Reference: Tamar (2)
Fausets
("a palm".) (See THAMAR.)
1. (See JUDAH.) Her importance in the narrative (Ge 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 (De 25:5; Mt 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 (Ro 3:5-8; Ru 4:12,22; Mt 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; 1Ch 3:9). (See ABSALOM; AMNON; JONADAB.) Beauty is a snare unless grace accompany and guard it (Pr 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 (Le 18:9,11). 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 (1Ki 15:2; 2Ch 11:20-22; 13:2), and mother of Abijah (2Sa 14:7).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name [was] Tamar. And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh killed him. read more. Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to the wife of your brother and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be for him, so whenever he went in to the wife of his brother he would waste [it] on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so he killed him also. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Stay a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up," for {he feared he would also die} like his brother. So Tamar went and stayed in the house of her father. {And in the course of time} the daughter of Shua, the wife of Judah, died. When Judah was consoled he went up to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite, to Timnah. And it was told to Tamar, saying, "Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep." So she removed the clothes of her widowhood and covered [herself] with the veil and disguised herself. And she sat at the entrance to Eynayim, which [is] on the way to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah was grown but she had not been given to him as a wife. And Judah saw her and reckoned her to [be] a prostitute, for she had covered her face. And he turned aside to her at the roadside and said, "Please come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she [was] his daughter-in-law. And she said, "What will you give to me that you may come in to me?" And he said, "I will send a kid from the goats of the flock." And she said, "[Only] if you give a pledge until you send [it]." And he said, "What [is] the pledge that I must give to you?" And she said, "your seal, your cord, and your staff that [is] in your hand." And he gave [them] to her and went in to her. And she conceived by him. And she arose and left, and she removed her veil from herself and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid from the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite to take [back] the pledge from the hand of the woman, but he could not find her. So he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where [is] that cult prostitute [that was] at Eynayim by the roadside?" And they said, "There is no cult prostitute here." Then he returned to Judah and said, "I could not find her. Morever, the men of the place said, 'There is no cult prostitute here.'" And Judah said, "Let her take [them] for herself, lest we be {laughed at}. Behold, I sent this kid, but you could not find her." And {about three months later} it was told to Judah, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the whore, and now, behold, she has conceived by prostitution." And Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned." She was brought out, but she sent to her father-in-law saying, "By the man to whom these [belong] I have conceived." And she said, "Now discern to whom these [belong]: the seal and cord and the staff." Then Judah recognized [them] and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not know her again. And it happened [that] at the time she gave birth that, behold, twins [were] in her womb. And it happened [that] at her labor one [child] put out a hand. And the midwife took [it] and tied a crimson thread on his hand saying, "This [one] came out first." Then his hand drew back and, behold, his brother came out, and she said, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" And she called his name Perez. And afterward his brother who [had] the crimson thread on his hand came out. And his name was called Zerah.
[As for] your sister's nakedness, [whether] your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, [whether] {born at home} or {born abroad}, you must not expose their nakedness.
[As for] the nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife, she [is] your sister, a relative of your father; you must not expose her nakedness.
"When brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not become the wife of a {man of another family}; her brother-in-law {shall have sex with her}, and he shall take her {to himself} as wife, and he shall perform his duty as brother-in-law [with respect to] her.
And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah from the offspring that Yahweh will give to you from this young woman."
And look, all of the family has risen up against your servant, and they said, 'Give up the one who struck his brother, that we may kill him in exchange for the life of his brother whom he murdered. We will also wipe out the heir,' and so they would put out my embers which remain, by not preserving for my husband a name and a remnant on the face of the earth."
Three years he reigned in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.
All these [were] the sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines. And Tamar was their sister.
Charm [is] deceit and beauty [is] vain; [but] a woman who fears Yahweh shall be praised.
and Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez became the father of Hezron, and Hezron became the father of Aram,
saying, "Teacher, Moses said if someone dies without having children, his brother is to marry his wife and {father} descendants for his brother.
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God, who inflicts wrath, [is] not unjust, [is he]? (I am speaking according to a human perspective.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? read more. But if by my lying, the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also still condemned as a sinner? And [why] not (as we are slandered, and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil, in order that good may come [of it]? Their condemnation is just!