History

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After Nathan prophesied disaster on my dad's house and Dad repented and God forgave and restored him, it didn't take long for the disaster to start happening. First, he and Bathsheba lost the baby she had conceived. Little did he know that baby wasn't the only son he had who would die. You see, I had an older half-brother named Amnon and a beautiful full sister named Tamar. My dad had lots of wives, that's for sure. I don't know how many--I've lost count. Tamar and I had lots of half-siblings as a result of that. Well, anyway, to get to the point about disaster beginning to happen, Amnon was completely obsessed with Tamar. Many single men in our kingdom thought she was a knockout, but none were as obsessed with her as Amnon. He wouldn't rest until he could get her alone, which wasn't easy, because Dad and I always protected her. However, one day, Amnon--that snake!--pretended like he was coming down with something (he was definitely sick mentally, but not physically) and requested that Tamar come into his room and feed him and nurse him back to health. Once all of his servants left and he and Tamar were alone, he grabbed her and pulled her into bed and forced her to have sex with him, ignoring her cries when she told him to stop.

Soon after that horrible thing happened to my sister, she ran to the house my family and I lived in and knocked on the door. (She and I were so close that she knew she could come to me for anything.) I opened it for her, and she threw her arms around my neck and cried on my shoulder. Her sobs were so deep, I knew something was seriously wrong. (I didn't know what had happened until she told me.) As she told me what had happened, I was so furious that I hated Amnon and wanted him dead. I went to Dad and told him what had happened.

Dad, too, was mad, but he didn't do anything to punish Amnon. Don't ask me why. Maybe he felt like he couldn't because his adultery with Bathsheba undercut his sense of moral authority, or maybe he felt he couldn't punish Amnon, since he was next in line for the throne. But whatever it was, he was so lenient that it frustrated me. For two whole years I waited for Amnon to get what he deserved, but Dad never did anything to punish him.

Finally, I decided if Dad wasn't going to do something, I would. I tricked Dad into letting me invite Amnon to come with me and our other brothers and my servants to a feast I was having. I knew Amnon to be quite the party drinker, so I was expecting him to get drunk at the feast. I instructed my servants, "When my brother Amnon is drunk with wine, I want you guys to kill him for what he did to Tamar." Sure enough, Amnon got drunk as a skunk during that feast I was having, and my servants went up to him and struck him dead.

I knew, however, that I could get in big trouble with Dad. I was only a prince and therefore did not have the legal right to sentence anyone to death, so I ran away from home...

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