The righteous God had lately told David, by Nathan the prophet, that, to chastise him for his son in the matter of Uriah, he would “raise up evil against him out of his own house,” .

We have here a particular account of the abominable wickedness of Amnon in ravishing his sister, a subject not fit to be enlarged upon nor indeed to be mentioned without blushing, that ever any man should be so vile, especially that a son of David should be so.

What Solomon says of the beginning of strife is as true of the beginning of all sin, it is as the letting forth of water; when once the flood-gates are plucked up, an inundation follows; one mischief begets another, and it is hard to say what shall be in the end thereof. I.

Here is, I. The fright that David was put into by a false report brought to Jerusalem that Absalom had slain all the king’s sons, 2 Sam. 13:30. It is common for fame to make bad worse; and the first news of such a thing as this represents it as more dreadful than afterwards it proves.