tamar Summary and Overview

palm. (1.) A place mentioned by Ezekiel (47:19; 48:28), on the southeastern border of Israel. Some suppose this was "Tadmor" (q.v.). (2.) The daughter-in-law of Judah, to whose eldest son, Er, she was married (Gen. 38:6). After her husband's death, she was married to Onan, his brother (8), and on his death, Judah promised to her that his third son, Shelah, would become her husband. This promise was not fulfilled, and hence Tamar's revenge and Judah's great guilt (38:12-30). (3.) A daughter of David (2 Sam. 13:1-32; 1 Chr. 3:9), whom Amnon shamefully outraged and afterwards "hated exceedingly," thereby illustrating the law of human nature noticed even by the heathen, "Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris", i.e., "It is the property of human nature to hate one whom you have injured." (4.) A daughter of Absalom (2 Sam. 14:27).

(palm tree). 1. The wife successively of the two sons of Judah, Er and Onan. #Ge 38:8-30| (B.C. about 1718.) Her importance in the sacred narrative depends on the great anxiety to keep up the lineage of Judah. It seemed as if the family were on the point of extinction. Er and Onan had successively perished suddenly. Judah's wife, Bathshuah, died; and there only remained a child, Shelah, whom Judah was unwilling to trust to the dangerous union as it appeared, with Tamar, lest he should meet with the same fate as his brothers. Accordingly she resorted to the desperate expedient of entrapping the father himself into the union which he feared for his son. The fruits of this intercourse were twins, Pharez and Zarah, and through Pharez the sacred line was continued. 2. Daughter of David and Maachah the Geshurite princess, and thus sister of Absalom. #2Sa 13:1-32; 1Ch 3:9| (B.C. 1033.) She and her brother were alike remarkable for their extraordinary beauty. This fatal beauty inspired a frantic passion in her half-brother Amnon, the oldest son of David by Ahinoam. In her touching remonstrance two points are remarkable: first, the expression of the infamy of such a crime "in Israel" implying the loftier standard of morals that prevailed, as compared with other countries at that time; and second, the belief that even this standard might be overborne lawfully by royal authority --"Speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from thee." The intense hatred of Amnon succeeding to his brutal passion, and the indignation of Tamar at his barbarous insult, even surpassing her indignation at his shameful outrage, are pathetically and graphically told. 3. Daughter of Absalom, #2Sa 14:7| became, by her marriage with Uriah of Gibeah, the mother of Maachah, the future queen of Judah or wife of Abijah. #1Ki 15:2| (B.C. 1023.) 4. A spot on the southeastern frontier of Judah, named in #Eze 47:19, 48:28| only, evidently called from a palm tree. If not Hazazon-tamar, the old name of Engedi, it may he a place called Thamar in the Onamasticon [HAZAZON-TAMAR), a day's journey south of Hebron.

TA'MAR (palm tree). 1. The wife of Er and Onan successively, the sons of Judah. The patriarch refused to give her his remaining son, Shelah, and therefore Tamar, in order to remove the reproach of childlessness, and likewise to be revenged on Judah, contrived to induce the latter to unintentionally commit incest. The story is told in Gen 38. 2. The sister of Absalom, whom Amnon, by artifice, defiled. 2 Sam 13; 1 Chr 3:9. 3. A daughter of Absalom. 2 Sam 14:27.

("a palm".) (See THAMAR.) 1. (See JUDAH.) Her importance in the narrative (Genesis 38:6-30) lies in her being the instrument (though in an incestuous way) of saving from extinction the family and tribe from which Messiah was to spring. Er and Onan were dead; and Judah's wife Bathshun. Shelab alone remained; and Judah's parental fears for him, lest if joined to Tamar he too like his brothers should die, were preventing Judah from giving him as the tribe law required (Deuteronomy 25:5; Matthew 22:24) to Tamar. She took the desperate measure of helping herself by incest. Pharez and Zarah were her sons by Judah; and a fruitful race followed, God not sanctioning but overruling evil to His own good purpose (Romans 3:5-8; Rth 4:12; Rth 4:22; Matthew 1:3). 2. Daughter of David and Maacah; the handsome Absalom's beautiful sister; forced by Amnon at his bad friend Jonadab's abominable suggestion (2 Samuel 13; 1 Chronicles 3:9). (See ABSALOM; AMNON; JONADAB.) Beauty is a snare unless grace accompany and guard it (Proverbs 31:30). Tamar excelled in baking palatable cakes (lebibah, "heartcakes," with spices as "cordials".) Amnon availed himself of this to effect his design, as if he wished to see the exquisite grace with which she baked before his eyes. She remonstrated at his force, dwelling twice on such baseness being wrought "in Israel," where a higher law existed than in pagandom. Yet such was the low opinion she, in common with the rest of David's children, formed of the king's foolish fondness for his offspring that she believed it would outweigh his regard for the law of God against incest (Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:11). Amnon was his oldest, son, from whom he would not withhold even a half sister! Each prince, it appears, had his own establishment, and princesses were not above baking; the king's daughters in their virginity were distinguished by "garments of divers colours." 3. Absalom's sole surviving child, beautiful as her aunt and father; married Uriel of Gibeah, and bore Maachah, wife of Rehoboam king of Judah (1 Kings 15:2; 2 Chronicles 11:20-22; 2 Chronicles 13:2), and mother of Abijah (2 Samuel 14:7).