Genesis 38:28

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN SHE TRAVAILED, THAT THE ONE PUT OUT HIS HAND: AND THE MIDWIFE TOOK AND BOUND UPON HIS HAND A SCARLET THREAD, SAYING, THIS CAME OUT FIRST._ The one put out his hand, х_ WAYITEN_ (H5414) _ YAAD_ (H3027)] - there appeared a hand (the verb being used impersonally), 'a circumstance which occasionally happens when the children lie in an abnormal position, and always impedes the delivery, and which was regarded in this instance as so significant, that the names of the children were founded upon the fact' (Delitzsch; see further Geddes' 'Critical Remarks'). THE MIDWIFE ... BOUND UPON HIS HAND A SCARLET THREAD - to mark the first-born of the twins, to whom the rights and honours of primogeniture would belong....

Verse Genesis 38:28. _THE MIDWIFE - BOUND UPON HIS HAND A SCARLET THREAD_] The binding of the scarlet thread about the wrist of the child whose arm appeared first in the birth, serves to show us how _solicitously_ the privileges of the _birthright_ were preserved. Had not this caution been taken by the midwife, _Pharez_ would have had the right of _primogeniture_ to the prejudice of his elder brother _Zarah_. And yet Pharez is usually reckoned in the genealogical tables before Zarah; and from him, not Zarah, does the line of our Lord proceed. See Matthew 1:3. Probably the two brothers, as being twins, were conjoined in the privileges belonging to the _birthright_....

- 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 IT CAME TO PASS WHEN SHE TRAVAILED,.... Her birth throes came strong and quick upon her: THAT [THE ONE] PUT OUT [HIS] HAND; which showed that she was like to have a difficult and dangerous time of it; that the birth was not like to be according to the usual and natural order, which may be considered as a correction for her sin: AND THE MIDWIFE TOOK AND BOUND UPON HIS HAND A SCARLET THREAD, SAYING, THIS CAME OUT FIRST; she tied this to his wrist, that she might know whose hand it was, and so which was the firstborn; which, to know was a matter of consequence, since to the firstborn there were some special and peculiar privileges....

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

_GENESIS 38:28_, &C. _AND IT CAME,_ &C.— This account is given to shew how the right of primogeniture was settled between these twin brothers. _This breach against thee,_ (as it is in the margin of our Bibles,) Houbigant contends should be, _that breach against US;_ he would read, עלינו _aleinu,_ after the Samaritan, instead of עליךֶ _aleca._ See his note and Bishop Patrick's. Many are the mysteries which the fathers and other writers have drawn from this chapter. However, the sacred historian may well be justified for inserting this history; as, 1st, It affords a strong proof of his impartiality, which suffered him not to dissemble the faults of the great founders of his nation. 2nd, It is a plain proof that the covenant wherewith God honoured the patriarchs was not in reward of their merit. 3rdly, It is a monument very proper to beat down the haughtin

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....