2 Samuel 13:8

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was laid down. And she took flour, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-20 From henceforward David was followed with one trouble after another. Adultery and murder were David's sins, the like sins among his children were the beginnings of his punishment: he was too indulgent to his children. Thus David might trace the sins of his children to his own misconduct, which must have made the anguish of the chastisement worse. Let no one ever expect good treatment from those who are capable of attempting their seduction; but it is better to suffer the greatest wrong than to commit the least sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Make me cakes ... a pan - The words here used occur nowhere else, and the etymology is doubtful. Some particular kind of cake or pudding is meant 2 Samuel 13:8, called a לביבה lābı̂ybâh; according to some, it was, from its etymology, shaped like a heart.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Sa 13:6-27. He Defiles Her.

6-8. Amnon lay down, and made himself sick—The Orientals are great adepts in feigning sickness, whenever they have any object to accomplish.

let Tamar my sister come and make me a couple of cakes—To the king Amnon spoke of Tamar as "his sister," a term artfully designed to hoodwink his father; and the request appeared so natural, the delicate appetite of a sick man requiring to be humored, that the king promised to send her. The cakes seem to have been a kind of fancy bread, in the preparation of which Oriental ladies take great delight. Tamar, flattered by the invitation, lost no time in rendering the required service in the house of her sick brother.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He was laid down upon his bed, or rather his couch.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house,.... In obedience to the king's commands, and in affection to her brother, with an innocent breast, having no suspicion of any design upon her chastity:

(and he was laid down); upon a couch or bed in his chamber, as being sick as was pretended, into which she was introduced:

and she took flour, and kneaded it; made it into a paste:

and made cakes in his sight; a kind of fritters of them, as in the Talmud (y):

and did bake the cakes: or fried them in a frying pan, in oil.

(y) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 21. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was laid down. And she took flour, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. flour] The dough.

2 Samuel 13:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Amnon acted upon the advice, and begged his father, when he came to ask him how he was, to allow his sister Tamar to come and bake two heart-cakes for him before his eyes, which she very speedily did. לבּב is a denom. from לבבות, to make or bake heart-cakes. לבבות is a heart-strengthening kind of pastry, a kind of pancake, which could be very quickly made. It is evident from these verses that the king's children lived in different houses. Probably each of the king's wives lived with her children in one particular compartment of the palace.