13:16 But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” 3 But he refused to listen to her. 13:17 He called his personal attendant and said to him, “Take this woman out of my sight 4 and lock the door behind her!” 13:18 (Now she was wearing a long robe, 5 for this is what the king’s virgin daughters used to wear.) So Amnon’s 6 attendant removed her and bolted the door 7 behind her. 13:19 Then Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went on her way, wailing as she went.
13:20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Was Amnon your brother with you? Now be quiet, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take it so seriously!” 8 Tamar, devastated, lived in the house of her brother Absalom.
13:21 Now King David heard about all these things and was very angry. 9 13:22 But Absalom said nothing to Amnon, either bad or good, yet Absalom hated Amnon because he had humiliated his sister Tamar.
1 tn Heb “and Amnon hated her with very great hatred.”
2 tn Heb “for greater was the hatred with which he hated her than the love with which he loved her.”
3 tn Heb “No, because this great evil is [worse] than the other which you did with me, by sending me away.” Perhaps the broken syntax reflects her hysteria and outrage.
5 tn Heb “send this [one] from upon me to the outside.”
7 tn The Hebrew expression used here (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים, kÿtonet passim) is found only here and in Gen 37:3, 23, 32. Hebrew פַּס (pas) can refer to the palm of the hand or the sole of the foot; here the idea is probably that of a long robe reaching to the feet and having sleeves reaching to the wrists. The notion of a “coat of many colors” (KJV, ASV “garment of divers colors”), a familiar translation for the phrase in Genesis, is based primarily on the translation adopted in the LXX χιτῶνα ποικίλον (citona poikilion) and does not have a great deal of support.
8 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Amnon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn The Hebrew verb is a perfect with nonconsecutive vav, probably indicating an action (locking the door) that complements the preceding one (pushing her out the door).
9 tn Heb “Don’t set your heart to this thing!”
11 tc The LXX and part of the Old Latin tradition include the following addition to v. 21, also included in some English versions (e.g., NAB, NRSV, CEV): “But he did not grieve the spirit of Amnon his son, because he loved him, since he was his firstborn.” Note David’s attitude toward his son Adonijah in 1 Kgs 1:6.