2 Samuel 13 — “When Desire Turns Violent and Silence Becomes
Complicity”
Devotion for 30 October 2025
Yesterday we watched David receive forgiveness yet still live under the shadow of consequences (see 2 Samuel 12, devotion dated 29 Oct 2025). Today that shadow lengthens over his household. Chapter 13 forces honest readers to sit with a narrative of rape, rage, and revenge inside the royal family. It is one of Scripture’s darkest domestic scenes—and therefore one of its most necessary mirrors.
1 – 5 Amnon’s sick longing and Jonadab’s wicked counsel
6 – 14 Tamar enticed, violated, and discarded
15 – 20 Love turns to loathing; Tamar’s public grief
21 David’s anger that leads to no action
22 – 29 Absalom’s two-year plot and deadly feast
30 – 39 Flight to Geshur and a father’s silent sorrow
• Half-Siblings and Succession: In a polygamous royal household, sons of different mothers jockeyed for the throne. Amnon (firstborn), Absalom (third), and Tamar shared David as father but not the same mother. Ancient Near-Eastern law gave the firstborn enormous advantages; Amnon’s sense of entitlement is therefore political as well as sexual.
• The “Robe of Many Colors”: Verse 18 describes Tamar’s ketonet passim—a long-sleeved, ornamented garment (the same phrase used for Joseph in Genesis 37). It marks royalty and virginity. By tearing it (v. 19), Tamar shows the loss of both status and security.
• Healing Cakes: The word usually rendered “cakes” (v. 8, levivot) appears in Ugaritic texts for heart-shaped pastries made with pressed figs—a common convalescent food. The tender domestic picture underscores the horror to come.
• Desolate (Hebrew shamem, v. 20): More than “lonely,” it carries a sense of being laid waste, like a ruined city after battle (cf. Lamentations 1 : 4).
Desire Disordered
Lies about love stand at the chapter’s core. Amnon is “tormented”
(tsar, squeezed) by lust (v. 2). Augustine called such desire
cupiditas—love curved inward, consuming the other rather than
giving life. Compare James 1 : 14-15; Matthew 5 : 27-28.
Abuse of Power
This is not merely sexual sin; it is royal sin. As David once
exploited Bathsheba, Amnon now exploits Tamar. Walter Brueggemann notes
that the narrator repeatedly says “his brother’s sister” (vv. 6, 8, 10,
12) to intensify the betrayal.
Silence That Protects the Violent
David is “very angry” (v. 21) yet does nothing. Augustine linked this to
David’s own moral compromise: “He blushed to punish what he had himself
done.” Calvin warned that passive fathers “educate tyranny in their own
houses.” Silence also pervades Tamar’s life; after verse 22 we never
hear her voice again, but God makes sure her story is written.
Unchecked Bitterness
Absalom “spoke neither good nor bad” (v. 22, a Semitic idiom for total
avoidance) for two years. Outward calm hid internal fury that will
eventually tear the kingdom apart. Heb 12 : 15 warns that roots of
bitterness defile many.
Echoes of Covenant Hope
The gospel does not shine by minimizing evil but by out-shining it.
Tamar’s tears anticipate another royal daughter’s lament—Zion herself
(Lam 1 : 12-16). Yet through that line of sorrow God will still bring
Messiah (Matt 1 : 1-6 includes Bathsheba and points past family disgrace
to redemption).
Excavations at the “Large Stone Structure” in today’s Jerusalem (possible Davidic palace levels, 10th century BC) reveal multi-room buildings with private quarters—supporting the biblical picture of separate wings for women, a setting where deception such as Amnon’s could occur unnoticed.
The passage forms a rough chiastic arc:
A Amnon loves Tamar (vv. 1-2)
B Jonadab’s plot (vv. 3-5)
C Deception enacted (vv. 6-9)
C′ Violation enacted (vv. 10-14)
B′ Jonadab’s report (vv. 32-35)
A′ David mourns Amnon (vv. 36-39)
The structure highlights Jonadab’s role as the hinge—worldly wisdom that fuels tragedy (contrast Prov 13 : 20).
• Chrysostom: “See how lust, once indulged, becomes crueler than
hatred.”
• Teresa of Ávila (on Tamar’s desolation): “The soul violated by sin
finds no cloister but the wounds of Christ.”
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.”
Genesis 34 (Dinah)
Judges 19 (the Levite’s concubine)
Deuteronomy 22 : 25-29 (law protecting violated women)
Psalm 55 : 4-6 (heart racing, longing for escape)
Galatians 5 : 19-24 (works of the flesh vs. fruit of the Spirit)
Hebrews 4 : 15-16 (a High Priest who knows our wounds)
“Heal Us, Emmanuel, Hear Our Prayer” (William Cowper / Kevin Twit arrangement). Its refrain—“We long to feel Thy touch”—gives voice to Tamar’s unspoken ache and to our need for healing community.
Holy and lamenting God,
You are the defender of the violated and the judge of secret
violence.
Expose any curved-in love within us, silence the sly counsel of Jonadab
in our ears,
and make us guardians, not bystanders, of the Tamar-souls near us.
Where bitterness festers, plant the cross;
where desolation reigns, pour Your Spirit of comfort.
May our homes and churches mirror the kingdom
in which every tear is wiped away by nail-scarred hands.
Through Jesus Christ, the true Son of David who heals all broken
families.
Amen.