TAMAR

TAMAR palm. (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 (Genesis 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). (3.) A daughter of David (2 Samuel 13=>1-32; 1 Chronicles 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 quern laeseris”, i.e., “It is the property of human nature to hate one whom you have injured.” (4.) A daughter of Absalom (2 Samuel 14=>27).