Tamar, the righteous

If you’re new to the series, start here with part 1.

Ruth’s marriage to Boaz is often spoken of in the church as an action that gratified Ruth. The book is often described as a “sweet love story”. In reality, the book seems to imply that Ruth’s marriage was much kinder to Naomi than it was to herself. When Boaz highly praised Ruth, bending forward to see who it was at his feet, he declared that her act of covenant kindness in this instance was far greater than leaving her family and country to cling to Naomi had been!

There are wild edges to some of these stories, that Sunday school tends to blunt for us.

At the end of Ruth’s story, the townspeople bless her with the blessing of “Tamar, who bore Perez.” Ruth is the only person to be explicitly linked to Tamar in this way. And the reason why comes in the middle of the book of Ruth—the famous proposal scene.

Do you remember Tamar? Sandwiched into the narrative of Joseph comes Genesis chapter 38—a generation’s worth of family in Judah’s life. It seems clear that the placement of Judah’s story is crucial, not for chronological reasons, but to explain how Judah went from selling his younger half-brother Joseph, to offering his own life in the place of his half-brother Benjamin. What happened between those two events to change Judah, and to justify him being the father of Israel’s kingly line? (Remember the promise to Abraham of kings). Tamar happened.

Here is the story of Tamar, step by step, with the corresponding detail from Ruth’s story in italics.

Genesis 38 starts: Judah leaves his brothers. Elimelech leaves his people to go to Moab with wife Naomi and two sons, Mahlon and Chilion.

Judah marries Bat-Shua, a Canaanite, who gives him three sons; Er (childlessness), Onan (mourning), Shelah (born at Chezib ‘false’). Elimelech’s sons marry Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.

Judah finds wife for Er, but God kills him. Onan disrespects his brother and God kills him too. Elimelech and his two sons die, leaving three widows. Reasons not given.

Judah says to Tamar, “Stay as a widow in your father’s house”, because he is afraid to give up Shiloh. Naomi says to Ruth and Orpah, “return to your mother’s home, and remarry” because there is no hope for her to bear more sons, or for remarriage.

A long time passes, and Bat-Shua dies. After the barley and wheat harvest…

Tamar changes her widow dress to disguise herself as a prostitute and goes to the place of sheep shearing to wait for Judah. Ruth dresses and anoints herself, coming to Boaz at the threshing floor, at night, taking him by surprise.

Tamar receives a pledge from Judah for him to use her as a prostitute. Ruth requests a full covering (marriage) from Boaz, and receives 6 measures of barley, as well as protection of her honour and safety for that night.

Tamar is condemned as a harlot and threatened with stoning, but she sends the pledge to Judah.

Ruth shows the pledge to Naomi, who replies, “he will not rest until he accomplishes what concerns you”. They wed the next day.

Judah confesses “She is more righteous than I” and Tamar is spared stoning. Boaz confesses that Ruth’s virtue is known by all the people, and by the elders of the land.

Shiloh may have married Tamar, his first son’s name is Er (1 Ch. 4:21), we don’t know for sure. Ruth bears a son to Naomi; “Obed” – son of Naomi.

Here is what Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks says, “In both cases, Tamar and Ruth boldly force the pace of events. In both stories, an extended form of levirate marriage is involved [having a child who bears the name of their dead husband], and in both cases, the man who became the father of the child or children – Judah and Boaz – is not the closest in line. Finally, in both cases the men pay tribute to the exemplary virtues of the women.

You’re welcome to probe these stories, that are placed so closely together. But a warning: if you follow the trail of names you will find the heartbreaking reappearance of both Batshua (Bathsheba) and Tamar in the life of David, great-grandson of Ruth. And you will discover that it is not enough to belong to the bloodline. Each generation of kings must choose to act in righteousness, like Boaz, and like Judah when he made his confession. David, for all his strengths, did not act righteously in regard to these women. And the kingdom began to fall apart.

Jewish tradition points to that one statement from Judah– “she is more righteous than I” as the moment that changed everything. For one thing, Tamar was vindicated and was not stoned to death. But it was also Judah’s moment of repentance. He took responsibility, as he later would for Benjamin’s life. This is the moment where Judah becomes the father of kings. Tamar gives birth to twins, one of whom is named Perez. Perez is the first name in the genealogy at the end of the book of Ruth. The genealogy begins with Perez and ends with David, Israel’s greatest king.

Widowed Tamar, a Canaanite woman, proves more righteous than Judah, and Judah repents. Tamar bears Perez, the new head of a family of kings.

But the kings don’t truly enter the story of Israel until a Moabitess widow makes the choice of Abraham, to leave everything and travel to the promised land, to cast her lot with the people of God. And when a righteous man in the line of Perez recognizes her worth, the promise of kings is brought to fruition.

So here we have Ruth as a latter-day Abraham, as a righteous Tamar, answering the promise made by Shaddai that kings would be among Abraham’s descendants.

This is how Ruth moves the canon. I had to take this detour into the kings because Ruth is so often ignored, or treated as an “extra” book to the overall story. I’ve been guilty of it myself. How many sermons have you heard on Ruth, and how many of them really only talk about Boaz? Yet if we look closer, the story of Naomi and Ruth is woven into the very heart of God’s covenant story.

The first story is told from the perspective of Abraham and Judah, and while the women in their stories are commended for their sacrifice and choices, they are not the focus of the narrative. But here we have Sarah again, this time as old Naomi becoming the mother of kings miraculously, a whole narrative woven around her emptiness and celebrating her filling, a story that lets her speak, and speak again, complaining and blessing and arguing with God and bossing people around. We have Tamar again, this time as Ruth, and this time there is honour in her choice. Her righteousness is praised by all, seen by all, in the best way. We need both storylines–of Abraham and Judah, Naomi and Ruth. We need the stories of their descendants. Together it gives us the story of a human nation, but it also gives us the courage to make choices as well.

Sacks again, “Tamar and Ruth, powerless except for their moral courage, wrote their names into Jewish history as role models who gave birth to royalty – to remind us, in case we ever forget, that true royalty lies in love and faithfulness, and that greatness often exists where we expect it least.”

But in this story of Naomi in the book of Ruth there is another echo, another “stacking” that is (to me) even more beautiful. This one will bring us back to the question of Job, Naomi, and wisdom.

Photo by Marina Khrapova