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Topic:
Persons Of The Bible -- Tamar
The name "Tamar" means "palm tree" in Hebrew.
There are three persons with the name "Tamar" in the
scripture.
(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. 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.) The 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.)
Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries
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