5. Jonadab said to Amnon, “Go to bed. Pretend you are sick. Then your father will come to see you. Tell him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come in and give me food to eat. Let her make the food in front of me. Then I will see it and eat it from her hand.’”
6. So Amnon lay down in bed and pretended to be sick. King David came in to see Amnon. He said to King David, “Please let my sister Tamar come in. Let her make two cakes for me while I watch. Then I can eat from her hands.”
7. David sent messengers to Tamar’s house. They told her, “Go to your brother Amnon’s house and make some food for him.”
8. So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon. He was in bed. Tamar took some dough, pressed it together with her hands, and cooked the cakes. She did this while he watched.
9. Then Tamar took the cakes out of the pan and set them out for him. But he refused to eat. He said to his servants, “Get out of here. Leave me alone!” So all of his servants left the room.
10. Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the bedroom and feed me by hand.” So Tamar took the cakes she had made and went into her brother’s bedroom.
11. She started to feed Amnon, but he grabbed her hand. He said to her, “Sister, come and sleep with me.”
12. Tamar said to Amnon, “No, brother! Don’t force me to do this. Don’t do this shameful thing! Terrible things like this should never be done in Israel!
13. I would never get rid of my shame, and people would think that you are just a common criminal. Please, talk with the king. He will let you marry me.”
14. But Amnon refused to listen to Tamar. He was stronger than she was, so he forced her to have sexual relations with him.
15. Then Amnon began to hate Tamar. He hated her much more than he had loved her before. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out of here!”
16. Tamar said to Amnon, “No! Don’t send me away like this. That would be even worse than what you did before!” But Amnon refused to listen to Tamar.
17. He called his servant and said, “Get this girl out of this room, now! And lock the door after her.”
18. So Amnon’s servant led Tamar out of the room and locked the door. Tamar was wearing a long robe with many colors. The king’s virgin daughters wore robes like this.
19. Tamar tore her robe of many colors and put ashes on her head. Then she put her hand on her head and began crying.
20. Then Tamar’s brother Absalom said to her, “Have you been with your brother Amnon? Did he hurt you? Now, calm down sister. Amnon is your brother, so we will take care of this. Don’t let it upset you too much.” So Tamar did not say anything. She quietly went to live at Absalom’s house.
21. King David heard the news and became very angry, but he did not want to say anything to upset Amnon, because he loved him since he was his firstborn son.
22. Absalom began to hate Amnon. Absalom did not say one word, good or bad, to Amnon, but he hated him because Amnon had raped his sister Tamar.
23. Two years later, Absalom had some men come to Baal Hazor to cut the wool from his sheep. He invited all the king’s sons to come and watch.
24. Absalom went to the king and said, “I have some men coming to cut the wool from my sheep. Please come with your servants and watch.”