Tamar Defiled

"The sword shall not depart from thy house", the prophet had said in announcing to David how the Lord was to afflict him for his sins. But the prophecy would have to clarify itself -- and that it would -- in the process of its fulfillment. For it does not enter into details. The questions that it raises it leaves un­answered. But its essential idea is plain. Whereas David had availed himself of war to kill Uriah, war would not cease from his own house. "The sword shall not depart from thy...