 10:8-10. David was always fond of his children, and concerned if any thing ailed them; he no sooner hears that Amnon is sick than he comes himself to visit him. Let parents learn hence to be tender of their children and compassionate towards them. The sick child commonly the mother comforteth (Isa 66:13), but let not the father be unconcerned. We may suppose that when David came to see his sick son he gave him good counsel to make a right use of his affliction, and prayed with him, which yet did not alter his wicked purpose. At parting, the indulgent father asks, "Is there any thing thou hast a mind to, that I can procure for thee?" "Yes, Sir," says the dissembling son, "my stomach is weak, and I know not of any thing I can eat, unless it be a cake of my sister Tamar's making, and I cannot be satisfied that it is so unless I see her make it, and it will do me the more good if I eat it at her hand." David saw no reason to suspect any mischief intended. God hid his heart from understanding in this matter. He therefore immediately orders Tamar to go and attend her sick brother, Sa2 13:7. He does it very innocently, but afterwards, no doubt, reflected upon it with great regret. Tamar as innocently goes to her brother's chamber, neither dreading any abuse (why should she from a brother, a sick brother?) nor disdaining, in obedience to her father and love to her brother (though but her half-brother), to be his nurse, Sa2 13:8, Sa2 13:9. Though she was a king's daughter, a great beauty (Sa2 13:1), and well dressed (Sa2 13:18), yet she did not think it below her to knead cakes and bake them, nor would she have done this now if she had not been used to it. Good house-wifery is not a thing below the greatest ladies, nor ought they to think it a disparagement to them. The virtuous woman, whose husband sits among the elders, yet works willingly with her hands, Pro 31:13. Modern ages have not been destitute of such instances, nor is it so unfashionable as some would make it. Preparing for the sick should be more the care and delight of the ladies than preparing for the nice, charity more than curiosity.
4.Having got her to him, he contrives to have her alone; for the adulterer (much more so vile an adulterer as this) is in care that no eye see him, Job 24:15. The meat is ready, but he cannot eat while he is looked at by those about him; they must all be turned out, Sa2 13:9. The sick must be humoured, and think they have a privilege to command. Tamar is willing to humour him; her chaste and virtuous soul has not the least thought of that which his polluted breast is full of; and therefore she makes no scruple of being alone with him in the inner chamber, Sa2 13:10. And now the mask is thrown off, the meat is thrown by, and the wicked wretch calls her sister, and yet impudently courts her to come and lie with him, Sa2 13:11. It was a base affront to her virtue to think it possible to persuade her to consent to such wickedness when he knew her behaviour to be always exemplarily modest and virtuous. But it is common for those that live in uncleanness to think others such as themselves, at least tinder to their sparks.
III. The devil, as a strong tempter, deafens his ear to all the reasonings with which she resisted his assaults and would have persuaded him to desist. We may well imagine what a surprise and terror it was to the young lady to be thus attacked, how she blushed and how she trembled; yet, in this great confusion, nothing could be said more pertinently, nor with greater strength of argument, than what she said to him. 1. She calls him brother, reminding him of the nearness of the relation, which made it unlawful for him to marry her, much more to debauch her. It was expressly forbidden (Lev 18:9) under a severe penalty, Lev 20:17. Great care must be taken lest the love that should be among relations degenerate into lust. 2. She entreats him not to force her, which intimates that she would never consent to it in any degree; and what satisfaction could he take in offering violence? 3. She lays before him the great wickedness of it. It is folly; all sin is so, especially uncleanness. It is wickedness of the worst kind. Such abominations ought not to be committed in Israel, among the professing people of God, that have better statutes than the heathen have. We are Israelites; if we do such things, we are more inexcusable than others, and our condemnation will be more intolerable, for we reproach the Lord, and that worthy name by which we are called. 4. She represents to him the shame of it, which perhaps might influence him more than the sin of it: "For my part, whither shall I cause my shame to go? If it should be concealed, yet I shall blush to think of it as long as I live; and, if ever it be known, how shall I be able to look any of my friends in the face? For thy part, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel," that is, "Thou wilt be looked upon as an atrocious debauchee, the worst of men; thou wilt lose thy interest in the esteem of all that are wise and good, and so wilt be set aside as unfit to rule, though the first-born; for Israel will never submit to the government of such a fool." Prospect of shame, especially everlasting shame, should deter us from sin. 5. To divert him from his wicked purpose at this time, and (if possible) to get clear of him, she intimates to him that probably the king, rather than he should die for love of her, would dispense with the divine law and let him marry her: not as if she thought he had such a dispensing power, or would pretend to it; but she was confident that, upon notice given to the king by himself of this wicked desire, which he would scarcely have believed from any one else, he would take an effectual course to protect her from him. But all her arts and all her arguments availed not. His proud spirit cannot bear a denial; but her comfort, and honour, and all that was dear to her, must be sacrificed to his brutish and outrageous lust, Sa2 13:14. It is to be feared that Amnon, though young, had long lived a lewd life, which his father either knew not or punished not; for a man could not, of a sudden, arrive at such a pitch of wickedness as this. But is this his love to Tamar? Is this the recompence he gives her for her readiness to attend him in his sickness? Will he deal with his sister as with a harlot? Base villain! God deliver all that are modest and virtuous from such wicked and unreasonable men.
IV. The devil, as a tormentor and betrayer, immediately turns his love of her into hatred (Sa2 13:15): He hated her with great hatred, greatly, so it is in the margin, and grew as outrageous in his malice as he had been in his lust.
1.He basely turned her out of doors by force; nay, as if he now disdained to touch her with his own hands, he ordered his servant to pull her out and bolt the door after her, Sa2 13:17. Now, (1.) The innocent injured lady had reason to resent this as a great affront, and in some respects (as she says, Sa2 13:16) worse than the former; for nothing could have been done more barbarous and ill-natured, or more disgraceful to her. Had he taken care to conceal what was done, her honour would have been lost to herself only. Had he gone down on his knees and begged her pardon, it might have been some little reparation. Had he given her time to compose herself after the horrid confusion she was put into, she might have kept her countenance when she went out, and so have kept her counsel. But to dismiss her thus hurried, thus rudely, as if she had done some wicked thing, obliged her, in her own defence, to proclaim the wrong that had been done her. (2.) We may learn from it both the malignity of sin (unbridled passions are as bad as unbridled appetites) and the mischievous consequences of sin (at last, it bites like a serpent); for here we find, [1.] That sins, sweet in the commission, afterwards become odious and painful, and the sinner's own conscience makes them so to himself. Amnon hated Tamar because she would not consent to his wickedness, and so take part of the blame upon herself, but to the last resisted it, and reasoned against it, and so threw all the blame upon him. Had he hated the sin, and loathed himself for it, we might have hoped he was penitent. Godly sorrow worketh indignation, Co2 7:11. But to hate the person he had abused showed that his conscience was terrified, but his heart not at all humbled. See what deceitful pleasures those of the flesh are, how soon they pass away, and turn into loathing; see Eze 23:17. [2.] That sins, secret in the commission, afterwards become open and public, and the sinners themselves often make them so. Their own tongues fall upon them. The Jewish doctors say that, upon the occasion of this wickedness of Amnon, a law was made that a young man and a young woman should never be alone together; for, said they, if the king's daughter be so used, what will become of the children of private men?
2.We must now leave the criminal to the terrors of his own guilty conscience, and enquire what becomes of the poor victim. (1.) She bitterly lamented the injury she had received, as it was a stain to her honour, though no real blemish to her virtue. She tore her fine clothes in token of her grief, and put ashes upon her head, to deform herself, loathing her own beauty and ornaments, because they had occasioned Amnon's unlawful love; and she went on crying for another's sin, Sa2 13:19. (2.) She retired to her brother Absalom's house, because he was her own brother, and there she lived in solitude and sorrow, in token of her modesty and detestation of uncleanness. Absalom spoke kindly to her, bade her pass by the injury for the present, designing himself to revenge it, Sa2 13:20. It should seem by Absalom's question (Has Amnon been with thee?) that Amnon was notorious for such lewd practices, so that it was dangerous for a modest woman to be with him; this Absalom might know, and yet Tamar be wholly ignorant of it.
A very wise man: That is, a crafty and subtle man: for the counsel he gave on this occasion shows that his wisdom was but carnal and worldly.
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SUMMARY
2 Samuel 13:3 introduces Jonadab, a close relative of King David and a confidant to David's son, Amnon. This pivotal verse describes Jonadab as "a very subtil man," a characterization that immediately highlights his cunning and manipulative nature. His introduction sets the stage for his instrumental, yet destructive, role in orchestrating Amnon's heinous sin against Tamar, thereby initiating a tragic cascade of events that will unravel the peace and stability of David's royal household.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: This verse is strategically positioned directly after the description of Amnon's intense and debilitating infatuation with his half-sister, Tamar, which left him "vexed himself sick" (2 Samuel 13:1-2). Jonadab's introduction at this precise moment is not accidental; he is presented as the individual who will exploit Amnon's vulnerability and devise the deceptive scheme that enables the sexual assault on Tamar. His "subtil" nature is the catalyst for the ensuing tragedy, directly leading to Tamar's rape, Absalom's retaliatory murder of Amnon (2 Samuel 13:28-29), and ultimately Absalom's rebellion against King David, thereby fulfilling the prophetic judgment of trouble arising within David's own house (2 Samuel 12:10-11).
Historical & Cultural Context: In ancient Israel, especially within the royal court, familial relationships were complex and deeply influential, often intertwining with political loyalties and rivalries. Jonadab is explicitly identified as "the son of Shimeah David's brother," which establishes him as David's nephew and Amnon's cousin. This close familial tie is crucial because it underscores that the destructive counsel and subsequent betrayal originate from within the trusted inner circle of the family, not from an external enemy. The term "friend" (Hebrew: reaʻ) often denoted a trusted companion or advisor in this cultural setting, making Jonadab's manipulation of Amnon a profound breach of trust. Royal sons frequently had such close associates, whose influence, whether for good or ill, could significantly shape their decisions and actions.
Key Themes: This verse powerfully contributes to several overarching themes found throughout the Book of 2 Samuel:
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
This verse employs several significant literary devices that enrich its meaning and foreshadow the unfolding narrative. Characterization is immediately evident, as Jonadab is directly described as "a very subtil man." This direct and concise descriptor provides the reader with a crucial insight into his nature, establishing his manipulative disposition before he even speaks or acts. This direct characterization functions as powerful foreshadowing, signaling to the reader that Jonadab's role in the narrative will be one of deceit and strategic manipulation, thereby preparing the audience for the tragic events that will unfold as a direct consequence of his counsel. There is also a strong element of irony in the description of Jonadab as Amnon's "friend." A true friend would lead one away from sin and toward righteousness; however, Jonadab's counsel, far from being helpful, proves to be utterly destructive, highlighting the deceptive and perverse nature of his "friendship." Furthermore, the use of the Hebrew term châkâm ("subtil") creates a profound contrast between true, godly wisdom and worldly cunning, underscoring the perversion of intellect and skill when used for malevolent purposes rather than for good.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse serves as a profound theological warning about the nature of counsel and the insidious power of worldly wisdom. Jonadab's "subtlety" is a stark reminder that evil often does not present itself overtly but through clever manipulation and deceptive schemes, appealing to base desires rather than moral principles. The tragic outcome of Amnon's sin, directly enabled by Jonadab's advice, underscores the biblical principle that "bad company corrupts good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33), and that the counsel we heed has profound spiritual and practical consequences. It highlights the spiritual battle between divine wisdom, which leads to life and righteousness, and human cunning, which often leads to destruction and sin.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
The introduction of Jonadab and his "subtil" nature in this verse offers a critical opportunity for profound self-reflection regarding the company we keep and the counsel we entertain. It challenges us to cultivate spiritual discernment, recognizing that not all advice, even from those close to us, aligns with God's will or our true, ultimate well-being. We are called to be vigilant against the "subtlety" of sin, which often disguises itself as a clever solution, a harmless indulgence, or a pragmatic shortcut, rather than overt wickedness. This narrative reminds us that our choices, particularly those influenced by others, have far-reaching and often devastating consequences, not only for ourselves but for those around us, our families, and even for future generations. It implores us to strive to be friends who build up, speak truth in love, and encourage righteousness, rather than those who enable sin through cunning, compromise, or a lack of moral courage.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "subtil" mean in this context, and why is it significant?
Answer: In 2 Samuel 13:3, the King James Version translates the Hebrew word châkâm (H2450) as "subtil." While châkâm often means "wise" or "skillful" in a positive sense, here it carries a decidedly negative connotation, implying shrewdness, cunning, guile, or craftiness. It signifies a worldly wisdom that is used for manipulative and deceptive purposes rather than for righteousness or good. This is the same word used to describe the serpent in Genesis 3:1, highlighting its association with deceit and malicious intent. Its significance lies in immediately revealing Jonadab's character as someone who will use his intellect not for good, but to devise a wicked scheme, setting the stage for the tragic events that follow in 2 Samuel 13.
Why is Jonadab's familial connection important to the narrative?
Answer: Jonadab is identified as "the son of Shimeah David's brother," making him King David's nephew and Amnon's cousin. This familial relationship is crucial because it means the destructive counsel and subsequent betrayal originate from within the most trusted and intimate circle of the royal family. It highlights the internal vulnerability of David's household, showing that the greatest threats can sometimes emerge from within, rather than from external enemies. This intimate connection makes Jonadab's betrayal of trust more poignant and underscores the tragic unraveling of David's family from within, a direct fulfillment of Nathan's prophecy that trouble would arise from David's own house in 2 Samuel 12:11.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The "subtil" counsel of Jonadab, leading to sin, betrayal, and widespread destruction within David's household, stands in stark and profound contrast to the perfect, life-giving counsel found in Jesus Christ. Jonadab, a "friend" who leads to ruin, serves as a dark foreshadowing of the ultimate deceiver, Satan, who is described as the father of lies and whose mission is to steal, kill, and destroy through cunning and temptation (John 8:44). In stark contrast, Jesus is the ultimate faithful friend, who not only offers perfect wisdom and truth but also demonstrated the greatest love by laying down His life for His friends (John 15:13). While Jonadab's "wisdom" was earthly, sensual, and demonic, leading to death and chaos, Christ is the very wisdom of God, in whom "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). He offers counsel that leads to abundant life, divine truth, and ultimate reconciliation with God. Believers are called to walk not in the "subtlety" or cunning of the world, but in the wisdom that comes from above, which is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere" (James 3:17). In Christ, the destructive power of cunning, deception, and sin is utterly defeated, and we are given the Holy Spirit of wisdom to discern truth from deception and to walk in paths of righteousness.