So Amnon lay down, and made himself sick
Took the advice of his cousin Jonadab, and acted according to it:
and when the king was come to see him;
as he quickly did, after he had heard of his illness:
Amnon said unto the king;
who perhaps inquired of his appetite, whether he could eat anything, and what:
I pray thee let my sister Tamar come;
he calls her sister, as Jonadab had directed, the more to blind his design; though it is much that so sagacious a man as David was had not seen through it; but the notion he had of his being really ill, and the near relation between him and Tamar, forbad his entertaining the least suspicion of that kind:
and make me a couple of cakes in my sight;
heart cakes, as the word may be thought to signify; called so either from the form of them, such as We have with us, or from the effect of them, comforting and refreshing the heart:
that I may eat at her hand;
both what is made by her hand, and received from it.