Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 13:21-29
What Solomon says of the beginning of strife is as true of the beginning of all sin, it is as the letting forth of water; when once the flood-gates are plucked up, an inundation follows; one mischief begets another, and it is hard to say what shall be in the end thereof.
I. We are here told how David resented the tidings of Amnon's sin: He was very wroth, Sa2 13:21. So he had reason to be, that his own son should do such a wicked thing and draw him to be accessory to it. It would be a reproach to him for not giving him a better education; it would be a blot upon his family, the ruin of his daughter, a bad example to his kingdom, and a wrong to his son's soul. But was it enough for him to be…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Samuel 13:20
So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom's house--He was her natural protector, and the children of polygamists lived by themselves, as if they constituted different families.
Adam Clarke on 2 Samuel 13:21
But when King David heard - To this verse the Septuagint add the following words: Και ουκ ελυπησε το πνευμα Αμνων του υἱου αυτου, ὁτι ηγαπα αυτον, ὁτι πρωτοτοκος αυτου ην; "But he would not grieve the soul of Amnon his son, for he loved him, because he was his first-born." The same addition is found in the Vulgate and in Josephus, and it is possible that this once made a part of the Hebrew text.
John Gill on 2 Samuel 13:22
And Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad,.... That is, said nothing at all to him about the rape of his sister; not that he was sulky with him, and would not converse with him at all; for then Amnon would have mistrusted that he was meditating revenge, and therefore would have been upon his guard; but on the contrary he talked freely, and in appearance friendly, on other things, the better to conceal his hatred of him, and his design to avenge the injury of his sister:
for Absalom hated Amnon; or, "though" (f) he hated him, yet he behaved in this manner towards him:
because he had forced his sister Tamar: who was so by father and mother's side, and so near and dear unt…
