Ta´mar (palm-tree), a Canaanitish woman, espoused successively to the two sons of Judah, Er and Onan; but as they both died childless, Judah hesitated to give her his third son Shelah, as patriarchal usage required. This set her upon the contrivance described in Genesis 38; and two sons, Pharez and Zarah, thus became the fruit of her criminal intercourse with Judah himself [JUDAH].
Tamar, 2
Tamar, daughter of David by Maacah, who was also the mother of Absalom. The unhappy consequences of the criminal passion entertained for this beautiful damsel by her half-brother Amnon, brutally gratified by him, and terribly avenged by Absalom, formed the groundwork of the family distractions which embittered the latter years of David's reign (2 Samuel 13) [ABSALOM; AMNON; DAVID].