Part of Speech: Verb
Strong's Number: H8552
Original Word: tamam
Usage Notes: "to be complete, finished, perfect, spent, sound, used up, have integrity." Found in both ancient and modern Hebrew, this word also exists in ancient Ugaritic. Tamam is found approximately 60 times in the Hebrew Old Testament in its verbal forms.
The basic meaning of this word is that of "being complete" or "finished," with nothing else expected or intended. When it was said that the temple was "finished" (1Kings 6:22), this meant that the temple was "complete," with nothing else to add. Similarly, when the notation is made in Job 31:40, "The words of Job are ended [finished]," this indicates that the cycle of Job's speeches is "complete." Tamam is sometimes used to express the fact that something is "completed" or "finished" with regard to its supply. Thus, money that is all spent is "finished" or "exhausted" (Gen 47:15, 18). Jeremiah was given bread daily until "all the bread in the city [was] spent [exhausted]" (Jer 37:21). When a people came "to a full end" "consumed" or completely destroyed." To "consume" the filthiness out of the people (Ezek 22:15) meant "to destroy it" or "to make an end of it."
Tamam sometimes expresses moral and ethical "soundness": "Then shall I be upright" (Psa 19:13), says the psalmist, when God helps him to keep God's Law.
Usage Number: 2
Part of Speech: Adjective
Strong's Number: H8535
Original Word: tam
Usage Notes: "perfect." When the adjectival form tam is used to describe Job (Job 1:1), the meaning is not that he was really "perfect" in the ultimate sense, but rather that he was "blameless" (rsv) or "had integrity."
