Tamar
Tamar is an ancient city mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Negev in modern-day Israel. Known today as En Hazeva. It appears across 3 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Tamar was a fortified city situated at the southern extremity of the promised land, in the arid Negev region near the Arabah rift valley. Its most prominent role appears in Ezekiel 47:19 and 48:28, where the prophet, in his visionary description of the restored land of Israel, designates Tamar as the southeastern boundary marker of the ideal future territory. This placement reflects Tamar's historical function as a frontier outpost guarding the southern approaches to Judah from the direction of Edom and the desert. Solomon is credited with fortifying the region as part of his defensive building program (1 Kings 9:18, where some manuscripts read "Tamar" rather than "Tadmor"). The city's name, meaning "palm tree" in Hebrew, evokes the vegetation that would accompany a desert oasis or water source, characteristic of the En Hazeva location with its springs in the central Arabah. Tamar's mention as a future boundary in Ezekiel's eschatological vision situates it within the grand theological framework of God's ultimate restoration of his people to their full inheritance in the promised land.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Tamar is identified with the archaeological site of En Hazeva (also known as 'Ein Hazeva or Hazeva) in the central Arabah Valley of Israel's Negev region. Excavations conducted by Rudolph Cohen and Yigal Yisrael in the 1990s revealed a remarkable sequence of occupation spanning the Iron Age through the Nabatean and Byzantine periods. The site yielded evidence of a Judaean fortress from the Iron Age II period, consistent with the biblical references to Solomon's building program. An extraordinary find consisted of a cache of smashed cultic vessels and figurines, apparently deliberately broken, possibly reflecting a religious reform akin to those described under Hezekiah or Josiah. The spring at En Hazeva provided reliable water in the desert, explaining the site's strategic and commercial importance throughout antiquity.
Verse Appearances (3)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]