Tamar, a heroic woman of Israel

[Isaac Fried]

This is what we have just read Gen. chapter 38.

At first תמר Tamar was too young to conceive, then her husband ער Er died. His brother אונן Onan (און-אין?) had his rights on her, but he was interested only in irresponsible good time, and he went too the way of all living. Little שלה Shelah was too young for adult stuff, or his father was afraid for his safety with an exciting woman, and Tamar was sent to finish her life as a recluse in her native house.

But she did not give up on her desire to have children, and went to sit at the notorious place פתח עינים PETAX EYNAYIM, 'open your eyes', to wait for the big man himself to pass by and have an eyeful.

To illicitly come to the worthiest and prettiest woman of all עדולם Adulam יהודה Yeudah graciously offered to reward her with a scrawny kid, but Tamar, knowing her worth, asked for all: his seal, his cord, and his staff, which he surrendered all to his desire.

She was rewarded for her audacity with two sons at once: פרץ Perez, who burst out into the world, and זרח zerah, who came out unhurriedly like the rising sun.

For the rest:
"This, then, is the family line of Perez, Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David." Ruth 4:18-22.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Isaac Fried]

If Tamar is named after the tall tree תמר then the fraction TA in the name is possibly the personal pronoun (PP) אתה ATAH, 'you', referring to the tree itself. It is the same with תיש = אתה - איש TAYI$ = ATAH - YI$, 'he-goat'.
עז EZ is possibly a variant of שה SEH, and גדי GDIY is possibly a variant of קטי QTIY, 'tiny'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Isaac Fried]

Concerning the קדשה QDE$AH of Gen. 38:21, I recall Job 36:14 תמת בנער נפשם וחיתם בקדשים

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac:

Each of Rebekah, Leah and Rachel was born and raised in the heart of Hurrian country, at Harran. As such, the intended implication is that each such Hebrew Matriarch had an ethnic Hurrian mother [from the local Hurrian ruling class, rather than a low-class pre-Aramaic mother; there were no Hebrews to marry in eastern Syria!]. Thus each of Jacob and his 12 sons (including Judah) had an ethnic Hurrian maternal grandmother, and a mother who herself, in her own right, was half-Hurrian by blood. It would thus be eminently fitting if the mother of Judah’s heir, Perez, namely Tamar, were an ethnic Hurrian.

The best-known Hurrian pure adjective is ti-ma-ri, with the consonants being TMR, thus being a dead ringer for Biblical “Tamar”. The meaning is “black”. In ancient times, “black” had very positive connotations. The Egyptians proudly called their country the “Black Land”, boasting that the soil along the Nile River was the darkest and most fertile soil in the world. Of more direct relevance here, the Hurrian phrase timeri e$e means the Underworld, which was a positive concept in the ancient world.

Thus Perez’s mother is portrayed as being an ethnic Hurrian, based on her Hurrian name ti-ma-ri : “Tamar” : “Black”, just as each of Rebekah, Leah and Rachel is implied to have had an ethnic Hurrian mother.

Hurrian women were world-famous for their incredible beauty, and were considered high-class brides. Yet in the Patriarchal Age, the Hurrian nobles were in fact going broke, so it was easier than one might have thought to obtain a gorgeous, high-class Hurrian bride for a firstborn Semitic son. Tamar’s beauty is one integral part of the story of Judah wanting to have relations with her as an apparent prostitute. Note that nothing is said of Tamar’s parentage, other than that she had a father to whose house she could return. Note also that Tamar is bound and determined to become/remain part of Judah’s family, rather than to be with her own original (Hurrian) family. This again fits with the theme that although the Hurrians were high-class nobles, at this time the Hurrians were rapidly going broke.

In short, all aspects of chapter 38 of Genesis make perfect sense where Tamar is an ethnic Hurrian with a Hurrian name who is the last ethnic Hurrian mother (or maternal grandmother) of a long string of famous Hebrew men, including Jacob, Judah and Perez.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

I would connect the name תמר TAMAR to the תמריא TAMRIY, 'soar', of Job 39:18.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac Fried:

You wrote: “[Tamar] was rewarded for her audacity with two sons at once: …Perez [PRC], who burst out into the world, and…Zerah [ZRX], who came out unhurriedly like the rising sun.”

You and I have discussed the name “Zerah” before. ZRX is a run-of-the-mill Hebrew man’s name, with an implied theophoric, effectively meaning: “[God Is] Rising and Shining [Like the Sun]”. ZRX does n-o-t mean “[God Is Slow, Like the Unhurriedly] Rising [Sun]”. That is to say, ZRX as a name refers to “rising and shining”, not to being “unhurriedly”. Accordingly, the name of Tamar’s “firstborn” son, who didn’t manage to come out of the womb (except for his finger) until after his “younger” twin brother Perez had already been borne, has nothing to do with the “rising” and “shining” sun.

Rather, this is a rare case where the Jewish scribe in 7th century BCE Jerusalem who transformed the mid-14th century BCE cuneiform original written version of the Patriarchal narratives into alphabetical Hebrew guessed wrong, where Akkadian cuneiform Z could render either Hebrew zayin/Z or Hebrew samekh/S. The intended spelling of the name of Tamar’s “firstborn” twin son was SRX, with a samekh/S. Now everything makes complete sense.

Per Exodus 26: 12, SRX as a noun means “remnant” or “what remained”. “And the remnant [SRX as a noun] that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang [SRX as a verb] over the backside of the tabernacle.”

It is important to note in this connection that PRC [“irruption, breach”], which is the basis of the name “Perez”/PRC, at Genesis 38: 29 is a noun. So as a parallel, the name “Zerah” at Genesis 38: 30 is also a noun, which was originally intended to be spelled with a samekh [not a zayin], namely SRX, with SRX as a noun meaning “what remained”. Yes, SRX as a verb means “spread”, but what counts here is what the meaning of SRX is as a noun: “what remains”.

The original, proper spelling of the name of Tamar’s “firstborn” son is SRX. Zerah, whose name SRX means “What Remained”, was “what remained”/SRX after his “younger” twin brother Perez/PRC had already been an “irruption”/PRC from Tamar’s womb.
In the context of Genesis 38: 30, the name of Tamar’s “firstborn” twin son must certainly be SRX, not ZRX. Zerah was not what was “rising”/ZRX or “shining”/ZRX. No, Zerah was “what remained”/SRX [per the meaning of SRX as a noun at Exodus 26: 12], after his “younger” twin brother Perez/PRC had already been an “irruption”/PRC from Tamar’s womb.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

The root זרח ZRX, 'shine', is indeed a variant of סרח SRX, 'spread', said of light, smell, sound, etc,, and צרח CRX, 'scream', of Jer. 42:13. By implication, SRX may, indeed, mean 'drag behind'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University