Women with a Story to Tell: Tamar

 Dinah was a woman with a story to tell, but the biblical text never told that story. By contrast, Tamar is a woman with a story to tell, and the biblical text does give her some space. Both stories are unusual and a bit confusing. Yet, both stories have to do with the preservation of the line of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac, which is crucial to Judaism and Christianity.

 For all the purity concerns about Isaac and Jacob finding wives from within the clan, the story of Tamar begins with Judah relocating to a Canaanite area where he married a woman named Shua (see Genesis 38 for the whole story). They had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah found a wife for Er, although the text does not say where she came from. We can assume that she was a local, and thus a Canaanite herself. That woman was Tamar. 

 Er turned out not to be a godly person, the text calls him ‘evil’ and says that God saw to his early death. Judah called on Onan to take his brother’s place and produce children through Tamar, a common practice of the time that is called the ‘levirate’. The idea was that the children, at least the first child, of the union would be considered Er’s son and thus perpetuate his line. Onan apparently didn’t like the idea. He pretended to fulfill the obligation, but he never completed intercourse so that Tamar never became pregnant. For this, he also was taken by God. 

 Judah promised his third son to Tamar but asked her to wait a bit because he was young. After a while, Tamar could see that Judah was too slow to fulfill his promise. Perhaps Judah thought that Tamar was the cause of his first two sons’ deaths and did not really intend to give her his last son. Who knows? 

 So, here is where we do have the thoughts and behavior of Tamar, although it will seem quite strange to us. Judah’s wife, Shua, died. After mourning, Judah went out with the men to the sheep-shearing time at his friend’s farm. Tamar sat herself up at a spot along the road that led there. She was dressed as a prostitute and wore a veil. When Judah came by, he stopped and propositioned her. She asked for his signet (cylinder seal), cord (fringe of his robe), and staff as pledges that he would send a kid from his flock as payment. 

 Later, when Judah got home, he sent some servants with the promised kid, however they returned saying that no such woman could be found. Several months later, word came to Judah that Tamar was pregnant. Passing immediate judgment on a person in his household, Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned.” Yet, Tamar had an ace up her sleeve. 

 “As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, ‘It was the owner of these who made me pregnant. … Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Wow! Reality check for Judah. How did Judah respond? 

 “Then Judah acknowledged them and said, ‘She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her my son Shelah’. And he did not lie with her again.”

 What did Judah acknowledge? That Tamar held to a higher purpose: The preservation of the line of descent from Abraham. 

 Was Tamar right, even though her behavior is not something we would honor? Look at the following line of descent.

Judah and Tamar were parents of Perez. Father to son follows like this: ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB, JUDAH, Perez, Hezron, Aram, Aminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David (the king), Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asaph, Jehoshaphat, Joram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amos, Josiah, Jeconiah, Salathiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph, JESUS THE MESSIAH. (See Matthew Chapter 1).    

 What do you think of her now?