How many tamar in the bible

And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name [was] Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her. And Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she [was] a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do any thing to her. And he said unto him, Why [art] thou, [being] the king's son, lean from day to day?

And Amnon said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. And Jonadab said unto him, Lay thee down on thy bed, and make thyself sick: and when thy father cometh to see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come, and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may see [it], and eat [it] at her hand. So Amnon lay down, and made himself sick: and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat at her hand.

The Hebrew words for a sacred prostitute kedeshah, sacred woman and a normal prostitute zonah are both used in this story. In Israel, prostitutes were required to cover their faces at all times.

This extraordinary picture by Kevin Rolly adds a new dimension to the story of Tamar and Judah; the recently widowed Judah, gripped by grief at the loss of his wife, still wears his wedding ring. Tamar may have followed a version of this practice, but she also asked for payment from Judah. He promised to send her a kid from his flock, and in the meantime, as a guarantee, he left his seal, cord and staff, all of which were personal items that could be identified.

Judah decided on the fee, Tamar on the pledge. Herodotus gives a description of the staff made specifically for each person, with a personal emblem carved on the top of it. It is even more astonishing that Judah gave up his staff. This was not simply a length of wood used for walking. It had the lineage of the leader carved into it, the names of his forebears. He was not thinking clearly, or acting wisely.

Tamar saw the cord, seal and staff in quite a different way: they symbolised the son she intended to have, the son who might succeed Judah. This famous incident has been recorded by a number of painters; see Bible Art : Tamar for their work. Tamar had gone home, without telling anyone who she was. But through this one act of sexual intercourse with Judah she became pregnant, a fact that was soon evident to the people around her.

Judah, who already blamed her for the deaths of his sons, thought the worst when he heard that she was pregnant. Read Genesis Judah, as head of the tribe, had the right to pass judgment on her, and to condemn her to death. Judah pronounced that Tamar should be burnt to death, a particularly cruel way to die.

But Tamar was not finished yet. She sent the seal, cord and staff back to Judah, with the message that they belonged to the father of her child, and Judah, confronted by the evidence, had little choice but to acknowledge that she was in the right, that she had been acting according to the law.

When Tamar went into labor she was the center of a tight little band of kinswomen and villagers: a midwife, her relatives and her friends. She knew what to expect, having seen other village women giving birth. She sends his identifying pledge to him, urging him to recognize that its owner is the father. She gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah Gen —30 ; 1 Chr , thus restoring two sons to Judah, who has lost two.

Perez does him one better. From his line would come David. Tamar was assertive of her rights and subversive of convention. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, Bos, Johanna.

Friedman, Mordechai. Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. New York: Schocken Books, Kugel, James. Princeton University Press, Niditch, Susan. Have an update or correction? Let us know. Episode E. Lockhart's New Jewish Superhero. The wickedness of Er is declared but not described. There are no sins He cannot see, and there are sins He alone can see. The Bible provides us with many instances of the personal intervention of God for the purpose of punishing the sins of individuals and of communities by death.

But Tamar did not remain a widow long, for in accordance with Hebrew law, she married the next son in the family so that he could raise up seed for his deceased brother.

Unwilling to do his duty according to the law of the Levirate marriage, and knowing that any offspring would not be his, Onan spilled his semen on the ground, and for this act of faithlessness to the dead, God slew him also. Widowed again, in the ordinary course of events, the next son of Judah, Shelah, should have become the third husband of Tamar as the tribe-law required Deuteronomy ; Matthew