2 Samuel 13:21

21 When King David heard about all this he got very angry, but he refused to punish his son Amnon because he loved him as his oldest child.

2 Samuel 13:21 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 13:21

But when King David heard of all these things
Of Amnon's ravishing Tamar, and turning her out of doors in that inhuman manner he did, and of her distress upon it:

he was very wroth;
with Amnon; but we read not of any reproof he gave him, nor of any punishment inflicted on him by him. Abarbinel thinks the reason why he was not punished was because his sin was not cognizable by a court of judicature, nor was punishable by any way, or with any kind of death inflicted by the sanhedrim, as stoning, burning, &c. nor even by scourging, because there were no witnesses; but the punishment of it was cutting off, i.e. by the hand of God. The Jews say

---

FOOTNOTES:

F5 a law was made on this, that virgins or unmarried persons should not be alone; for if this was done to the daughter of a king, much more might it be done to the daughter of a private man; and if to a modest person, much more to an impudent one.

F5 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 21. 1.

2 Samuel 13:21 In-Context

19 Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long-sleeved robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and walked away, crying as she went.

20 Her brother Absalom said to her, "Has your brother Amnon been with you? Keep quiet about it for now, sister; he's your brother. Don't let it bother you." So Tamar, a broken woman, lived in her brother Absalom's house.

21 When King David heard about all this he got very angry, but he refused to punish his son Amnon because he loved him as his oldest child.

22 Absalom never spoke to Amnon, good word or bad, because he hated him for raping his sister Tamar.

23 Two years later, Absalom was shearing sheep at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, and he invited all the king's sons.

Footnotes

• [a]. LXX, DSS(4QSama); MT lacks but he refused… oldest child.