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2 Samuel 13:13

in 2 Samuel 13

Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And I, whither shall I carry my shame? and as for thee, thou wilt 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.

KJV

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.

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This verse in 2 Samuel 13

Commentary

8 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.

This site's exposition

take my shame

Albert Barnes renders shame as reproach and compares Genesis 34:14, the same disgrace Dinah's brothers named. The marriage offer divides readers. Adam Clarke took it that Tamar expected the king to consent, while Jamieson, Fausset & Brown hold she said whatever might free her from his hands.

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 I, whither shall I cause my shame to go?....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

My shame - Better, “my reproach.” Compare Gen 30:23; Gen 34:14; 1Sa 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.

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

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.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

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

19 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.

  • וַאֲנִ֗יand I

    vaaniH589 →874 times

  • אָ֤נָהwhere?

    ʾanahH575 →

  • אוֹלִיךְ֙will I bring

    ʾolikhH1980 →1546 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • חֶרְפָּתִ֔יreproach my

    cherpatiH2781 →

  • וְאַתָּ֗הand you

    veatahH859 →1094 times

  • תִּהְיֶ֛הyou will be

    tihyehH1961 →3559 times

  • כְּאַחַ֥דlike one of

    keachadH259 →971 times

  • הַנְּבָלִ֖יםthe fools

    hanevalimH5036 →

  • בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑לin Israel

    beyisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • וְעַתָּה֙and now

    veatahH6258 →433 times

  • דַּבֶּר־speak

    daber-H1696 →1141 times

  • נָ֣אplease

    na'H4994 →404 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הַמֶּ֔לֶךְthe king

    hamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • כִּ֛יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • יִמְנָעֵ֖נִיhe will withhold me

    yimnaeniH4513 →

  • מִמֶּֽךָּ׃from you

    mimekaH4480 →1188 times

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

Related verses

8 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Judges 19:24Look, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine, and you can use them and do with them as you wish. But do not do such a vile thing to this man.”2 worksGenesis 19:8Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”2 worksGenesis 20:12Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father—though not the daughter of my mother—and she became my wife.2 works1 Chronicles 21:8Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”2 worksGenesis 34:4So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”2 worksJoshua 7:15The 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 in Israel.’”2 works
The other 2 cross-references, with their words ▾
Zechariah 9:11As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.2 worksJob 2:10“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.0 works

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

    Genesis 19:8

    Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these…

    it leads to

    • Judges 19:24

      Look, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine, and you can use them and do with them as you wish. But do not do such a vile thing to this…

    • Romans 3:8

      Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Genesis 19:31–38

      One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth.

    • Genesis 18:5

      And I will bring a bit of bread so that you may refresh yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. After that, you may continue on your way.” “Yes,” they replied,…

    • Genesis 42:37

      Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I fail to bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him.”

  • Through

    Judges 19:24

    Look, let me bring out my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine, and you can use them and do with them as you wish. But do not do such a vile thing to this…

    it leads to

    • Genesis 19:8

      Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them to you, and you can do to them as you please. But do not do anything to these…

    • Deuteronomy 21:14

      And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have…

  • Through

    Genesis 20:12

    Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father—though not the daughter of my mother—and she became my wife.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 11:29

      And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

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.
2 Samuel: the study guide →Read 2 Samuel 13 →

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).

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