Genesis 38:2

_AND JUDAH SAW THERE A DAUGHTER OF A CERTAIN CANAANITE, WHOSE NAME WAS SHUAH; AND HE TOOK HER, AND_ _ WENT IN UNTO HER._ And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite. Like Esau, this son of Jacob, casting off the restraints of religion, married into a Canaanite family; and it is not surprising that the family which sprang from such an unsuitable connection should be infamous for bold and unblushing wickedness. The date of Judah's marriage has been a subject of much discussion. Augustine, and many writers since, have maintained that it took place previous to Joseph's captivity. But that could not be; because since Joseph was six years of age at his father's return from Mesopotamia (see the note at Genesis 33:14), and seventeen when he was sold as a slave, Judah, who was only two, or at most three years older, could not have had such a family experience,

2._And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite_. I am not satisfied with the interpretation which some give of “merchant” to the word Canaanite. For Moses charges Judah with perverse lust, because he took a wife out of that nation with which the children of Abraham were divinely commanded to be at perpetual strife. For neither he nor his other brethren were ignorant that they sojourned in the land of Canaan, under the stipulation, that afterwards their enemies were to be cut off and destroyed, in order that they might possess the promised dominion over it. Moses, therefore, justly regards it as a fault, that Judah should entangle himself in a forbidden alliance; and the Lord, at length, cursed the offspring thus accruing to Judah, that the prince and head of the tribe of Judah might not be born, nor Christ himself descend, from this connection. This also ought to be numbered am...

- 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 JUDAH SAW THERE A DAUGHTER OF A CERTAIN CANAANITE,.... Onkelos and Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Ben Gersom, interpret it a "merchant", to take off the disgrace of his falling in love with, and marrying a Canaanitish woman, which was forbidden by his ancestors Abraham and Isaac, and which his father avoided: WHOSE NAME [WAS] SHUAH; not the name of the woman he married, but the name of her father, as appears from Genesis 38:12; and who very probably was a man of note in the country: AND HE TOOK HER; to be his wife, with her and her father's consent, not by force: AND WENT IN UNTO HER; cohabited with her as his wife....

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

_Shua_ Note that "Shua," like Hirah in Genesis 38:1, is the name of a man. See Genesis 38:12. Bath-Shua, i.e. "the daughter of Shua," is all the description given of Judah's wife....

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....