The problems that God through Nathan told David that he will have begin to take shape. The saga that unfolds reminds me of Jacob's children. Flashing back to them, there was the vengeance on the rape of a sister (Dinah) and the shame of a woman, Tamar (that involved Judah and his 3 sons). Also, both Jacob and David had many children with many wives and the children were completely out of control.
Flash forward to David, David has a daughter named Tamar. She has a handsome brother named Absalom. Their maternal grandfather is the king of Geshur.
They have a half-brother named Amnon. Amnon becomes completely obsessed with Tamar. Amnon seems to have no interest in marrying her, rather he just wants to have sex with her. He cannot because she is a virgin. Or maybe he does want to marry her, but falls to his own impulses instead because he is a spoiled out of control prince.
He lays out an elaborate trap to have sex with Tamar. He feigns sickness and has David send Tamar to make him food. When she does this, he rapes her. She begged for him to just get David's permission to have them married, but continues on anyway. Afterwards, he despises her and sends her away.
Absalom sees his sisters, hears her story, and takes her in. He plots his own revenge of Amnon. Two years later, Absalom has a party for all of David's kids. Amnon gets drunk and Absalom orders him killed. There is a big frenzy and it gets reported to David that Absalom killed all his other brothers. Nope, just Amnon.
Meanwhile, Absalom runs off and lives in exile with his grandfather in Gehur.
What a mess.
At this point, I am more sympathetic to Absalom. Amnon was a crazy, spoiled selfish idiot. That probably speaks to the whole family dynamic that a rich powerful king like David had with all these children from multiple wives.
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