What does 2 Samuel 13:21 Mean?

Context Summary

When men yield to irregular passion, they go from one extreme to the other-from wicked love to wicked hate. If women would but realize this, how often it would save them from lives of misery. To yield to a man's impulse is not to secure his loyalty, but to alienate and perhaps destroy it.

Absalom was Tamar's own brother and, since her father had failed her, was therefore her natural protector. Recommending her to hold her peace, Absalom quietly awaited a suitable opportunity for wreaking vengeance; but she, poor girl, had to face a blighted life. The crime of her betrayal would hang over it as a dark cloud which even the vengeance that Absalom was about to take could never remove. How many myriads of girls have had to face the same sad lot!

It was David's duty, as her father, to punish the evildoer. The law enjoined the penalty of death for such an offense, Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:29. But David's hands were not clean. He had himself incurred the same penalty, and could not condemn in another what he had condoned in himself. Besides this, the Septuagint adds, "he loved Amnon, because he was his first-born." How tortuous are the ways of sin! [source]

Chapter Summary: 2 Samuel 13

¹  Amnon loving Tamar, by Jonadab's counsel feigning himself sick, ravishes her
¹⁵  He hates her, and shamefully turns her away
¹⁹  Absalom entertains her, and conceals his purpose
²³  At a sheep-shearing among all the king's sons, he kills Amnon
³¹  David grieving at the news, is comforted by Jonadab
³⁷  Absalom flies to Talmai at Geshur