2 Samuel 13:6

6 So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.”

2 Samuel 13:6 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 13:6

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.

2 Samuel 13:6 In-Context

4 and he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the son of the king, so depressed morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon replied, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

5 Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare it in my sight so I may watch her and eat it from her hand.’”

6 So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.”

7 Then David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare a meal for him.”

8 So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked them.