Tamar

palm.

palm; palm-tree

(palm tree ).

1. The wife successively of the two sons of Judah, Er and Onan. ( Genesis 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. Judahs 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. ( 2 Samuel 13:1-32 ; 1 Chronicles 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, ( 2 Samuel 14:7 ) became, by her marriage with Uriah of Gibeah, the mother of Maachah, the future queen of Judah or wife of Abijah. ( 1 Kings 15:2 ) (B.C. 1023.)
4. A spot on the southeastern frontier of Judah, named in ( Ezekiel 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 days journey south of Hebron.

TAMAR (1)

ta'-mar (tamar, "palm"; Codex Vaticanus Themar; Codex Alexandrinus Thamar (so Codex Vaticanus in Genesis)):

(1) The wife of Er, the oldest son of Judah (Genesis 38:6). Upon her husband's death under the displeasure of Yahweh, his brother Onan ought to have performed the husband's part, but he evaded his duty in this respect, and likewise perished. Shelah, the next brother, was promised to her, but not given. This led Tamar to the extraordinary course narrated in Genesis 38:13, on which see JUDAH. By her father-in-law she became the mother of Perez and Zerah (the King James Version "Pharez and Zarah"). Judah, who at first condemned her to be burned (Genesis 38:24), was compelled to vindicate her (Genesis 38:25,26). Through Perez she became an ancestress of Jesus (Thamar, Matthew 1:3).

(2) A daughter of David and sister of Absalom (2 Samuel 13:1). Her beauty inflamed her half-brother Amnon with passion, and by stratagem he forcibly violated her. This brought upon Amnon the terrible revenge of Absalom.

See ABSALOM; AMNON.

(3) A daughter of Absalom (2 Samuel 14:27).

See MAACAH.

James Orr

TAMAR (2)

(tamar, "palm tree"; Thaiman):

(1) This name occurs in Ezekiel's ideal delimitation of the territory to be occupied by Israel (Ezekiel 47:19; 48:28). The Dead Sea is the eastern border; and the southern boundary runs from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh to the Brook of Egypt and the Great Sea. The place therefore lay somewhere to the Southwest of the Dead Sea. "Hazazon-tamar (the same is En-gedi)" (2 Chronicles 20:2) is of course out of the question, being much too far to the North. Eusebius (in Onomasticon) mentions Asasonthamar, with which Thamara was identified. This place was a village with fortress and Roman garrison, a day's journey from Mampsis on the way from Hebron to Elath. It is the Thamaro mentioned by Ptolemy (v.16, 8), as a military station on the road from Hebron to Petra. It is named also in the Peutinger Tables. Neither Mampsis nor Thamaro has been identified.

(2) Among the towns "built" or fortified by Solomon, named in 1 Kings 9:18, is Tamar (the Revised Version (British and American) following Kethibh), or Tadmor (the King James Version following Qere; compare 2 Chronicles 8:4). Gezer, Beth-horon and Baalath, named along with it, are all in Southern Palestine, while Tamar is described as in the wilderness in the land, pointing to the Negeb or to the Wilderness of Judah. It was probably intended to protect the road for trade from Ezion-geber to Jerusalem. We may with some confidence identify it with (1) above. It is interesting to note that the Chronicler (2 Chronicles 8:4) takes it out of connection with the other cities (2 Chronicles 8:5), and brings its building into relation with Solomon's conquest of Hamath-zobah. Clearly in his mind it denoted the great and beautiful city of Palmyra, which has so long been known as "Tadmor in the Wilderness."

W. Ewing