At that time, Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. There, Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite man named Shua. He took her, and went in to her. She conceived, and bore a son; and he named him Er. She conceived again, and bore a son; and she named him Onan. She yet again bore a son, and named him Shelah. He was at Chezib when she bore him. Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in Yahweh’s sight. So Yahweh killed him. Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” Onan knew that the offspring wouldn’t be his; and when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. The thing which he did was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and he killed him also. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
After many days, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite. Tamar was told, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”
He said, “What pledge will I give you?” She said, “Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.
She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, but he didn’t find her. Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?” They said, “There has been no prostitute here.”
He returned to Judah, and said, “I haven’t found her; and also the men of the place said, ‘There has been no prostitute here.’ ” Judah said, “Let her keep it, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this young goat, and you haven’t found her.”
About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute. Moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution.” Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 24 1. And it came to pass at that time,…
1. And it came to pass at that time, that Judah. Before Moses proceeds in relating the history of Joseph, he inserts the genealogy of Judah, to which he devotes more labor, because the Redeemer was thence to derive his origin; for the continuous history of that tribe, from which salvation was to be bought, could not remain unknown, without loss. And yet its glorious nobility is not here celebrated, but the greatest disgrace of the family is exposed. What is here related, so far from inflating the minds of the sons of Judah, ought rather to cover them with shame. Now although, at first sight, the dignity of Christ seems to be somewhat tarnished by such dishonor: yet since here also is seen that “emptying” of which St. Paul speaks, it rather redounds to his glory, than, in the least degree, detracts from it. First, we wrong Christ, unless we deem him alone sufficient to blot out any ignominy arising from the misconduct of his progenitors, which offer to unbelievers occasion of offense. Secondly, we know that the riches of God’s grace shines chiefly in this, that Christ clothed himself in our flesh, with the design of making himself of no reputation. Lastly, it was fitting that the race from which he sprang should be dishonored by reproaches, that we, being content with him alone, might seek nothing besides him; yea, that we might not seek earthly splendor in him, seeing that carnal ambition is always too much inclined to such a course. These two things, then, we may notice; first, that peculiar honor was given to the tribe of Judah, which had been divinely elected as the source whence the salvation of the world should flow; and secondly, that the narration of Moses is by no means honorable to the persons of whom he speaks; so that the Jews have no right to arrogate anything to themselves or to their fathers. Meanwhile, let us remember that Christ derives no glory from his ancestors; and even, that he himself has no glory in the flesh, but that his chief and most illustrious triumph was on the cross. Moreover, that we may not be offended at the stains with which his ancestry was defiled, let us know that, by his infinite purity, they were all cleansed; just as the sun, by absorbing whatever impurities are in the earth and air, purges the world.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 8, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24 Moses describeth the genealogy of Judah, because the Messiah…
Moses describeth the genealogy of Judah, because the Messiah should come of him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Gen 38:1 And it came to pass at that…
Gen 38:1 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.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass at that time.] Before the rape of Dinah, the sale of Joseph, and soon after their return from Mesopotamia.
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Judah went down from his brethren.] A green youth of thirteen or fourteen years of age, left his company, where he might have had better counsel. There is a special tie to perseverance in the communion of saints. They that "forsake the assembling of themselves together," axe in a fair way for apostasy. {Heb 10:25}
To a certain Adullamite.] There is a double danger of evil company. (1.) Infection of sin, - at least, defection from grace. (2.) Infliction of punishment. {Rev 18:4}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 23, 24 This story is not without difficulty, if we consider…
This story is not without difficulty, if we consider how little time is allowed for all the events of this chapter, there being not above twenty-three years between Judah's marriage and the birth of Pharez, yea, and the birth of his sons too, Hezron and Hamul, who are said to go into Egypt with Jacob, Gen 46:12. But there are two ways proposed for the resolution of it, as the phrase, at that time, may be understood two ways; either,
1. More largely, for the time since Jacob's return from Padan to Canaan, and so the history may be conceived thus, Judah was married some years before the selling of Joseph, though it be here mentioned after it, and so out of its place, as being the foundation of all the following events, which are here placed together, because they followed the selling of Joseph. Judah, and Er, and Onan, and afterwards Pharez, are supposed each to marry and have a child at fourteen years old, which, though unusual, wants not examples both in sacred and profane writers. And they that will quarrel with the Scripture, and question its authority for some such uncustomary occurrences which it relates, show more of impiety than wisdom in it, and shall do well to consider, that God might so order things by his providence, and record such things in his word, upon the same account on which he hath put several other difficult passages in Scripture, partly to try and exercise men's faith, humility, and modesty; and partly to punish the evil minds of ungodly men, and for their sins to lay an occasion of stumbling and cavilling at the Scriptures before them that greedily seek and gladly catch at all such occasions. Or,
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2. More strictly, for the time following the sale of Joseph, which seems the more probable way, and so the story lies thus, Judah was now about twenty years old when he married, and the three first years he hath three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. The two first marry each when they were about seventeen years old. Three years after both their deaths, and when Shelah had been marriageable a year or two, and was not given to Tamar, Judah lies with Tamar and begets upon her Pharez. But as for Hezron and Hamul, they are said to go into Egypt with Jacob, as also Benjamin's ten sons are said to go with him thither, to wit, in their father's loins, because they were begotten by their father in Egypt, whilst Jacob lived there, of which more in its proper place.
Judah went down from his brethren; probably in discontent, upon occasion of quarrels arisen among them about the selling of Joseph, whereof Judah was a great promoter, if not the first mover.
A certain Adullamite, of the city of Adullam; of which see Jos 12:15; 15:35.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 24 Here is, 1. Judah's foolish friendship with a Canaanite-man.…
Here is, 1. Judah's foolish friendship with a Canaanite-man. He went down from his brethren, and withdrew for a time from their society and his father's family, and got to be intimately acquainted with one Hirah, an Adullamite, Gen 38:1. It is computed that he was now not much above fifteen or sixteen years of age, an easy prey to the tempter. Note, When young people that have been well educated begin to change their company, they will soon change their manners, and lose their good education. Those that go down from their brethren, that despise and forsake the society of the seed of Israel, and pick up Canaanites for their companions, are going down the hill apace. It is of great consequence to young people to choose proper associates; for these they will imitate, study to recommend themselves to, and, by their opinion of them, value themselves: an error in this choice is often fatal. 2. His foolish marriage with a Canaanite-woman, a match made, not by his father, who, it should seem, was not consulted, but by his new friend Hirah, Gen 38:2. Many have been drawn into marriages scandalous and pernicious to themselves and their families by keeping bad company, and growing familiar with bad people: one wicked league entangles men in another. Let young people be admonished by this to take their good parents for their best friends, and to be advised by them, and not by flatterers, who wheedle them, to make a prey of them. 3. His children by this Canaanite, and his disposal of them. Three sons he had by her, Er, Onan, and Shelah. It is probable that she embraced the worship of the God of Israel, at least in profession, but, for aught that appears, there was little of the fear of God in the family. Judah married too young, and very rashly; he also married his sons too young, when they had neither wit nor grace to govern themselves, and the consequences were very bad. (1.) His first-born, Er, was notoriously wicked; he was so in the sight of the Lord, that is, in defiance of God and his law; or, if perhaps he was not wicked in the sight of God, to whom all men's wickedness is open; and what came of it? Why, God cut him off presently (Gen 38:7): The Lord slew him. Note, Sometimes God makes quick work with sinners, and takes them away in his wrath, when they are but just setting out in a wicked course of life. (2.) The next son, Onan, was, according to the ancient usage, married to the widow, to preserve the name of his deceased brother that died childless. Though God had taken away his life for his wickedness, yet they were solicitous to preserve his memory; and their disappointment therein, through Onan's sin, was a further punishment of his wickedness. The custom of marrying the brother's widow was afterwards made one of the laws of Moses, Deu 25:5. Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet, to the great abuse of his own body, of the wife that he had married, and of the memory of his brother that was gone, he refused to raise up seed unto his brother, as he was in duty bound. This was so much the worse because the Messiah was to descend from Judah, and, had he not been guilty of this wickedness, he might have had the honour of being one of his ancestors. Note, Those sins that dishonour the body and defile it are very displeasing to God and evidences of vile affections. (3.) Shelah, the third son, was reserved for the widow (Gen 38:11), yet with a design that he should not marry so young as his brothers had done, lest he die also. Some think that Judah never intended to marry Shelah to Tamar, but unjustly suspected her to have been the death of her two former husbands (whereas it was their own wickedness that slew them), and then sent her to her father's house, with a charge to remain a widow. If so, it was an inexcusable piece of prevarication that he was guilty of. However, Tamar acquiesced for the present, and waited the issue.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–24 And it came to pass at that time,.... This…
And it came to pass at that time,.... This some refer to the time of Jacob's coming from Padanaram into Canaan, soon after he came to Shechem, and before the affair of Dinah; but to this may be objected the marriage of Judah at an age that may seem too early for him, his separation from his brethren, and having a flock of his own to keep, which seems not consistent with the above history: wherefore it is better to connect this with the history of Joseph's being sold into Egypt; for though there were but twenty three years from hence to Jacob's going down into Egypt, Joseph being now seventeen, and was thirty years when he stood before Pharaoh, after which were seven years of plenty, and two of famine, at which time Jacob went thither with two of Judah's grandsons, Hezron and Hamul, Gen 46:12, which make the number mentioned; yet all this may be accounted for; at seventeen, Er, Judah's firstborn, might marry, being the eighteenth from the selling of Joseph, and the marriage of his father; and Onan at the same age, which was the nineteenth; and allowing two or three years for Tamar's staying for Shelah, there was time for her intrigue with Judah, and bearing him two sons at a birth, before the descent of Jacob into Egypt; as for his two grandsons, they may be said to go into Egypt; as Benjamin's sons did in their father's loins, being begotten there during Jacob's abode in it:
that Judah went down from his brethren: not from Dothan to Adullam, as Ben Melech observes, as if this separation was at the time and place of the selling of Joseph; but rather from Hebron thither, after he and his brethren were come home to their father, and had reported and condoled the death of Joseph; and Judah is said to go down, because he went from the north to the south, as Aben Ezra notes; whether this departure from his brethren was owing to a misunderstanding or quarrel between them on account of the affair of Joseph, or on any account, is not certain:
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and turned in to a certain Adullamite; an inhabitant of Adullam, a city which afterwards fell to the tribe of Judah, and where was a famous cave, that had its name from thence in David's time; it was ten miles from Eleutheropolis to the east (i), and eight from Jerusalem to the southwest (k); hither he turned, or stretched out (l); that is, his tent, with his flock, which he extended to Adullam, as Ben Melech interprets it, and joined to this man:
whose name was Hirah; whom the Jews (m) fabulously report to be the same with Hiram king of Tyre, in the days of David and Solomon, and that he was the husband of Nebuchadnezzar's mother, and lived twelve hundred years.
(i) Jerom de loc. Heb. fol. 88. F. (k) Bunting's Travels, p. 78. (l) "et tentorium fixerat", Schmidt. (m) Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 8. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 7, 11, 14, 17, 23 How little reason had the Jews, who were so…
How little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah, to boast, as they did, that they were not born of fornication? John viii, 41. We have in this chapter,
I. Judah's marriage and issue, and the untimely death of his two eldest sons, ver. 1-11.
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II. Judah's incest with his daughter-in-law Tamar, ver. 12-23.
III. His confusion when it was discovered, ver. 24-26.
IV. The birth of his twin sons in whom his family was built up, ver. 27-30.
Judah went down from his brethren -- withdrew for a time from his father's family, and got intimately acquainted with one Hirah an Adullamite. When young people that have been well educated begin to change their company, they will soon change their manners, and lose their good education. They that go down from their brethren, that forsake the society of the seed of Israel, and pick up Canaanites for their companions, are going down the hill apace.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 21, 23, 24 Judah marries the daughter of a Canaanite, 1, 2;
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Judah marries the daughter of a Canaanite, 1, 2;
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and begets of her Er, 3,
Onan, 4,
and Shelah, 5.
Er marries Tamar, 6;
is slain for his wickedness, 7.
Onan, required to raise up seed to his brother, refuses, 8, 9.
He also is slain, 10.
Judah promises his son Shelah to Tamar, when he should be of
age; but performs not his promise, 11.
Judah's wife dies, 12.
Tamar in disguise receives her father-in-law, he leaves his
signet, bracelets, and staff in her hand, and she conceives
by him, 13-23.
Judah is informed that his daughter-in-law is with child; and,
not knowing that himself was the father, condemns her to be
burnt, 24.
She produces the signet, bracelets, and staff, and convicts
Judah, 25, 26.
She is delivered of twins, who are called Pharez and Zarah, 27-30.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXVIII
Verse 1. And it came to pass at that time] The facts mentioned here could not have happened at the times mentioned in the preceding chapter, as those times are all unquestionably too recent, for the very earliest of the transactions here recorded must have occurred long before the selling of Joseph. Mr. Ainsworth remarks "that Judah and his sons must have married when very young, else the chronology will not agree. For Joseph was born six years before Jacob left Laban and came into Canaan; Ge 30:25, and Ge 31:41. Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold into Egypt, Ge 37:2; Ge 37:25; he was thirty years old when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream, Ge 41:46. And nine years after, when there had been seven years of plenty and two years of famine, did Jacob with his family go down into Egypt, Ge 41:53-54, and Ge 45:6; Ge 45:11. And at their going down thither, Pharez, the son of Judah, whose birth is set down at the end of this chapter, had two sons, Hezron and Hamul, Ge 46:8; Ge 46:12. Seeing then from the selling of Joseph unto Israel's going down into Egypt there cannot be above twenty-three years, how is it possible that Judah should take a wife, and have by her three sons successively, and Shelah the youngest of the three be marriageable when Judah begat Pharez of Tamar, Ge 38:14; Ge 38:24, and Pharez be grown up, married, and have two sons, all within so short a space? The time therefore here spoken of seems to have been soon after Jacob's coming to Shechem, Ge 33:18, before the history of Dinah, Ge 34:1-31, though Moses for special cause relates it in this place." I should rather suppose that this chapter originally stood after Ge 33:1-20, and that it got by accident into this place. Dr. Hales, observing that some of Jacob's son must have married remarkably young, says that "Judah was about forty-seven years old when Jacob's family settled in Egypt. He could not therefore have been above fifteen at the birth of his eldest son Er; nor Er more than fifteen at his marriage with Tamar; nor could it have been more than two years after Er's death till the birth of Judah's twin sons by his daughter-in-law Tamar; nor could Pharez, one of them, be more than fifteen at the birth of his twin sons Herron and Hamul, supposing they were twins, just born before the departure from Canaan. For the aggregate of these numbers, 15, 15, 2, 15, or 47 years, gives the age of Judah; compare Ge 38:1-30 with Ge 46:12." See the remarks of Dr. Kennicott, at the end of Clarke's note at "Ge 31:55".
Adullamite] An inhabitant of Adullam, a city of Canaan, afterwards given for a possession to the sons of Judah, Jos 15:1; Jos 15:35. It appears as if this Adullamite had kept a kind of lodging house, for Shuah the Canaanite and his family lodged with him; and there Judah lodged also. As the woman was a Canaanitess, Judah had the example of his fathers to prove at least the impropriety of such a connection.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 7, 11, 14, 17, 23, 24 Gen 38:1. At that time — That is, about…
Gen 38:1. At that time — That is, about that time; this expression, as also the words then, in those days, often referring in Scripture to a considerable space of time. For though these words, as Le Clerc well observes, seem to connect the following events with those spoken of in the former chapter, yet some of them, particularly Judah’s marriage, which leads to the rest, must have happened long before Joseph was sold into Egypt. This chapter must therefore be here placed out of the order of time, and the events here recorded must have happened soon after Jacob came from Mesopotamia into Canaan, though Moses, for some special reasons, relates them in this place. Judah went down from his brethren — Withdrew for a time from his father’s family, and got intimately acquainted with one Hirah an Adullamite. When young people that have been well educated, begin to change their company, they will soon change their manners, and lose their good education. They that go down from their brethren, that forsake the society of the seed of Israel, and pick up Canaanites for their companions, are going down the hill apace.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 - The Family of Judah
- The Family of Judah
1. עדלם ‛ǎdûllâm, ‘Adullam, “righteousness.” חירה chı̂yrâh Chirah, “nobility?”
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2. שׁוּע shûa‛, Shua‘, “luck, riches, cry.”
3. ער ‛êr, ‘Er, “watching.”
4. אונן 'ônân, Onan, “strong.”
5. שׁלה shēlâh, Shelah, “request? rest.” כזיב kezı̂yb Kezib, “falsehood.”
6. תמר tāmār, Tamar, “palm.”
12. תמנה tı̂mnâh, Timnah, “counted or assigned.”
14. עינים 'êynayı̂m, ‘Enaim, “two fountains.”
29. פרץ perets, Perets, “breach.”
This strange narrative is an episode in the history of Joseph; but an integral part of the “generations” of Jacob. It is loosely dated with the phrase “at that time.” This does not indicate a sequel to the preceding record, the proper phrase for which is “after these things” (האלה חדברים אחר 'achar hadebārı̂ym hâ'ēleh Gen 22:1). It implies rather a train of events that commenced at least in the past, some time before the closing incident of the previous narrative Gen 21:22. But the sale of Joseph, which alone is recorded in the last chapter, only occupied some few weeks or months of a year. Hence, the circumstances contained in this memoir of Judah’s family must have taken their rise before that event. The date “at that time,” is rendered indefinite also by being attached to the phrase, “And it came to pass,” which covers at least all the events in the first eleven verses of the chapter.
All this is in accordance with the customary mode of arranging parallel lines of events in Hebrew narrative. We shall see reason afterward for placing the birth of Er at as early a date as possible in the life of Judah Gen 46:12. Now Judah, we conceive, was born when his father was eighty-seven, and Joseph when he was ninety-one, and hence, there is a difference about four years in their ages. We suppose Er to have been born in Judah’s fourteenth year, when Joseph and Dinah were in their tenth, and therefore, about three years before the rape of Dinah, and shortly after Jacob arrived at the town of Shekem. The dishonor of Dinah, and the cruel treatment of Joseph, being of essential moment in the process of things, had to be recorded in the main line of events. The commencement of Judah’s family, having no particular influence on the current of the history, is fitly reserved until the whole of the circumstances could be brought together into a connected narrative. And the private history of Judah’s line is given, while that of the others is omitted, simply because from him the promised seed is descended. As soon as Jacob is settled in the promised land, the contact with Hebron and its neighborhood seems to have commenced. A clear proof of this is the presence of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, in Jacob’s family Gen 35:8. The great thoroughfare from Damascus to Egypt runs through Shekem and Hebron, and we know that when Jacob was residing at Hebron, his sons fed their flocks at Shekem and Dothan, and the youthful Joseph was sent to inquire after their welfare.
Gen 38:1-11
Judah marries and has three sons. “Went down from brethren.” This seems to have been an act of willful indiscretion in Judah. His separation from his brethren, however, extends only to the matter of his new connection. In regard to property and employment there seems to have been no long or entire separation until they went down into Egypt. He went down from the high grounds about Shekem to the lowlands in which Adullam was situated Jos 15:33-35. “A certain Adullamite.” He may have become acquainted with this Hirah, when visiting his grandfather, or in some of the caravans which were constantly passing Shekem, or even in the ordinary wanderings of the pastoral life. Adullam was in the Shephelah or lowland of Judah bordering on Philistia proper. “A certain Kenaanite.” This connection with Shua’s daughter was contrary to the will of God and the example of his fathers. Onan was born, we conceive, in Judah’s fifteenth year, and Shelah in his sixteenth.
At Kezib. - This appears the same as Akzib, which is associated with Keilah and Mareshah Jos 15:44, and therefore, lay in the south of the lowland of Judah. This note of place indicates a change of residence since her other children were born. In the year after this birth the dishonor of Dinah takes place. “Took a wife for Er.” Judah chose a wife for himself at an early age, and now he chooses for his first-born at the same age. “Was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The God of covenant is obliged to cut off Er for his wickedness in the prime of life. We are not made acquainted with his crime; but it could scarcely be more vile and unnatural than that for which his brother Onan is also visited with death. “And be a husband to her.” The original word means to act as a husband to the widow of a deceased brother who has left no issue. Onan seems to have been prompted to commit his crime by the low motive of turning the whole inheritance to his own house. At the time of Er’s death Judah must have been in his twenty-seventh year; Joseph was consequently in his twenty-third, and Jacob had for ten years past had his headquarters at Hebron. Hence, the contact with Timnah, Adullam, and Enaim was easy.
Gen 38:12-23
Judah now comes into criminal, and, though unknown to him, incestuous sexual intercourse with Tamar. “And many were the days,” a year or somewhat more. “To Timnah.” This town is about twenty miles northwest of Hebron. There is another, however, in the hills about seven miles south of Hebron. “Put on a veil;” to conceal her face from Judah, or any other beholder. “The qate of Enaim.” This is supposed to be the same as Enam Jos 15:34. “And thy lace.” This is the cord by which the signet was suspended round his neck. “Courtesan.” The original word קדשׁה qedêshâh means one consecrated to the worship of Ashtoreth, in which chastity is sacrificed.
Gen 38:24-30
Tamar bears Perez and Zerah to Judah. After three months her pregnancy was manifest. “Let her be burnt.” It is manifest Judah had the power to execute this punishment. The life of the widow of his son was in his hands. Stoning was the mode of punishment by the law of Moses Deu 22:20-24; burning, only in aggravated cases Lev 20:14; Lev 21:9. He is a severe judge in a case where he is equally criminal. “She hath been more righteous than I. Tamar was less culpable in this matter than Judah. For he was moved by lust to commit fornication, and was the indirect occasion of Tamar’s conduct by withholding Selah. But Tamar, though wronged, was not free from blame in her mode of righting herself. The youthful indiscretion of Judah in forming an intermarriage with a Canaanitish family, without the concurrence of his brothers or his father, has been fruitful of crime. If this immorality goes on, the chosen family will be speedily absorbed in the surrounding paganism. Hence, we begin to see the necessity of an immediate removal to another land, where they may be kept more distinct from the native superstition. By the disclosure of Tamar Judah is brought to acknowledgment of his fault, and, we may infer, to repentance. His abstaining from all further sexual intercourse with her may be accepted as a proof of this. “A scarlet thread.” The right of primogeniture here manifests its importance. “Perez” - a breach. Slight incidents become the foundation of names, and are often the hinges on which great events turn. The minutest circumstances connected with the progenitors of the promised seed have a lasting interest.
Judah was at the close of his twenty-ninth year when Perez and Zerah were born. The dates in his family history may be arranged as underneath, on the supposition that the first child was born when the father was in his fourteenth year. This hypothesis is fairly allowable when we take into consideration not only other cases, but the early willfulness of Judah, and the example he gave to his children. The command also to be fruitful and multiply Gen 35:11, which was given especially to Jacob, may have had a tendency to encourage early marriages. It is certain that the Jewish rabbis considered a man to have transgressed a divine precept who passed the age of twenty without being married. They also fixed the marriageable age for males at thirteen years and a day. King Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah when he was not more than twelve 2Ki 16:2; 2Ki 18:2; and King Josiah the father of Jehoiakim, when fourteen years of age 2Ki 22:1; 2Ki 23:36.
Judah 13 years 6 months when Er was born.
Judah 14 years 4 12 months when Onan was born.
Judah 15 years 3 months when Shelah was born.
Judah 28 years 9 months when Perez was born.
Judah 42 years 3 months when Hezron was born to Perez.
Judah 43 years 2 months when Hamul was born.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 18, 21, 23 At that time Juda, twenty years old, marries the…
At that time Juda, twenty years old, marries the daughter of Sue, and has three sons by her during the three following years. The first takes Thamar to wife, when he was seventeen. Onan marries her the next year; after which she remains a widow about three years, when she bears twins to Juda. Phares goes down with him into Egypt, and has children there during Jacob’s life. On this account, they are numbered among those who went down with Jacob, (chap. xlvi. 12,) as the children of Benjamin seem to be likewise. Thus all these events might happen during the twenty-three years that Jacob dwelt in Chanaan, and the seventeen that he sojourned in Egypt. Some have thought the time too short, and have concluded that Juda had been married long before Joseph’s slavery. He was, however, only four years older. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Judah’s temporary separation (probably in sadness on account of…
SECOND SECTION
Judah’s temporary separation (probably in sadness on account of the deed). His sons. Thamar.
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Gen_38:1-30
1And 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 [noble, free]. 2And Judah saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah [cry for help]; and he took her, and went in unto her. 3And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er [עֶר, watcher]. 4And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his 5name Onan [strength, strong one]. An she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah [peace, quietness, shiloh?]; and he was at Chezib [delusion], when she bare him. 6And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, whose name was Thamar [palm], 7And Er, Judah’s first-born, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. 8And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 9And Onan knew that the seed should not be his [of his own name]; and it came to pass, that 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. 10And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; wherefore he slew him also. 11Then said Judah to Thamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow in thy father’s house, till Shelah my son be grown; (for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did); And Thamar went and dwelt in her father’s house. 12And in process of time the daughter of Shuah, Judah’s wife, died; and Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep-shearers to Timnath [possession], he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13And it was told Thamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath, to shear his sheep. 14And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place [literally, gate of two eyes]1 which is by the way to Timnath: for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife. 15When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face. 16And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law); and she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? 17And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock; and she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? 18And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her; and she conceived by him. 19And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. 20And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand: but he found her not. 21Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot that was openly by the way-side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. 22And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also other men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place. 23And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed; behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. 24And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told to Judah, saying, Thamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her 25be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose these are, am I with child; and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. 26And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I because that I gave her not to Shelah my son; and he knew her again no more. 27And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that behold twins were in her womb. 28And 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. 29And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out; and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee; therefore his name was called Pharez [breach], 30And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand; and his name was called Zarah [going forth, sun-rising].
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS
The story here narrated is not, as Knobel supposes, an insertion in Joseph’s history, but a parallel to it, considered from the one common point of view as the story of the sons of Israel. According to the previous chapter, Joseph (that is, Ephraim) appeared to be lost; here Judah, afterwards the head tribe, appears also to be lost. But as in the history of the apparently lost Joseph there lay concealed the marks of a future greatness, so must we look for similar signs in the history of Judah’s apparent ruin. Parallel to Joseph’s spiritual ingenuousness, patience, hopeful trust in the future, appears Judah’s strong and daring self-dependence, fulness of life, sensuality combined with strong abstinence, besides the sense of justice which leads him to acknowledge his guilt. Examine it more closely, and we cannot fail to trace a strong feature of theocratic faith. It is a groundless conjecture of Knobel, that the object of this narrative was to show the origin of the levirate law among the Jews, that required the brother of a husband who died without issue to take the widow to wife, and that the firstborn of this connection should stand in the toledoth, or genealogical lists, in the name of the deceased, Deu_25:5; Mat_22:23; Ruth 4. See Winer on “Levirate Marriage.” The law in question is of a later date, and needed no such illustration. The custom here mentioned, however, might have existed before this time (see Delitzsch, p. 534). But why could not the idea have originated even in Judah’s mind? Besides this, Knobel presents chronological difficulties. They consist in this, namely, that in the period from Joseph’s abduction to Jacob’s migration into Egypt—about twenty-three years—Judah had become not only a father, but a grandfather by his son Pharez (according to Gen_46:16). Now Judah was about three years older than Joseph, and, consequently, not much above twenty at his marriage, provided he had intended it at the time when Joseph was carried off. On account of this difficulty, and of one that follows, Augustine supposes that Judah’s removal from the parental home occurred several years previous. But this is contradicted by the fact of his presence at the sale of Joseph (see Keil, p. 246); whilst the remark of Delitzsch, that “such early marriages were not customary in the patriarchal family,” is of no importance at all, besides its leaving us in doubt whether it was made in respect to Judah’s own marriage, or the early marriage of his nephews. “Jacob,” he says, “had already attained to the age of seventy-seven years,” etc. In reply to this, it may be said, that early marriages are evidently ascribed to other sons of Jacob (Genesis 46), though these children, it is probable, were for the most part born in Egypt. Between the patriarchs and the sons of Israel there comes a decisive turning-point: earlier marriages—earlier deaths (see Gen_50:20). Nevertheless, the twenty-three years here are not sufficient to allow of Pharez having two sons already at their close. Even the possibility that Pharez and Zarah were born before the migration to Egypt, is obtained only from the supposition that Judah must have married his sons very early. Supposing that they were seventeen or eighteen years old, the reason for so early a marriage may have been Judah’s knowledge of Er’s disposition. He may have intended to prevent evil by his marriage, but he did not attain his object. The marriage of Onan that resulted from this was but a consequence of the first; and, in fact, Onan’s sin seems to indicate a youthful baseness. Judah, however, might have made both journeys to Egypt whilst his own family was still existing. With respect to Judah’s grandchildren, it is an assumption of Hengstenberg (Authentic, p. 354), that they were born in Egypt, and that they are considered to have come to Egypt, as in their fathers, together with Jacob (Delitzsch, p. 538). According to Keil, the aim of our narrative is to show the three principal tribes of the future dynasties in Israel, and the danger there was that the sons of Jacob, through Canaanitish marriages, might forget the historic call of their nation as the medium of redemption, and so perish in the sins of Canaan, had not God kept them from it by leading them into Egypt. It must be remarked, however, that, in this period, it was with difficulty that such marriages with Canaanitish women could be avoided, since the connection with their relations in Mesopotamia had ceased. Undoubtedly the beginning of corruption in Judah’s family, was caused by a Canaanitish mode of life, and thereby the race was threatened with death in its first development; but we see, also, how a vigorous life struggles with, and struggles out of, a deadly peril.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Judah’s separation, his marriage, and his sons (Gen_38:1-5).—And Judah went down.—He parted from his brethren at the time they sold Joseph. It was not, as in the case of Esau, the unbridled impulse of a rude and robust nature that prompted him prematurely to leave his paternal home, though he showed thereby his strong self-reliance. On account of his frank disposition, Judah could not long participate in offering, as his brethren did, false consolations to his aged father (Gen_37:35). It weighs upon him that he cannot tell the true nature of the case without betraying his brethren; and it is this that drives him off, just as his grudge against those who had involved him in their guilt separates him from their company. Besides, a bitter sadness may have come upon him on account of his own purpose, though meant for good. Thus he tries to find peace in solitude, just as a noble-minded eremite or separatist, leaves a church that has fallen into corruption. Like his antitype, the New-Testament Judas, but in a nobler spirit, does he try to find peace, as he did, after having sold his Lord. In a similar manner did the tribe of Judah afterwards keep its ground against the ten tribes in their decline and ruin. The question now arises, whether Judah went down from the Hebron heights in a westerly direction towards the Mediterranean Sea, to the plain of Sarepta, as Delitzsch and Knobel suppose, or eastward toward the Dead Sea, where, according to tradition, the cave of Adullam lay (1Sa_22:1), in which David concealed himself from Saul. Chezib (Gen_38:5) was situated east from Hebron, if it be identical with Ziph of the desert of Ziph. Timnath, according to Josephus 15:57, was situated upon the heights of Judah, and could be visited as well from the low country in the east, as from that of the north. If, according to Eusebius and Hieronymus, Adullam lay ten Roman miles, or four leagues, east of Eleutheropolis (Beitdschibrin), this statement again takes us to the mountains of Judea. It is, therefore, doubtful. Still it is worthy of note that David, like his ancestor, once sought refuge in the solitude of Adullam.—And turned in to, etc.—“וַיֵּט and he pitched, namely, אהלו, his tent, Gen_26:25, close by (עַד) a man, belonging to the small kingdom of Adullam (Jos_12:15) in the plain of Judah (Jos_15:35).” Delitzsch. This settlement indicates friendly relations with Hirah. No wonder that Hirah gradually yields himself, as a servant, to the wiser Judah. Here Judah marries a Canaanite woman. This should be noted in respect to Judah, who became afterwards the principal tribe, as also in respect to Simeon (Gen_46:10), because it would be least expected of him, zealous as he was for the Israelitish purity in the murder of the Shechemites. Without taking into view the unrestrained position of Jacob’s sons, this step in Judah might be explained from a transient fit of despair respecting Israel’s future. In the names of his three sons, however, there is an intimation of return to a more hopeful state of mind.—Er, Onan, Shelah (see 1Ch_2:3).—The place of Shelah’s birth is mentioned, because there remained of him descendants who would have an interest in knowing their native district.
2. The marriage of the sons with Thamar. It may, at least, be said of Thamar, that she is not expressly called Canaanitish. If we could suppose a westerly Adullam, she might have been of Philistine descent. By the early marriage of his sons, Judah seems to have intended to prevent in them a germinating corruption. That he finds Thamar qualified for such a state, that beside her Er appears as a criminal, whose sudden death is regarded as a divine judgment (then Onan likewise), and all this, taken in connection with the fact that, after the death of both sons, she hoped for the growing-up of the third, Shelah, seems to point her out as a woman of extraordinary character.—Till Shelah my son be grown.—According to Knobel (Delitzsch and Keil), Judah regarded Thamar as an unlucky wife (comp. Tob_3:7), and was, therefore, unwilling to give to her the third son, but kept putting her off by promises, thus causing her to remain a widow. This, however, is inconsistent with Judah’s character, and is not sustained by the text. It is plainly stated that Judah postponed Shelah’s marriage to Thamar becaused he feared that he might die also. It was not superstition, then, according to the analogy of later times, but an anxiety founded on the belief that the misfortune of both his sons might have been connected with the fact of their too early marriage, that made the reason for the postponement of his promise.—In her father’s house.—Thither widows withdrew (Lev_22:13).
3. Judah’s crime with Thamar (Gen_38:12-16).—And (when) Judah was comforted.—After the expiration of the time of mourning, he went to the festival of sheep-shearing at Timnath upon the mountains, in company with Hirah.—And it was told Thamar.—The bold thought which now flashed across the mind of Thamar is so monstrously enigmatical, that it takes itself out of the range of all ordinary criticism. Mere lust would not manifest itself in such a way. It might have been a grieved feeling of right. She seemed to herself, by Judah’s command and her own submission to it, condemned to eternal barrenness and mourning widowhood. To break these barriers was her intention. A thirst, however, for right and life, was not her only motive for assuming the appearance of a harlot, the reproach of legal incest (for the intimation of Er’s baseness and of Onan’s conduct leaves it a question whether it was so in reality), and the danger of destruction. Like the harlot Rahab, she seems to have had a knowledge of the promises made to Israel. She even appears to cling, with a kind of fanatical enthusiasm, to the prospect of becoming a female ancestor in Israel. See the Introduction, p. 81. Ambrosius: “Non temporalem usum libidinis requisivit, sed successionem gratias concupivit.” According to Keil, Judah came to her on his return. Since the sheep-shearing festivals were of a jovial kind, this assumption might serve for an explanation and palliation of Judah’s sin; still it cannot be definitely determined from the text.—And sat in an open place.—Lange translates: And sat in the gate of Ennayim (Enam, in the low country of Judah, Jos_15:34).—Which is by the way to Timnath.—“She puts off from her the common garments of a widow, which were destitute of all ornaments (Jdt_10:3; Jdt_16:8), covers herself with a veil, so as not to be recognized (comp. Job_24:15), and wraps herself in the manner customary with harlots.” Knobel. “Thamar,” says the same, “wishes to appear as a kedescha” (a priestess of Astarte, the goddess of love). This, however, could hardly have been her intention, as appearing before Judah. The proper distinction may be thus made: According to Gen_38:15, he thought her to be a zona (זוֹנָה), but in Gen_38:21 the question is asked, according to the custom of the country: Where is the kedescha? (הַקְּדֵשׁה). As a son of Jacob he might have erred with a zona, but could not have had intercourse with a kedescha, as a devotee of the goddess of love. Still the offence is great; though there is to be considered, on the one side, the custom of the times, together with Judah’s individual temperament, and the excitement caused by the sheep-shearing, whilst, on the other, there is to be kept in mind the enigmatical appearance of the transaction, behind which moral forces, and a veiled destiny, are at work. This giving of the seal-ring, the cord, and the staff, shows that Judah has fallen within the circle of a magical influence, and that it is not fleshly lust alone that draws him. These pledges were the badges of his dignity. “Every Babylonian, says Herodotus, carries a seal-ring, and a staff, on the top of which there is some carved work, like an apple or a rose. The same custom prevailed in Canaan, as we see here in the case of Judah.” Delitzsch. To this day do the town Arabians wear a seal-ring fastened by a cord around the neck (Robinson: “Palestine,” i. p. 58). “The he-goat appears also as a present from a man to his wife (Jdg_15:1).” Knobel.—Lest we be shamed.—These words characterize the moral state of the country and the times. In his eager search for the woman and the pledges (which probably were of far more value than the kid), Judah shows himself by no means so much afraid of moral condemnation, as of mocking ridicule.
4. Thamar and her sons (Gen_38:27-30).—And let her be burnt.—By this sentence the energetic Judah reminds us again of David, the great hero of his family. With a rash and angry sense of justice he passes sentence without any thought that he is condemning himself, just as David did when con fronted by Nathan, 2Sa_12:5. There are ever in this line two strong natures contending with each other. “In his patriarchal authority, he commanded her to be brought forth to be burned. Thamar was regarded as betrothed, and was, therefore, to be punished as a bride convicted of unchastity. But in this case the Mosaic law imposes only the penalty of being stoned to death (Deu_22:20), whilst burning to death was inflicted only upon the daughter of a priest, and upon carnal intercourse both with mother and daughter Lev_21:19; Lev_20:14). Judah’s sentence, therefore, is more severe than that of the future law.” Keil. The severity of the decision appears tolerable only upon the supposition that he really intended to give to Thamar his son Shelah; besides, it testifies to an arbitrary power exercised in a strange country, and which can only be explained from his confidence in his own strength and standing. How fairly, however, does Thamar bring him to his senses by sending him his pledges. The delicate yet decisive message elicits an open confession. But his sense of justice is expressed not only in the immediate annulling of the decision, but also in his future conduct towards Thamar. The twin-birth of Rebecca is once more reflected. We see how important the question of the first-born still remains to the Israelitish mother and midwife. In the case of twins there appears more manifestly the marks of a striving for the birth-right. Pharez, however, did not obtain the birth-right, as Jacob sought it, by holding on the heel, but by a violent breach. In this he was to represent Judah’s lion-like manner within the milder nature of Jacob. According to Knobel, the midwife is supposed to have said to Pharez: A breach upon thee, i. e., a breach happen to thee; and this is said to have been fulfilled when the Israelitish tribes tore themselves away from the house of David, as a punishment, because the Davidian family of the Pharezites had violently got the supremacy over its brethren.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Judah’s beginnings as compared with those of Joseph.—A strong sensual nature; great advances, great offences—strong passions, great self-condemnation, denials, struggles, and breaches.
2. Judah as Eremite, or Separatist, in the noblest sense; the dangers of an isolated position.
3. Hirah, from a valuable comrade, becoming an officious assistant,—a witness to Judah’s superiority.
4. The sons of Judah. The failure of his well-intended experiment to marry his sons early.
5. Onan’s sin, a deadly wickedness, an example to be held in abhorrence, as condemnatory, not only of secret sins of self-pollution, but also of all similar offences in sexual relations, and even in marriage itself. Unchastity in general is a homicidal waste of the generative powers, a demonic bestiality, an outrage to ancestors, to posterity, and to one’s own life. It is a crime against the image of God, and a degradation below the animal. Onan’s offence, moreover, as committed in marriage, was a most unnatural wickedness, and a grievous wrong. The sin named after him is destructive as a pestilence that walketh in darkness, destroying directly the body and soul of the young. But common fornication is likewise an unnatural violation of the person, a murder of two souls, and a desecration of the body as the temple of God. There are those in our Christian communities who are exceedingly gross in this respect; a proof of the most defective development of what may be called, the consciousness of personality, and of personal dignity.
6. The Levirate law. Its meaning and object. The theocratic moral idea of the levirate law is ascribed in the Calwer Handbuch to the desire of imperishableness. Gerlach remarks: “An endeavor to preserve families, even in their separate lines, and to retain the thereby inherited property, pervades the laws of the Israelites,—a feeling that doubtless came down from the patriarchs. The father still lived on in the son; the whole family descending from him was, in a certain sense, himself; and, through this, the place among the people was to be preserved. From the remotest antiquity, so much depended upon the preservation of tradition, upon the inheritance of religion, education, and custom, that these things were never regarded as the business of individuals, but of families and nations. When afterward the house of Jacob became a people, this duty of the levirate law necessarily made trouble, and the brother-in-law was no longer forced to it; but even then he was publicly contemned for his refusal (Deu_25:5; Rth_4:7; comp. Mat_22:23).” The first motive for the patriarchal custom, or for Judah’s idea, comes, doubtless, from a struggle of faith in the promise with death. As the promise is to the seed of Abraham, so death seems to mar the promise when he carries away some of Jacob’s sons, especially the first-born, before they have had offspring. Life thus enters into strife with death, whilst the remaining brothers fill up the blank. The second motive, however, is connected with the fact, that the life of the deceased is to be reflected in the future existence of their names in this world. Israel’s sons are a church of the undying. There is a third motive; it is to introduce the idea of spiritual descent. The son of the surviving brother answers for the legitimate son of the dead, and thus the way is prepared for the great extension of the adoptive relationship, according to which Jesus is called the son of Joseph, and mention is made of the brothers of Jesus. The institution, however, being typical, it could not be carried through consistently in opposition to the right of personality. A particular coercive marriage would have been at war with the idea of the law itself.
7. Thamar’s sin, and Thamar’s faith.
8. The Hierodulai. Female servants of Astarte, Aschera, or Mylytta (see Delitzsch, p. 536). The he-goat sacred to Astarte.
9. Judah’s self-condemnation and confession.
10. Judah’s (Thamar’s) twins; Isaac’s (Rebecca’s) twins.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See Theological and Ethical. It is only with great caution, and in a wise and devout spirit, that this narrative should be made the ground of homiletical discourses.—Judah’s solitude.—The apparent extinction of the tribe.—God’s judgments on the sins of unchastity.—The danger arising from feasts (such as that of the sheep-shearing.—The keeping of promises.—Self-condemnation.—The fall and the recovery in our narrative.—Apparent extinction, and yet a new life, through God’s grace, in Judah’s uprightness and sincerity.
Section First. Gen_38:1-5. Starke: Hall: God’s election is only by grace, for otherwise Judah never would have been chosen as an ancestor of Christ.—Bibl. Wirt.: Pious parents can experience no greater cross than to have vile and godless children (Sir_16:1).–Gerlach: This marriage of Judah is not censured, since it was impossible that all the sons of Jacob should take wives from their kindred in Mesopotamia.—Schröder: Gen_38:5. Chezib; meaning delusion, on account of the delusions connected with this place.—The false hope of Judah—afterwards of Thamar.—Then again of Judah.
Section Second. Gen_38:6-11. Starke: This Thamar, very generally regarded as a Canaanite, though by some of the Jews very improbably called a daughter of Melchizedek, has received a place in the Toledoth of Christ (Mat_1:3), to show that he is also the hope of the heathen. [The Jews might, in two ways, have suggested to them this strange hypothesis of Thamar’s being the daughter of Melchizedek: 1. Through ancestral pride; 2. From conclusions derived from the law. They reasoned thus: If Judah intended to burn Thamar, she must have been the daughter of a priest. If she was the daughter of a priest, then probably the daughter of Melchizedek.]—Hall: Remarkably wicked sinners God reserves to himself for his own vengeance.
Gen_38:11. Judah spake deceitfully to his daughter-in-law. Judah may also have thought that his sons’ early marriages hastened their death, especially if they were only fourteen years of age (?); and it may be that on this account he did not wish his son Shelah to marry so young.—Hall: Fulfilment of promises is the duty of every upright man, nor can either fear or loss absolve him.—Schröder: The seed has the promise of salvation—the promise on which the fathers grew. The levirate law was but a peculiar aspect, as it were, of that universal care for offspring which formed the Old-Testament response to God’s covenant faithfulness. Onan’s sin a murder. It is as if the curse of Canaan descended upon these sons from a Canaanitish woman.—Schwenke: The sin of Onan, unnatural, destructive, of God’s holy ordinance, is even yet so displeasing to the Lord that it gives birth to bodily and spiritual death.—Heim (“Bible Studies”): 1Co_6:11. Why is it that the Holy Ghost mentions first in this chapter the sin of Onan, and then points us so carefully to the Saviour of the world as descending from the incest-stained Judah and Thamar? Here only may we find salvation, forgiveness, the taking away of all guilt, and the curse that rests upon it.
Section Third. Gen_38:12-16. Hall: Immodesty in dress and conduct betrays evil desires.—Cramer: Widower and widow are to live lives, of chastity. That Thamar desired Shelah to be given to her was not unreasonable; but her course in thus avenging herself is by no means approved, though some of the Christian fathers (Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theodoret) praise her on this very account, and ascribe her design to a peculiar desire to become the mother of the Messiah.
Gen_38:24. It is not agreed whether he spoke these words as judge or accuser. He was here among a strange people; but as he has never subjected himself to them, he would be judge in his own affairs.—Calvin: Severe as Judah had been against Thamar, he judges now indulgently in his own case.—Lisco has a remarkable view, namely, that Judah himself, after the death of his wife, was under obligation to marry Thamar, if he was not willing to give her to his son. The same view is entertained by Gerlach, undoubtedly from a misunderstanding of the later levirate law.—Schröder: Harlots only, in contrast with virtuous and domestic women, frequent the streets and markets, lurking at every cornerstone (Pro_7:12; Jer_3:2; Jos_2:15).
Section Fourth. Gen_38:27-30. Starke: Ver 30. In Christ’s birth-register, too, great sinners are found.—[Osiander: These two children signified two people, namely, the Jews and the Gentiles. For the Jews, though seeming to be the first to enter eternal life, have become the last; whilst those of the Gentiles who heard the gospel of Christ have gone before them and become the first (according to Val. Her berger.)]—Schröder: Zarah, according to some, means brightness, as a name given to him on account of the scarlet color of the thread upon his hand. According to others, it means the sun-rising, as indicative of his appearing first.—Luther: Why did God and the Holy Ghost permit these shameful things to be written? Answer: that no one should be proud of his own righteousness and wisdom,—and, again, that no one should despair on account of his sins, etc. It may be to remind us that by natural right, Gentiles, too, are the mother, brothers, sisters of our Lord.
Footnotes:
[1][Gen_38:14.—בְּפֶתַח עֵינַיִם. Rendered, in our translation, an open place; margin, door of eyes, more literally, with reference to Pro_7:12. The LXX. have taken it as a proper name, ταῖς πύλαις Αἰνάν, which has led some to regard it as the same with Enam mentioned Jos_15:34, and referred to by Hieronymus as situated in the tribe of Judah, and called, in his day, Beth-enim. See Rosenmüller. The dual form here is expressive of something peculiar in the place. It means two eyes, or two fountains, probably the former, denoting two openings, that is, two ways, a place where she was certain to be seen. This corresponds to the Vulgate rendering, in bivio itineris. So the Syriac, ܒܦܠܫܬ ܐܘܪܚܬܐ; Arabs Erpenianus the same, ױב ַב״ד ֿם. The idea of there being a city there, at that time, or of her taking her place by the gate of a city, is absurd. Aben Ezra says it was a place so called because there were two fountains there. This was an early use of the Hebrew עין, the eye, arising from the beautiful conception that springs, or fountains, were eyes to the earth, as the herbs, in some places, are called אוֹרוֹת, lights coming from the earth.—T. L.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 8, 12, 18, 24 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain…
And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite--Like Esau [Gen 26:34], 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.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 21, 23, 24 1. At that time — During the time that…
1. At that time — During the time that Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings. Gen_37:1. It does not say after these things, as in Gen_22:1; so that the exact point of time is altogether indefinite.
Judah went down from his brethren — Went southward from Shechem, perhaps on some errand to his grandfather Isaac, and before Jacob had removed from Shechem.
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Adullamite — A native of Adullam, a city in the plain some distance north-west of Hebron, which is mentioned in Jos_15:35, among the cities of Judah, and situated between Jarmuth and Socoh. Its site has not been ascertained, but Eusebius and Jerome mention it as lying to the east of Eleutheropolis. On the cave of Adullam, famous in David’s history, see 1Sa_20:1. Turned in to — Not “pitched his tent up to,” or in the neighbourhood of, (Keil,) but, as the word is used in Gen_38:16, and often elsewhere, in the sense of turning aside unto. What inclined him thus to turn in we are not told. It appears that once upon a time Judah, in passing down to Hebron, for some reason, accepted the hospitality of this Adullamite, and saw there a woman who so excited his love for her that he at once took her in marriage.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 21, 23, 24 1. at that time] Cf. Gen_21:22. The notes of…
1. at that time] Cf. Gen_21:22. The notes of time in this chapter are very indefinite. Cf. 12, “in process of time.” The marriage of Judah with the daughter of Shua, the birth of his three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah, and the marriage of the first two with Tamar, evidently represent a long interval.
Adullamite] Judah moved from the high ground near Hebron to the lower, i.e. southern, country. The town of Adullam (Jos_12:15; Jos_15:35) is now identified with the ruins ‘Aid-el-mâ, 17 miles S.W. of Jerusalem and about 12 N.W. from Hebron. See 1Sa_22:1.
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Judah and Simeon in Jdg_1:1-20 are represented as acting by themselves, and their names do not appear in Deborah’s Song commemorating the patriotism of the Israelite tribes.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 21, 23, 24 (1) At that time.—This does not mean at the…
(1) At that time.—This does not mean at the time of Joseph’s sale; for as there was only an interval of twenty-two years between that event and the descent into Egypt, this period is scarcely long enough for the events recorded in this chapter. According to the usual chronology, Judah, Leah’s fourth son, would not have been more than eight years old when he left Padan-aram, and only one year at most older than Joseph, the son of Jacob’s old age. But the more true chronology which we have followed, gives time for him to have been Joseph’s senior by twenty years, and the events recorded here probably began soon after his father’s arrival at the tower of Eder.
Adullamite.—The town of Adullam, near which was David’s famous cave, has been clearly identified by Lieut. Conder (Tent-work, ii. 158). It lay in the great valley of Elah, which formed the highway from Hebron to the country of the Philistines, some two or three miles south of Shochoh, and fifteen or sixteen miles west by north from Hebron. Judah “went down” thither, not as Abenezra and others have supposed, because it was to the south, but because it was towards the sea, and the road is an actual descent from the hill country of Judah into the Shephelah, or lowland, in which Adullam was situated. The sons of Jacob often, probably, with a few retainers, made expeditions in search of pastures for their cattle; and Hirah, apparently, had shown Judah hospitality on some such journey, and finally a friendship had grown up between them. “Turned in to,” however, literally means pitched (his tent) close by; and the friendship between Judah and Hirah, thus accidentally formed, seems to have ended in Hirah taking the charge of Judah’s cattle.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Genesis 38
Genesis 38
Presents one of those remarkable circumstances in which divine grace is seen gloriously triumphing over man’s sin. "It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda." (Heb. 7: 14) But how? "Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar." (Matt. 1: 3) This is peculiarly striking. God, in His great grace, rising above the sin and folly of man, in order to bring about His own purposes of love and mercy. Thus, a little further on, in Matthew, we read," David the king begat Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias." It is worthy of God thus to act. The Spirit of God is conducting us along the line through which, according to the flesh, Christ came; and, in doing so, he gives us, as links in the genealogical chain, Thamar and Bathsheba! How evident it is that there is nothing of man in this! How plain it is that when we reach the close of the first chapter of Matthew, it is "God manifest in the flesh" we find, and that, too, from the pen of the Holy Ghost man could never have devised such a genealogy. It is entirely divine, and no spiritual person can read it without seeing in it a blessed exhibition of divine grace, in the first place; and of the divine inspiration of Matthews gospel, in the second place, at least, of his account of Christ’s genealogy according to the flesh. I believe a comparison of 2 Sam. 11 and Gen. 38 with Matt. 1 will furnish the thoughtful Christian with matter for a very sweet and edifying meditation.
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In perusing these interesting sections of inspiration, we perceive a remarkable chain of providential actings, all tending to one grand point, namely, the exaltation of the man who had been in the pit; and, at the same time, bringing out, by the way, a number of subordinate objects. "The thoughts of many hearts" were to be "revealed;" but Joseph was to be exalted. "He called for a famine upon! the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant; whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in Iron; until the time that his word came; the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance; to bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his senators wisdom." (Psalm 105: 16-22)
It is well to see that the leading object was to exalt the one whom men had rejected; and then to produce in those same men a sense of their sin in rejecting. And how admirably all this is effected! The most trivial and the most important, the most likely and the most unlikely, circumstances are made to minister to the development of God’s purposes. In Gen. 39 Satan uses Potiphar’s wife, and in Gen. 40 he uses Pharaoh’s chief butler. The former he used to put Joseph into the dungeon; and the latter he used to keep him there, through his ungrateful negligence; but all in vain. God was behind the scenes. His finger was guiding all the springs of the vast machine of circumstances, and when the due time was come, He brought forth the man of His purpose, and set His feet in a large room. Now, this is ever God’s prerogative. He is above all, and can use all for the accomplishment of His grand and unsearchable designs. It is sweet to be able thus to trace our Father’s hand and counsel in everything. Sweet to know that all sorts of agents are at His sovereign disposal; angels, men, and devils - all are under His omnipotent hand, and all are made to carry out His purposes.
In the scripture now before us, all this is seen in a most remarkable manner. God visits the domestic circle of a heathen captain, the household of a heathen king, yea, and his bed-side, and makes the very visions of his head upon his bed contribute to the development of His counsels. Nor is it merely individuals and their circumstances that we see thus taken up and used for the furtherance of God’s ends; but Egypt and all the surrounding countries are brought into the scene; in short, the whole earth was prepared by the hand of God to be a theatre on which to display the glory and greatness of the one "who was separate from his brethren." Such are God’s ways; and it is one of the happiest and most elevating exercises for the soul of a saint to trace thus the admirable actings of his heavenly Father. How forcibly is God’s providence brought out in this profoundly interesting history of Joseph! Look, for a moment, into the dungeon of the captain of the guard. See there a man "laid in iron," charged with a most abominable crime - the outcast and offscouring of society; and yet see him, almost in a moment, raised to the very highest eminence, and who can deny that God is in it all?
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him to ride in the second chariot that he had: and they cried before him, bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." (Gen. 41: 39-44)
Here, then, was exaltation of no ordinary kind. Contrast this with the pit and the dungeon; and mark the chain of events by which it was all brought about, and you have, at once, a marked exhibition of the hand of God, and a striking type of the sufferings and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph was taken from the pit and the dungeon, into which he had been brought by the envy of his brethren, and the false judgement of the Gentile, to be ruler over the whole land of Egypt; and not only so, but to be the channel of blessing, and the sustainer of life, to Israel and the whole earth. This is all typical of Christ; indeed, a type could hardly be more perfect. We see a man laid, to all intents and purposes, in the place of death, at the hand of man, and then raised up by the hand of God, And set in dignity and glory. "Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." (Acts 2: 22-24)
But there are two points in Joseph’s history which, together with what has been noticed, render the type remarkably perfect; I allude to his marriage with a stranger in Gen. 41, and his interview with his brethren in Gen. 45. The following is the order of events. Joseph presents himself to his brethren as one sent by the father; they reject him, and, so far as lies in them, put him in the place of death; God takes him up from thence, and raises him to a position of highest dignity: thus exalted, he gets a bride; and when his brethren, according to the flesh, so thoroughly broken and prostrate before him, he makes himself known to them, tranquillises their hearts, and brings them into blessing; he then becomes the channel of blessing to them and to the whole world.
I shall just make a few remarks on Joseph’s marriage and the restoration of his brethren. The strange wife shadows forth the Church. Christ presented Himself to the Jews, and being rejected, took His seat on high, and sent down the Holy Ghost to form the Church, composed of Jew and Gentile, to be united with Him in heavenly glory. The doctrine of the Church has already been dwelt upon in our remarks on Gen. 24, but one or two points remain to be noticed here. And, first, we may observe, that Joseph’s Egyptian bride was intimately associated with him in his glory. [Joseph’s wife sets forth the Church as united to Christ in His glory; Moses’ wife presents the Church as united to Christ in His rejection.] She, as being part of himself, shared in all that was his. Moreover, she occupied a place of nearness and intimacy, known only to herself. Thus it is with the Church, the bride of the Lamb. She is gathered to Christ to be the sharer, at once, of His rejection and His glory. It is Christ’s position which Gives character to the position of the Church, and her position should ever give character to her walk. If we are gathered to Christ, it is as exalted in glory, and not as humbled down here. "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." (2 Cor. 5: 26) The Church’s gathering point is Christ in glory. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me." (John 12: 32)
There is far more of practical value in the clear apprehension of this principle than might, at first sight, appear. It is ever the aim of Satan, as it is the tendency of our hearts, to lead us to stop short of God’s mark in everything, and specially in the centre of our unity as Christians. It is a popular sentiment, that "the blood of the Lamb is the union of saints," i.e., it is the blood which forms their centre of unity. Now, that it is the infinitely precious blood of Christ which sets us individually as worshippers in the presence of God, is blessedly true. The blood, therefore, forms the divine basis of our fellowship with God. But when we come to speak; of the centre of our unity as a church, we must see that the Holy Ghost gathers us to the Person of a risen and glorified Christ; and this grand truth gives character - high and holy character to our association as Christians. If we take lower ground than this me must inevitably form a sect or an schism. If we gather round an ordinance, however important, or round a truth, however indisputable, we make something less than Christ our centre.
Hence, it is most important to ponder the practical consequences which flow out of the truth of our being gathered to a risen and glorified Head in the heavens. If Christ were on earth, we should be gathered to Him here; but, inasmuch as He is hidden in the heavens, the Church takes her character from His position there. Hence, Christ could say, "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" and again, "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John 17: 16, 19) So also, in 1 Peter, me read, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious; ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an Holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2: 4, 5) If we are gathered to Christ we must be gathered to Him as He is, and where He is; and the more the Spirit of God leads our souls into the understanding of this, the more clearly we shall see the character of walk that becomes us. Joseph’s bride was united to him, not in the pit or the dungeon, but in the dignity and: glory of his position in Egypt; and, in her case, we can have no difficulty in perceiving the vast difference between the two positions.
But, further, we read, "And unto Joseph were born two sons, before the years of famine came." There was a time of trouble coming; but previous thereto, the fruit of his union appeared. The children whom God had given him were called into existence previous to this time of trial. So will it be in reference to the Church. all the members thereof will be called out, the whole body will be completed and gathered to the Head in heaven, previous to "the great tribulation" which shall come upon all the earth.
We shall now turn, for a little, to Joseph’s interview with his brethren, in which we shall find some points of resemblance to Israel’s history in the latter day. During the period that Joseph was hidden from the view of his brethren, these latter were called to pass through deep and searching trial - through intensely painful exercises of conscience. One of these exercises is poured out in the following words: "And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear therefore, behold, also, his blood is required." (Gen. 42: 21, 22) Again, in Gen. 44 we read, "And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord What shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants." None can teach like God. He alone can produce in the conscience the true sense of sin, and bring the soul down into the profound depths of its own condition in His presence. This is all His own work. Men run on in their career of guilt, heedless of everything, until the arrow of the Almighty pierces their conscience, and then they are led into those searchings of heart, and intense exercises of soul, which can only find relief in the rich resources of redeeming love. Joseph’s brethren had no conception of all that was to flow to them from their actings toward him. "They took him and cast him into a pit ..... and they sat down to eat bread." "Woe to them.... that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." (Amos 6: 6)
However, God produced grief of heart, and exercises of conscience, and that in a most wonderful way. Years rolled on, and these brethren might have vainly imagined that all was right; but, then, "seven years of plenty, and seven years of scarcity!" What did they mean? Who sent them? And for what were they designed? Admirable providence! Unsearchable wisdom! The famine reaches to Canaan, and the calls of hunger actually bring the guilty brethren to the feet of the injured Joseph! How marked is the display of God’s own hand in all this! There they stand, with the arrow of conviction thrust through and through their consciences, in the presence of the man whom they had, "with wicked hands," cast into the pit. Surely their sin had found them out; but it was in the presence of Joseph. Blessed place!
"Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren." (Gen. 45: 1) No stranger was allowed to witness this sacred scene. What stranger could understand or appreciate it? We are here called to witness, as it were, divinely wrought conviction in the presence of divine grace; and we may say, when these two come together there is an easy settlement of every question.
"And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, Whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you, to preserve life. ..... And God sent me before you, to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you sent me hither, but God." This is grace indeed, setting the convicted conscience perfectly at rest. The brethren had, already, most thoroughly, condemned themselves, and hence Joseph had only to pour in the blessed balm into their broken hearts. This is all sweetly typical of God’s dealings with Israel, in the latter day, when "they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn." Then they shall prove the reality of divine grace, and the cleansing efficacy of that "fountain which shall be opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." (Zech. 13: 1).
In Acts 3, we find the Spirit of God in Peter seeking to produce this divine conviction in the consciences of the Jews. "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses." These statements were designed to elicit from the hearts and lips of the hearers the confession made by Joseph’s brethren - "we are verily guilty." Then follows the grace. "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." We here see that, although the Jews really carried out the enmity of their hearts, in the death of Christ, as did also Joseph’s brethren in their treatment of him, yet, the grace of God to each is seen in this, that all is shown to be decreed and foreshown of God for their blessing. This is perfect grace, surpassing all human thought; and all that is needed, in order to the enjoyment thereof, is a conscience truly convicted by the truth of God. Those who could say, "We are verily guilty," could rightly understand the words of precious grace, "It was not you, but God." Thus it must ever be. The soul that has thoroughly pronounced its own condemnation, is prepared to understand and appreciate God’s pardon.
The remaining chapters of this book are taken up with the removal of Jacob and his family into Egypt, and their settlement there; Joseph’s actings during the remaining years of famine; Jacob’s blessing the twelve patriarchs; his death and burial. We shall not dwell in detail upon these things, though the spiritual mind may find much to feed upon therein.* Jacob’s groundless fears dissipated by the sight of his son alive, and exalted - the peculiar grace of God seen in its overruling power, yet evidently mingled with judgement, inasmuch as Jacob’s sons have to go down into the very place whither they had sent their brother. Again, Joseph’s remarkable grace throughout: though exalted by Pharaoh, he hides himself, as it were, and binds the people in abiding obligation to the king. Pharaoh says, "Go to Joseph," and Joseph, in effect, says, "all you have and all you are belong to Pharaoh." This is sweetly interesting, and leads the soul on to that glorious time when the Son of man shall take the reins of government into His Own hand, by divine appointment, and rule over the whole redeemed creation, His Church - the bride of the Lamb - occupying the nearest and most intimate place, according to the eternal counsels. The house of Israel, fully restored, shall be nourished and sustained by His gracious hand; and all the earth shall know the deep blessedness of being under His sceptre. Finally, having brought everything into subjection, He shall hand back the reins of government into the hands of God, that "he may be all in all." From all this we may form some idea of the richness and copiousness of Joseph’s history. In short, it sets before us, distinctly, in type, the mission of the Son to the house of Israel - His humiliation and rejection - the deep exercises and final repentance and restoration of Israel - the union of the Church with Christ - His exaltation and universal government, and, finally, it points us forward to the time when "God shall be all in all." It is quite needless to remark, that all these things are largely taught, and fully established, throughout the entire canon of inspiration: we do not, therefore, build their truth upon Joseph’s history; still it is edifying to find such early foreshadowings of these precious truths: it proves to us the divine unity which pervades holy scripture. Whether we turn to Genesis or to Ephesians - to the prophets of the Old or those of the New Testament - we learn the same truths. "ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD.
{*The close of Jacob’s career stands in most pleasing contrast with all the previous scenes of his eventful history. It reminds one of a serene evening, after a tempestuous day: the sun, which during the day had been hidden from view by clouds, mists, and fogs, sets in majesty and brightness, gilding with his beams the western sky, and holding out the cheering prospect of a bright tomorrow. Thus is it with our aged patriarch. The supplanting, the bargain-making, the running, the management, the shifting, the shuffling the unbelieving selfish fears - all those dark clouds of nature and of earth seem to have passed away, and he comes forth, in all the calm elevation of faith, to bestow blessings, and impart dignities, in that holy skillfulness, which communion with God can alone impart.
Though nature’s eyes are dim, faiths vision is sharp. He is not to be deceived as to the relative positions assigned to Ephraim and Manasseh, in the counsels of God. He has not, like his father Isaac, in Gen. 27, to "tremble very exceedingly," in view of an almost fatal mistake. Quite the reverse. His intelligent reply to his less instructed son is, "I know it, my son, I know it." The power of sense has not, as in Isaac’s ease, dimmed his spiritual vision. He has been taught, in the school of experience, the importance of keeping close to the divine purpose, and nature’s influence cannot move him from thence.
In Gen. 48: 11, we have a very beautiful example of the mode in which our God ever rises above all our thoughts, and proves Himself better than all our fears. "And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed." To nature’s view, Joseph was dead; whereas in God’s view he was alive, and seated in the highest place of authority, next the throne. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Cor. 2: 9) Would that our souls could rise higher in their apprehension of God and His ways.
It is interesting to notice the way in which the titles "Jacob’’ and "Israel are introduced in the close of the Book of Genesis; as, for example, "One told Jacob, and said, Behold thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed" Then, it is immediately added, "And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz." Now, we know, there is nothing in scripture without its specific meaning, and hence this interchange of names contains some instruction. In general, it may be remarked, that "Jacob" sets forth the depth to which God had descended; "Israel," the height to which Jacob was raised.}
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 And it came to pass. The present chapter appears…
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 (vers. 7, 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 custom here mentioned of raising up seed to a dead brother by marrying his widow, though the idea may have originated with Judah (Lange), is more likely to have descended from earlier times (Delitzsch, Keil). Rightly understood, the object of the present portion of the record appears to have been not simply to prepare the way for the subsequent (Gen_46:8-27) genealogical register (Gerlach), or to contrast the wickedness of Judah and his sons with the piety and chastity of Joseph in Egypt (Wordsworth), or to recite the private history of one of Christ"s ancestors (Bush, Murphy, "Speaker"s Commentary"), or to show that the pre-eminence of Judah in the patriarchal family was due exclusively to grace (Candlish), but also and chiefly to justify the Divine procedure in the subsequent deportation of Jacob and his sons to Egypt (Keil). The special danger to which the theocratic family was exposed was that of intermarrying with the Canaanites. (Gen_24:3 Gen_28:6) Accordingly, having carried forward his narrative to the point where, in consequence of Joseph"s sale, a way begins to open up for the transference of the patriarchal house to the lend of the Pharaohs, the historian makes a pause to introduce a passage from the life of Judah, with the view of proving the necessity of such removal, by showing, as in the case of Judah, the almost certainty that, if left in Canaan, the descendants of Jacob would fall before the temptation of marrying with the daughters of the land, with the result, in the first instance, of a great and rapid moral deterioration in the holy seed, and with the ultimate effect of completely obliterating the line of demarcation between them and the surrounding heathen world. How the purity of the patriarchal family was guarded till it developed into a powerful nation, first by its providential withdrawment in infancy from the sphere of temptation, (Gen_46:5) then by its separate establishment in Goshen beside a people who regarded them with aversion, (Gen_46:34) and latterly by its cruel enslavement under Pharaoh, (Exo_1:10) is a subject which in due course engages the attention of the writer. At that time.
(1) If the date of Judah"s marriage, as is most probable, was shortly after the sale of Joseph (Keil, Kurtz, Lange, Alford, Wordsworth, Quarry), since at the time of that atrocity Judah was still living with his brethren, the only difficulty calling for solution is to account for the birth of Judah"s grandchildren, Hezron and Hamul (the sons of Pharez, the twin child of Judah by Tamar), in the short interval of twenty-two years which preceded Jacob"s descent into Egypt without making Er and Onan marry in comparative boyhood. The case becomes a little less perplexing if Hezron and Hamul, though said to have come into Egypt (Gen_46:27; Exo_1:1; Deu_10:22) may be regarded as having been born there (Hengstenberg), since twenty-two years afford sufficient space for the birth of Judah"s three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah, which may have taken place during the first three years after their father"s marriage, and for the birth of Pharez and Zarah, even if Er married as late as eighteen. Of course if the narrative requires the birth of Hezron and Hamul to have taken place in Canaan (Kalisch), it is simply impossible to hold that all this occurred within little more than a score of years. Hence
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(2) the date of Judah"s marriage has been placed before the sale of Joseph (Augustine, Aben Ezra, Rosenm Drechsler, Baumgarten, Gerlach, Ainsworth, Candlish, Murphy, Inglis); but even on this assumption the task is arduous to make the birth of Hezron and Hamul occur before the emigration of their great-grandfather to Egypt. For as Judah was not more than four years older than Joseph, (cf. Gen_29:35 with Gen_30:25) his age at the time of Joseph"s sale could not have been more than twenty-one. But placing Judah"s marriage at the earliest possible date, viz., in his fifteenth year, only substitutes an interval of twenty-eight years instead of one of twenty-two, in which Judah"s son Er must be born, grow up to manhood, (say at fifteen) marry, die, and leave his widow Tamar, who, after marrying with Onan and waiting for Shelah (which would consume at least another year), must become the mother of twin sons by her father-in-law (for which another year would be required), and must see the elder of the two married at ten years of age, if his sons are to be born upon the soft of Canaan. On either hypothesis, therefore, it seems indispensable to hold that Judah"s grandsons were born in Egypt; and in this case there is little gained by putting Judah"s marriage earlier than Joseph"s sale, i.e. in Judah"s twenty-first year. That Judah went down from Hebron, (Gen_37:14) or the mountains (Keil), towards the south (Aben Ezra, Rosenm from his brethren, setting up a separate and independent establishment apart from them; "not only immediately after Joseph was sold, but also on account of it," "in a fit of impenitent anger" (Kurtz), in a spirit of remorse (Lange)and turned in to a certain Adullamite, literally, and pitched, (sc. his tent Gen_26:15) up to, as far as, or close by, a man, an Adullamite, i.e. belonging to Adullam, a town in the Hebron valley; (Jos_15:8) in the time of the conquest the seat of a Canaanitish king, (Jos_12:15) afterwards celebrated for its connection with the history of David, (1Sa_22:1, 2 2Sa_23:13) subsequently mentioned in Scripture (2Ch_11:7; Neh_11:30; Mic_1:15) but never successfully identified (vide " Land and the Book," pp. 606, 607; Robinson, 2:175)whose name was Hirah (Gesenius).
Vers. 1-30.
The house of Judah: a family record of sin and shame.
I THE WICKEDNESS OF ER AND ONAN.
1. Early. On any hypothesis Er and Onan can have been little more than boys when they were married, and yet they appear to have arrived at a remarkable precocity in sin. Nor was it simply that they had shed the innocence and purity of youth, but they had also acquired a shameful proficiency in vice. Young scholars are mostly apt learners, especially in the devil"s school.
2. Unnatural. Though not described, the wickedness of Judah"s first son had relation to some perversion of the ordinance of marriage; that of his second is plainly stated to have been uncleanness and self-pollution. Neither against nature nor contrary to grace are the endearments of the married state, but every act outside of the Divine permissions concerning woman is both.
3. Heinous. The act of Er is characterized as "wicked in the sight of the Lord," while that of Onan is said to have displeased the Lord. Hence it may be reasonably inferred that the essential criminality in both cases was the same. They were both perversions of a natural ordinance. They both militated against the purity and development of the theocratic family. Both indicated a contemptuous unbelief in the promise of the covenant, and a sacrilegious disregard for the calling of Israel as the progenitor of the promised seed. Hence both were deserving of Divine reprobation.
4. Disastrous. The tendency of all sin is ruinous, both for body, soul, and spirit. Whether as a natural result of indulgence in vice, or as a direct punitive visitation from God, Er and Onan were consigned to premature graves; and this, it should be noted by young persons of both sexes, is the almost inevitable consequence of indulgence in secret vice, and in particular of the practice of which Onan was guilty. Yielded to, it debilitates the physical constitution by a wasting of the vital powers, it impairs the mental faculties, it corrupts the moral nature, it sears and petrifies the conscience, and finally, what might have been a fair specimen of noble and virtuous manhood or womanhood it covers up, a poor, wasted, shivering skeleton, beneath the clods of the valley, causing it to lie down among the sins of its youth.
II THE SIN OF TAMAR. The conduct of Judah"s daughter-in-law, the young widow of Er and Onan, though not without its extenuations, in having been partly provoked by Judah"s reluctance to marry her to Shelah, and partly inspired by a desire to take her place among the ancestresses of the promised seed, was yet in many respects reprehensible.
1. She discovered impatience. Although Judah did manifest a temporary unwillingness to give her Shelah for a husband, she might have reasoned that, after losing two sons, it was not unnatural that he should hesitate about exposing a third to the same risk of destruction.
2. She manifested unbelief. If Tamar did regard herself as wronged, as most undoubtedly she was, instead of taking measures to right herself, she should have left her cause to God, who had already vindicated her against the wickedness of her youthful husbands, and who in his own time and way would doubtless have interposed to assert her prerogative as a widow belonging to the family of Israel.
3. She practiced deception. Laying aside her widow"s garments, and assuming the attire of a harlot, she took her station at the gate of Enajim, on the way to Timnath, and pretended to be a prostitute. Tamar manifestly was not a woman of refined and delicate sensibilities; but then she was a Canaanite, and had been the wife of Er and Onan, who were not calculated to improve her modesty.
1. She was guilty of temptation. It is true the narrative does not represent her as having been guilty of solicitation, like the "foolish woman" described by Solomon. (Pro_7:6-23 Pro_9:14-18) Perhaps she knew that Judah would not require solicitation; but if so she was all the more guilty in placing temptation in Judah"s way.
2. She committed incest. The guilt of an incestuous connection which rested on Judah unconsciously she had knowingly and willingly taken on herself.
III THE TRANSGRESSIONS OF JUDAH. More numerous, if not more heinous, than those of either his sons or his daughter-in-law were the offences of Judah. Jacob"s fourth son sinned
1. In marrying a Canaanitish wife. Though Judah"s marriage with Shuah"s daughter was blessed by God, who made it fruitful, it does not follow that it was approved by God.
2. In withholding Shelah from Tamar. Although it does not appear as yet to have been commanded that in default of issue a widow should be married by her deceased husband"s brother, it is obvious that Judah recognized that it should be so, both by his own act in giving Onan to Tamar after Er"s death, and by his own subsequent confession with regard to Shelah (ver. 26).
3. In deceiving Tamar. Instead of frankly telling her that he did not intend his third son to become her husband, he bound her to remain a widow, and sent her home to her father"s house (instead of keeping her in his own) under the impression that Shelah was only withheld from her on the score of youth.
4. In committing sin with Tamar. Though in reality Judah committed incest, yet so far as his intention went it was only adultery, or fornication. Yet all forms of unchastity are forbidden in the law of God. And it gives a very low conception of the morality of Judah that he, a member of the consecrated family of Israel, who had himself been married, should have so openly, and deliberately, and coolly turned aside to seek the company of a common strumpet, as he imagined Tamar to be. Judah should have acted on the principle afterwards stated by Paul. (1Co_7:9)
5. In condemning Tamar. "Bring her forth, and let her be burnt," said the indignant patriarch. It is obvious the sentence was excessive in its severity. It was not imperative, else it could not have been remitted; and a recollection of his visit to Timnath three months previously should have inclined him to lean to mercy"s side. But the virtuous Angelos of society always procure indulgence for themselves by damning their fellow-sinners (Measure for Measure, Ac 2). Scripture counsels differently (Mat_7:3; Rom_2:22; Gal_6:1)
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen_6:2 Gen_24:67) and went in unto her.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 11 The character of Judah -
Gen_38:1-7
Judah
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The character of Judah -
I.
FAITHLESSNESS TOWARDS GOD.
1. In his separation from his brethren (Gen_38:1).
2. In his marriage with an idolater (Gen_38:2).
II. A STRONG SENSUAL NATURE (Gen_38:12-18).
III. AN UNDERLYING SENSE OF JUSTICE.
IV. SELF-DEPENDENCE. (T. H. Leale.)
The lessons of Judahs history
I. GODS CAUSE HAS IN IT THE SEEDS OF TRIUMPH EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS TO FAIL.
II. GODS JUDGMENTS ON THE SIN OF UNCHASTITY.
III. THIS HISTORY HAS AN IMPORTANT BEARING UPON GODS PURPOSE OF SALVATION. Considered in regard to Gods redeeming purpose, this history shows--
1. That Gods election is by grace. Otherwise Judah would not have been chosen as the ancestor of Christ. It shows--
2. The native glory of Christ, He derives all His glory from Himself, and not from His ancestry. It shows--
3. The amazing condescension of Christ. The greatest and most shameful sinners are found in His birth-register. (T. H. Leale.)
Lessons
1. Arbitrary is the Spirit of God in recording times of events; therefore careful should we be to search them.
2. Wanton forward youths are apt to leave their station, brethren, and fathers, where they should be ruled.
3. Such averseness from duty inclines foolish hearts to lose acquaintance. So it was here.
4. Wanton youths choose to be familiar with worldly companions in lust rather than to be with a good father.
5. Names of men and places of miscarriage by the sons of the Church are noted for instruction (Gen_38:1).
6. In bad company, and out of mens places usually, are offered baits of temptation.
7. Wanton hearts have wanton eyes by which they are carried out to evil.
8. Daughters of the Canaanites may please the eyes of the sons of Jacob to misguide them.
9. Violence of lust drives men to take their delights, never desiring leave of God or man.
10. Lust desires no better marriage than a carnal enjoyment of its pleasure.
11. Lust fears no law of God that forbids Jacobs seed to marry with Canaanites (Gen_38:2). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Lessons
1. Such as have been disobedient to parents are not willing their children should be such to them.
2. It is the fathers right to provide and give wives to their sons.
3. It is natural for fathers to care mainly for the first-born son.
4. Providence orders wives from strangers to be registered in His Church for His own ends.
5. The first-born of mens hopes may prove most wicked, and greatest crosses.
6. It is height of wickedness to dare the Lord to His face.
7. God Himself turneth executioner to avenge Himself upon daring sinners.
8. Premature death is determined sometimes and executed upon obstinate wicked sinners. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Judah
Judah had taken to wife the daughter of a Canaanite, no doubt to the grief and regret of his father (Gen_26:35); he had done what hitherto every member of the chosen branches of Abrahams house had scrupulously avoided; for even the sanguinary deed of Simeon and Levi had been dictated by the desire of preserving the purity of their family. He left his brothers and went to Adullam. This is a town in the plain of Judah, south-west of Jerusalem, mentioned together with Jarmuth and Sochoh, or with Libnah and Makkedah; it is one of the most ancient cities, and enjoyed an existence of unusual duration; for in the time of the Hebrew conquest it was the seat of a Canaanitish king; a cave in its neighbourhood was the refuge of David from the persecutions of Saul; here his relatives joined him; here he assembled around his person a large number of distressed but resolute men; and here he met a part of the Philistine army. Adullam was fortified by Rehoboam; it was later counted among the important cities of Judah; it was still inhabited after the exile; and existed even in the time of the Maccabees. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Gen_38:1. Turned in.] (Heb.) “And he pitched,” i.e., his…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_38:1. Turned in.] (Heb.) “And he pitched,” i.e., his tent. He came to dwell in the near neighbourhood of a man belonging to the small kingdom of Adullam (Jos_12:15; Jos_15:25.)
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Gen_38:2. Whose name was Shuah.] This is not the name of Judah’s wife, but of her father.
Gen_38:8. Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.] This was according to the custom of the Levirate marriage, which was afterwards legalised by Moses. So called from the Latin levir, a brother-in-law.
Gen_38:12. Unto his sheep-shearers to Timnath.] A town in the mountain country of Judah, seven miles south of Hebron. The sheep-shearing was a holiday with the shepherds.
Gen_38:18. Thy bracelets.] (Heb.) Strings. The signet-ring or seal was suspended from the neck with a silk string, and worn inside the garments. (Son_8:6; Jer_22:24; Hag_2:23.)
Gen_38:21. The harlot.] “The name by which Hirah calls her is literally a holy woman. In the horrid religious rites of the Goddess Ashtoreth, the priestesses or female devotees were harlots, who sat and solicited the passers-by. (Jer_3:2; Eze_16:25; Barach 6:43.”) (Alford.)
Gen_38:23. Let her take it to her.] The meaning is, let her keep the pledge for herself.
Gen_38:24. Let her be burnt.] “The punishment of burning for unchastity was afterwards by the law reserved for the daughters of priests. (Lev_21:9.) And Knobel thinks that this sentence was pronounced upon Tamar as being now by marriage one of the holy race. Had she merely been punished as the betrothed of Selah, she would have been stoned. (Lev_20:10; Deu_22:23; Eze_16:40; Joh_8:5.”) (Alford.)
Gen_38:29. Pharez.] A breach. “Perez, in the struggle before birth obtained the primogeniture, and in the tenth generation, David the King of Israel, descended from him. (Rth_4:18-22.) Tamar, therefore, has a place as one of the female ancestors in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.” (Jacobus.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_38:1-30
THE CHARACTER OF JUDAH
The story of Joseph is interrupted at this point, for the purpose of giving some particulars concerning the family history of Judah. This account is not to be considered merely as an episode, but rather as a parallel history, all belonging to the wider history of the sons of Israel. The chief points of Judah’s character are here illustrated.
I. Faithlessness towards God. This is seen,—
1. In his separation from his brethren. “Judah went down from his brethren.” (Gen_38:1.) This was an act of wilful indiscretion, and dangerous to his spiritual interests. He leaves the family where God was known and honoured, and forms a close friendship with a Canaanite.
2. In his marriage with an idolator. (Gen_38:2.) He had objected to his sister’s marriage with Shechem, and yet he marries this woman, and that without consulting his father. Such connections as these were forbidden to the covenant family, who were to be a separated people. These alliances were corrupting, and dangerous to the highest interests of the people of God. We have a sad illustration in the children born from this marriage. Judah was the first of Israel’s sons who took this false step. He was weary of the restraints of religion.
II. A strong sensual nature. We have a melancholy illustration of this in the account of his incestuous intercourse with Tamar. (Gen_38:12-18.) Judah had already become heathenish by his unlawful connections, and was easily seduced.
III. An underlying sense of justice. He had not sunk into that lowest depth of degradation in which the conscience is seared, and there is no longer any sense of, or concern for, righteousness. He scrupled not to acknowledge his guilt, and the superior sense of justice shown by his daughter-in-law. (Gen_38:26.) “He now acknowledges that in withholding his son from the widow and denying her right, he had brought about this shameful and sad result. It is evident from the narrative that she was driven to this stratagem, not from base lewdness, but to obtain through Judah himself the covenant posterity of which he was wrongfully depriving her.” (Jacobus.) Judah had also enough sense of religious obligation left to keep up the customs of the covenant family which were wisely ordained for its preservation. (Gen_38:8.) This was an important provision in its bearing upon the supreme purpose for which the race of Israel was chosen. (Rth_4:10-12; compare also with Gen_38:18-22.) “Onan, however, proved false, and his crime of violating God’s ordinance by a shameful abomination was also punished with death. Thus the covenant household seems degraded and disgraced. But the salvation lies not with them, but with God.” (Jacobus.)
IV. Self-dependence. Judah’s was a strong character. He was a headlong, rushing man, with great power in him for evil or for good.
THE LESSONS OF JUDAH’S HISTORY
I. God’s cause has in it the seeds of triumph even when it seems to fail. At the close of the last chapter Joseph appears to be altogether lost. In like manner, here, Judah appears to be lost—the hope of his posterity clean gone for ever. Yet, as the history unfolds, we shall find signs of future greatness both in Joseph and Judah. The tribe appeared to be extinguished, but the purpose of God shall still be accomplished. So in the cross the cause of Christ seemed to fail; His life and teaching but, at best, a pleasing memory, or it may be, a curious chapter in the history of enthusiasm. But that, in the design of God and in actual result, was the hour of His sublime triumph. Thereby was He “the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” (1Co_1:24.)
II. God’s judgments on the sin of unchastity. Judah is disgraced both in himself and in his sons. There is a stain upon the family honour.
III. This history has an important bearing upon God’s purpose of salvation. This history derives its importance and justifies its place in the sacred record, from the fact that Christ sprang from the tribe of Judah. The minutest circumstances connected with the ancestors of the promised seed have a lasting interest. Considered in regard to God’s redeeming purpose, this history shows—
1. That God’s election is by grace. Otherwise Judah would not have been chosen as the ancestor of Christ. It shows—
2. The native glory of Christ. He derives all His glory from Himself, and not from His ancestry. It shows—
3. The amazing condescension of Christ. The greatest and most shameful sinners are found in His birth-register. He “despised the shame,” and “made Himself of no reputation.” The strong purpose of His love can triumph over the worst evils of human sin. Luther asks, “Why did God the Holy Ghost permit these shameful things to be written? Answer: That no one should be proud of his own righteousness and wisdom; and, again, that no one should despair on account of his sins. It may be, also, to remind us that by natural right, Gentiles, too, are the mother, brothers, sisters of our Lord.”
THE SIN OF ONAN.—Gen_38:8-10
I. It was prompted by a low motive. It was as selfish as it was vile. Onan’s design was to preserve the whole inheritance for his own house.
II. It was an act of wilful disobedience to God’s ordinance. “Ill deservings of others can be no excuse for our injustice, for our uncharitableness. That which Tamar required, Moses afterward, as from God, commanded—the succession of brothers into the barren bed. Some laws God spake to His Church long ere He wrote them: while the author is certainly known, the voice and the finger of God are worthy of equal respect.”—(Bp. Hall.)
III. It was a dishonour done to his own body. “Unchastity in general is a homicidal waste of the generative powers, a demonic bestiality, an outrage to ancestors, to posterity, and to one’s own life. It is a crime against the image of God, and a degradation below the animal. Onan’s offence, moreover, as committed in marriage, was a most unnatural wickedness, a grievous wrong, and a desecration of the body as the temple of God. It was a proof of the most defective development of what may be called the consciousness of personality, and of personal dignity.”—(Lange.)
IV. It was aggravated by his position in the covenant family. The Messiah was to descend from the stock of Judah, and for aught he knew from himself. This very Tamar is counted in the genealogy of Christ. (Mat_1:3.) Herein he did despite to the covenant promise. He rejected an honourable destiny.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_38:8. The Levirate law. An endeavour to preserve families, even in their separate lines, and to retain the thereby inherited property, pervades the laws of the Israelites—a feeling that doubtless came down from the patriarchs. The father still lived on in the son; the whole family descending from him was, in a certain sense, himself; and, through this, the place among the people was to be preserved. From the remotest antiquity so much depended upon the preservation of tradition, upon the inheritance of religion, education, and custom, that these things were never regarded as the business of individuals, but of families and nations. The first motive for the patriarchial custom, or for Judah’s idea, comes, doubtless, from a struggle of faith in the promise with death. As the promise is to the seed of Abraham, so death seems to mar the promise when he carries away some of Jacob’s sons, especially the first-born, before they have had offspring. Life thus enters into strife with death, whilst the remaining brothers fill up the blank. The second motive, however, is connected with the fact, that the life of the deceased is to be reflected in the future existence of their names in this world. Israel’s sons are a church of the undying. There is a third motive; it is to introduce the idea of spiritual descent. The son of the surviving brother answers for the legitimate son of the dead, and thus the way is prepared for the great extension of the adoptive relationship, according to which Jesus is called the Son of Joseph, and mention is made of the brothers of Jesus. The institution, however, being typical, it could not be carried through consistently in opposition to the right of personality. A particular coercive marriage would have been at war with the idea of the law itself. (Deu_25:5-10; Rth_4:7.)—(Lange.)
Gen_38:12-14. That Tamar desired Shelah to be given to her was not unreasonable; but her course in thus avenging herself is by no means approved, though some of the Christian fathers (Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theodoret), praise her on this very account, and ascribe her design to a peculiar desire to become the mother of the Messiah.—(Lange.)
Tamar seeks by subtilty that which she could not have by award of justice. The neglect of due retributions drives men to indirect courses; neither know I whether they sin more in righting themselves wrongfully, or the other in not righting them.—(Bp. Hall.)
Gen_38:16. Three women only are mentioned in the genealogy of Christ. Rahab, the harlot; Bathsheba, the adulteress, and this incestuous Tamar (Matthew 1); to show His readiness to receive the most notorious offenders that come unto Him with bleeding and believing hearts. (1Ti_1:15.)—(Trapp.)
Gen_38:23. Shame is the easiest wages of sin, and the surest, which ever begins first in ourselves. Nature is not more forward to commit sin, than willing to hide it.—(Bishop Hall.)
Gen_38:26. God will find a time to bring His children upon their knees, and to wring from them penitent confessions; and rather than He will not have them soundly ashamed. He will make them the trumpets of their own reproach.—(Bishop Hall.)
And he knew her again no more. An assurance of the sincerity of his repentance.
Inasmuch as Hebrew customs afterwards sanctioned by the law, (Lev_18:15; Lev_20:12), condemned such an act as incest, he repeated it not.—(Alford.)
Most commentators regard the saying of the midwife as allusive to the division of the kingdom, by which a breach was made in the sovereignty of the house of David which came of the line of Pharez.—(Alford.)
The Jewish writers say, “In Pharez the strength of David’s house was portended; and therefore from him proceedeth the Kingdom of the house of David.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 2. (Gen 38:1-30).
Section 2. (Gen 38:1-30).
Judah’s separation from his brethren and humiliation.
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At this juncture, the history of Judah is introduced, which as that of Judah alone is itself significant. Israel (the ten tribes) has for long had none: the Jews represent for us the whole people. Here, at the outset, Judah separates himself from his brethren, and connects himself with the Canaanite -the "merchantman" -marrying the daughter of Shuah (or "riches"). Surely these names give us in plain speech the characteristics of the nation for these centuries since the cross! His seed is thus, however, continued upon the earth, although God’s wrath is upon the first two sons (whose names may speak, Er, of "enmity," and Onan, of "iniquity"), while the third son, Shelah ("sprout"?), speaks of divine power in resurrection, bringing out of death. Thus is a remnant preserved.
The story of Tamar shows us how, in God’s marvelous way of grace, Christ comes into connection with Judah, and thus it is her name appears in the Lord’s genealogy in the gospel of Matthew, first of those four women’s names, whose presence there demonstrates the grace which has stooped to take up men. Each of these four has its own distinctive gospel-feature to bring out, as elsewhere shown. It is Tamar’s sin that brings her in, as it is Rahab’s faith; while for Ruth to come in, the sentence of the law as to the Moabites must be set aside, and Bathsheba -named even as the wife of Urias -shows us grace triumphing over even a believer’s sin. A salvation for sinners, -through faith, -apart from law, -and eternal: this is what the simple insertion of these names declares. Tamar’s sin was the very thing which brought her into the Lord’s genealogy: and as sinners simply have we title to rejoice in a work accomplished for sinners. Judah will find, in a day that is near, his title, not in legal righteousness, nor in mere descent from Abraham, but in the truth which God has emphasized for us here.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The History of Judah
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 Rth_4:18; Mat_1:3.
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1. Adullamite] Adullam was in the lowland of Judah, SW. of Jerusalem.
8. The law in Deu_25:5-10, respecting the duty of a surviving brother to marry his deceased brother's widow in order to continue the race, will fully explain the circumstances here detailed. To inculcate observance of this law was probably the aim of the historian. Had Judah given Shelah to Tamar, as he admitted he should have done according to ancient custom, the events recorded here would not have happened: see also Mat_22:23.
13. Timnath] on the Philistine border of Judah.
14. An open place] RV 'the gate of Enaim,' near Adullam.
15. Harlot] RM Heb. Kedeshah, 'that is, a woman dedicated to impure heathen worship: see Deu_23:17; Hos_4:14.' The surrender of their chastity as the greatest sacrifice women could make was common in heathen worship. At Corinth in St. Paul's day it is known that this shocking practice formed part of the ritual at the temples dedicated to Aphrodite.
18. Bracelets] rather, 'cord' by which the seal was suspended round the neck.
26. The reason of Tamar's action may be found in the strong desire for the perpetuation of the family, so often observed in the sacred narrative.
27-30. This incident testifies to the importance and privileges attached to the firstborn.
Pharez] 'breach.' Zarah] perhaps 'scarlet,' but uncertain.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 38 Judah and Tamar
CHAPTER 38 Judah and Tamar
1. Judah’s marriage to the Canaanitish woman (Gen 38:1-2)
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2. His sons: Er, Onan and Shelah (Gen 38:3-5)
3. Tamar married to Er and Onan (Gen 38:6-10)
4. Tamar waiting for Shelah (Gen 38:11)
5. Her deception and Judah’s sin (Gen 38:12-16)
6. The birth of Pharez and Zarah (Gen 38:27-30)
Historically this chapter comes before the thirty-seventh. The higher critics are one against the other in their unbelieving speculations over the composition of this chapter. It is inserted here for a most interesting purpose. Judah’s history foreshadows the history of the Jews after they had rejected the Lord Jesus. His connection with a Canaanite (trafficker) and his marriage to the daughter of Shuah (riches) shows what the Jews have been ever since they rejected Christ. His offspring is Er (enmity) and Onan (wickedness) till the significant third one comes, Shelah (the sprout) pointing to the godly remnant of that nation in the future. (On that remnant see chapter on Isaiah.)
And Tamar’s sin, so dark and vile, shows forth the grace of God. We find her name and the names of her two sons in the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 12, 24 The story of Judah, Shuah, and Tamar
The story of Judah, Shuah, and Tamar
v. 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. After the episode with Joseph, Judah separated himself from his brothers and moved down from Hebron, which is in a mountainous region, toward the southeastern plains, pitching his tent near the town of Adullam and entering into friendly relations with a man by the name of Hirah.
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v. 2. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her. He married a Canaanite woman and entered into the most intimate relations with the heathen.
v. 3. And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
v. 4. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan. It was the father, then, who named his first-born son, while the mother selected the name for the second.
v. 5. And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah; and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. The older sons may thus have been born at Adullam, a city of some importance in later times, Jos 12:15; Jos 15:35; 2Ch 11:7; Mic 1:15. Chezib, where Judah was tenting at the time of Shelah’s birth, Jos 15:44; Mic 1:14, was in the southern part of what was afterward the Plain of Judah. Apparently there was not much difference in the age of the three sons, for the entire story, as here related, took place between the incident at Dothan and the removal of Jacob to Egypt, a period of about twenty-three years.
v. 6. And Judah took a wife for Er, his first-born, whose name was Tamar, apparently also a Canaanite.
v. 7. And Er, Judah’s first-born, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. If Judah had intended to curb the wickedness of his oldest son by an early marriage, he was disappointed; Jehovah punished Er with an early death.
v. 8. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. This custom of marriage between a man and the widow of his brother, known as the levirate, was afterward definitely fixed by the Lord, Deu 25:5. It was understood that the family of the older son should thereby be established.
v. 9. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his, that a possible first-born son would not perpetuate his name and family, but that of his brother Er; 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. Rather than yield to the custom and be obedient to his father, Onan committed this crime against the divine institution of marriage and its purpose according to the will of God. Such works of the flesh, all too prevalent in our day, when children are no longer desired, are an abomination before the Lord. Where the fear of God still rules, such vices will not be tolerated.
v. 10. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, was evil in His eyes; wherefore He slew him also.
v. 11. Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father’s house, where widows returned in case there were no adult children to take care of them, till Shelah, my son, be grown. Evidently he did not want the third son to be married so early; for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. Whether this was due to a superstition which regarded Tamar as an unlucky wife or simply to fatherly anxiety in behalf of his only remaining son, cannot be determined. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house. She was perfectlywilling to do as Judah had suggested; she gave him the deference which the Fourth Commandment requires also from adult children.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24 It came about at that time that Judah
It came about at that time that Judah
This introduces a new part of the story that focuses on Judah. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
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a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah
Hirah is the name of a man who lived in the village of Adullam. (See: How to Translate Names)
whose name was Shua
Shua is a Canaanite woman who married Judah. (See: How to Translate Names)
translationWords
Judah
Canaan
had relations with
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 24 38:1-30 The story of Judah and Tamar is a…
38:1-30 The story of Judah and Tamar is a carefully placed interlude; it reports what was happening in the family of Judah, who would later rise to prominence, and it shows the beginnings of assimilation with the people of the land to help explain why God sent the family to Egypt (chs 39–47). The Egyptians were strict separatists (43:32); the Israelites would retain their unique identity better in Egypt than in Canaan.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.