(Heb., Amnon', אִמְנוֹן [2 Samuel 13:20, אֲמִינוֹן , Aminon'], faithful; Sept. Ἀμνών ), the name of three men.
1. The first named of the four sons of Shimon or Shammai, of the children of Ezra, the descendant of Judah (1 Chronicles 4:20, comp. 1 Chronicles 4:17), B.C. prob. post 1612.
2. The eldest son of David by Ahinoam of Jezreel (1 Chronicles 3:1), born at Hebron (2 Samuel 3:2), B.C. cir. 1052. He is only known for his violation of his half sister Tamar, B.C. cir. 1031, which her full brother Absalom revenged two years after, by causing him to be assassinated while a guest at his table (2 Samuel 13). (See ABSALOM). The Sept. (in a clause added in 2 Samuel 13:21, but wanting in the Hebrew) assigns as the reason for David's refraining from executing the penalty due to Amnon, that "he loved him because he was his first-born" — a fact that no doubt formed an additional incentive to the ambitious Absalom for putting him out of the way. (See DAVID).
3. a rabbi of Mayence, lived about 1240. He wrote, Machzor, a book of prayers, printed at Dyhernfurt in 1703. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gen., s.v.