A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
2 Samuel 13
Chapter summary coming soon.
Verse 1. After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom.
Verse 2. Amnon was sick with frustration over his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed implausible for him to do anything to her.
Verse 3. Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,
Verse 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.”
Verse 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.’”
Verse 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.”
Verse 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.”
Verse 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.
Verse 9. Then she brought the pan and set it down before him, but he refused to eat. “Send everyone away!” said Amnon. And everyone went out.
Verse 10. Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat it from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes she had made and went to her brother Amnon’s bedroom.
Verse 11. And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, “Come lie with me, my sister!”
Verse 12. “No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not violate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing!
Verse 13. Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.”
Verse 14. But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.
Verse 15. Then Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that his hatred was greater than the love he previously had. “Get up!” he said to her. “Be gone!”
Verse 16. “No,” she replied, “sending me away is worse than this great wrong you have already done to me!” But he refused to listen to her.
Verse 17. Instead, he called to his attendant and said, “Throw this woman out and bolt the door behind her!”
Verse 18. So Amnon’s attendant threw her out and bolted the door behind her. Now Tamar was wearing a robe of many colors, because this is what the king’s virgin daughters wore.
Verse 19. And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying aloud.
Verse 20. Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom.
Verse 21. When King David heard all this, he was furious.
Verse 22. And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad, because he hated Amnon for violating his sister Tamar.
Verse 23. Two years later, when Absalom’s sheepshearers were at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, he invited all the sons of the king.
Verse 24. And he went to the king and said, “Your servant has just hired shearers. Will the king and his servants please come with me?”
Verse 25. “No, my son,” the king replied, “we should not all go, or we would be a burden to you.” Although Absalom urged him, he was not willing to go, but gave him his blessing.
Verse 26. “If not,” said Absalom, “please let my brother Amnon go with us.” “Why should he go with you?” the king asked.
Verse 27. But Absalom urged him, so the king sent Amnon and the rest of his sons.
Verse 28. Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
Verse 29. So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule.
Verse 30. While they were on the way, a report reached David: “Absalom has struck down all the sons of the king; not one of them is left!”
Verse 31. Then the king stood up, tore his clothes, and lay down on the ground. And all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.
Verse 32. But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, spoke up: “My lord must not think they have killed all the sons of the king, for only Amnon is dead. In fact, Absalom has planned this since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar.
Verse 33. So now, my lord the king, do not take to heart the report that all the sons of the king are dead. Only Amnon is dead.”
Verse 34. Meanwhile, Absalom had fled. When the young man standing watch looked up, he saw many people coming down the road west of him, along the side of the hill. And the watchman went and reported to the king, “I see men coming from the direction of Horonaim, along the side of the hill.”
Verse 35. So Jonadab said to the king, “Look, the sons of the king have arrived! It is just as your servant said.”
Verse 36. And as he finished speaking, the sons of the king came in, wailing loudly. Then the king and all his servants also wept very bitterly.
Verse 37. Now Absalom fled and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. But David mourned for his son every day.
Verse 38. After Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur, he stayed there three years.
Verse 39. And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death.