Tamar

1) An entertaining story (Gen. 38) based on the Levirate law, of masculine guilt and female courage: Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah, having failed to conceive a child for her deceased husband, was equally unsuccessful for his two brothers, who also died. She then discarded her widow's garments, and thus disguised, sat provocatively by the roadside; and in exchange for the promise of a goat, and the interim pledge of a seal, she accepted the sexual proposal of an unsuspecting passerby, who turned out to be her father-in-law. She is afterwards accused of soliciting and sentenced by Judah to be burnt to death—until she displayed the seal. The embarrassed Judah relented. Twins were born to Tamar. It is an aetiological [[➝ aetiology]] tale about tribal relationships, not an apology for incest. Tamar, as an ancestor of David, appears in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:3).

2) A beautiful sister of Absalom; her half-brother Amnon, ‘sick with love’ for her, enticed, raped, and then ejected her (2 Sam. 13). Absolom had Amnon murdered, but David was too fond of Absolom to punish him.