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2 Samuel 13:16

in 2 Samuel 13

“No,” she replied, “sending me away is worse than this great wrong you have already done to me!” But he refused to listen to her.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And she said unto him, Not so, because this great wrong in putting me forth is worse than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.

KJV

And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.

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This verse in 2 Samuel 13

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
The sense of the passage probably is, “And she spake with him on account of this great wrong in sending me away, greater than the other wrong which thou hast done me (said she), but he hearkened not unto her.” The Hebrew text is probably corrupt, and the writer blends Tamar’s words with his own narrative.

This site's exposition

hated her exceedingly

on 2 Samuel 13:15-17

The hatred that follows is stranger than the crime, greater than the love had been, and now it is Amnon who wants distance. Tamar answers that sending her away is a wrong worse than what he did to her, since it denies her even the standing of a wife taken by force and casts her out with nothing. Amnon calls a servant rather than face her again, and the order to bolt the door behind her is his last word in the scene.

This site's exposition

sending me away is worse

Tamar tells Amnon that sending her away is a worse wrong than the one already done to her. Driven out, she would carry the disgrace alone. Yet he refused to listen to her.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And she said unto him, there is no cause,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

(2.) We may learn from it both the malignity of sin (unbridled passions are as bad as unbridled appetites) and the mischievous consequences of sin (at last, it bites like a serpent); for here we find, [1.] That sins, sweet in the commission, afterwards become odious and painful, and the sinner's own conscience makes them so to himself.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

Do not do this thing. Do not do this evil thing of sending [me] away which is worse then the other [evil thing] that you did to me. You raped me and then you added on more evil than that by sending me away.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Samuel 13:16:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Amnon hated her. Our Rabbis say she tied a hair for him [in his genital area] and caused him to have a severed organ. 6 One who is so injured is prohibited from marrying a Jewish woman as related in Devorim:2. This interpretation of our verse is in Sanhedrin 21a.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on II Samuel 13:15:1, 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

    vatomerH559 →5305 times

  • ל֗וֹto <the> him

    lo

  • אַל־may not

    ʾal-H408 →724 times

  • אוֹדֹ֞ת[the] causes of

    ʾodotH182 →

  • הָרָעָ֤הthe evil

    haraahH7451 →662 times

  • הַגְּדוֹלָה֙<the> great

    hagedolahH1419 →526 times

  • הַזֹּ֔את<the> this

    hazotH2063 →603 times

  • מֵאַחֶ֛רֶת[be] more than [the] other

    meacheretH312 →166 times

  • אֲשֶׁר־which

    ʾasher-H834 →5497 times

  • עָשִׂ֥יתָyou have done

    ʾasitaH6213 →2628 times

  • עִמִּ֖יwith me

    ʾimiH5973 →1050 times

  • לְשַׁלְּחֵ֑נִיto send away me

    leshalecheniH7971 →845 times

  • וְלֹ֥אand not

    velo'H3808 →5168 times

  • אָבָ֖הhe was willing

    ʾavahH14 →54 times

  • לִשְׁמֹ֥עַֽto listen

    lishmoa'H8085 →1159 times

  • לָֽהּ׃to <the> her

    lah

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

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, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in 2 Samuel 13 →