Genesis 38:11

_THEN SAID JUDAH TO TAMAR HIS DAUGHTER IN LAW, REMAIN A WIDOW AT THY FATHER'S HOUSE, TILL SHELAH MY SON BE GROWN: FOR HE SAID, LEST PERADVENTURE HE DIE ALSO, AS HIS BRETHREN DID. AND TAMAR WENT AND DWELT IN HER FATHER'S HOUSE._ For he said, Lest peradventure he die also. Shelah, his third son being yet a mere boy, Judah recommended Tamar to seclude herself as a widow for a time, until that youth should have attained a marriageable age, when, as the next representative of his oldest brother, he would espouse her. But this counsel was a mere pretext to gain time. Judah was not sincere in his intentions to fulfill the promise; for, entertaining some suspicion, or cherishing a superstitious notion that marriage with Tamar was an ill-omened connection, he was secretly desirous of preventing Shelah from marrying her, and thereby saving that son from the dreaded fate of his two brothers. But i...

11._Then said Judah to Tamar_. Moses intimates that Tamar was not at liberty to marry into another family, so long as Judah wished to retain her under his own authority. It is possible that she voluntarily submitted herself to the will of her father-in-law, when she might have refused: but the language seems to mean, that it was according to a received practice, that Tamar should not pass over to another family, except at the will of her father-in-law, as long as there was a successor who might raise up seed by her. However this may be, Judah acted very unjustly in keeping one bound, whom he intended to defraud. For truly there was no cause why he should be unwilling to allow her to depart free from his house, unless he dreaded the charge of inconstancy. But he should not have allowed this ambitious sense of shame to render him perfidious and cruel to his daughter-in-law. Besides, this i...

- 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)

THEN SAID JUDAH TO TAMAR HIS DAUGHTER IN LAW,.... After the death of his two sons, who had successively married her: REMAIN A WIDOW AT THY FATHER'S HOUSE TILL SHELAH MY SON BE GROWN: who was his third and youngest son, though perhaps not more than a year younger than Onan; but he might not choose he should marry so soon as his brethren had done, for a reason following: according to the custom and law of marrying a brother's wife, who died without issue, she in course was to be the wife of Shelah; since if there were ever so many brothers, they all married such an one in turn, until there was issue by one of them, see Matthew 22:25; as Judah knew this, he pretended at least to give her to his son for wife, only would have it put off till he was at age of maturity, or was more grown; and therefore desires her to keep herself unmarried to any other person until that time;

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

_in thy father's house_ A widow without children went back to her father's family; cf. Leviticus 22:13; Ruth 1:8. A widow with children remained in the family of her husband, and under its protection. Judah evidently believes that the deaths of Er and Onan are somehow due to Tamar. Rather, then, than subject his youngest son Shelah to the risk of a similar fate, he sends Tamar back to her own people, on the pretext that Shelah is too young at present to perform the levirate duty. Compare the story in Tobit 3, where Sarah's seven husbands are cut off in succession....

REMAIN A WIDOW, &C.— Hence it appears that the contract of marriage was so understood in those days, that if the husband died without issue, the woman must marry his next brother; and as long as any of his brethren remained, they were bound to marry his wife. It is difficult to determine with what intention Judah persuaded Tamar to retire to her father's house, till his son Shelah was grown up. Some think that it was only a pretence, and that he never intended to give her to his son. REFLECTIONS.—Jacob is still more unhappy in his children. We have here, Judah's ill conduct. He leaves his brethren, and gets a Canaanite friend, one Hirah: bad connections for young people are very dangerous; evil communications corrupt good manners. There he meets a Canaanitish woman, and marries her. How many a youth has been thus trepanned by idle companions into a scandalous marriage, not only to the wo...

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