Tamar (Thamar)

Meaning: palm.

This was the name of three biblical women and one place...

1. A place mentioned by Ezekiel (47:19; 48:28), on the southeastern border of Palestine. Some suppose this was "Tadmor" (q.v.).

2. 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). She eventually bore twins (Pharez and Zerah (Zarah), with Judah as the father. From Pharez, the royal line of King David sprang.

3. A daughter of David (2 Sam. 13:1-32; 1 Chr. 3:9), whom Amnon shamefully outraged 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."

4. A daughter of Absalom (2 Sam. 14:27).