not listen, and rapes her. Amnon is immediately full of shame and angrily throws Tamar out. “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.” But he refuses to listen. Tamar is desolate: ruined and miserable. King David is furious but he does nothing to avenge his daughter or punish his son. Frymer Kensky says "The reader of the story who expects that the state will provide protection for the vulnerable now sees that the state cannot control itself." Absalom is filled with hatred, and kills Amnon two years later. Absalom then rebels against his father and is also killed. Bathsheba In the Book of Samuel, Bathsheba is a married woman who is noticed by king David while she is bathing. He has her brought to him, and she becomes pregnant. The text in the Bible does not explicitly state whether Bathsheba consented to sex. David successfully plots the death of her husband Uriah, and she becomes one of David's wives. Their child is killed as divine punishment, but Bathsheba later has another child, Solomon. In the Book of Kings, when David is old, she and the prophet Nathan convince David to let Solomon take the throne instead of an older brother. Susanna The tale of Susanna is included in the Old Testament of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Susanna is a married, beautiful and law-abiding woman. Two elders, newly appointed judges, lust for her, and attempt to coerce her to have sex with them. She refuses, and the elders falsely testifies that she has committed adultery with a young man. Susanna is condemned to death, and cries to God for help. God hears her, and makes Daniel come to her aid. Daniel exposes the lies of the elders, and they are put to death instead. Hannah Hannah is one of two wives of Elkanah. The other, Peninnah, had given birth to Elkanah's children, but Hannah remained childless. Nevertheless, Elkanah preferred Hannah. According to Lillian Klein, the use of this chiasmus underscores the standing of the women: Hannah is the primary wife, yet Peninnah has succeeded in bearing children. Hannah's status as primary wife and her barrenness recall Sarah and Rebecca in Genesis 17 and Genesis 25 respectively. Klein suggests that Elkanah took Peninnah as a second wife because of Hannah's barrenness. Every year, Elkanah would