Tamar
Fausset's Bible Dictionary [1]
("a palm".) (See Thamar .)
1. (See Judah .) Her importance in the narrative ( Genesis 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 ( Deuteronomy 25:5; Matthew 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 ( Romans 3:5-8; Ruth 4:12; Ruth 4:22; Matthew 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; 1 Chronicles 3:9). (See Absalom ; Amnon; Jonadab ) Beauty is a snare unless grace accompany and guard it ( Proverbs 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 ( Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:11). 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 ( 1 Kings 15:2; 2 Chronicles 11:20-22; 2 Chronicles 13:2), and mother of Abijah ( 2 Samuel 14:7).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]
( תּמר , tāmār , "palm tree"; Θαιμάν , Thaimán ):
(1) This name occurs in Ezekiel's ideal delimitation of the territory to be occupied by Israel ( Ezekiel 47:19; Ezekiel 48:28 ). The Dead Sea is the eastern border; and the southern boundary runs from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh to the Brook of Egypt and the Great Sea. The place therefore lay somewhere to the Southwest of the Dead Sea. "Hazazon-tamar (the same is En-gedi)" ( 2 Chronicles 20:2 ) is of course out of the question, being much too far to the North. Eusebius (in Onomasticon ) mentions Asasonthamar, with which Thamara was identified. This place was a village with fortress and Roman garrison, a day's journey from Mampsis on the way from Hebron to Elath. It is the Thamaro mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 16, 8), as a military station on the road from Hebron to Petra. It is named also in the Peutinger Tables. Neither Mampsis nor Thamaro has been identified.
(2) Among the towns "built" or fortified by Solomon, named in 1 Kings 9:18 , is Tamar (the Revised Version (British and American) following Kethı̄bh ), or Tadmor (the King James Version following Ḳerē ; compare 2 Chronicles 8:4 ). Gezer, Beth-horon and Baalath, named along with it, are all in Southern Palestine, while Tamar is described as in the wilderness in the land, pointing to the Negeb or to the Wilderness of Judah. It was probably intended to protect the road for trade from Ezion-geber to Jerusalem. We may with some confidence identify it with (1) above. It is interesting to note that the Chronicler ( 2 Chronicles 8:4 ) takes it out of connection with the other cities ( 2 Chronicles 8:5 ), and brings its building into relation with Solomon's conquest of Hamath-zobah. Clearly in his mind it denoted the great and beautiful city of Palmyra, which has so long been known as "Tadmor in the Wilderness."
