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Bible People - Tamar and Judah |
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Clothes and Houses What were families like in ancient Israel? How were they different? Famous Paintings of Judah and Tamar The sexually charged moment when Tamar solicited Judah The Levirate Law: what was it? how did it change Tamar's life? Famous Bible Women: Tamar: one woman's fight for justice Joseph,
brother of Judah
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Tamar:
a woman demands her rights
What do you do when the cards are stacked against you - as they were for Tamar? Do you give in, or fight back? Tamar fought back, to the extent of acting, just once, as a prostitute. Does that sound shocking for a Bible woman? But Tamar was fighting for justice. According to the law of the land at that time, she had a right to have a child. Her husband masturbated, so she could not concieve. But Tamar found a solution... See the story below
Tamar's
Husband 'Spills his Seed'
Tamar was a young Jewish woman who married into the family of Judah, son of Jacob and Leah. Judah was, by and large, a good man: he had defended his young brother Joseph when all his other brothers had wanted to kill Joseph - he persuaded them to sell Joseph to passing traders instead. Tamar had married Er, the eldest son, and she hoped for children - this was a Jewish woman's greatest wish. But her husband practised a form of birth control, spilling his semen, and Tamar did not conceive. Er died, and Tamar was left childless. Tamar resorted to the Levirate Law, as expressed in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. If a man died childless, his widow could demand sexual intercourse with the dead man's brother until she bore a son who would inherit the property that would have gone to the dead man, had he lived. Her
Second Husband Does the Same Why did he do it? Because it meant his share of the inheritance would be substantially less if Tamar produced a son. Money. Tamar had the right to ask to have sexual intercourse with the third son Shelah, when he was old enough, but time passed and this did not happen. Judah, it seemed, had began to look on Tamar as a jinx, responsible in some way for the death of his two sons. Tamar Solicits as a Prostitute
Then she waited for him at the side of the road and solicited him when he passed. Only recently widowed after many years of marriage, Judah accepted her offer. But when it came time to pay, Judah did not have any money. He offered instead to send her a goat from his flock. In the meantime he left his tribal leader's staff and his personal seal and cord as a pledge. The seal, cord and staff had a person's emblem carved on them, and were items of great personal worth. Later when Judah’s friend came to make payment to the unknown prostitute and reclaim Judah’s seal, the woman was nowhere to be found. Tamar had gone home, without telling anyone who she was. But she had become pregnant, and achieved her aim. Tamar
Is Condemned to Death At this dramatic moment Tamar produced the staff, seal and cord. These, she said, had belonged to the father of her child. Confronted by the evidence, Judah had little choice but to acknowledge that he had been wrong, and that she had been within the law. A
Happy Ending Read the Bible text of this story Extra Reading
'Eventually, news of Tamar's
pregnancy reaches Judah, who fiercely sentences her to death for
disregarding her betrothal vow. Infidelity during betrothal counted as
adultery, and therefore merited the death penalty (Deuteronomy 22:13-21,
23-24). Under Old Testament law, if Tamar was culpable, so was her
partner. Consequently, if he but realized it, Judah in sentencing her to
death has also condemned himself to the same fate. At the last moment
Tamar makes her point, proving that Judas was indeed the father of the
child. Judah admits his guilt, "She is in the right, not I"
(38:26). She is innocent, he admits, because I forced her to take this
action by refusing to give my son Shelah to her in marriage. She, unlike
me, was concerned to perpetuate the family line, to produce descendants
for Abraham.'
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Bible Stories: People of
the Old Testament - Bible Study Resource: Tamar and Judah
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Who's
Who in the Story
Er's younger brother 
So Tamar began to look for
other ways to get what was rightfully hers. She knew that Judah sometimes used the services of
the prostitutes who stood waiting at the city gates, so she disguised herself as one of them - they wore
face-coverings that hid their identity. She took the chance that Judah would not know it was his
own daughter-in-law who approached him. 
Some months later when it became
obvious she was pregnant Tamar was branded as a whore, and condemned by
the unsuspecting Judah to burn to death.