Study Desk

Then David called Uriah to come and see him. Uriah ate and drank with David. David got him drunk, but Uriah still did not go home. That evening, Uriah again slept at the palace with the rest of the king's servants.

After her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David's wife and gave birth to a son for David. But the Lord did not like what David had done.

The Lord sent Nathan to David. Nathan went to him and said, "There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other man was poor.

But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb that he bought. The poor man fed the lamb, and the lamb grew up with this poor man and his children. She ate from the poor man's food and drank from his cup. The lamb slept on the poor man's chest. The lamb was like a daughter to the poor man.

"Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler, but he did not want to take any of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. No, the rich man took the lamb from the poor man and cooked it for his visitor."

You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will punish you so that all the people of Israel can see it.'"

But you did things that made the Lord 's enemies lose their respect for him, so your new baby son will die."

The leaders of David's family came and tried to pull David up from the ground, but he refused to get up. He refused to eat with these leaders.

On the seventh day the baby died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the baby was dead. They said, "Look, we tried to talk to David while the baby was alive, but he refused to listen to us. If we tell David that the baby is dead, he might do something bad to himself."

David's servants asked him, "Why are you doing this? When the baby was alive, you cried and refused to eat. But when the baby died you got up and ate food."

But now the baby is dead, so why should I refuse to eat? Can I bring the baby back to life? No. Some day I will go to him, but he cannot come back to me."

She was a virgin. Amnon wanted her very much, but he did not think it was possible for him to have her. He thought about her so much that he made himself sick.

He said to Amnon, "You are the king's son. So why do you always look so sad? Tell me what the trouble is!" Amnon told Jonadab, "I love Tamar. But she is the sister of my half-brother Absalom."

Then Tamar took the cakes out of the pan and set them out for him. But he refused to eat. He said to his servants, "Get out of here. Leave me alone!" So all of his servants left the room.

She started to feed Amnon, but he grabbed her hand. He said to her, "Sister, come and sleep with me."

But Amnon refused to listen to Tamar. He was stronger than she was, so he forced her to have sexual relations with him.

Tamar said to Amnon, "No! Don't send me away like this. That would be even worse than what you did before!" But Amnon refused to listen to Tamar.

King David heard the news and became very angry, but he did not want to say anything to upset Amnon, because he loved him since he was his firstborn son.

Absalom began to hate Amnon. Absalom did not say one word, good or bad, to Amnon, but he hated him because Amnon had raped his sister Tamar.

King David said to Absalom, "No, son. We will not all go. It will be too much trouble for you." Absalom begged David to go. David did not go, but he did give his blessing.