What Does 2 Samuel 14:27 Mean in the King James?
And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Tamar means “date palm,” so the verse lets her name and beauty meet as one image of flourishing made visible.
THE MEANING
The verse sets Tamar’s name beside her appearance: her name is the palm, and her beauty comes into view. She is not left as an unnamed child in a count; she appears as a named person with a distinct visible presence.
THE ROOT
תָּמָר
tamar
GROWS FROM
תמר
t-m-r
Date palm; a related form describes a rising column or plume.
Tamar is the Hebrew word for a date palm, so her name carries the image of a living tree. A related form is used for rising columns of smoke, extending the image into something upright and emerging.
ALSO GROWS
tamar: Date palm.
תָּמָר
This is the word used as Tamar’s name, giving her name the nature of a tree.
timarot: Columns or plumes, as in pillars of smoke.
תִּימֲרוֹת
The related form carries the palm’s upright image into a rising form that comes into view.
מַרְאֶה
mar'eh
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra'ah
To see or look.
The word translated “countenance” is mar’eh, appearance or what is seen, from the root meaning “to see.” The Hebrew keeps her beauty joined to the act of seeing: she is not only described as fair, but made visible to the reader.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ah: To see or look.
רָאָה
This is the verb at the root of the word for appearance.
ro'eh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
The related form names the one who sees, keeping sight and appearance connected.
mar'eh: Appearance, sight, or vision.
מַרְאֶה
This is the word used for Tamar’s countenance, the visible form described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The palm and its related column image turn upright growth into a visible sign of flourishing and emergence.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;THE THREAD
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.Both verses carry the Hebrew word תָּמָר (tamar, date palm). Psalm makes flourishing explicit in the image held by Tamar’s name, while 2 Samuel gives that image a person and a face.
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