Tamar & Her Coat of Many Colors

Introduction

Tamar & Her Coat of Many Colors

Welcome back everyone to Torah Today Ministries in our series The Hebrew Key. In this series we explore things in the scriptures that reveal themselves only in the Hebrew. As great as our English translations can be, and as many insights as we can gather through them, there are certain things — valuable and beautiful things — that only reveal themselves if we look into the Hebrew scriptures. So in this episode, episode number four, we’re going to look at Tamar and her coat of many colors.

I know what you’re thinking right away — it should be Joseph and his coat of many colors. And it is true that Joseph did have a coat of many colors. Now the story of Joseph begins in Genesis chapter 37, and it’s there as a young boy about 17 years old that we read about his father Jacob, how much he loved his son Joseph — because Joseph, after all, was his firstborn through his beloved Rachel. Jacob had ten sons through Leah and through Zilpah and Bilhah, but his beloved Rachel, the one he fell in love with, that he first laid eyes on her — finally she  has a son, the eleventh son, and that’s Joseph. And oh, did Jacob love Joseph. And Joseph was unique. 

Genesis 37:3 — The Ketonet Passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים)

So we read in chapter 37 of Genesis, verse 3:

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים). — Genesis 37:3

You can see the phrase there in Hebrew — and that is what we translate as the coat of many colors, or robe of many colors, or some say a variegated colored robe or coat. And we don’t know exactly how to translate it, but whatever it was, it was special. And it’s not really all that important that we understand exactly what this coat or robe looked like, but we just simply need to know this phrase ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים).

Now this phrase is found in only one other story in the entire Bible. Ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) appears only in one other place, and that’s over in Second Samuel chapter 13.

2 Samuel 13:18 — Tamar’s Ketonet Passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים)

Now Tamar was wearing a ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים), a coat of many colors, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king dressed. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. — 2 Samuel 13:18

Ah — now whenever we notice something like this, where some unique phrase is found only two times in the scripture, somehow those two instances are connected. We’re used to using the internet, where you can read an article and you see a hyperlink — some words or phrase, usually underlined or in blue — and if you click on that phrase it jumps you to another place on the internet that has some related information. Well, that might be very new in the world of technology, but these hyperlinks existed thousands of years ago in the Hebrew scriptures. And this is a prime example. Someone who reads Hebrew and would be reading the Tanakh — what we call the Old Testament (I don’t like that term, but we’ll talk about that in another teaching) — you see this ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) in the story of Joseph, and you see it only in one other place, and that’s in the story of David’s daughter Tamar, and the tragic story about her.

Now most people know the story of Joseph very, very well, but the story of Tamar and her half-brother Amnon is a little more obscure. So let’s take a moment and just review the stories. If you need to pause the teaching here and go back and read Genesis 37, and the story of Joseph — and also on to the end of Genesis, because Joseph’s story goes right on up through chapter 50 of Genesis — but I really suggest you then familiarize yourselves with the story of Tamar found in Second Samuel chapter 13.

But in a nutshell, you just need a little review. It’s this: there is no individual in the Hebrew scriptures whose life more closely parallels that of our Messiah Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) than that of Joseph. I’ve done teachings on Joseph for years — you can find those over on bethtikkun.com — and if you look at the Torah Project I go into this in great detail. But there are nearly a hundred parallels that I’ve discovered between the life of Joseph and the life of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ):

They were both especially beloved of their fathers. They are both despised by their brothers. They both went among the Gentiles. Each took a Gentile bride during a period of seven years of tribulation. Their brothers did not recognize them. And we read about the seven years of tribulation that are to come — Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) brothers, the Jewish people, are going to come to him. And in both cases, each becomes the savior of the world.

Now I know you understand how Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is the savior of the world, but think for a moment about Joseph. There was a worldwide famine, which is what brought his brothers down to Egypt from Canaan. And people from all over the world were coming to Egypt for food. And why did Egypt have food? Because of Joseph. And so Joseph was actually the key figure for the salvation — the physical salvation — of the entire world at that time. And people came to him because they had food. But of course our Messiah is the savior of the world in a much more magnificent sense — he’s the one who saves us from our sins, who gives us life. But what is pictured by Joseph is fulfilled in Messiah, and there are many, many parallels.

But how about the story of Tamar? In the story of Tamar we’re told that she was beautiful, and her half-brother Amnon developed a very — what you might call — inordinate affection for his half-sister. He lusted for her, for her beauty. He wanted her, but she was off limits because you can’t marry a sister, even a half-sister. And he was so in love with her, so infatuated with her, that he feigned illness and was in his bed. The servants came in, and he said, “Please have my sister Tamar bring me food.” So being the innocent girl she was, she brought food to Amnon. And he took her by the wrist: “Lie with me.” And she says, “No — that is not something we do. That is wrong.” But he forces himself upon her. He raped her. And then after he’d done that and satisfied his lust, the scriptures say he hated her even more than he loved her before, and he had her driven out, had the door bolted behind her.

And it’s in that instance — in verse 18, as we just read — that Tamar was wearing a ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים), a coat of many colors, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king dressed. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. What a tragic story. So she went to her other brother Absalom’s home. And you can read the rest of the story of what happens between Absalom and Amnon.

The Parallels Between Joseph and Tamar

Now, what is God trying to teach us here? Why did God orchestrate his word so that with Joseph and with Tamar we have this phrase ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים)? Are there other parallels — another contrast — that we can look at to try to solve this riddle? Well, here are a few, and I challenge you to find others, as I’m sure there are more.

On one side we have some events from Joseph’s life, described in Genesis starting in chapter 37 and going right on to the end of the book, chapter 50. Tamar — her story is contained just in one chapter: 2 Samuel 13.

As we’ve seen, they both have a ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) — the only two people in the Bible who are mentioned as having one.

In chapter 39 verse 6 of Genesis, we’re told that Joseph was handsome. And in the story of Tamar in verse 1 of 2nd Samuel 13, we’re told that she is beautiful.

We know that Joseph was betrayed by his brothers. And we discover with Tamar she’s betrayed by one brother — Amnon.

Joseph was an object of lust. Remember the story of Potiphar’s wife? When Joseph was sold into slavery, he was eventually purchased by a man named Potiphar, and while Potiphar is at work his wife cast her eyes on Joseph and she lusted for him. She kept tempting him. And also we know that Tamar was an object of lust.

And then Potiphar’s wife says to Joseph: “Lie with me.” That phrase is found only in two stories — it’s found here in the story of Joseph, and you guessed it, it’s also found over in the story of Tamar in verse 2, because Amnon said exactly the same words to her: “Come, lie with me.”

We’re told that when Jacob discovered that his son Joseph had been torn to pieces by a wild animal — we know actually he wasn’t, but in Jacob’s mind Joseph was dead — his father grieved. And then we also find that David, Tamar’s father, also grieved. Jacob believed his son was dead, and later Amnon is killed because of this sin. And the rumor reaches David that all of his sons have been murdered. All of his sons are dead. Turns out only Amnon was killed — but for a moment, David thought, “All my sons have died.” So Jacob grieved over the death of a son who really wasn’t dead, and David likewise grieved over the death of all of his sons who weren’t actually dead.

And we’re told in Genesis 37:34 concerning Jacob: “He mourned his son.” The exact same phrase in Hebrew “וַיִּתְאַבֵּ֥ל עַל־בְּנ֖וֹ” (vayitabel al bno) the exact same phrase occurs only two places in the Bible — again, in the story of Joseph and his father Jacob, and the story of Tamar and her father David.

So ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) appears twice — in the story of Joseph and Tamar. “Lie with me” appears twice — the story of Joseph and the story of Tamar. “He mourned a son” — that phrase is found twice — the story of Joseph and the story of Tamar.

So obviously God is trying to teach us something. These things don’t just happen by accident. What happens is the events of Joseph and the events in Tamar’s life come together. These purposeful parallels don’t happen by accident — they’re there by design. They come together like two halves of a menorah, and the branches all line up with one another. And when you put the two halves together, it’s to create a third thing, a third picture, that can only be found when we put the two halves together.

The Two Tamars

And what is this third picture? Well, before I give it to you — or before you go further to try to figure it out — let me share something else with you. There are two Tamars in the Bible. Just two.

Now here’s where it gets fascinating. The story of Joseph begins in Genesis chapter 37. But it doesn’t continue in chapter 38 — it continues in chapter 39, and continues on then to the end of the book of Genesis. So the story of Joseph skips over a chapter. I remember when I was teaching through Genesis a few years ago at our congregation, I took the last verse or two of chapter 37 and the first verse or two of chapter 39 and just put them together on the screen, and I asked the people, “What did I skip here?” And no one could figure it out. And then I pointed to the place in the passage: “I skipped a whole chapter right there. It’s chapter 38.”

Chapter 38 of Genesis is one of those chapters that, if it wasn’t in the Bible where it is, you wouldn’t notice any break in the narrative in the story — because chapter 37 continues right into chapter 39. Chapter 38 is stuck in there in a place that doesn’t seem to belong. But in the story of Joseph, we read about a ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) — which is found also in the story of Tamar. We read the phrase “lie with me” — which is also found just in the story of Tamar. We find the phrase “he mourned for a son” — also found in the story of Tamar. We find all these parallels. But there’s a second Tamar in the scripture. And that second Tamar, believe it or not, is found only here in Genesis 38 — that chapter that the narrative skips over in the life of Joseph.

It’s almost like the scriptures are screaming at us: “Look at this! Tamar is important.” The Tamar in 2 Samuel and the Tamar in Genesis — they just happen to share the same name. But by design — because God runs the world, and God is the author of his word.

So what do we learn about this other Tamar? You can pause the video and go read Genesis chapter 38 — it’s a very, very bizarre and odd chapter. But in a nutshell: we leave the story of Joseph to go and talk about his older brother Judah. Judah seems to have been so depressed, so upset by the events surrounding his brother Joseph. And I believe Judah felt so much guilt over what happened to his younger brother — him being sold into slavery, his ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) being dipped in blood and given to Jacob: “Identify this if you will — is this your son’s coat?” — and seeing the grief that overcame his father, and then to know the secret that Joseph wasn’t really dead, but knowing also there was no way in this world they could ever go and find him. Can you imagine the guilt, the depression?

So anyways Judah goes by himself into a completely different area, and he marries a woman. And he has two sons. And in the course of time, Judah’s wife dies. And so he finds a young woman named Tamar to marry his oldest son. She marries him, but his son is sinful and God causes the son to die. So then Judah gives her to his second son. But he is even more sinful than the first, and God causes him to die. Now Judah has a third son — but instead of giving Tamar to the third son, you must be thinking by now, “She’s pretty rough on husbands — maybe she’s a bad omen. I’m not going to give her to my third son.” So he makes an excuse, saying, “Well, my third son’s just too young to marry right now. But when he’s of age, then you can marry him.” But he never did.

So Tamar realizes that according to the law, according to the Torah (תּוֹרָה), when a husband dies without providing offspring to his wife, she is to be given to his brother in marriage so that the brother can raise up seed in the dead husband’s name.

Genesis 38 — Tamar and Judah

So one day she dresses up as a kedeshah (קְדֵשָׁה) — that’s what it’s called, this particular kind — she veils herself, she sits at the crossroads, knowing that Judah is going to come by. Her father-in-law is going to come by. And again, it’s a kind of twisted, unusual story, but the Bible is teaching some deeper principles here. We can get into it another time

But Judah sees her, and he asks: “May I come into you? May I hire your services?” And she says, “What will you give me as a pledge?” And he says, “I don’t have any money with me. But what should I give you?” And she says, “Give me your staff and your ring and your cloak.” I mean, that’s a very high price. And so she says, “Give me those three things. I will hold them, and then tomorrow you come back and you can give me a goat in exchange, but I’m going to hold this as collateral until you bring me the goat — that is my wage.” So he goes into her, they have relations. And then she goes back home, changes her clothes back to her normal street clothes.

Judah sends a servant back to the crossroads with the goat to give to this woman he met — and doesn’t recognize as his daughter-in-law — but she’s not there. So Judah figures, “Well, I’m just out a signet ring and a staff and a cloak.”

In the meantime, Tamar at home is pregnant by her father-in-law. And over time it becomes obvious that she is pregnant. And Judah hears that his daughter-in-law is pregnant. So he is angry with her and he says, “Take her and let her be burned.” Some people think this means to be set on fire and burn at the stake. But we know that at that time what they would do is they would brand a woman — they would burn her and put a brand on her somewhere, so that people would know that she had been having a liaison.

So she’s brought out, and there she is, and there’s Judah, and here’s the crowd. And she says, “Well, I am pregnant by the one to whom these belong,” and she holds up the signet ring and the staff and the cloak. And when Judah sees it, he realizes: I’m the father. And he repents. He says, “She’s more righteous than I am.” Of course they don’t brand her. And she gives birth to twins.

Now here’s another hyperlink: there are only two pairs of twins in the Bible. The twins that Tamar births — Perez and Zerah — one of them becomes the ancestor of Messiah himself. And the other pair of twins are Jacob and Esau. So there is another hyperlink. There is a pair of twins, and you can take those two pairs of twins and begin to derive new insight.

But there’s the story of the other Tamar. What does that Tamar have to do with the other Tamar? Well, both of them provide children in the line of Judah. Tamar is in the line of Judah. And the Tamar in Genesis provides children who are also, of course, in the line of Judah — they’re Judah’s sons, Judah’s twins.

But what happens here is that the Tamar in Genesis takes a very bitter situation that Judah is in — he’s depressed, he’s guilty, he just, I imagine, wants to die — and she takes this bitter situation in which Judah finds himself and turns it into something wonderful, something good. And when you read about the birth of her twin sons, you read the story about the red string put around the wrist of the one — it’s a very odd birth. But this child becomes the ancestor of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) himself. And you read about Perez and Zerah on in the scriptures — they become major figures in the genealogies as you read along.

The other Tamar, the one we started with in Second Samuel, she’s also one who finds herself in very, very bitter circumstances. But there’s a sweetness that comes out of both Tamars. There’s something special that happens with them.

The Third Picture — Yeshua, Tamar, and Us

So let me do this — and this is the tricky part of this teaching — because at this point if you’re following along you’re curious about what do these stories have to do with one another. What’s God trying to teach?

Well, a very Jewish thing to do, when you find two things in the scriptures even though they may be separated by centuries, is that when you find these scriptural hyperlinks, you put them together as if they’re the same thing. The ancient Jewish commentators do this all the time. If they see a donkey in one place — like the donkey that Abraham rode when he took Isaac to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah — and then you see a donkey that’s prophesied to bring the Messiah, they’ll say: “These are the same donkey. Let’s put them together and treat them as if they’re the same donkey, and see what insights we derive.”

So I want us to do that with the ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים). Let’s pretend that the coat of many colors that Joseph had on and that was taken off of him is the same coat of many colors — we know it’s not, but let’s just pretend — that Tamar puts on. And you’ll notice that Joseph starts off with his coat of many colors on, but his brothers remove it from him. They dip it in blood, present it to the father. But in Tamar’s story, we don’t see her wearing this ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) until she is betrayed by her brother and is violated by him. And then it describes her putting on the coat, because this is what was worn by the virgin daughters of Israel.

With that in mind, instead of thinking about Joseph and Tamar, let’s think of the one Joseph represents — who is Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) our Messiah. And again, there’s no individual in the entire Tanakh whose life more closely parallels that of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) than Joseph himself. No wonder that Yeshua’s (יֵשׁוּעַ) adoptive father is also called Joseph. Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) would have grown up being known as Yeshua ben Yosef — Yeshua, the son of Joseph. We know that Joseph was not his birth father — Mary was his mother — but he would have been known as the son of Joseph.

So let’s think of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) instead of Joseph. Here’s Joseph — here’s Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — who’s stripped of his glory. Who is put in a pit. Who’s taken out, driven away by his brothers, hated by his people. He’s misunderstood. He does nothing wrong. But he always loves his brothers, though they are jealous of him and hate him. And he goes among the Gentiles — as Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is among the Gentiles today, calling Gentiles to him. And most of the believers in the world right now are Gentiles. And we know the day is coming when he will reveal himself to his brothers.

But here is Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) who has been rejected. And who is Tamar? Who does Tamar represent? Because who also — though not perfect — has been rejected by people she trusted? Who has been violated? Who has been tainted? Whose character has been destroyed by sin? And she was probably a bit foolish to go to her brother Amnon — she knew how he felt about her, but she went into his home and was there alone with him. And then to be violated by him, to experience such violation and sin and degradation and shame and rejection. To lose everything.

But then to put on the ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) — the coat that has been dipped in blood — to cover herself with that. Who does Tamar represent? I think she represents you and me. I think she represents in many ways the bride of Messiah. Joseph started off so innocent and perfect and was rejected. And here’s Tamar who’s totally rejected, so abused, so used, so tainted. But then she’s clothed in what was given to Joseph. Just as we can be clothed in what was given to Messiah. Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) was utterly righteous, but he was stripped of his cloak and crucified for us. And yet we can be clothed in his righteousness. What was taken from him is given to us.

It’s a pretty amazing picture when you think about it.

The Name Tamar (תָּמָר) — The End of Bitterness

I want us to look at the name Tamar for a moment. I haven’t told you what the name means. And the word tamar (תָּמָר) means a date palm — a palm tree that produces these sweet dates. I’ve eaten dates many times, and my wife and I really enjoy them. But I tell you what, about four years ago we were in the Golan Heights and there was a gentleman up there who had a little table set up in a parking lot, and he sold dates that he raised. And I’m telling you, I’ve never tasted anything as sweet and delicious as those dates of his. Now I might be worth going back to Israel, to the Golan Heights, just to buy some more of those amazing dates.

But date palms are fascinating because date palms can live in briny, salty water, and they take what’s bitter and salty and produce this amazingly sweet fruit.

And we see this pictured in the very name tamar (תָּמָר) itself. If we take the first two letters of Tamar’s name — tav, mem — that spells the word tam (תָּם). And tam means to be complete, to be full. There’s a phrase that is used many times in the Tanakh — ad tom — it means until fulfillment, until completion. Sometimes when you’re reading your English translations you see the phrase “until the end” or “until something” — but if you look in the Hebrew it is saying ad tom — until the fulfillment, until the completion of something. And that’s what this means: to be complete.

But the second and third letters of Tamar’s name — mem, resh — these two letters by themselves spell the word mar (מַר). Now we find this as part of many names in the scripture. For example, the word myrrh comes from this. And myrrh is a very bitter tasting — I don’t want to call it a herb, not a herb, but whatever it is, myrrh just tastes bitter. Remember the waters of Marah, where the people came after they left Egypt and there was water, they were thirsty, but the water was bitter? The word mar (מַר) means bitter. It’s also the root of the word Mary or Miriam, which means bitter. Mar means bitter.

But tamar (תָּמָר) — a date palm — can take what is bitter and bring it to completion. In fact, there was a rabbi back in the 1700s — the Maggid of Mezeritch, his real name was Rabbi Dov Ber, he was a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov — he said: “The meaning of tamar is the end of bitterness.” The end. There it is — the tom of mar — the end of bitterness.

What a beautiful way to end this study. Because we all have bitterness. Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) started out with everything tom — everything was pure and complete and whole. But he left his throne of glory to enter into a place of bitterness, so that we, starting in a place of bitterness, could become tom — could become complete.

And all of us are like Tamar. All of us, if we know our Messiah, can experience completion even out of bitterness.

Psalm 92:12 — The Righteous Flourish Like the Tamar (תָּמָר)

Now, something that is fascinating to me: if you look at the name Tamar in references to the Tamar of 2nd Samuel 13, the very last time her name is mentioned is in First Chronicles. Now if you use an English Bible, you find her name mentioned in other books. But in the Hebrew Bible, in the original order of the books of the Bible, Chronicles is the last book of the Bible. Maybe in another teaching we’ll talk about why Christians some time ago reshuffled the books of the Tanakh. But in the original order, and in a Jewish Bible today, Chronicles will always be the last book in the Tanakh.

And if you go to First Chronicles chapter 3, it begins to list the sons of David. And we won’t read all nine verses, but I want you to catch what’s going on in verse 1:

Now these were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron. — 1 Chronicles 3:1

And through the rest of verse 1, and then 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — all you see are sons. No daughters — just sons of David. But then when you get to verse 9, look what it says:

All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines. And Tamar was their sister. — 1 Chronicles 3:9

She gets special mention right along with the sons of David — the only daughter of David, and he had many daughters — she is the only one who’s mentioned there, right along with the sons of David. Though she didn’t do anything to deserve great honor — we just read about her being a victim, and nothing more — she’s still given a place of great honor. And the last time she’s mentioned, she’s mentioned right along with the sons of David.

Now you might be asking, how about the other Tamar in the Bible — the one back in Genesis? Well, the last time she’s mentioned is in the Gospels. In the Apostolic Scriptures, one time — it’s in Matthew chapter 1, in the genealogy of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). And in that genealogy you find several women mentioned. And there she is — this woman who disguised herself as a prostitute, had relations with her father-in-law in order to fulfill the rule that she was to have children by her dead husband’s brothers. But her brothers weren’t given to her, so she just took it right out of her father-in-law. And she’s proclaimed to be more righteous than him. And there she is, in the ancestry of our Messiah.

I’m going to close with this verse — Psalm 92, verse 12:

The righteous flourish like the tamar (תָּמָר), the palm tree. — Psalm 92:12

The righteous flourish like the palm tree, the date palm. They take the bitter and bring forth sweet fruit. But it also says:

And grow like a cedar in Lebanon. — Psalm 92:12

And the cedars of Lebanon — this is where the wood came for the building of Solomon’s Temple, the first temple. So that would be another story we could look into. We’ve looked at the tamar (תָּמָר), the date palm, and how it’s personified in these two women who are deeply connected to the story of Joseph. But we should also sometimes look at the cedars of Lebanon, because the cedars of Lebanon speak of a holiness and the closest to God — because they were the inner walls of the Temple. But the date palm, the tamar (תָּמָר), speaks of making the bitter sweet.

So if you’ve been used and abused and beaten up by this world — then guess what: you are the perfect candidate to become a disciple of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ). You’re the kind of person that Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) came to earth to seek and to save. You’re the kind of person he called friend. So you’re in good company.

And what a God we have that he honors the likes of us. I hope this teaching has been a blessing to you. And though there’s much more we could say on this subject, I hope we’ve at least used this Hebrew key to unlock something and open it up, so you can dive deeper and explore and study more on your own. And if you discover further insights, please contact me — share them with me — and we’ll put them on our website so others can benefit from them as well.

So thank you for listening. And until then, I say shalom (שָׁלוֹם).

Teaching Material

Hebrew Word Studies

Ketonet Passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) — “Coat/robe of many colors” (or “ornamented tunic”); the garment given by Jacob to Joseph (Genesis 37:3) and worn by Tamar, virgin daughter of King David (2 Samuel 13:18). It is the only phrase in all of Scripture that appears in both stories — functioning as a Hebrew hyperlink connecting the life of Joseph (a type of Yeshua) to Tamar (a picture of the redeemed bride). What was stripped from Joseph is ultimately placed upon the violated and broken — clothing them in the righteousness of Messiah. — Strong’s H3801 · Strong’s H6446 · Sefaria: Genesis 37

Tamar (תָּמָר) — “Date palm”; the name shared by both women in this study. Hidden within the name is a profound theological message: the first two letters, tav-mem, spell tam (תָּם) — “complete, whole, finished.” The second and third letters, mem-resh, spell mar (מַר) — “bitter.” Together, tamar (תָּמָר) = the end of bitterness, the completion of what is bitter. The Maggid of Mezeritch (Rabbi Dov Ber, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov) taught this exact reading: tamar means “the end of bitterness.” Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) entered bitterness so we could become tom — complete. — Strong’s H8558

Tam (תָּם) — “Complete, whole, blameless, finished”; embedded in the first two letters of tamar (תָּמָר). Used in the phrase ad tom — “until the fulfillment/completion.” Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) left his tom — his completeness and glory — to enter into mar (מַר) (bitterness) so that we might be made complete. — Strong’s H8535

Mar (מַר) — “Bitter”; embedded in the second and third letters of tamar (תָּמָר). Root of: marah (מָרָה) — the bitter waters of Exodus 15; mor (מֹר) — myrrh (a bitter substance); Miriam/Mary — meaning “bitterness.” The tamar (date palm) grows in salty, bitter water and produces sweet fruit — a living parable of redemption. — Strong’s H4751

Kedeshah (קְדֵשָׁה) — “A cult/sacred prostitute” or “veiled woman set apart”; the disguise Tamar adopted at the crossroads to secure Judah’s pledge. This word is distinct from the common word for prostitute (zonah, זוֹנָה) and carries a sense of being set apart — an irony not lost on the Hebrew reader. — Strong’s H6948 · Sefaria: Genesis 38

Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation, deliverance”; the Messiah, whose life parallels Joseph in nearly one hundred ways. Stripped of his glory as Joseph was stripped of his ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים); crucified and risen so that broken, violated humanity — like Tamar — could be clothed in his righteousness. His adoptive father was named Joseph, so he would have been called Yeshua ben Yosef — Yeshua, son of Joseph. — Strong’s H3442

Torah (תּוֹרָה) — “Instruction, teaching, law”; specifically the Levirate law (yibbum, יִבּוּם) invoked by Tamar — that when a husband dies without offspring, his brother must marry the widow to raise up seed in the dead man’s name (Deuteronomy 25:5–6). It was Tamar’s knowledge of and commitment to Torah (תּוֹרָה) that drove her to act, and which Judah ultimately acknowledged when he declared her “more righteous than I.” — Strong’s H8451

Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness, well-being.” — Strong’s H7965

Scripture References

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• Genesis 37:3 — Jacob makes Joseph a ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים); the first of only two occurrences of this phrase in all of Scripture
• Genesis 37:34 — Jacob mourns his son — the exact phrase found only here and in the story of Tamar (2 Samuel 13)
• Genesis 38 — The story of the first Tamar: Judah’s daughter-in-law, who takes bitter circumstances and transforms them, becoming the ancestor of Messiah through Perez
• Genesis 39:6 — Joseph described as handsome — paralleling Tamar described as beautiful (2 Samuel 13:1)
• 2 Samuel 13:1–18 — The story of Tamar, daughter of David: the ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים), violation by Amnon, and the phrase “lie with me” — all hyperlinked to the story of Joseph
• 1 Chronicles 3:1–9 — The last mention of Tamar (daughter of David) in the Hebrew Bible; though only a victim in her story, she is given special honor alongside the sons of David
• Matthew 1:1–3 — The last mention of Tamar (of Genesis 38) in Scripture — in the genealogy of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ), our Messiah; she is proclaimed more righteous than Judah
• Psalm 92:12 — “The righteous flourish like the tamar (תָּמָר)” — the date palm that takes bitter soil and produces sweet fruit; the cedar of Lebanon — wood of the Temple — mentioned alongside it
• Deuteronomy 25:5–6 — The Levirate law (yibbum) that Tamar invoked; her commitment to Torah (תּוֹרָה) made her “more righteous” than Judah

External References & Further Study

• Genesis 37 — Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors — Sefaria — Hebrew and English text of Joseph’s ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים) and the beginning of the Joseph narrative
• Genesis 38 — Judah and Tamar — Sefaria — The chapter embedded in Joseph’s story; the first Tamar, Perez, Zerah, and the red string — the ancestry of Messiah
• 2 Samuel 13 — Tamar and Amnon — Sefaria — Hebrew text of the second Tamar’s story; the violated daughter of David clothed in the ketonet passim (כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים)
• Levirate Marriage (Yibbum) — My Jewish Learning — The Torah law that drove Tamar’s actions in Genesis 38; the obligation of the brother-in-law to raise seed in the dead husband’s name
• The Maggid of Mezeritch — Rabbi Dov Ber, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, who taught that tamar (תָּמָר) means “the end of bitterness”
• The Baal Shem Tov — Chabad — Founder of Chassidic Judaism; teacher of the Maggid of Mezeritch referenced in this teaching
• Torah Today Ministries — Home of The Hebrew Key and other Torah-centered teachings