2 Samuel 13:13

13 For I shall not be able to bear my shame, and thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel: but rather speak to the king, and he will not deny me to thee.

2 Samuel 13:13 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 13:13

And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go?
&c.] She desires him to consider hey reputation, which would be lost; was she to go into a corner, into a place the most private and retired, yet she would blush at the thought of the crime committed; and still less able would she be to lift up her face in any public company; nor could she ever expect to be admitted into the matrimonial state; in short, her character would be entirely ruined:

and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel;
as the vilest and basest and most abandoned in the nation; who ought of all men to be most careful of his reputation, being a prince in Israel, and heir apparent to the throne:

now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king:
to give me to thee in marriage:

for he will not withhold me from thee;
this she said, either as ignorant of the law, which forbids such marriages, or as supposing the king had a power to dispense with it, and, rather than he should die for love, would; though she seems to say this, and anything that occurred to her mind, to put him off of his wicked design for the present, holding then she should be delivered from him; besides, she was not his sister by the mother's side, and, as the Jews say, was born of a captive woman before she was proselyted and married to David, and so was free for Amnon F26; and others say F1 she was the daughter of Maacah by a former husband, and not by David.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 Maimon. Hilchot Melacim, c. 8. sect. 8. Kimchi in 2 Sam. xiii. 1.
F1 R. Moses Kotzensis, pr. affirm. 122.

2 Samuel 13:13 In-Context

11 And when she had presented him the meat, he took hold of her, and said: Come lie with me, my sister.
12 She answered him: Do not so, my brother, do not force me: for no such thing must be done in Israel. Do not thou this folly.
13 For I shall not be able to bear my shame, and thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel: but rather speak to the king, and he will not deny me to thee.
14 But he would not hearken to her prayers, but being stronger overpowered her and lay with her.
15 Then Ammon hated her with an exceeding great hatred: so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her before. And Ammon said to her: Arise, and get thee gone.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.