Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 38:1 - 38:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
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.
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.