Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Speak unto the king - So it appears that she thought that the king, her father, would give her to him as wife. This is another strong mark of indelicacy in those simple but barbarous times. There might have been some excuse for such connections under the patriarchal age, but there was none now. But perhaps she said this only to divert him from his iniquitous purpose, that she might get out of his hands.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

My shame - Better, “my reproach.” Compare Genesis 30:23; Genesis 34:14; 1 Samuel 11:2.

Speak unto the king … - It cannot be inferred with certainty from this that marriages were usual among half brothers and sisters in the time of David. The Levitical law forbade them (marginal reference), and Tamar may have merely wished to temporize. On the other hand, the debasing and unhumanizing institution of the harem, itself contrary to the law of Moses Deuteronomy 17:17, may well have led to other deviations from its precepts, and the precedent of Abraham Genesis 20:12 may have seemed to give some sanction to this particular breach of it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go?.... She desires him to consider hey reputation, which would be lost; was she to go into a corner, into a place the most private and retired, yet she would blush at the thought of the crime committed; and still less able would she be to lift up her face in any public company; nor could she ever expect to be admitted into the matrimonial state; in short, her character would be entirely ruined:

and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel; as the vilest and basest and most abandoned in the nation; who ought of all men to be most careful of his reputation, being a prince in Israel, and heir apparent to the throne:

now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king: to give me to thee in marriage:

for he will not withhold me from thee; this she said, either as ignorant of the law, which forbids such marriages, or as supposing the king had a power to dispense with it, and, rather than he should die for love, would; though she seems to say this, and anything that occurred to her mind, to put him off of his wicked design for the present, holding then she should be delivered from him; besides, she was not his sister by the mother's side, and, as the Jews say, was born of a captive woman before she was proselyted and married to David, and so was free for Amnon^F26Maimon. Hilchot Melacim, c. 8. sect. 8. Kimchi in 2Sam. xiii. 1. ; and others say^F1R. Moses Kotzensis, pr. affirm. 122. she was the daughter of Maacah by a former husband, and not by David.

Geneva Study Bible

And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of ^g the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.

(g) As a lewd and wicked person.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.

Shame — How can I either endure or avoid the shame? Fools - That is, contemptible to all the people, whereas now thou art heir apparent of the crown.

Withhold — This she spoke, because she thought her royal father would dispense with it, upon this extraordinary occasion, to save his first-born son's life:

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Samuel 13:13 And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.

Ver. 13. And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go?] True it is that Invita virgo vexari potest, violari non potest; { a} A virgin forced may be vexed, but not violated. And Corpora sanctarum mulierum non vis maculat sed voluntas; { b} Not force but consent defileth the bodies of holy women. Nevertheless a ravished Tamar cannot but be ashamed ever after to show her face anywhere: the blot is indelible, like that of an iron mould. Lucretia would not outlive it, nor Paulina, - those Roman ladies.

Thou shalt be as one oy the fools in Israel.] A stigmatic Belialist, no way fit to succeed thy father: which if thou shouldst, yet God would surely cross thee, and curse thee in all thy proceedings. So he did Heraclius that incestuous emperor, who having married Martian his own brother’s daughter, and turning Monothelite, was soon overthrown by the Saracens, and, like the loss of Sennacherib, a hundred and eigthy-five thousand men of his army were found dead in one night without any apparent executioners. Himself also was followed with a strange priapism, which together with a dropsy ended his days, himself being no better esteemed than as one of the fools in Israel; and the rather for those two foolish and impious laws that he made; - one that whosoever would might marry his brother’s daughter, as he had done; the other, that no man should determine whether there were either one or two operations or wills in Jesus Christ.

For he will not withhold me from thee.] This she said, either as one unskilled in the law, which flatly forbiddeth such incestuous marriages, [Leviticus 18:6; Leviticus 18:11] - Papal dispensations in such cases were not then heard of, - or else as one willing, by any means she could make, to get out of his hands.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Whither shall I cause my shame to go? how can I either endure or avoid the shame and reproach of it?

As one of the fools in Israel, i.e. loathsome and contemptible to all the people, whereas now thou art in great reputation, and heir apparent of the crown.

He will not withhold me from thee: this she spake, either because she did not understand or not remember that the law of God prohibited such marriages between a brother and his half-sister; or because she thought her royal father could or would dispense with it, upon this extraordinary occasion, to save his first-born son’s life; or that by this pretence she might free herself from her present and most urgent danger, knowing she should have opportunity enough to prevent other mischiefs.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

13.One of the fools — A disgraced, dishonoured, shameful Hebrew.

He will not withhold me — What all she meant by these words we cannot tell. They may have been with her only a pretext to get out of his hands; or, being the daughter of a foreigner, she may have been ignorant of the law which forbade their marriage, (Leviticus 18:9; Deuteronomy 27:22,) or she may have thought that the king had power to suspend the law in their case.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Thee. Was she ignorant that such marriages could not be allowed? (Calmet) --- Some think she was. (Grotius) (Menochius) --- Others believe that, in her present situation, she said what first came into her head, to get out of the hands of her brother. The Rabbins pretend that she was conceived before David married her mother, and that the latter was a pagan; so that they suppose there was no relationship between Thamar and Amnon. But this is all asserted without proof. (Calmet)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Speak unto the king.—The marriage of half-brothers and sisters was strictly forbidden in the Law (Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:11; Leviticus 20:17), and it is not to be supposed that Tamar really thought David would violate its provisions for Amnon; but she made any and every suggestion to gain time and escape the pressing danger. Amnon, however, knew the Law too well to have any hope of a legitimate marriage with Tamar, and, therefore, persisted in his violence.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

And I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for he will not withhold me from thee.

Now therefore

Genesis 19:8; Judges 19:24

Reciprocal: Genesis 34:4 - General;  Genesis 34:7 - wrought;  Deuteronomy 22:21 - she hath wrought;  Joshua 7:15 - wrought;  Judges 20:6 - folly in Israel;  2 Samuel 3:33 - as a fool dieth;  1 Chronicles 21:8 - I have done;  Job 2:10 - as one;  Zechariah 9:11 - As