1. A spot on the southeastern frontier of Judah, named in Ezek. xlvii, 19; xlviii, 28 only, evidently called from a palm-tree. We naturally think of Haze- znn-tamar, the old name of Ent/edi ; but this is not quite appropriate for location. Eusebius and Jerome mention a TInnnara, a place h'ing between Hebron and Ailah (Onomast. s. v. " Hazezon-tamar"); and Ptolemy (v, 16, 8) mentions a Oa^afxo, as do also the Pentinger Tables (Reland, Pa/test. p. 462). Robinson identifies it with Kiirnub, a place containing the ruins of an old fortress about an ordinary day's journey from el-Jlilh to- wards the pass es-Sufrih"(7?;W. /,V.s-. ii."l9.S, 201). This, however, depends on a conjectural emendation of the Onnmasticon, where, in the clause (coj/u; SttaTwffa Maxpig (v. r. ^6\ic, MaXtc), np'tpaq oCin>, Hohinson would read MaXa^riq for iVl(i;j!/(c, whereby he makes Thamara a day's journej' from Malatha, which he identifies with el-JIilh. IJesides, as Van de Velde observes, tiie dis- tance of Kurnub from el-Milh is not a <lay's journey, but only four hours ; nor is Kurnub to the south-west
of the Dead Sea, where the Pentinger Tables place Thamaro; nor are the ruins ancient (Van de Velde, Syria, ii, 130). Fiirst (Jleb, /.ex. s. v.) regards it as iiientical with the Tamar of the Kethib, or text, in 1 Kings ix, 8; but that is generally thought to mean Tadmor (q. v.). Schwarz {Palest, p. 21, note) thinks that Zoar is meant, on the strength of certain Tal- mudical notices. De Saulcy (AV// v. i, 7) endeavors to establish a connection between Tamar an<i tlie Kalaat Um-Bayhik, at the mouth of the ravine of that name on the south-west side of the Dead Sea, on the ground (among others) that the names are similar. But this, to say the least, is more than doubtful. It is rather to be sought at the extreme south end of the Dead Sea, where the line as run by Ezekiel evidently begins (see Keil, ad loc.) ; perhaps at some clump of palms anciently existing at A in el-'Arus, near the mouth of Wady Fi- kreh.
2. The wife successively of Er and Onan, the two sons of Jndah (Gen. xxxviii, 6-30). Her importance in the sacred narrative depends on the great anxiety to keep up the lineage of .Tudah. It seemed as if the fam- ily were on the point of extinction. Er and Onan (q. v. respectively) had each in turn perished suddenly. Ju- dah'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. That he should, however, marry her seems to have been regarded as part of the fixed law of the tribe, whence its incorporation into the INIosaic law in after- times (Deut. xxv, 5 ; ]Matt. xxii, 24) ; and, as such, Tamar was determined not to let the opportunity escape through Judah's parental anxiety. Accordingly, she resorted to the desperate expedient of entrapping the father him- self into the union which he feared for his son. He, on the first emergence from his mourning for his Avife, went to one of the festivals often mentioned in Jewish history as attendant on sheep-shearing. He wore on his finger the ring of his chieftainship; he carried his staff in his hand ; he wore a collar or necklace round his neck. He was encountered by a veiled woman on the road leading to Timnath, the future birthplace of Samson, among the hills of Dan, He took her for one of the unfortunate women who were consecrated to the impure rites of the Canaanitish worship. See Har- lot. He promised her, as the price of his intercourse, a kid from the flocks to which he was going, and left as his pledge his ornaments and his staff. The kid he sent back by his shepherd (Sept.), Hirah of A<killam. The woman could nowhere be found. Months after- wards it was discovered to be his own daughter-in-law, Tamar, wlio had thus concealed herself under the veil or mantle, which she cast off on her return home, where she resumed the seclusion and dress of a widow. She was sentenced to be burned alive, and was only saved by the discovery, through the pledges which Judah had left, that her seducer was no less than the chieftain of the tribe. He had the magnanimity to recognise that she had been driven into this crime by his own neglect of his promise to give her in marriage to his youngest son. " She hath been more righteous than I . . . and he knew her again no more" (tien. xxxviii, 26). The fruit of this intercourse was twins, Pharez and Zarah, and through Pharez the sacred line was continued. B.C. 188.5. Hence the prominence given to Tamar in the nuptial benediction of the tribe of Judah (Ruth iv, 12) and in the genealogy of our Lord (Matt, i, 3). — Smith. See Judah.
3. Daughter of David and Maachah the Geshurite princess, and thus sister of Absalom (2 Sam. xiii, 1-32; 1 Chron. iii, 9; Josephus, Ant. vii, 8, 1). She and her brother were alike remarkable for their extraordinary beauty. Her name ("palm-tree") may have been giv- en her on this account (comp. Cant, vii, 7). Tliis fatal lieauty inspired a frantic passion in her half-brother Annion, the eldest son of David bv Ahinoam. He