2 Samuel 13:4

2Sa 13:4 And he said unto him, Why [art] thou, [being] the king’s son, lean from day to day? wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.

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. {a} 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 Eρων, and is by one not unfitly compared to that shirt which Clytemnestra put upon her husband Agamemnon; or to those asps {b} 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.

{a} Agnus curio, apud Plaut. Macilentus, quasi curis confectus. Spec. Hum Vit., p. 125.

{b} Plin., lib. ii. cap. 93.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:4 morning after morning: Amnon’s obsession was all-consuming and ongoing.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

my brother Absalom's sister--In Eastern countries, where polygamy prevails, the girls are considered to be under the special care and protection of their uterine brother, who is the guardian of their interests and their honor, even more than their father himself (see on Gen. 34:6-25).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

4. Why, &c.] Why art thou so wasted, O king’s son, morning by morning? His cousin Jonadab either lived in the same house with Amnon as his companion, or noticed his worn looks when he came to visit him at his morning levee.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he said unto him, why art thou, being the king's son,

lean from day today?.... Or "morning by morning", (w); he was the king's eldest son, heir to the crown, fed at his table, had everything to make him gay and cheerful, and yet pined away; his flesh wasted (x), his countenance waxed wan and pale, and especially in the mornings; in the daytime he met with diversions which, in some measure, took off his thoughts from the object his mind was impressed with, but in the night season they were continually employed about it; so that he could have no rest and sleep, which made him look ruefully in the morning; and this man had a suspicion of his case, and therefore put this and the following question to him:

wilt thou not tell me? who am so nearly related to thee, and who have such a particular value and affection for thee:

and Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister; he does not call her his sister, but Absalom's sister, to lessen his sin of unlawful love to her, which, being thus closely pressed, and by a friend, he could not conceal.

(w) , "in mane in mane", Montanus. (x) "Fecit amor maciem -----". Ovid Metamorph. l. 11. Fab. 11. v. 793.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

King? to whom every indulgence must be allowed. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

From day to day, Heb. from morning to morning; for whereas in the day he had many diversions and refreshments, in the night he was pestered with tormenting thoughts and passions; the effects whereof appeared in his countenance in the morning.

Wilt thou not tell me, thy sure friend and faithful servant, who am ready to advise and assist thee?

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Why art thou, being the king"s son, lean? The Hebrew is, Why, O son of the king, dost thou pine away morning by morning? There was probably a gathering of friends every morning at the young prince"s house, and his cousin, attending this levee, noticed Amnon"s melancholy, and, having forced a confession from him, is unscrupulous enough to suggest a plan that would make Tamar her brother"s victim.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Weak. Weak as [we find] "weak and bad [in] appearance".

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.