What Does 2 Samuel 13:9 Mean?
And she took a pan, and poured them out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, Bring out all the men from me. And they went out, every man from him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And she took a pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, Have out all men from me. And they went out every man from him.THE KEY
The repeated root for “have out” and “went out” makes the empty room a result of Amnon’s command, not an accident.
THE MEANING
Amnon rejects the food Tamar prepares, then orders everyone removed, turning an act of care into a setup for isolation. The servants leave before the assault that follows. Here, privacy becomes an instrument of power, and the danger lies in who decides who remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that asking for privacy is always harmless: in this scene, clearing the room is part of a coercive plan.
THE ROOT
הוֹצִיאוּ
hotsi’u
GROWS FROM
יָצָא
yatsa
To go out or come forth; in its causative form, to bring or cause someone to go out.
“Bring out” in this verse is hotsi’u. Amnon’s command, הוֹצִיאוּ (hotsi’u, “cause to go out”), and the report וַיֵּצְאוּ (vayetse’u, “they went out”) repeat the same root. The wording links his order directly to its result: the witnesses’ absence is deliberately made, not incidental.
ALSO GROWS
hotsi: Bring out; cause to go out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form appears in Amnon’s command, making the removal of the men an action he directs.
yetsi’ah: Going out; departure.
יְצִיאָה
This noun from the same root names departure, while the verse shows whose command makes these people leave.
THE PATTERN
Power can prepare for harm by arranging concealment or removing the people who might witness it.
And it came to pass on this day that Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there within.And consulted that they might seize Jesus by deceit, and kill him.THE THREAD
And it came to be on this very bone of the day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.“Did bring out” in Exodus and “have out” here grow from יצא (yatsa), the root for going out. The same movement can carry the enslaved toward freedom or, in Amnon’s command, clear witnesses and expose Tamar to harm.
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