TAMAR

I stand here and reminisce on the life I have had

Some has brought me joy some has made me sad

But as I gaze into the eyes of my twin baby boys

I thank God up in heaven for honoring my choice

I remember the day I was given to Er as his wife

What I imagined would be joy quickly turned to strife

Though Judah served the one true God as his fathers before

His wife and their sons thought him nothing but folklore

The grief poured from the tent at the breaking of dawn

Judah’s wife could not bear the loss of her son

The wailing and weeping—few could endure

Judah was now without his firstborn son and heir

The pain in his eyes as he remembered Joseph his brother

How the pain he now feels he knows he caused his own father

Surely this was God’s punishment for the debt of his crime

Oh how he wished he could change—he could go back in time

Mourning is over though the pain still remains

I marry his brother as the levirate marriage claims

All eyes fall on me as the second son is now dead

They believe I have cursed them his blood on my head

I am off to live in the house of my father

I am scorned and shamed no one will bother

Though I have still yet a promise of one younger brother

I know deep inside the anger felt by father and mother

For years and years I wait and grow faint…

Shelah all grown up and out on his own

Living life and playing around on the town

I should have known the promise would go unkept

I feel so betrayed so all night I laid and just wept

Judah is traveling to sheering the sheep

I will sneak out of the tent without even a peep

I must find a way to meet him and lure his approach

My prayer is that I conceive to expel my reproach

A pledge of a goat is the price that he will pay

His staff, his cord and ring he freely gives away

Several months have now passed I can no longer hide

The growth of my belly the secret baby inside

He calls out for justice and for me to be burned

So I return to him his pledge so I am not spurned

“She is more righteous than I” pours from his lips

I am now free of Judah’s anger far from its grips

Judah’s descendents now will not wither and fade

Zerah and Perez are proof of what we both made

I know not what their lives hold in the future

They will be in Gods grander plan of that I am sure

Some has brought me joy some has made me sad

But as I gaze into the eyes of my twin baby boys

I thank God up in heaven for honoring my choice

Through a staff and a chord and one signet ring

The Lord indeed has blessed me with a life that will sing.

©2012 Heather Green