Tamar

In Bible versions:

Tamar: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV
Tadmor: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV

a town in the Syrian wilderness 220 km NE of Damascus
the daughter-in-law of Judah; the mother of Judah's sons Perez and Zerah; an ancestor of Jesus
daughter-in-law to Judah; mother of Zerah and Perez
daughter of King David
daughter of Absalom
a town of Judah 60 km SE of Beersheba & 35 km SSW of the Dead Sea

---

the palm-tree; bitterness
palm; palm-tree

NETBible Maps: Map11 F3 ; Map12 D2 ; Map8 B1

Google Maps: Tadmor (34° 33´, 38° 15´); Tamar (1) (34° 33´, 38° 15´); Tamar (2) (31° 1´, 35° 3´)

Greek

Strongs #2283: yamar Thamar

Tamar = "palm tree"

1) the wife of the two sons of Judah, Er and Onan.

2283 Thamar tham'-ar

of Hebrew origin (8559); Thamar (i.e. Tamar), an Israelitess:-Thamar.
see HEBREW for 08559

Hebrew

Strongs #08412: rmdt Tadmor or rmt Tammor (\\#1Ki 9:18\\)

Tadmor = "palm tree"

1) a city built by Solomon after his conquest of Hamath-zobah

8412 Tadmor tad-more'

or Tammor (1 Kings 9:18) {tam-more'}; apparently from 8558;
palm-city; Tadmor, a place near Palestine:-Tadmor.
see HEBREW for 08558

Strongs #08559: rmt Tamar

Tamar = "palm-tree"

n pr f
1) widow of Er, the son of Judah; fiancee of Shelah, another son of
Judah; wife of Judah and mother of Pharez and Zerah
2) daughter of David by Maacah, sister of Absalom, and rape victim of
Amnon her half brother, another son of David
3) daughter of Absalom

n pr loc
4) a place on the southern border of Gad

8559 Tamar taw-mawr'

the same as 8558; Tamar, the name of three women and a
place:-Tamar.
see HEBREW for 08558

Tadmor [EBD]

palm, a city built by Solomon "in the wilderness" (2 Chr. 8:4). In 1 Kings 9:18, where the word occurs in the Authorized Version, the Hebrew text and the Revised Version read "Tamar," which is properly a city on the southern border of Palestine and toward the wilderness (comp. Ezek. 47:19; 48:28). In 2 Chr. 8:14 Tadmor is mentioned in connection with Hamath-zobah. It is called Palmyra by the Greeks and Romans. It stood in the great Syrian wilderness, 176 miles from Damascus and 130 from the Mediterranean and was the centre of a vast commercial traffic with Western Asia. It was also an important military station. (See SOLOMON.) "Remains of ancient temples and palaces, surrounded by splendid colonnades of white marble, many of which are yet standing, and thousands of prostrate pillars, scattered over a large extent of space, attest the ancient magnificence of this city of palms, surpassing that of the renowned cities of Greece and Rome."

Tamar [EBD]

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 (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).

(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).

Tadmor [NAVE]

TADMOR, a city built in the wilderness by Solomon, 1 Kin. 9:18; 2 Chr. 8:4.

Tamar [NAVE]

TAMAR
1. Wife of the sons of Judah, Gen. 38:6-24; Ruth 4:12; 1 Chr. 2:4.
Called Thamar, Matt. 1:3.
2. Daughter of David, 2 Sam. 13:1-32; 1 Chr. 3:9.
3. Daughter of Absalom, 2 Sam. 14:27.
4. A city of unknown location, Ezek. 47:19; 48:28.

TADMOR [SMITH]

(city of palms), called "Tadmor in the wilderness," is the same as the city known to the Greeks and Romans under the name of Palmyra. It lay between the Euphrates and Hamath, to the southeast of that city, in a fertile tract or oasis of the desert. Being situated at a convenient distance from both the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf, it had great advantages for caravan traffic. It was built by Solomon after his conquest of Hamath-zobah. (1 Kings 9:18; 2 Chronicles 8:4) As the city is-nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, it would be out of place to enter into a detailed history of it. In the second century A.D. it seems to have been beautified by the emperor Hadrian. In the beginning of the third century --211-217 A.D.-- it became a Roman colony under Caracalla. Subsequently, in the reign of Gallienus, the Roman senate invested Odenathus, a senator of Palmyra, with the regal dignity, on account of his services in defeating Sapor, king of Persia. On the assassination of Odenathus, his wife, Zenobia, seems to have conceived the design of erecting Palmyra into an independent monarchy; and in prosecution of this object, she for a while successfully resisted the Roman arms. She was at length defeated and taken captive by the emperor Aurelian, A.D. 273, who left a Roman garrison in Palmyra. This garrison was massacred in a revolt; and Aurelian punished the city by the execution not only of those who were taken in arms, but likewise of common peasants, of old men, women and children. From this blow Palmyra never recovered, though there are proofs of its having continued to be inhabited until the downfall of the Roman empire. The grandeur and magnificence of the ruins of Palmyra cannot be exceeded, and attest its former greatness. Among the most remarkable are the Tombs, the Temple of the Sun and the Street of Columns.

TAMAR [SMITH]

(palm tree).

1. The wife successively of the two sons of Judah, Er and Onan. (Genesis 38:8-30) (B.C. about 1718.) Her importance in the sacred narrative depends on the great anxiety to keep up the lineage of Judah. It seemed as if the family were on the point of extinction. Er and Onan had successively perished suddenly. Judah?s wife, Bathshuah, died; and there only remained a child, Shelah, whom Judah was unwilling to trust to the dangerous union as it appeared, with Tamar, lest he should meet with the same fate as his brothers. Accordingly she resorted to the desperate expedient of entrapping the father himself into the union which he feared for his son. The fruits of this intercourse were twins, Pharez and Zarah, and through Pharez the sacred line was continued.
2. Daughter of David and Maachah the Geshurite princess, and thus sister of Absalom. (2 Samuel 13:1-32; 1 Chronicles 3:9) (B.C. 1033.) She and her brother were alike remarkable for their extraordinary beauty. This fatal beauty inspired a frantic passion in her half-brother Amnon, the oldest son of David by Ahinoam. In her touching remonstrance two points are remarkable: first, the expression of the infamy of such a crime "in Israel" implying the loftier standard of morals that prevailed, as compared with other countries at that time; and second, the belief that even this standard might be overborne lawfully by royal authority --"Speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from thee." The intense hatred of Amnon succeeding to his brutal passion, and the indignation of Tamar at his barbarous insult, even surpassing her indignation at his shameful outrage, are pathetically and graphically told.
3. Daughter of Absalom, (2 Samuel 14:7) became, by her marriage with Uriah of Gibeah, the mother of Maachah, the future queen of Judah or wife of Abijah. (1 Kings 15:2) (B.C. 1023.)
4. A spot on the southeastern frontier of Judah, named in (Ezekiel 47:19; 48:28) only, evidently called from a palm tree. If not Hazazon-tamar, the old name of Engedi, it may he a place called Thamar in the Onamasticon [HAZAZON-TAMAR), a day?s journey south of Hebron.

TADMOR [ISBE]

TADMOR - tad'-mor, tad'-mor (tadhmor): A city built by Solomon in the wilderness (2 Ch 8:4), the Roman Palmyra. Tadmor is the native name and is found on inscriptions. It occurs also in the Kere of 1 Ki 9:18, where the Kethibh or consonants read "Tamar" (compare Ezek 47:19; 48:28). It is famous in Arabian as well as in Hebrew literature, and enters Roman history in connection with Zenobia and Longinus. The inscriptions, which belong for the most part to the latter period (266-73 AD), have been published by Dawkins and Wood and also by M. Waddington and the Duc de Luynes. Popular works on the subject are An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia by W. Wright, and The Last Days and Fall of Palmyra by W. Ware.

See TAMAR.

Thomas Hunter Weir

TAMAR (1) [ISBE]

TAMAR (1) - ta'-mar (tamar, "palm"; Codex Vaticanus Themar; Codex Alexandrinus Thamar (so Codex Vaticanus in Genesis)):

(1) The wife of Er, the oldest son of Judah (Gen 38:6 ff). Upon her husband's death under the displeasure of Yahweh, his brother Onan ought to have performed the husband's part, but he evaded his duty in this respect, and likewise perished. Shelah, the next brother, was promised to her, but not given. This led Tamar to the extraordinary course narrated in Gen 38:13 ff, on which see JUDAH. By her father-in-law she became the mother of Perez and Zerah (the King James Version "Pharez and Zarah"). Judah, who at first condemned her to be burned (Gen 38:24), was compelled to vindicate her (Gen 38:25,26). Through Perez she became an ancestress of Jesus (Thamar, Mt 1:3).

(2) A daughter of David and sister of Absalom (2 Sam 13:1 ff). Her beauty inflamed her half-brother Amnon with passion, and by stratagem he forcibly violated her. This brought upon Amnon the terrible revenge of Absalom.

See ABSALOM; AMNON.

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

See MAACAH.

James Orr

TAMAR (2) [ISBE]

TAMAR (2) - (tamar, "palm tree"; Thaiman):

(1) This name occurs in Ezekiel's ideal delimitation of the territory to be occupied by Israel (Ezek 47:19; 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 Ch 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 Ki 9:18, is Tamar (the Revised Version (British and American) following Kethibh), or Tadmor (the King James Version following Qere; compare 2 Ch 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 Ch 8:4) takes it out of connection with the other cities (2 Ch 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."

W. Ewing