2 Samuel 13:2

And Amnon was so vexed,.... Distressed, straitened, and perplexed in his mind through unruly and unbridled lusts that raged in him:

that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; as Antiochus son of Seleucus did for his mother in law Stratonice, who, to cure him of it, was delivered to him by his father s:

for she [was] a virgin; and so kept very recluse from the company of men, that he could not come at her; so Philo t, speaking of the Jewish women, and particularly virgins, says, that they were shut up in their chambers, and through modesty shun the sight of men, even those of their own house; hence they are called עלמות, from a word which signifies to hide; and Phocylides u the poet advises to the shutting of them up in like manner:

and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her; that it was difficult to have access to her, almost impossible, what he despaired of, and what, if attained to, would be wonderful and amazing; he was at his wits' end how to contrive any scheme to get at her, and obtain his desire.

s See the Universal History, vol. 3. p. 519. Ed. fol. t In Flaccum, p. 977. u Poem. admon. v. 203, 204.