Genesis 38:10

_AND ONAN KNEW THAT THE SEED SHOULD NOT BE HIS; AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN HE WENT IN UNTO HIS BROTHER'S WIFE, THAT HE SPILLED IT ON THE GROUND, LEST THAT HE SHOULD GIVE SEED TO HIS BROTHER._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

10._And the thing which he did displeased the LORD_. Less neatly the Jews speak about this matter. I will contend myself with briefly mentioning this, as far as the sense of shame allows to discuss it. It is a horrible thing to pour out seed besides the intercourse of man and woman. Deliberately avoiding the intercourse, so that the seed drops on the ground, is double horrible. For this means that one quenches the hope of his family, and kills the son, which could be expected, before he is born. This wickedness is now as severely as is possible condemned by the Spirit, through Moses, that Onan, as it were, through a violent and untimely birth, tore away the seed of his brother out the womb, and as cruel as shamefully has thrown on the earth. Moreover he thus has, as much as was in his power, tried to destroy a part of the human race. When a woman in some way drives away the seed out the...

Verse Genesis 38:10. _WHEREFORE HE SLEW HIM ALSO._] The sin of Onan has generally been supposed to be _self-pollution_; but this is certainly a mistake; his crime was _his refusal to raise up seed to_ _his brother_, and rather than do it, by the act mentioned above, he rendered himself incapable of it. We find from this history that long be fore the Mosaic law it was an established custom, probably founded on a Divine precept, that if a man died childless his brother was to take his wife, and the children produced by this second marriage were considered as the children of the first husband, and in consequence inherited his possessions....

- The Family of Judah 1. עדלם _‛__ǎdûllâm_, ‘Adullam, “righteousness.” חירה _chı̂yrâh_ Chirah, “nobility?” 2. שׁוּע _shûa‛_, Shua‘, “luck, riches, cry.” 3. ער _‛__êr_, ‘Er, “watching.” 4. אונן _'ônân_, Onan, “strong.” 5. שׁלה _shēlâh_, Shelah, “request? rest.” כזיב _k__e__zı̂yb_ Kezib, “falsehood.” 6. תמר _tāmār_, Tamar, “palm.” 12. תמנה _tı̂mnâh_, Timnah

EXPOSITION GENESIS 38:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS. The present chapter appears to interrupt the continuity of the narrative of Joseph's history. Partly on this account, and partly because the name Jehovah occurs in it (Genesis 38:7, Genesis 38:10), it has been pronounced a later Jehovistic interpolation (Tuch, Bleek, Davidson, Coleuso). Its design has been explained as an attempt to glorify the line of David by representing it as sprung from Judah (Bohlen), or to disclose the origin of the Levitate law of marriage among the Jews (Knobel); but the incidents here recorded of Judah and his family are fitted to reflect dishonor instead of glory on the ancestry of David (Havernick)

AND THE THING WHICH HE DID DISPLEASED THE LORD,.... Being done out of envy to his brother, and through want of affection to the memory of his name; and it may be out of covetousness to get his estate into his own hands, and especially as it frustrated the end of such an usage of marrying a brother's wife; which appears to be according to the will of God, since it afterwards became a known law of his; and it was the more displeasing, as it was not only a check upon the multiplication of Abraham's seed as promised, but since the Messiah was to come from Judah. This was doing all to hinder it that lay in his power: WHEREFORE HE SLEW HIM ALSO; in like manner as he had slain his brother, Genesis 38:7....

CHAPTER 38 JUDAH AND TAMAR _ 1. Judah's marriage to the Canaanitish woman (Genesis 38:1)_ 2. His sons: Er, Onan and Shelah (Genesis 38:3) 3. Tamar married to Er and Onan (Genesis 38:6) 4. Tamar waiting for Shelah (Genesis 38:11) 5. Her deception and Judah's sin (Genesis 38:12) 6. The birth of Pharez and Zarah (Genesis 38:27) Historically this chapter comes before the thirty-seventh. The higher critics are one

GENESIS 38. JUDAH AND TAMAR. The source is J, but not the same stratum as that to which the Joseph story belongs. There is not room for the events either before or after the events of Genesis 37, nor does the Joseph narrative suggest that Judah left his brothers and lived the independent life here described. The chronology is quite inconsistent with the view that Genesis is a unity. Judah was roughly about twenty when Joseph, at the age at least of seventeen (Genesis 37:2), went into Egypt. The interval between that event and the journey of Jacob into Egypt was not more than twenty-two years. Within that period the whole of the events of this chapter have been crowded; moreover, Perez has two sons by its close (Genesis 46:12). To a certain extent the chapter contains tribal history. Judah at first consisted

PART FORTY-FIVE THE INCIDENT OF JUDAH AND TAMAR (Genesis 38:1-30) _The Biblical Account._ 1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her, and went in unto her. 3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Ezra 4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan. 5 And she yet again bare a son, and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, and her name was Tamar. 7 And Er. Judah's first-born, was wicked in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah slew him. 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife

THE HISTORY OF JUDAH The sins recorded in this chapter testify eloquently to the great need the world had of the Greatest of the descendants of Judah, who came to teach the virtue of purity and the sanctity of family life. The honesty and truthfulness of the historian are shown in his not concealing the dark spots in the history of Judah, whose descendants attained to such greatness. The direct purpose of the narrative is to show the ancestry of David, who was descended from Pharez the son of Judah by Tamar: see Ruth 4:18; Matthew 1:3....