Tamar (biblical figure)
This is an article from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897. This article is written from a nineteenth century Christian viewpoint, and may not reflect modern opinions or recent discoveries in Biblical scholarship. Please help the Wikipedia by bringing this article up to date.Tamar - palm.
- A place mentioned by Ezekiel (47:19; 48:28), on the southeastern border of Palestine. Some suppose this was Tadmor.
- 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). Specifically, Tamar revenged herself by disguising herself as a temple prostitute and offering herself to her father-in-law Judah. She claimed his staff and signet as pledge of payment. When she later became pregnant and Judah accused her of fornication, she produced the staff and signet and identified Judah himself as the guilty man.
- A daughter of David (2 Sam. 13:1-32; 1 Chr. 3:9), whom Amnon shamefully raped 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."
- A daughter of Absalom (2 Sam. 14:27).
