Tamar. Tamar is a figure described in 2 Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, she is the daughter of King David, and sister of Absalom. In, she is raped by her half-brother Amnon. Tamar was the daughter of King David and Maacah, who was the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. Absalom was her brother and Amnon was her half-brother. In the narrative, Amnon became obsessed with Tamar, and she was said to be beautiful like her brother, Absalom. Amnon's friend and cousin Jonadab advised Amnon to pretend to be sick to ask Tamar to prepare him food. He did so, and while she was there, Amnon asked her to have sex with him. She said no repeatedly, but since he was stronger than her, he raped her. After the rape, Amnon treated her disdainfully and sent her home, hating her more than he had loved her. Tamar expressed her grief by tearing her robe and marking her forehead with ashes. She went to Absalom, who attempted to comfort her and took her into his home where she remained desolate. When David heard of her rape, he was angered but did nothing. Absalom had Amnon murdered two years later and then fled to Geshur. Michael D. Coogan attributes the placement of the rape of Tamar narrative, coming soon after the Bathsheba narrative, as a way for the narrator to compare Amnon to David. As David wronged Bathsheba, so too will Amnon wrong Tamar, like father like son. Mark Gray, however, disagrees with Coogan on this point, arguing that the rape of Tamar is an act of such horrific defilement that it is marked off as distinct from David's encounter with Bathsheba. Mary J. Evans describes Tamar as a beautiful, good-hearted obedient, righteous daughter who is totally destroyed by her family. After the rape, Amnon attempted to send Tamar away. She responded No, my brother; for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you did to me. This response refers to which states that a man who rapes a virgin must marry her. In Biblical law, it was unlawful for a man to have intercourse with his sister. Coogan says that, according to the Bible, it was possible for Amnon to marry Tamar. Kyle McCarter suggests that either the laws are not in effect at this time or will be overlooked by David, or they do not apply to the royal family. Coogan, in his section on women in 2 Samuel, describes Tamar as a passive figure whose story is narrated with considerable pathos. Coogan also points out the poignancy of the image at the end of the narrative story where Tamar is left as a desolate woman in her brother Absalom's house. This ending verse about Tamar is meant to make the reader feel compassion and pity for her. Adrien Bledstein says the description of Tamar as wearing a richly ornamented robe may have been meant to signify that she was a priestess or interpreter of dreams, like Joseph with his coat of many colors. Feminist scholars have spent time exploring the character of Tamar, her relationships with her male family members and her experience of rape. In The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response, Episcopal priest Pamela Cooper-White argues that Tamar's story has a direct message for the church in its response to violence against women. The narrative of Tamar's rape at the hands of her brother is told with a focus that emphasizes the male roles of the story: David, Amnon, and Absalom. Even the poignancy of Tamar's humiliation is drawn out for the primary purpose of justifying Absalom's later murder of Amnon, and not for its own sake. In focusing on the story of Tamar, rather than on the men, Cooper-White reminds readers that the lesson should come from the true victim: the female who was raped, not the men left to deal with the situation. She emphasizes power-within instead of power-over. With power-over, one's power is related to how many creatures one has dominion over. Tamar, however, demonstrates the power-within, or en-theos, by resisting as much as she could Amnon's attack and subsequent banishment. Throughout her book, Cooper-White elaborates on the different kinds of violence women often face, and also strongly critiques the church response of forgiveness for the perpetrators at the expense of the victim. She concludes that the lesson learned from Tamar is that women, and women victims, must be empowered within themselves with the full support of the Christian church. Feminist literary critic Phyllis Trible dedicates a chapter in her book, Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives, to the rape of Tamar, or what she calls The Royal Rape of Wisdom. Trible gives a comprehensive literary critique of the text, highlighting the patterns that reiterate the power struggle between the characters and the vulnerability of Tamar, the sole female in the narrative.