The Wages of Sin—2 Samuel 13
The most nobly born of David’s wives was Maacah. She was the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, whose territory bordered on those of eastern Manasseh. David had sought the hand of this princess soon after his accession to the throne of Judah in Hebron, when, probably, the connection was, on public grounds, of much importance to him. By this lady he had two children, a son named Absalom, and a daughter called Tamar, both of them remarkable for their beauty. With the beauty of Tamar the heart of her half-brother Amnon—David’s eldest son, by Ahinoam of Jezreel—was deeply smitten. So hot was his passion, that he fell into great depression of spirits, and pined away. The impossibility of any happy result from a love so unlawful, had doubtless much to do with this melancholy, though the obstacle thus created may not have seemed to him so insuperable as it does to us, knowing as he did that it was common in some of the neighboring countries—in Egypt for instance—for princes to espouse their sisters, and remembering that the practice had the sanction of Abraham’s example. Probably, therefore, the first cause of his melancholy was the difficulty of getting access to her without witnesses, living as she did in her father’s harem. For although the regulation respecting the separation of women from intercourse with men was less strict in those times than it has since become, it was such, at least in the royal harem, as to preclude a half-brother from the chance of being alone in her company. Had that been possible, he would probably have urged her to concur with him in persuading their father to consent to their marriage, notwithstanding the legal objections to which it lay open. But this was impossible; and in that age epistolary correspondence was so little thought of, that even covers do not seem to have found out the advantages of this mode of communication. Besides, it is very likely that Tamar could not read.
The cause of Amnon’s trouble was discovered by his cousin Jonadab, a very subtle man, who pointed out a mode in which he might obtain an unrestrained interview with Tamar. It is remarkable that in disclosing his passion, Amnon called not Tamar his sister, but “my brother Absalom’s sister.” In the harems of the East, where there are many children by different mothers, the children of the same mother become knit in a peculiar manner to each other, and if any of them be females, they come under the special care and protection of their brother, who, as far as their special interests are concerned, and in all that affects their safety and honor, is more looked to than the father himself. We have had an instance of this in the vengeance taken by Simeon and Levi for the wrong done to their full sister Dinah.
Tamar added to the fame of her beauty that of being a maker of very nice cakes—no mean recommendation for even a princess in the East. So, in conformity with Jonadab’s advice, Amnon put himself to bed, and pretended to be ill; and when his father paid him a visit, he begged, that in consideration of his delicate appetite, his sister Tamar [it is now “my sister”] might be allowed to come and make him a few cakes—there, in his presence, that he might receive them hot from her hand. This seemed to the king not unreasonable as the fancy of a sick man, and knowing, as he did, the dainty quality of his daughter’s cakes. So Tamar came, and prepared the cakes there in his presence, which she might easily do, according to more than one of the existing modes of baking cakes in the East; and, proud of her skill, and gratified by the compliment which his demand had paid to it, she took them to him. Greatly was she shocked to find that he not only refused to eat, but pressed her to sin, and notwithstanding her abhorrence, her resistance, and her declared belief that David would not refuse to bestow her on him, he accomplished her ruin. It seems probable that he had been carried by the rage of his guilty passion beyond his first intention, and now that the wretched act was accomplished, all the terrible consequences—the sin, the danger—rushed upon his mind, and all his love was in one moment turned to hate of the innocent object, whose fatal beauty had been the instrument of drawing this sin upon his soul. He spurned her from his house, and she hurried through the streets in tears, with her robe rent and ashes upon her head, to the house of her brother Absalom. It is said that the rent robe was “of divers colors; for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled,” in which case her rending the robe which was the distinction of the king’s virgin daughters, had a meaning beyond the mere ordinary significance of mourning. It also reminds us of the precious coat of many colors with which Jacob invested his favorite son; and the present instance enables us to discern that dresses of variegated patterns were still costly and distinctive, and had not yet come into general use. When Absalom saw this robe rent, he at once understood what had happened: and his manner of receiving it is conformable to the character this young man finally discloses, rather than that which might have been expected from his position and spirit. He told Tamar to rest quiet—to remember that Amnon was their brother, and not needlessly proclaim abroad his crime and her own dishonor. He took her, however, to his own house thenceforth, and there she remained secluded and desolate.
The king, when he heard of this thing, was “very wroth;” and yet he did nothing. He saw that he had begun to reap the harvest he had sown, and the evils threatened by the prophet were coming fast upon him. How could he who had himself sinned so deeply, call his son to account for his misconduct? and with what an awful retort, drawn from the example he had set to his children, might not his rebuke be met? Being also passionately fond of his children, to a degree of infatuation which rendered him unable to punish their offences, or even to find fault with them, he was content to let the matter pass, the rather as Absalom, whose honor it touched so nearly, seemed to take no notice of it. Of him it is said that “he spoke not a word to Amnon, neither good nor bad.” He “hated” him for the wrong he had done to his sister; but he was too proud to “speak good” to one who had brought this dishonor to him, and too wary to put Amnon on his guard by expressing the hatred he nourished in his heart. He intended to make his revenge effectual, and to use it for clearing his way to the throne. We cannot but think that he had already taken up the design upon the kingdom which he eventually carried out, and that as Amnon was his elder brother, and the heir-apparent, he meant to use his private wrong as the excuse for removing so serious an obstacle from his path. But to this end it was necessary that the king, as well as Amnon, should be lulled into the conviction that he had no thoughts of revenge, and that the matter had gone from his mind. Yet two years passed before he felt it prudent to show any civility to Amnon; but then the occasion of holding a great sheep-shearing feast on his estate, eight miles off at Baal-Hazor, enabled him to realize his object. He first invited the king with his court to attend, which his father declined on the ground that he was not willing to subject him to so heavy an expense. This he expected, and was then able to intimate his wish that since the king himself could not go, his eldest son Amnon might represent him, and with the other sons of the king, grace the feast. Unwilling to mortify him, and hoping this might bring about a perfect reconcilement between the brothers, David consented, though not without some misgivings.
Great was the feast, and it was in the very height of the enjoyment, “when Amnon’s heart was merry with wine,” that Absalom gave the preconcerted order to his servants, who immediately assailed the heir of the kingdom, and slew him with many wounds. On this the other sons of the king hastened to their mules, and hurried in great affright to Jerusalem. Absalom also fled, but it was to his maternal grandfather, the king of Geshur, who was more likely to praise than to blame the deed he had committed.
We may note here that this is the first undisputed mention of mules in Scripture—the instance in Gen_26:24, being of doubtful interpretation. We here find them in use at the same time that horses also begin to be named among this people. It appears that in this age, while a few horses were kept for state, mules were employed for riding by persons of distinction, both in peace and war. The ass, however, continued to maintain a respectable position, and never wholly gave place either to the mule or the horse. At this time the taste seems to have been decidedly for mules. Eventually we find Absalom possessed of chariots drawn by horses; but he was mounted upon a mule in the great action which he fought with his father for the crown; and it transpires still later, that the king himself had a mule known to be his—a mule of state, which he rode on high occasions, 1Ki_1:33. The combination in the mule of the useful qualities of both the horse and the ass—its strength, activity, steadiness, and power of endurance, are characteristics of peculiar value in the East; and therefore, although the Jews were interdicted the breeding of mules, they did not find it convenient to consider that the use of them was forbidden.
David’s declining to attend Absalom’s feast on account of the expense which would thus be occasioned to his son, is the first instance history offers of the ruinous cost of royal visits to those who are honored with them. A comparatively modern instance of this has just met our view in a useful periodical. Note: Notes and Queries for October 19, 1850. It is stated that the decay of the Hoghton family is locally ascribed to the visit of king James I to Hoghton Tower, near Blackburn, Lancashire—the following characteristic anecdote being cited in corroboration of the current opinion: “During one of his hunting excursions, the king is said to have left his attendants for a short time, in order to examine a numerous herd of horned cattle, then grazing in what are now termed the Bullock Pastures, more of which had probably been provided for the occasion. A day or two afterwards, being hunting in the same locality, he made inquiry respecting the cattle, and was told, in no good-humored way, by a herdsman unacquainted with his person, that they were all gone to feast the beastly king and his gluttonous company. ‘By my soul,’ exclaimed the king, as he left the herdsman, ‘then ’tis e’en time for me to gang too;’ and accordingly, on the following morning, he set out for Lathom House.”
Autor: JOHN KITTO