2 Samuel 13:16 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

There is no cause, to wit, given thee by me. This evil is greater than the other: this she might truly say, because though the other was in itself a greater sin, yet this was an act of greater inhumanity and barbarous cruelty, and a greater wrong and calamity to her, (which she means by evil,) because it exposed her to public infamy and contempt, as if she had been an impudent strumpet, and had either enticed him to the sin, or at least consented to it; and besides, it turned a private offence into a public scandal, to the great dishonour of God and of his people Israel, and especially of all the royal family, and was likely to cause direful passions, and breaches, and mischiefs among them.

2 Samuel 13:16

16 And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.