Then Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went on her way, wailing as she went.

Messengers ¹  arrived and reported to Jehoshaphat, “A huge army is attacking you from the other side of the Dead Sea, ²  from the direction of Edom. ³  Look, they are in Hazezon Tamar (that is, En Gedi).”

He asked Amnon, ¹  “Why are you, the king’s son, ²  so depressed every morning? Can’t you tell me?” So Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar the sister of my brother Absalom.”

Jonadab replied to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. ¹  When your father comes in to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can fix some food for me. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I can watch. Then I will eat from her hand.’”

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came in to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come in so she can make a couple of cakes in my sight. Then I will eat from her hand.”

Her brother Absalom said to her, “Was Amnon your brother with you? Now be quiet, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take it so seriously!” ¹  Tamar, devastated, lived in the house of her brother Absalom.

Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, said, “My lord should not say, ‘They have killed all the young men who are the king’s sons.’ For only Amnon is dead. This is what Absalom has talked about ¹  from the day that Amnon ²  humiliated his sister Tamar.

On the east side, between Hauran and Damascus, and between Gilead and the land of Israel, will be the Jordan. You will measure from the border to the eastern sea. This is the east side.

When it was time for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

Then Judah said to Onan, “Have sexual relations with ¹  your brother’s wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise ²  up a descendant for your brother.” ³ 

But she said to him, “No I won’t, for sending me away now would be worse than what you did to me earlier!” ¹  But he refused to listen to her.

But Onan knew that the child ¹  would not be considered his. ²  So whenever ³  he had sexual relations with ⁴  his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely ⁵  so as not to give his brother a descendant.

Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright ¹  than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.” He did not have sexual relations with her ²  again.

(Now she was wearing a long robe, ¹  for this is what the king’s virgin daughters used to wear.) So Amnon’s ²  attendant removed her and bolted the door ³  behind her.

So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because ¹  she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.) ² 

He turned aside to her along the road and said, “Come on! I want to have sex with you.” ¹  (He did not realize ²  it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, “What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?” ³