Absalom Avenges Tamar
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Tamar made no attempt to hide her shame.
She tore her colorful robes and left Amnon’s presence in tears.
“Thus she prevented Amnon from inventing the tale that she had been guilty of misconduct toward him and for this reason had been expelled from his presence. Tamar was evidently entirely sincere, her actions betokening the keen indignation and grief that were hers. Had she kept quiet she might have been considered a party to the crime.” Absalom immediately knew something was wrong. Instead of taking direct legal action as was his right, Absalom delayed.
Amnon’s crime angered David, but he failed in his duty to execute justice for Tamar. “‘He shall restore fourfold,’ had been David’s unwitting sentence upon himself, on listening to the prophet Nathan’s parable; and according to his own sentence he was to be judged.
Four of his sons must fall, and the loss of each would be a result of the father’s sin.
“The shameful crime of Amnon, the first-born, was permitted by David to pass unpunished and unrebuked. The law pronounced death upon the adulterer, and the unnatural crime of Amnon made him doubly guilty. But David, self-condemned for his own sin, failed to bring the offender to justice. For two full years Absalom, the natural protector of the sister so foully wronged, concealed his purpose of revenge, but only to strike more surely at the last.” The opportunity arose at the annual sheepshearing festival.
Absalom skillfully obtained the king’s blessing to hold a feast attended by all of David’s sons. David declined to attend, and Amnon was appointed to represent his father as heir apparent and eldest son. David may have been suspicious when he asked, “Why should he go with thee?” (2 Samuel 13:26). In the end, Amnon attended.
Absalom had his servants get him drunk and then execute him.
Consider: David’s sons had now acted out the exact sins he had committed in taking Bath-sheba and slaying Uriah.
