Ver. 1. And it came to pass after this.] God’s justice, which seemed to sleep, now beginneth to show itself in the punishment of David’s foul offences. That Absalom the son of David.] By Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, whom, say the Rabbins, David had taken prisoner, and knew her before she was proselyted. This haste God might punish in these miscarriages of his children by her. Whose name was Tamar.] Which signifieth a palm tree; like as Absalom signifieth his father’s peace, and Amnon faithful, stable; but none of them answered their names. “ Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo. ” And Amnon the son of David.] His eldest son, but by another wife: he proved to be one of his tres vomicae, imposthumated ulcers, as Augustus said of his children. Loved her,] i.e., Lusted after her. Of this the poet speaketh, “ Amor est amaror, et melle et felle faeeundissimus: Gustu dat dulce, amarum ad satietatem usque aggerit.” - Plaut. Gist. Act. i. And to the same sense another, “ Non Amor antiquo fuerat sed Amaror ab aevo; Dicendus cure sit semper amarus Amor.” Sueton.
Ver. 2. And Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick.] So did Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, king of Syria, for the love of his step-mother, Stratonice; so that he was near to death. Mors et Amor comites sunt, et mutant et mutuant aliquando sagittas. “ Mutarunt arma inter se Mors atque Cupido: Haec falcem gestat, gestat at ille facem.” The reason hereof is given by some, and it is this: The affections are in the grossest and basest part of the mind, which hath greatest affinity with the body; and thence it is that the vehemency of the affections worketh such bodily distempers. For she was a virgin.] And therefore of herself more averse from any such unchaste thoughts; and besides, she was strictly kept in, being the king’s daughter especially, and for aught we find, his only daughter. And Amnon thought it hard.] He knew not how to compass his desire, and therefore lay broiling on the gridiron of his own unruly passions; but the devil found him out a broker. Appian. Syriat. Val Max., lib. v. cap. 7.
Ver. 3. But Amnon had a friend.] A friend no friend; a carnal friend, but a spiritual enemy, who advised, for the recovery of his body, the ruin of his soul. Such a false friend to Antiochus was Erasistratus, the physician, who, finding him lovesick, persuaded his father Seleucus to part with his wife Stratonice to him, for the saving of his life. And Jonadab was a very subtle man.] Ingeniose nequam, witty, but wicked; and therefore a fit tool for the devil to work with. Good natural parts abused prove to be as press money to impiety, — auctoramentum maioris infidelitatis, as one well phraseth it, -and their wisdom culpae suasoria, as Ambrose speaketh. Augustine, writing to such another as this Jonadab, telleth him that the devil desired to be tricked up by him. Diabolus cupit a te ornari.
Ver. 4. Why art thou, being the king’s son?] And therefore needest not want for anything. But in addition Amnon should have considered, that in maxima libertate minima licentia, that although the king’s son, yet he should not have desired or done anything unbeseeming his dignity; and Jonadab, had he been a friend indeed, would have told him as much. Antigonus, being invited to a place where a notable harlot was to be present, asked counsel of Menedemus what he should do: he bade him only remember that he was a king’s son. Lean from day to day.] Heb., Thin every morning; sc., For want of sleep, through thoughtful anxieties by night. “ Invidia vel amore vigil torquebere. ’’— Horat. Plato saith, He that is in love liveth in the body of another, but dieth in his own; whilst the whole man macrescit, marcescit et contabescit ex amoris vehementia. Hence Apollonius Tyanaeus the philosopher, when the king of Babylon—devising how to punish a certain young courtier who had lain with a concubine of his—asked him what was the greatest of all tortures, answered, that he could not punish him worse than by suffering him to live in the fire of lust, which would secretly but certainly devour him. Hence that of the poet, “ Tristatur, pallet, non dormit, nil edit, ardet, Nec tamen aegrotat Calliodorus: amat.” Wilt thou not tell me?] Who can both keep counsel and give counsel. But what counsel gave he other than what Julia gave Caracalla, her son-in-law, when he said, O si liceret Oh that I might lie with thee! She impudently answered, Si libet licet: imperator dat leges, non aceipit, You may if you will: for an emperor giveth laws to others, he taketh none himself. I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.] He saith not, My sister, for shame. Sin is a blushful business. This filthy love is the disease which the physicians call Ερων, and is by one not unfitly compared to that shirt which Clytemnestra put upon her husband Agamemnon; or to those asps which Cleopatra applied to her body to suck out her lifeblood; or to those Charonean ditches, mortiferum spiritum exhalantes, that send out a deadly air. Good, therefore, is the tragedian’s counsel, “ Recedat a te, temere ne credas, Amor: Florem decoris singuli ne carpent dies.” - Sen. in Octav. Agnus curio, apud Plaut. Macilentus, quasi curis confectus. Spec. Hum Vit., p. 125. Plin., lib. ii. cap. 93.