Tamar תמר

Twice widowed and denied Judah's promised third son, Tamar sat veiled by the road—and took in pledge her father-in-law's seal, cord and staff. Led out to die for harlotry, she did not name him: she sent the things with the words "by the man whose these are, I am with child—discern them". Judah discerned and said before all: "she is more righteous than I".

From this account the Talmud drew the rule it repeats constantly: better to be thrown into a furnace than to shame one's fellow in public—learned "from Tamar". Her son Peretz is the ancestor of Boaz, Jesse and David: the book of Ruth closes with "these are the generations of Peretz".