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2 Samuel 13:12

in 2 Samuel 13

“No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not humiliate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing!

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.

KJV

And she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.

This verse in 2 Samuel 13

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

LETTER 22.12 · Written before 420.

As if to show that near relationship is no safeguard, Amnon burned with illicit passion for his sister Tamar.

This site's exposition

no such thing ought to be done in Israel

on 2 Samuel 13:12-14

Tamar's plea moves past emotion into law: she calls what he intends folly, warns it will leave him as one of the fools in Israel, then offers marriage to the king as her last hope of escape. Albert Barnes reads that offer as a bid to get free of the room rather than proof such marriages were lawful, since the law already forbade them. Amnon will not hear her. He simply overpowers her, and the narrator states the fact without ornament: forced her, and lay with her.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Fructuosus of Braga

GENERAL RULE FOR MONASTERIES 17 · Written before 665.

proposed

No man shall rely upon chastity in the past, for none whose hearts are tainted by women can become holier than David or wiser than Solomon. That none may assume that his chastity is safe in the presence of a woman related to him, let …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And she answered him, nay, my brother,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

In bidding him, however, "speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from thee," it is probable that she urged this as her last resource, saying anything she thought would please him, in order to escape for the present out of his hands.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Nay, my brother - There is something exceedingly tender and persuasive in this speech of Tamar; but Amnon was a mere brute, and it was all lost on him.
Tamar’s words are a verbal quotation from Gen 34:7. The natural inference is that Tamar knew the passage in Genesis, and wished to profit by the warning that it contained. (Compare also 2Sa 13:13.)

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Because he will not keep me from you. I am permitted to you because my mother became pregnant with me when she was still a gentile, pretty woman. The laws concerning the taking of gentile woman during war is discused in Devorim begginning in:10.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Samuel 13:13:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

16 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַתֹּ֣אמֶרand she said

    vatomerH5595305 times

  • ל֗וֹto <the> him

    lo

  • אַל־may [you] not

    ʾal-H408724 times

  • אָחִי֙O brother my

    ʾachiH251630 times

  • אַל־may not

    ʾal-H408724 times

  • תְּעַנֵּ֔נִיyou humble me

    teaneniH603182 times

  • כִּ֛יfor

    kiH35884482 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H38085168 times

  • יֵֽעָשֶׂ֥הit will be done

    yeasehH62132628 times

  • כֵ֖ןthus

    khenH3651771 times

  • בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑לin Israel

    beyisraelH34782507 times

  • אַֽל־may not

    ʾal-H408724 times

  • תַּעֲשֵׂ֖הyou do

    taasehH62132628 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הַנְּבָלָ֥הthe disgraceful folly

    hanevalahH5039

  • הַזֹּֽאת׃<the> this

    hazotH2063603 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Judges 20:6

    Then I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the land of Israel’s inheritance, because they had committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.

    it leads to

    • Joshua 7:15

      The one who is caught with the things devoted to destruction must be burned, along with all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD and committed an outrage…

      Reached by 3 separate paths from here.

    • Judges 19:29

      When he reached his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her limb by limb into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

  • Through

    Judges 19:23

    The owner of the house went out and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not do this wicked thing! After all, this man is a guest in my house. Do not commit this…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 34:7

      When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Judges 20:6

      Then I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the land of Israel’s inheritance, because they had committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Deuteronomy 22:21

      she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Leviticus 18:9

    You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 27:22

      ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Ezekiel 22:11

      One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Leviticus 20:17

    If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of…

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 18:9

      You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Samuel

David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
David Mourns the Death of Absalom, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Fructuosus of Braga, GENERAL RULE FOR MONASTERIES 17; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, LETTER 22.12; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).