Tamar by Lidia Kozenitzky. Wikimedia
Her Name Was Tamar – Invasive, Destructive, Redemptive
The character of Tamar draws on a botanical motif—the tamar, the date palm—to evoke a recurring trope of female family members whose beauty and presence have the power to destroy or save the family.
Published: December 3, 2017
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
Joel Baden has helpfully identified how this episode functions, compositionally, as a self-contained interlude in the J narrative history. See, The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012) 73.
The narrative framing Job also concludes with a list of seven sons—unnamed—and three daughters, whose names are given. There the daughters are also described as exceedingly beautiful (Job 42:14-15).
See further discussion of this passage in light of rituals of mourning and self-abasement in David Lambert, How Repentance Became Biblical (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 15-16, 53.
Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001) 103-4.
For this point, King and Stager (above) also cite the work of Yigal Shiloh, The Proto-Aeolic Capital and Israelite Ashlar Masonry (Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, 1979) 26-30.
D.R. Hodel, “Planting palms correctly for vigorous, attractive growth and fewer problems.” Turf Tales 3/1 (1996):10–11. Hodel, D.R. and D.R. Pittenger. “Studies on the establishment of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera ‘Deglet Noor’) offshoots. Part I: Observations on root development and leaf growth.” Palms 47 (2003):191–200.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/Y4360E/y4360e05.htm Citing Munier, 1973 and Oihabi, 1991 as the source for this image.
