Chapter Thirty-Eight

Judah and His Sons

Genesis 38:1–2. At that time Judah departed from his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a Canaanite, whose name was Shua, and he took her and lay with her. The episode from Judah’s life, whose account in chapter 38 interrupts the narrative about Joseph, stands with that narrative not only in temporal connection (“at that time”), but also in inner-logical connection: the offspring of pure, chaste Joseph, in the person of the mighty tribe of Ephraim, later became the head of the northern (Israelite) kingdom; the offspring of Judah formed the main mass of the southern (Judean) kingdom and, in the end of days, gave forth from its midst the Messiah, who did not shrink from being born from the tribe of Judah-blood-avenger; according to the Midrash, before the oppressor (pharaoh) was born, the last deliverer (the Messiah from the tribe of Judah) had already been born. According to Jewish interpreters, Judah departed from his brothers as a result of the sale of Joseph, tormented by his conscience for the counsel given, though well-intentioned. Regarding the time when everything recounted in chapter 38 occurred, Abenezra, Rosenmüller, and others believed that not all these events took place after the sale of Joseph—within the twenty-three-year period from that event until Jacob’s settlement in Egypt, since in that period Judah could scarcely have had three sons from his first wife, been a widower for “many days” (verse 12), then fathered Perez and Zerah, and finally from the first have had grandsons: Hezron and Hamul (Gen 46:12). Judah left Hebron—the last place of Jacob’s residence—and settled in the region (west of Hebron) of Adullam, in the valley of Saphela (later a cave near the city that arose there gave shelter to David, 1 Sam 22:1; cf. Josh 15:35; 2 Chr 11:7). The Adullamite Hirah here became Judah’s friend (verse 12). Here too Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite—Shua. The Jews, following the lead of Targum Onkelos, understand the word kenaani (verse 2) in the generic sense: a merchant (as in Prov 31:24), but in clear contradiction with the context, from a tendency to deflect what disturbed them, in view of Gen 28:1, the fact of the patriarch’s marriage to a Canaanite woman. Shua is the name of the father of Judah’s wife, not of the wife herself (as understood in the LXX, Syriac, Slavonic), as shown by the masculine suffix attached to the word shem (name).

Genesis 38:3–5. She conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. And she conceived again and bore a son, and called his name Onan. And she bore yet another son and called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him. Judah’s marriage to a Canaanite woman was apparently not a happy one: into Judah’s family penetrated the unnatural vices that had long distinguished the Canaanites, which, by God’s judgment, became the cause of the early death of Judah’s first two sons: Er (from Hebrew—“fear”) and Onan (from Hebrew—“strength”). In the mention of the birth of the third son Shelah, the place where he was born is named—Kezib, Chezib (perhaps Achzib), a city near Adullam (Josh 15:44; Mic 1:14); only from this son was there offspring. The Vulgate renders the name kezib descriptively: “parere ultra cessavit.”

Tamar and Her Two Sons

Genesis 38:6–10. And Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. Er, the firstborn of Judah, was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. And Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, and whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he would waste the seed on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and He put him to death as well. Judah took as wife his firstborn Er (apparently at an early age) to Tamar (“palm tree”: Tamar’s origin is not indicated—perhaps from the Philistines), but his early childless death, perhaps sudden, was testimony to his displeasure before God (cf. Prov 10:27). Judah, relying on the ancient custom, later expressly regulated in the law of Moses (Deut 25:5-10), the so-called levirate marriage (Latin levir = Hebrew yabam, brother-in-law), that is, the marriage of a childless widow to the brother-in-law or other nearest blood relative to restore offspring to her deceased husband, whose name the firstborn from this new marriage would receive—gives the widow Tamar to his second son Onan. But the latter marked himself with an abominable sin, henceforth known by his name (onanism); the gravity of his sin was increased by his base ill-will toward the memory of his brother, whose name only the first son was to receive, and by his mercenary calculation—to inherit his brother’s portion himself. God’s punishment struck him too.

Genesis 38:11. And Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah is grown up.” For he thought, “Lest he also die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house. Though it is possible that Shelah had truly not yet reached marriageable age, the real reason for Judah’s disposition to remove Tamar to her father’s house on the status of a widow was Judah’s superstitious fear and regard for Tamar as a woman bringing death to whoever would enter into marriage with her (cf. Tob 3:7-8); (according to later Jewish custom, a woman whose two husbands had died, strictly speaking, lost the right to a third marriage). By prolonging the time with the promise to give Tamar to Shelah, Judah was in fact condemning her to perpetual widowhood (verse 14), thereby doing her an injustice, which he later acknowledged himself (verse 26). Then Tamar, by cunning, achieves what was not given to her by lawful means (verses 14–26).

Genesis 38:12. A long time passed, and the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died. After his mourning, Judah went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. The period “many days” according to the Midrash equals two months. The mention of the death of his wife has immediate connection with the subsequent account of Judah’s encounter (verses 16–17), which could not have taken place while a man was married. After his mourning, Judah goes with his friend (according to the LXX and Vulgate, cf. Slavonic—shepherd: a confusion of Hebrew re’a, friend, with roeh, shepherd) Hirah to Timnah (on the north-west border of the tribe of Judah, Josh 15:57) to the feast of shearing sheep (cf. Gen 31:19; 1 Sam 25:4; 2 Sam 13:23).

Genesis 38:13–15. And Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep. So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife. And when Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Learning this, “Tamar decided to deceive and share a bed with her father-in-law and bear children by him—not for fleshly lust, but so as not to remain without a name. Yet in this matter there was also God’s providence, which is why her intention was indeed fulfilled” (John Chrysostom, Homily 62, 662). Nevertheless, Scripture does not praise and even does not justify Tamar’s action (not without her self-sacrifice with danger to her honor and life). The place where Tamar sat waiting for Judah is called in verses 14 and 21 Enaim, which the Targum, Midrash, many Jewish interpreters, and the Vulgate (“in bivio itineris”) understand in the sense of a common noun: “two springs,” “two roads,” and so forth; but more probable is the transmission of the LXX—“πρὸς ταῖς πόλαις Αιναν”—Enaim or Genan would then be the name of a city in the tribe of Judah (Josh 15:34), between Adullam and Timnah. Here, like prostitutes who usually went out onto streets and busy roads (Prov 7:12; Jer 3:2), Tamar sat by the road (perhaps at a crossroads of two roads, as might be indicated by the dual form Enaim and the note of verse 16: “he turned aside to her”), carefully covering her face with a veil so as not to be recognized. This covering of the face, however, was not a sign of a woman’s belonging to the class of prostitutes (Rebecca at her first meeting with Isaac also covers herself with a veil, Gen 24:65), and it was not for this reason that Judah (verse 15) took Tamar for a prostitute, but rather because of Tamar’s location in a public place and other circumstances, which led Judah to perceive in Tamar something like a servant of Astarte or Babylonian Melittas—qedeschah (verse 21); about a cult of this kind among the Babylonians Herodotus speaks (book 1, 199).

Genesis 38:18. He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She said, “Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff that is in your hand.” And he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him. As pledge for future payment, Tamar demands from Judah those things, whose certain belonging to Judah was later to prove the paternity of Judah with respect to Tamar’s two sons: a ring, a cord (the strap of the signet), and a staff—all of this was usual property among the Babylonians (Herodotus, book 1, 195), and from there it passed into Canaan. In this, on the ring, as well as on staffs, probably already very early, various emblems of their owner were engraved (the emblem or coat of arms of the tribe of Judah was a lion, of the tribe of Dan—a serpent, of Issachar—a donkey, of Benjamin—a wolf, Gen 49:9).

Genesis 38:21. And he asked the men of the place, “Where is the temple prostitute who was at Enaim on the road?” But they said, “There has been no temple prostitute here. The name qedeschah, “devoted one” (that is, to the goddess of depravity), in application to a prostitute, clearly indicates the Babylonian cult of Melittas or Belittas, or Canaanite Astarte, in both of which cults the payment of prostitutes was brought into the treasury of the goddess, which was strictly and unconditionally forbidden to the Hebrews in Deut 23:18.

Genesis 38:23. And Judah said, “Let her keep the things as her own, lest we be laughed at. After all, I sent this kid, but you could not find her. Judah refuses to search further for the supposed “qedeschah” (qedeschah) from fear that his desire to settle with the woman according to agreement (who has already received, however, more valuable things, in comparison with a kid) might lead to mockery of him: a fact—along with some other features noted in this account—testifying to a sufficiently high development of moral feeling in Jacob’s family, despite the presence of phenomena contrary to it.

Genesis 38:24. About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and moreover she is pregnant from harlotry.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned. As Judah’s sentence (individual) against his daughter-in-law (betrothed to Shelah) on suspicion of harlotry characterizes the patriarchal way of life—in distinction from the limitations of parental power in the law of Moses (Deut 21:18-21)—so also the kind of punishment—burning—indicates a pre-Mosaic, patriarchal stage of Hebrew criminal law; perhaps this execution was borrowed by Judah from neighboring Philistines (the Philistines burned Samson’s wife for infidelity, Judg 15:6). According to the law of Moses, a violator of marital fidelity was stoned to death (Deut 22:21), and only a priest’s daughter who had committed harlotry was burned (Lev 21:9), therefore Jewish tradition considered Tamar also a daughter of a priest; according to the rabbis—a daughter of Shem or Melchizedek, Beresch. r. Par. 85, s. 421. It is possible, finally, that Judah’s burning was assigned to Tamar as (a supposed) priestess of Astarte (Deut 7:25).

Genesis 38:25. As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Identify whose these are—the signet ring, the cord, and the staff. When Judah so decisively (like his descendant David—in the matter of Bathsheba) (2 Sam 12:5) pronounced a death sentence on Tamar, though he himself was guilty of insincerity in arranging Tamar’s marriage to Shelah, then Tamar produces, evidently carefully preserved until now, the things of Judah and sends them to him, delicately, without naming him, reminding him of the occasion (verse 18). The Talmud and Midrash, praising this thoughtfulness of Tamar for her father-in-law’s good name, at a time when death itself threatened her, draw the moral lesson that it is better to die than to disgrace a neighbor. From the expression “as she was being brought out,” the Midrash concludes that the things mentioned were already lost to her, but God miraculously gave her other similar ones (Beresch. r. Par. 85.s. 421–422).

Genesis 38:26. And Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again. Tamar’s modest reminder awakens in Judah the reproaches of conscience, and he (by inspiration from above, the Midrash says) openly, publicly acknowledges his guilt before Tamar and his belonging to the future children of hers; moreover, the awakened moral feeling (in connection with the so-called honor naturalis) causes him to refuse further cohabitation with his daughter-in-law.

Genesis 38:27–30. When she was in labor, there were twins in her womb. And when she was in labor, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, “This one came out first.” But he drew back his hand, and his brother came out instead. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore he was named Perez. Afterward his brother came out with the crimson thread on his hand. And he was named Zerah. These verses form an epilogue to the story of Tamar—an account of the birth of her twins, which in some respects resembles the account (Gen 25:22-26) of the birth of Esau and Jacob: Zerah (from Hebrew “sunrise”), who, by human reckoning, was to be the firstborn and receive all the advantages of the firstborn, was bound to yield both the right of birth and all the rights of the firstborn to his brother Perez (Hebrew Perez—breach, as if contrary to nature), who, of the five sons of Judah, formed the main line of Judah’s offspring, namely through him came David from the tribe of Judah, and in the end of days—Christ the Savior (1 Chr 2:5-9; Ruth 4:17-22; Matt 1:3-6; Luke 3:31-35).