TAMAR tā’ mər (תָמָ֨ר, palm tree). 1. Jacob’s son Judah’s daughter-in-law and widowed wife of Judah’s son Er. Er’s brother Onan refused to father children for Er by Tamar in accordance with contemporary practice. When he died, Tamar returned to her Canaanite home after Judah promised that she should have his third son Shelah when he had grown old enough. Judah did not fulfill his promise, and after his wife died, Tamar seduced Judah by hiding her identity and pretending to be a harlot of the heathen worship cult. When Judah learned of her pregnancy, he demanded her death, but Tamar proved that she had conceived by Judah himself by showing him the pledges he had unsuspectingly given her. Judah was convicted of the wrong he had done her, and she was spared. One of the twins born to Tamar by Judah was Perez. He was in the direct line of the ancestry of David, and hence of Christ (Gen 38; Matt 1:3-6; Luke 3:31-33).

2. A beautiful daughter of David, sexually assaulted by her infatuated half brother Amnon, who contrived the deed by feigning illness and arranging to have Tamar bring food to him. After this revolting act, Amnon rejected her with loathing. Her brother Absalom learned of the deed when Tamar expressed her sorrowful outrage by dress and manner. Absalom took the desolate girl into his home while he plotted to avenge her. After two years Absalom contrived to have Amnon murdered for his crime (2 Sam 13).

3. A beautiful daughter of Absalom, possibly named for his beloved sister (2 Sam 14:27).

4. A town of uncertain site near the border of Judah and Edom at the S end of the Dead Sea. Mentioned by Ezekiel as a border place of the future restored Israel (Ezek 47:19; 48:28). It appears that the town was fortified, possibly to protect trade running S to the Red Sea or to serve as a supply point. It is believed that this may be the town Solomon built mentioned in 1 Kings 9:18 (Tadmor KJV and 2 Chron 8:4). George Adam Smith thought the latter, because it was said to be “in the wilderness in the land...must be sought for somewhere in the wilderness of Judea, and where more suitably than in this frontier village of Hazazon-tamar?” Hazazontamar was one of the names of Engedi (cf. 2 Chron 20:2).

Bibliography on the city. G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 24th edition, 270; J. A. Montgomery, The Books of Kings, ed. by Gehman (1951), 206-209.