Tammuz

also n.
The tenth month of the year in the Jewish calendar.

[Hebrew tammūz, akin to Iraqi Arabic tabbūz, July, both ultimately from Sumerian dumu-zi, Dumuzi, a dying and rising shepherd god : dumu, son, offspring + zi, true, effective.]

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(Assyro-Babylonian Duzu or Dumuzi). Fourth month of the Jewish religious Calendar; tenth month of the Hebrew civil year counting from Tishri. It has 29 days and normally coincides with June-July; its sign of the zodiac is Cancer. There are several biblical references to "the fourth month," but the name Tammuz occurs in the Bible only as that of a Mesopotamian deity, better known to the Greeks as Adonis (Ezek. 8:14). Jews returning to Judah from the Babylonian Exile introduced the use of Tammuz (modified Dumuzi) as the name of their fourth month and it later appears frequently in rabbinic literature. Traditionally, Tammuz marks the beginning of summer in the Land of Israel (Shab. 53a). The fast of 17 Tammuz (Shivah Asar Be-Tammuz) commemorates the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 586 BCE on 9 Tammuz (II Kings 25:3-4); in 70 CE, the Roman legions of Titus did it again on the 17th. This fast ushers in the mournful Three Weeks culminating in Tishah Be-Av. According to Zechariah (8:19), this "fast of the fourth month" will nevertheless be turned into a joyful occasion in time to come, along with the three other biblical fasts.

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The object of abominable rites carried on at the entrance of the north gate of the Temple of the Lord, where "the women were seated weeping for Tammuz" (Ezek 8:14). According to Ezekiel, these rites were among the reasons for the Lord's decision to destroy the Temple and exile the Jews. Tammuz represents Sumerian/Babylonian Dumuzi, a fertility god and the mourning for Tammuz was an annual rite, observed in Mesopotamia in June or July. The death of Tammuz came to symbolize the death of nature in the heat of summer. The Church Fathers identified Tammuz with the Greek Adonis. Tammuz is also the post-exilic name of the fourth month of the Hebrew calendar. It does not, however, appear in the Bible.

Concordance
Ezek 8:14

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