GOD’S ANCIENT PEOPLE GENESIS _ALUN OWEN_ CHAPTER 38 JUDAH AND TAMAR V1 At that time, Judah left his brothers. He stayed with a member of the *tribe of Adullam, whose name was Hirah. V2 There Judah saw the daughter of Shua, who was a *Canaanite. Judah married her. He had sex with her V3 and she... [ Continue Reading ]
This chapter is not a part of the main story. The main story continues from the end of chapter 37 to chapter 39 verse 1. This chapter has two purposes: • It tells the origin of three families of Judah. These were the families of Shelah (see verse 5) and Perez and Zerah (see verses 29-30 and the co... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah married a foreign woman. That caused trouble. Their first two sons were evil. (See verses 7 and 10.) Many years before this, Esau took foreign women as his wives. And that made his parents very unhappy and it caused great trouble. (See Genesis 26:34-35.) Abraham insisted that his son Isaac sho... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis does not tell us what wicked things Er did. But we can be sure that his deeds were very evil. God had not killed people since the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. (See Genesis 19:25.) And before that, God killed people by the flood. (See Genesis 7:21.) But God did not kill one man alone until he... [ Continue Reading ]
The duty of a husband’s brother forms part of Moses’ law. (See Deuteronomy 25:5-6.) It is important in Ruth 3:1-22. We read about it in Mark 12:18-23. But this chapter (chapter 38) shows that the duty was much older than Moses’ law. The duty was this. A married man dies and he has no son. His wife i... [ Continue Reading ]
When Onan spilled his seed, that was not very wrong. These things were wrong. • He did not do his duty. He did not produce a child for his brother. • He was not honest. He pretended to do his duty and he lay with Tamar. He could have said, ‘I will not do my duty. I will not lie with Tamar.’ That w... [ Continue Reading ]
Shelah was not yet old enough to have sex with Tamar. When Shelah was older, he would have the duty of the husband’s brother. He would have a duty to produce a son for his dead brother Er. So Tamar waited until Shelah was older. But Judah did not intend to let Shelah do his duty. Judah was afraid th... [ Continue Reading ]
An Adullamite was a member of the tribe of Adullam.... [ Continue Reading ]
Shelah had become old enough to do the duty of a husband’s brother for Tamar. But Shelah’s father Judah did not allow him to do his duty. Judah was afraid that Shelah would die. Shelah’s two brothers had died because they were wicked. Judah thought that they had died because they married Tamar. So J... [ Continue Reading ]
There were women who had sex for money. And some of those used to cover their faces. So Judah thought that Tamar was such a woman. He did not recognise her because she had covered her face.... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah promised to send a young goat to Tamar. That was her price. But she pretended that she did not trust Judah. She asked him to give her some of his possessions. She would give them back to him when he brought the goat to her. (See verse 20.)... [ Continue Reading ]
The seal was a special stone. It had a string so as to hang from a person’s neck. Its shape had a special pattern. Its owner would press the seal on a flat lump of clay. (Clay is a kind of soil. One can form it into a flat lump. One can write on the flat lump with the point of a stick. People used f... [ Continue Reading ]
An Adullamite was a member of the tribe of Adullam. For ‘seal’, see comment on verse 18.... [ Continue Reading ]
The seal was much more valuable than the goat. So Judah wanted to give the goat to the woman and to have his seal back. But he did not want to ask all the people who the woman was. Otherwise, they would know what he had done. He had had sex with a strange woman for money. He did not want people to k... [ Continue Reading ]
For ‘seal’, see the comment on verse 18.... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah realised his duty. He should have given his son Shelah as a wife to Tamar. If Shelah did not do the duty, the duty was on Judah. Judah was Er’s nearest relative apart from Shelah. V27 The time of the birth came. Tamar realised that she had two children in her. V28 One child put out a hand. An... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Perez’ means ‘breaking out’. ‘Zerah’ means ‘red’. Jesus Christ was a *descendant of Perez. (See Luke 3:33.) TRIBE ~ a large group of people who are relatives of each other. Judah’s descendants were called ‘the tribe of Judah’. In a similar way, each of the 12 sons of Israel became a tribe. But Jos... [ Continue Reading ]