Tamar

In context

Today’s trouble is inside David’s own family. His firstborn son, Amnon, forces himself on his sister Tamar, Absalom’s sister, and then sends her away (2 Samuel 3:2; 13:1–19). It is told plainly and without detail, and parents may want to read it first. Tamar “remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house,” and when David heard, he “was very angry” (13:20–21).

Two years later Absalom has Amnon killed at his sheep-shearing and flees to his mother’s father, Talmai king of Geshur, in Syria, for three years (13:23–38; 3:3; 15:8). David “mourned for his son every day” and longed to go out to Absalom (13:37–39). Joab sends a wise woman from Tekoa to the king with a made-up story about her two sons, and through it she asks why he will not bring his banished son home. God, she says, “devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him” (14:1–14). Absalom comes back, but two more years pass before the king sees him and kisses him (14:21–33).