What Does Genesis 38:6 Mean in the King James?

And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.

Genesis 38:6 · KJV

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’s name means date palm, giving her a living image before the story tells us more about her.

THE MEANING

You meet Tamar here through a marriage arranged for Er, while her name holds the image of a date palm, rooted and upright. The story has barely opened, but the name already carries a natural form.

THE ROOT

תָּמָר

Tamar

GROWS FROM

תמר

t-m-r

Date palm; palm tree, with the image of an upright form.

Tamar’s name is also the Hebrew word for a date palm. English makes it sound like a label, while Hebrew lets the tree remain inside the name as a living image.

ALSO GROWS

tamar: Date palm; palm tree.

תָּמָר

This is the form used in Tamar’s name, so the person’s name preserves the tree image.

tomer: Palm tree or palm-like upright form.

תֹּמֶר

This related form appears in Jeremiah 10:5, where figures are described as upright like a palm tree, making the root’s visual shape explicit.

THE PATTERN

Scripture lets a name carry a life-image or work associated with the person who bears it.

And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Genesis 3:20 · KJVThe verse links Eve’s name with the life she will carry forward.

And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

Exodus 2:10 · KJVMoses’s name is connected in the verse to being drawn out of the water.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Matthew 1:21 · KJVJesus’s name is tied to the deliverance named in the verse.

THE THREAD

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Psalm 92:12 · KJV

The palm tree here is ⁨תָּמָר⁩ (tamar, date palm), the same Hebrew word carried in Tamar’s name. The verse opens that name toward flourishing, while leaving this introduction free of claims about what Tamar’s story will become.

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