What Does 2 Samuel 13:9 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
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.
““Have out” / “went 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 about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within.And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.THE THREAD
And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.“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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