Tamar

Tamar is a Hebrew name meaning "date palm" and, in Scripture, the name of two women in Judah's line: the Canaanite woman who became the mother of Perez and Zerah, and the daughter of King David.

The first Tamar enters the narrative as the wife of Judah's firstborn, Er, and is then given to his brother Onan, who is told to "perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother" (Genesis 38:8); the text says his refusal "was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he killed him also" (Genesis 38:10). When Judah withholds his remaining son Shelah, Tamar removes "the garments of her widowhood," veils herself, and sits "in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah" (Genesis 38:14). Accused of prostitution and sentenced by Judah to be burned (Genesis 38:24), she produces the pledge he had left with her and is vindicated; the text records that she bore Perez and Zerah. Her memory is carried forward in blessing ("Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah," Ruth 4:12) and in the genealogy of Jesus: "Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar" (Matthew 1:3).

The second Tamar is "Absalom the son of David's beautiful sister" (2 Samuel 13:1), who is assaulted by her half-brother Amnon. The text describes her grieving publicly with ashes on her head and her "garment of various colors" torn (2 Samuel 13:19); Absalom "hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar" (2 Samuel 13:22) and later has him killed at his own command (2 Samuel 13:28-29). She is named among David's children in the Chronicler's list: "and Tamar was their sister" (1 Chronicles 3:9).

Christian traditions read these two women differently. Regarding the first Tamar, some emphasize her as an example of bold faith and of God's grace working through a morally irregular union, pointing to her place among the women named in Matthew's genealogy (Matthew 1:3); others stress the text's frank portrayal of deception, or read her primarily as a woman wronged by the men who controlled her legal status. Regarding David's daughter, interpreters differ over how far the narrative assigns responsibility to David's household and to the silence of the king, and some read the episode chiefly as a turning point in the political unraveling of David's reign. These are interpretive judgments; the text itself reports the events without pronouncing a verdict on either woman.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.