Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, had no children to the day of her death.

As she brought them to him to eat, he grabbed her and said to her, “Come on! Get in bed with me, ¹  my sister!”

The king replied to her, “What do you want?” ¹  She answered, “I am a widow; my husband is dead.

So David lived in the fortress and called it the City of David. David built all around it, from the terrace inwards.

But Amnon became frustrated because he was so lovesick ¹  over his sister Tamar. For she was a virgin, and to Amnon it seemed out of the question to do anything to her.

Then Amnon greatly despised her. ¹  His disdain toward her surpassed the love he had previously felt toward her. ²  Amnon said to her, “Get up and leave!”

But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” ¹  But he refused to listen to her.

Prior to this ¹  Absalom had set up a monument ²  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on them, ¹  she did not allow the birds of the air to feed ²  on them by day, nor the wild animals ³  by night.