Study Desk

His advisers were amazed. "We don't understand you," they told him. "While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again."

But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me."

But Amnon had a very crafty friend—his cousin Jonadab. He was the son of David's brother Shimea.

But when she set the serving tray before him, he refused to eat. "Everyone get out of here," Amnon told his servants. So they all left.

But as she was feeding him, he grabbed her and demanded, "Come to bed with me, my darling sister."

But Amnon wouldn't listen to her, and since he was stronger than she was, he raped her.

"No, no!" Tamar cried. "Sending me away now is worse than what you've already done to me." But Amnon wouldn't listen to her.

But now Tamar tore her robe and put ashes on her head. And then, with her face in her hands, she went away crying.

The king replied, "No, my son. If we all came, we would be too much of a burden on you." Absalom pressed him, but the king would not come, though he gave Absalom his blessing.

But Absalom kept on pressing the king until he finally agreed to let all his sons attend, including Amnon. So Absalom prepared a feast fit for a king.

But just then Jonadab, the son of David's brother Shimea, arrived and said, "No, don't believe that all the king's sons have been killed! It was only Amnon! Absalom has been plotting this ever since Amnon raped his sister Tamar.

All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.

He did it to place the matter before you in a different light. But you are as wise as an angel of God, and you understand everything that happens among us!"

But the king gave this order: "Absalom may go to his own house, but he must never come into my presence." So Absalom did not see the king.

Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years, but he never got to see the king.

Then Absalom sent for Joab to ask him to intercede for him, but Joab refused to come. Absalom sent for him a second time, but again Joab refused to come.

But while he was there, he sent secret messengers to all the tribes of Israel to stir up a rebellion against the king. "As soon as you hear the ram's horn," his message read, "you are to say, ‘Absalom has been crowned king in Hebron.'"

He took 200 men from Jerusalem with him as guests, but they knew nothing of his intentions.

But Ittai said to the king, "I vow by the Lord and by your own life that I will go wherever my lord the king goes, no matter what happens—whether it means life or death."

But if he is through with me, then let him do what seems best to him."