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Tamar (Heb., ‘date palm’), a woman’s name and a place name.

1 The Canaanite daughter-in-law of Judah, whom Judah promised successively to each of his three sons as each older one died without issue (Gen. 38:1-30). When Judah withheld Shelah, his youngest, fearing to lose him also, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and offered herself to her father-in-law. When she was exposed by her pregnancy, she identified her partner, who confessed that she had acted ‘more righteously’ than he (Gen. 38:26). Tamar bore twins to Judah, Perez and Zerah. Through Perez she is reckoned to the ancestry of David (Ruth 4:12, 18-22; 1 Chron. 2:4) and Jesus (Matt. 1:3).

2 The daughter of David who was raped by her half-brother Amnon (2 Sam. 13:1-29). Her brother Absalom, to whom she fled, avenged her by having Amnon murdered.

3 Absalom’s only daughter, ‘a beautiful woman’ (2 Sam. 14:27), and his sister’s namesake.

4 A city ‘in the wilderness,’ according to the rsv and the earliest form of the Hebrew text; the kjv and the traditional Hebrew vocalization read ‘Tadmor.’

5 A city marking the southeast border point in Ezekiel’s description of the restored territory of Israel (Ezek. 47:18-19; 48:28). The site remains unidentified (cf. Hazazon-tamar, Gen. 14:7).

Tamar.

1. An entertaining story (Gen. 38) based on the Levirate law, of masculine guilt and female courage: Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah, having failed to conceive a child for her deceased husband, was equally unsuccessful for his two brothers, who also died. She then discarded her widow's garments, and thus disguised , sat provocatively by the roadside; and in exchange for the promise of a goat, the interim pledge of a seal, she accept the sexual proposal of an unsuspecting passer-by, who turned out to be her father-in-law. She is afterwards accused of soliciting and sentenced by Judah to be burnt to death -- until she displayed the seal. The embarrassed Judah relented. Twains were born to Tamar. It is an aetiological tale about tribal relationships, not an apology for incest. Tamar, as an ancester of David, appears in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:3).

2. A beautiful sister of Absolom; her half-brother, Amnon, 'sick with love' for her, enticed, raped, and then ejected her (2 Sam 13). Absolom had Amnon murdered, but David was too fond of Absolom to punish him.