Amnon: a Chip Off the Old Block? Rhetorical Strategy in 2 Samuel 13.7-15 the Rape of Tamar and the Humiliation of the Poor

Abstract

The critical consensus is that Amnon's rape of Tamar is of a piece with David's seduction of Bathsheba. This paper argues that close attention to the rhetoric of 2 Sam. 13.7-15 shows that the deeds are differentiated. Furthermore, on the basis of intertextual allusion, it is suggested that how Amnon treats Tamar parallels in micro cosm how Israel will come to treat the poor when the monarchy is fully established in power. The argument is also made that Amnon is located at the start of a trajectory which ends in social exploitation and, eventually, exile, while David is ambiguously placed between the world of the tribal confederacy and that of the full-blown monar chical system, fitting neatly nor wholly into either.