by
Damien F. Mackey
Part One: In the Kingdom of Israel
This new article, most
heavily reliant upon the use of alter
egos, will explore Abishag pairings with the “Shunammite” of the “Song of
Solomon” and Tamar, daughter of King David; with “the Queen of the South”/“Queen
of Sheba”; and also with - now including the Egyptian link - “Pharaoh’s daughter”
as Queen (and Pharaoh) Hatshepsut.
Introducing:
Abishag: “… a
beautiful young woman … a Shunammite” (I Kings 1:3).
Tamar: “Now David’s son Absalom had a
beautiful sister named Tamar” (2 Samuel 13:1).
Shunammite: “… fairest among women”
(Song of Solomon 1:8).
Queen of Sheba: “King Solomon gave the
queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for …” (I Kings 10:13).
Pharaoh’s Daughter: “Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of
Egypt and married his daughter” (I Kings 3:1).
Hatshepsut: Whose name means “foremost of noble women”.
Just Abishag
Abishag: “… a beautiful young woman … a Shunammite” (I Kings 1:3).
|
When we shift from Samuel to
Kings, we start with this fairly benign story:
King
David was now old, advanced in years; and though they covered him with
bedclothes, he never felt warm. His courtiers said to him, “Let a young
virgin be sought for my lord the king, to wait upon Your Majesty and be his
attendant; and let her lie in your bosom, and my lord the king will be warm.”
So they looked for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel. They
found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king. The girl was
exceedingly beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and waited upon him;
but the king was not intimate with her.—1st Kings
1:1-4 (NJPS)
She is mentioned once more
incidentally (1st Kings 1:15). In the next chapter, after David's death, Adonijah
asks Bathsheba to request Solomon to give him Abishag as a wife (1st Kings
2:13-18). She then delivers the request to Solomon:
So
Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah. The king rose
to greet her and bowed down to her. He sat on his throne; and he had a throne
placed for the queen mother, and she sat on his right. She said, “I have one
small request to make of you, do not refuse me.” He responded, “Ask, Mother;
I shall not refuse you.” Then she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given
to your brother Adonijah as wife.” The king replied to his mother, “Why
request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Request the kingship for him!
For he is my older brother, and the priest Abiathar and Joab son of Zeruiah
are on his side.”—1st Kings 2:19-22 (NJPS)
But why is asking for Abishag
equivalent in Solomon's eyes to asking for the kingship? I see two options
(neither of which seem compelling):
1.
Abishag's close relationship with David
would link her (possible) husband to the throne.
2.
If Adonijah can manipulate Bathsheba, he
could become the real power behind the throne.
After this, the text (and all
of Scripture) cease to mention the woman. So what was her importance?
[End of
quote]
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If the identifications of Abishag to
be proposed in this series may have any value, however, then Abishag the person
far from ‘ceases to be mentioned in all of Scripture’.
Though she does cease to be
mentioned by her name of ‘Abishag’:
גשַׁיבִאֲ
ABISHAG THE SHUNAMMITE
(Heb. גשַׁיבִאֲ;
"the [Divine] Father (?)"; meaning unknown; of *Shunem),
an unmarried girl who was chosen to serve as sōkhenet to King David. The
term comes from a root skn, "attend to," "take
care," and its noun forms can be applied to high officials in Hebrew (Is.
22:15) Abishag's role was of a lower status. She served as bed companion to
David in the hope that her fresh beauty would induce some warmth in the old man
(I Kings 1:1–4, 15), and as his
housekeeper. The notice (1:4) that "the king knew her not" serves
less to impute decrepitude to David than to inform the audience that there
would be no other claimants to David's throne than Solomon and Adonijah. When
Solomon became king, *Adonijah, whose life Solomon had spared although he knew
him to be a dangerous rival, asked *Bath-Sheba,
Solomon's mother, to intercede on his behalf for permission to marry Abishag.
Solomon correctly interpreted this request for the former king's concubine as a
bid for the throne (See II Sam 12:8;
16:20–23), and had Adonijah killed (I
Kings 2:13–25). Some see in Abishag, who is described as "very fair"
(I Kings 1:4), the Shulammite of the Song
of Songs (Shulammite being regarded as the same as Shunammite).
[End of quote]
Abishag’s home town of Shunem was an
important location for Israel at least during the early Divided Monarchy period
of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. For, in the el Amarna series of letters, in Letter
250, we read of Shunem, or Shunama, being
under dire threat.
Pirḳe R. El. (l.c.)
reports, in the name of R. Joshua ben Ḳarḥah, that any woman who saw Elisha
would die. The Shunammite was the sister of Abishag, the wife of Iddo, the
prophet. When she repaired to Mount Carmel to seek the intervention of the
prophet in behalf of her son, Gehazi, struck by her beauty, took undue
liberties with her. Elisha sent his servant with his staff bidding him not to
speak with any one; but Gehazi, being a skeptic and a scoffer, disobeyed the
injunction.
[End of quote]
At best, though, chronologically,
the “Great Lady of Shunem” could only have been related to the much earlier
Abishag. What any such a connection between the two may indicate, however, is
that this Shunem was a seat of some prominence at the time.
My guess is that when David’s
courtiers “looked for a beautiful girl
throughout the territory of Israel. They found Abishag the Shunammite and
brought her to the king”, they were not actually checking out every beautiful
girl throughout the land, whatever her status may have been. They, far more
practically, would have been searching amongst only the royal and the noble -
chiefly amongst the princesses of Israel. More than just endowed with beauty, though,
the sōkhenet candidate would probably
have been required to have had knowledge of health and healing.
Rape of Tamar
Tamar:
“Now David’s son Absalom had a
beautiful sister named Tamar” (2 Samuel 13:1).
The
mysterious Abishag, about whom we know virtually nothing, biographically
speaking, is thought to have - as we have already read - occupied very little scriptural space: “… the text (and all of Scripture) cease to mention the woman”.
Yet we also found her to have been of such supreme importance
that “… asking for Abishag [was] equivalent in Solomon's eyes to asking for the
kingship …”.
The next phase of Abishag’s life, which I believe the scriptural
narrative picks up now in her guise as Tamar, will turn out to be a most
wretched downturn in the girl’s fortunes, when she, abandoned by her closest
relatives, plummets to the very nadir in “Abishag Rising”.
Amnon and Tamar
King
David had taken Abishag as his sōkhenet
nurse
at some point in his old age – which presumably came earlier to David given the
rugged life that he had lived. As I see it, the young woman was already
performing her services for the king when David’s oldest son, Amnon, conceived
his desire for her - in her guise as Tamar - and asked for her to be brought to
him to serve him in his illness (actually love-sickness), to nurse him, as she
had been doing for the aged king. So David “sent home” (note), for Tamar to
come to Amnon’s house, with disastrous results for the girl.
Here,
now, is the biblical account of the rape of Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-30), to which
I shall add some of my own comments along the lines of my proposed
Abishag-Tamar identification (vv. 1-2):
…
Ab'sa-lom had a beautiful sister whose name was Ta'mar; and David's son Am'non
fell in love with her. Am'non was so tormented that he made himself ill
because of his sister Ta'mar, for she was a virgin and it seemed impossible to
Am'non to do anything to her.
Comment: Recall that
Abishag, too, was “beautiful”, and a “virgin” (I Kings 1:2, 3-4), and I have
also surmised that she was probably a princess of Israel.
If Tamar were also,
as Abishag, the “Shunammite” of the Song of Solomon - which will be an
underlying theme in this series - then it would be fitting that King Solomon
would there refer to her as Achoti (אֲחֹתִי), “my sister” (4:9).
She, for her part,
wishes that he were her full brother (8:1): “If only you were to me like a
brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I
would kiss you, and no one would despise me”.
Tamar, Amnon and
Solomon were siblings, all sharing the same renowned father, who was King David,
but all having different mothers.
Later, another
brother of theirs, Adonijah, will express a wish to marry Abishag (I Kings 2:17):
“Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me
Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.” Note that Adonijah here calls the
girl “the Shunammite”, which is thus unlikely to have meant “Shulammite”, as in
“belonging to Solomon”, as some have proposed.
Now, returning to
the biblical narrative of the story (vv. 3-6):
But
Am'non had a friend whose name was Jon'a-dab, the son of David's brother
Shim'eah; and Jon'a-dab was a very crafty man. He said to him, "O son of
the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell
me?" Am'non said to him, "I love Ta'mar, my brother Ab'sa-lom's
sister." Jon'a-dab said to him, "Lie down on your bed, and pretend
to be ill; and when your father comes to see you, say to him, 'Let my sister
Ta'mar come and give me something to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, so
that I may see and eat it from her hand.'" So Am'non lay down, and
pretended to be ill; and when the king came to see him, Am'non said to the
king, "Please let my sister Ta'mar come and make a couple of cakes in my
sight, so that I may eat from her hand."
Comment: The cunning, Machiavellian Jonadab I have identified as:
As we return to
the biblical narrative, we find that King David himself really throws his
daughter Tamar into the deep end (vv.7-14):
Then
David sent home to Ta'mar saying, "Go to your brother Am'non’s house, and
prepare food for him." So Ta'mar went to her brother Am'non’s house, where
he was lying down. She took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and
baked the cakes. Then she took the pan and set them out before him, but he
refused to eat. Am'non said, "Send out everyone from me.” So everyone went
out from him. Then Am'non said to Ta'mar, ‘Bring the food into the chamber, so
that I might eat from your hand.” So Ta'mar took the cakes she had made, and
brought them into the chamber to Am'non her brother. But when she brought them
near him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my
sister." She answered him, "No, my brother, do not force me; for such
a thing is not done in Israel; do not do anything so vile! As for me, where
should I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the scoundrels
in Israel. Now therefore, I beg you, speak to the king; for he will not
withhold me from you.” But he would not listen to her; and being stronger than
she, he forced her and lay with her.
Comment: What was “such a
thing [as] not done in Israel”, yet might be done if the king so approved. Was
Tamar, then, although a princess of Israel, not ethnically an Israelite?
It will help my
later identifications if she were not.
Amnon, having done
the vile deed, will now turn away from his sister with disgust (vv. 15-19):
Then
Am'non was seized with a very great loathing for her. Indeed, his loathing was
even greater than the lust he had felt for her. An Am'non said to her, “Get
out!” But she said to him, “No my brother; for this wrong in sending me away is
greater than the other that you did to me”. But he would not listen to her. He
called the young man who served him and said, “Put this woman out of my presence,
and bolt the door after her.” (Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves;
for this is how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times)
So his servant put her out, and bolted the door after her. But Ta'mar put ashes
on her head, and tore the long robe that she was wearing; she put her hand on
her head, and went away, crying aloud as she went.
Comment: Was this the
same “robe” that the watchmen would take from the distraught girl? Cf. Song of
Solomon 5:7. “The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They
beat me, they bruised me; they took away my robe, those watchmen of the walls!”
According to the
“Joab” article above, Jonadab (= General Joab) and Absalom, Tamar’s own full
brother, had actually conspired to bring down the sensuous Amnon. Tamar was a
complete victim in all of this, “an unwitting pawn of a devious
schemer, an expendable token in the power play for the throne”. I wrote:
Jonadab, according to Hill, was not actually serving Amnon’s interests
at all. He was cunningly providing Absalom with the opportunity to bring down
his brother, Amnon, the crown prince:
More than this, I am inclined to see Jonadab as a co-conspirator with
Absalom in the whole affair, since both men have much to gain.
Absalom’s desires for revenge against Amnon and ultimately his designs
for usurping his father’s throne are clearly seen in the narrative (cf.
13:21-23, 32; 15:21-6). Amnon, as crown prince, stands in the way as a rival to
the ambitions of Absalom. Absalom and Jonadab collaborate to remove this
obstacle to kingship by taking advantage of a basic weakness in Amnon’s
character.
The calculated plotting of Absalom and Jonadab is evidenced by the
pointed questioning of Tamar by Absalom after her rape and his almost callous
treatment of a sister brutishly violated and now bereft of a meaningful future
(almost as if he expected it, at least according to the tone of the statements
in the narrative; cf. 13:20-22). While a most reprehensible allegation, it seems
Tamar may have been an unwitting pawn of a devious schemer, an expendable token
in the power play for the throne.
Her
self-interested brothers completely despised Tamar. Her shame reflected
ingloriously upon the family, it was thought. Hence it is not surprising to
read in the Song of Solomon (1:6): “My mother's sons were incensed against me;
they made me keeper of the vineyards”.
Menial work for a
princess!
And she adds the
words: “But mine own vineyard [virginity?] have I not kept”.
Abishag can, it
seems, merge seamlessly into Tamar. The former, too, was “beautiful”, and a “virgin”
(I Kings 1:2, 3-4). And I have also surmised that Abishag was likely a princess
of Israel, as Tamar certainly was.
Tamar, for her
part, like Abishag, lived “at [David’s] home”. And she, like Abishag, lived
there during David’s later years.
…. I want to know: What are the
nature and purpose of Tamar’s activity? What follows is a necessarily brief
summary of my research so far.
The first possibility is raised by
the term biryâ. In 2 Sam 13, the root brh 8 is used to designate preparation of
the food (tabrenî) and the ceremony involved in making the food (habbiryâ)
which Amnon expects to eat (‘ebreh). Words arising from brh in the Bible have
to do with eating, but are specific for breaking a fast in a time of grieving
or illness. Forms of brh appear only in 2 Sam 3:35; 12:17; 13:5, 6, 10; and in
Lam 4:10. Another form, barût is found in Ps 69:22 as food for a mourner.9
David for example refuses to break his fast, lehabrôt, during mourning for
Abner (3:35) and he will not eat, brh, bread during his seven day fast and
prayer vigil for the ailing infant of Bathsheba (12: 17). In Lam 4: 10,
children become the food (perhaps divination-offering), lebarôt, prepared by
their desperate mothers during the siege of Jerusalem. These uses suggest that
the word chosen to express eating in 2 Sam 13 includes a connotation beyond an
ordinary meal.
The root has sacred connotations in
Hebrew. Beriyt means covenant, perhaps arising from “binding” in Assyrian barû.
10 In the Bible beriyt commonly
refers to being bound by the covenant with YHWH, but also by a covenant between
humans (Gen 14:13; I Sam 18:3) and with death (Isa 28: IS, 18; 57:8).11 In
later Jewish parlance there is a meal of comfort, called seûdat habra’â12 given
to a mourner after the funeral. Biryâ may be related to beriyt, covenant.
Conceivably this later custom was a restoration of some familial/tribal bond
with the dead, a covenant meal prepared ritually by a woman.13
Though the divinatory meaning of brh
is not common in Hebrew, it is among ancient Israel’s neighbors. In Akkadian,
barû priests are diviners who inspect livers, and the related term biru,
“divination,” 14 is conducted also by women who interpret dreams. Occult
inquiry was known in Israel where reported practice is primarily about men.
Priests, prophets, seers, and kings in ancient Israel drew lots, used the
ephod, interpreted dreams and signs to divine YHWH’s will.15However, Barak
(Judg 4), King Saul (1 Sam 28), and King Josiah (2 Kgs 22) learned the future
by means of a woman. We may not assume that other people’s customs are
identical to Israel’s; however, by exploring ancient approaches to healing we
may apply to 2 Sam 13 a range of activities reflecting a frame of reference
common to peoples of the ancient Near East.16
In Mesopotamia. besides priestly
diviners, there are references to two types of women diviners who in particular
are “approached in cases of sickness,”17 as is the case with Amnon. One passage
reads, “We shall ask here the šã’litu-priestesses, the baritu-priestesses and
the spirits of the dead …..”18 Elsewhere, the goddess of healing, Gula, sings
in a hymn of praise of herself, “Mistress of health am I, I am a physician, I
am a diviner (ha-ra-ku), I am an exorcist…..”19
Magic and medicine were one in the
ancient Near East. ….
[End of quote]
Finally, it would
be fitting if one as significant as Abishag should receive further mention in
the Scriptures – unless, of course, death had intervened.
Tamar –
what becomes of the broken-hearted?
Shunammite:
“… fairest among women” (Song of
Solomon 1:8).
Different
Names
This
series began with Abishag (the same as “the Shunammite” of the Song of
Solomon), who then - according to what followed - merged quite seamlessly into
Tamar, the daughter of King David and sister of Absalom.
The
term “Shunammite” is appropriate for the young woman under consideration, since
Abishag herself was “a Shunammite” (I Kings 1:3).
That
was before her “vineyard” (virginity) had been ravaged.
But
how to account for the different name, “Tamar” (Hebrew: תָמָר), meaning “palm
tree”? Most interestingly, that very same word occurs in the Song of Solomon,
7:8, where the Shunammite is actually likened to a palm tree (תָמָר):
“I
said, ‘I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit’.”
זֹאת
קוֹמָתֵךְ דָּמְתָה לְתָמָר, וְשָׁדַיִךְ לְאַשְׁכֹּלוֹת.
This was typical Solomon at work. Had he not,
in his guise as Senenmut in Egypt:
Solomon and Sheba
amused himself by “creating
cryptograms, e.g. in relation
to Hatshepsut's throne name, Make-ra …”?
May it be the case of a different book, with
a different author, using a different name? Abishag appears in I Kings, Tamar appears
in 2 Samuel. The story of the rape of Tamar (RT) is an example of “the short
embedded narrative” situated within a larger narrative (http://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/vox/vol20/tamar_smith.pdf).
Hence, just as the more familiar Joab may have been presented in the account of
RT by the (slightly) different name, “Jonadab”, according to my:
so may the author of RT have used the
different name, “Tamar”, for the one we know otherwise as Abishag.
Shulamit
[Shunammite] is known as Abishag by her brothers, because they see her as their
father’s mistake: their father’s favorite wife had only a girl, but no sons. [sic]
(In terms of the Hebrew, “Abi” means “my father,” and the verb sh-g-g and
sh-g-h can relate to an error.) Shulamit’s father agrees to let her go, in
exchange for a piece of Solomon’s vineyard, which is in the north.
Absalom and Tamar
Tamar,
first ravaged and then detested by the lustful Amnon, would also be treated
most shabbily by her brother, Absalom, who may have, anyway, with Jonadab,
manipulated the whole sordid incident. We recall from earlier:
The calculated plotting of Absalom and Jonadab is evidenced by the
pointed questioning of Tamar by Absalom after her rape and his almost callous
treatment of a sister brutishly violated and now bereft of a meaningful future
(almost as if he expected it, at least according to the tone of the statements
in the narrative; cf. 13:20-22). While a most reprehensible allegation, it
seems Tamar may have been an unwitting pawn of a devious schemer, an expendable
token in the power play for the throne.
And
we read in 2 Samuel 13:20: “Her brother Ab'salom said to her, ‘Has Am'non your
brother been with you? Be quiet now, my sister; he is your brother; do not take
this to heart’. So Ta'mar remained, a desolate woman, in her brother Ab'salom’s
house”.
Cold
comfort, indeed.
Absalom,
who shared the same mother with Tamar, may have been one of those referred to
in the Song of Solomon (1:6) “… my mother’s children [who] were angry with me
[Tamar]”. Incorrect, though, would be the following assessment of this verse:
The reason for the punishment her brothers inflicted on her was because she
did not keep her own vineyard. The symbolism behind the vineyard is probably a
reference to her virginity, that is, that she gave herself sexually to her
shepherd lover and as a result her brothers punished her for her indiscretion.
[End of quote]
On
the contrary, at least one of her “mother’s children”, or “mother’s sons”, Absalom
- who should have ensured that his sister retained her virginity - may actually
have been guilty of facilitating her loss of it.
Back Home at Shunem?
We
might surmise, on the basis that Tamar was Abishag of Shunem, that “Absalom’s
house” was situated there as well, and that the girl returned to her former
home. Hence her references in the Song of Solomon to her “mother” and her “mother’s
children”. For example (1:6): “… my mother’s children were angry with me; they
made me the keeper of the vineyards …”. And (8:1, 2): “O that thou wert as my
brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! … I would lead thee, and
bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause
thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate”.
Now
(8:11), “Solomon
had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to
bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver”. If the house of the mother
of Absalom and Tamar - we shall be learning more about the mother later - were
situated in Shunem, then it would not have been very far from Solomon’s
vineyard in Baal Hamon - if the following estimation is correct (http://biblehub.com/commentaries/songs/8-11.htm):
….
at Baal-hamon] Oettli,
following Rosenmüller, thinks this place is identical with Belamon or Balamon
in Jdt 8:3, which, he says,
was not far from Shunem, Dothan, and the plain of Esdraelon. If the keepers are
the Shulammite’s brothers, Baal-hamon would naturally be in the neighbourhood
of Shunem.
The
Song of Solomon makes various reference to “vineyards”, e.g. 1:6; 7:12; 8:12.
The
“mother’s children”, or “sons”, may have been “tenants” of Solomon’s vineyard.
Part of their work could have been to control those pesky “little foxes”
(2:15):
Catch for us the foxes,
the
little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,
our
vineyards that are in bloom.
King David’s Reaction
If
Tamar were also Abishag, as according to this series, “Abishag Rising”, then she
had already been put to a very strange usage - at least by our standards (I
Kings 1:1-4):
King
David had become very old. His servants covered him with blankets, but he
couldn’t stay warm. They said to him, ‘Allow us to find
a young woman for our master the king. She will serve the king and take care of
him by lying beside our master the king and keeping him warm’. So they looked in every corner of Israel until they found Abishag
from Shunem. They brought her to the king. She was very
beautiful. She cared for the king and served him, but the king didn’t have sex
with her.
Moreover,
it was at King David’s command that Tamar had gone to Amnon in the first place.
For, as we read previously:
… Am'non
lay down, and pretended to be ill; and when the king came to see him, Am'non
said to the king, ‘Please let my sister Ta'mar come and make a couple of cakes
in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand’. Then David sent home to Ta'mar
saying, ‘Go to your brother Am'non’s house, and prepare food for him’.
And
now, in the case of her being raped by Amnon, there is no action on the part of
the king. Ever indulgent towards his sons, King David, though “very angry”, does
absolutely nothing (2 Samuel 13:21): “When King David heard of all these
things, he became very angry, but he would not punish his son Am'non, because
he loved him, for he was his firstborn”.
A.
Hill, from whom we have quoted previously in this series, will tellingly refer
to “Amnon’s domination by sensuality … a trait he shared with his father David”.
Absalom Avenges
the Violation of His Sister
The
calculating Absalom, who hated his brother, Amnon - even before the latter’s
rape of Tamar, apparently - waited “two full years” before he acted (vv.
22-23): “But Ab'salom spoke to Am'non neither good nor bad; for Ab'salom hated
Am'non, because he had raped his sister Ta'mar. After two full years Absalom …”.
It
may have been during this brief period of time that the Shunammite was able to
enjoy her bucolic phase of life with the one she hoped to marry, Solomon. But,
under the circumstances, it had to be done somewhat surreptitiously, ‘peering
through windows and lattices’ (2:9): “My beloved is like a gazelle or a young
stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattice”, or wishing and hoping (8:1, 2): “O that thou wert as my
brother … I would … bring thee into my mother’s house”.
Absalom will
now go seriously into action (2 Samuel 13:23-36):
After
two full years Ab'salom had sheepshearers at Ba'al-ha'zor, which is near
E'phraim, and Ab'salom invited all the king's sons. Ab'salom came to the king,
and said, "Your servant has sheepshearers; will the king and his servants
please go with your servant?" But the king said to Ab'sa-lom, "No, my
son, let us not all go, or else we will be burdensome to you." He pressed
him, but he would not go but gave him his blessing. Then Ab'sa-lom said, “If
not, please let my brother Am'non go with us." The king said to him,
"Why should he go with you?" But Ab'sa-lom pressed him until he let
Am'non and all the king's sons go with him. Ab'sa-lom made a feast like a
king's feast. Then Ab'sa-lom commanded his servants, "Watch when Am'non's
heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, 'Strike Am'non,' then kill
him. Do not be afraid; have I not myself commanded you? Be courageous and
valiant." So the servants of Ab'sa-lom did to Am'non as Ab'sa-lom had
commanded. Then all the king's sons rose, and each mounted his mule and fled.
While
they were on the way, the report came to David that Ab'sa-lom had killed all the
king's sons, and not one of them was left. The king rose, tore his garments,
and lay on the ground; and all his servants who were standing by tore their
garments. But Jon'a-dab, the son of David's brother Shim'e-ah, said, "Let
not my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men the king's sons;
Am'non alone is dead. This has been determined by Ab'sa-lom from the day Am'non
raped his sister Ta'mar. Now therefore, do not let my lord the king take it to
heart, as if all the king's sons were dead; for Am'non alone is dead."
But
Ab'sa-lom fled. When the young man who kept watch looked up, he saw many people
coming from the Hor-o.na'im road by the side of the mountain. Jon'a-dab said to
the king, "See, the king's sons have come; as your servant said, so it has
come about." As soon as he had finished speaking, the king's sons arrived,
and raised their voices and wept; and the king and all his servants also wept
very bitterly.
Absalom, as we
read above, had told his violated sister, Tamar, ‘not to take it to heart’, and
now Jonadab tells King David the very same, ‘do not let my lord the king take
it to heart’. David had not queried Amnon’s request for Tamar, but he did query
Absalom’s request for Amnon. ‘Why should he go with you?’
In all of this it appears
to have been Tamar herself who had acted the most honourably.
Grandfather and Mother of Tamar
2 Samuel
13:37, 38:
“Absalom fled and went to Talmai
son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur … he stayed there three years”.
This Part
Three (iii) will be a bridge, connecting Tamar - a princess of Israel - (and
Absalom) to other royal connections in “the south”, to be considered fully in Part Four.
Introduction
Whether
or not Tamar - who may have been under close surveillance during her stay in
“Absalom’s house”, and by “the watchmen” of the Song of Solomon 5:7 - had also
been carted away with Absalom when he fled to Geshur, the narrative of 2 Samuel
13 does not inform us. But here in this Part
Three (iii) our main point of interest will be Absalom’s and Tamar’s other
(apart from the royal Judaean) family, stemming from “Talmai king of Geshur”.
As we learn from I Chronicles 3:1-4, Absalom was “the third” son
born to David in Hebron:
These were the
sons of David born to him in Hebron:
The firstborn was
Amnon the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel;
the second, Daniel
the son of Abigail of Carmel;
the third, Absalom the son of Maakah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
the fourth, Adonijah
the son of Haggith;
the fifth,
Shephatiah the son of Abital;
and the sixth,
Ithream, by his wife Eglah.
These six were born to David in
Hebron, where he reigned seven years and six months.
“… the second,
Daniel”, about whom we read nothing more, may have died early. But we have
already met Amnon the rapist; Absalom the conspirator; and Adonijah the
would-be-king.
A truly
dysfunctional state of princes!
Solomon, whom we
have met as well, was born after “these six”, in Jerusalem (v. 5).
“Absalom the son
of Maakah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur”, was, as we have learned, the
brother of the person of main interest in this series: “Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David” (2
Samuel 13:1).
Most
interestingly, their maternal grandfather, Talmai, was, like their father
David, a “king”. Apart from the great Hiram of Tyre, few kings in the
approximate region are actually named - as far as I know - during David’s late phase
of kingship and Solomon’s early reign. One is (named by his title) “Pharaoh
king of Egypt” (I Kings 3:1): “Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of
Egypt and married his daughter”, who “had attacked and captured Gezer. He had
set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a
wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife” (9:16). “Talmai king of Geshur” is
another such monarch.
I am going to
propose in Part Two that “Talmai”
was the same as this “Pharaoh king of Egypt”, thereby also connecting our
Israelite princess, Tamar, to Egyptian royalty.
