Genesischapter 38
30 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
This chapter leaves Joseph for a time to follow Judah, the brother who proposed selling him. It was written for a nation whose royal line would come from Judah, and it hides nothing about how that tribe began. The account turns on a duty a family owed to a son who died without children. Listen for promises made and left unkept, and for the objects that prove who a man is. A widow with no standing is at the centre of it. The last lines name a child whose line runs to King David.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, the tribe of Judah among them
- What
- A narrative of Judah's family, his refusal to give his last son to Tamar, and the birth of Perez and Zerah.
- Where
- The lowlands west of Judah's hills, at Adullam, Chezib, Timnah and the roadside at Enaim.
- When
- The traditional dating places it in the 1890s to 1870s BC, over about twenty years while Joseph was in Egypt.
- Why
- To show how the line of Judah, from which David and the Messiah would come, was kept alive through Tamar despite Judah's failure.
Historical context
The chapter is Judah's, and it opens with him leaving his brothers straight after proposing the sale at Genesis 37:27 and settling among Canaanites.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The places are in the lowlands, Adullam and Chezib, the sheepshearing at Timnah, and the roadside at Enaim on the way to it.
The occasion is a duty owed and withheld. Levirate marriage is the custom that drives the whole chapter, where a man who died childless was to have a son fathered for him by his brother, and that son carried the dead man's name and inherited his portion, and it was practised across the region before Israel's own law stated it.
A first hearer understood Onan's refusal as a property calculation rather than a scruple, since without an heir for his brother the share would come to him.
He also knew a widowed daughter-in-law's position, because she returned to her father's house to wait and stayed bound to the dead husband's family, so Judah's delay leaves Tamar unable to remarry and unable to bear an heir.
The pledge Tamar takes is a man's identity in that world, since a cylinder or stamp seal was worn on a cord and used to sign contracts, and with the staff those three things named a man at a glance and made his word binding.
Sheepshearing was a festival with feasting and drink and it took a master and his men from home for days, which is the same seasonal absence that covered Rachel's theft at Genesis 31:19.
Significance
This is the tribe of kings, and the chapter is told with nothing hidden, a Canaanite marriage, two sons struck down, and a father-in-law convicted by his own seal.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
Judah is ready to burn Tamar for immorality while treating his own conduct as ordinary, and Matthew Henry marks how severe men are about their own sin when they meet it in someone else.
The line to David runs through Perez, born here, and Israel heard early that the chosen tribe had no room to boast.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
The corpus holds very little English on this chapter and a great deal of citation, so the classical reading of it stands here mostly as references. Rashi comments at nineteen places and Malbim at one, and no English of any of them is in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation: Rashi on Genesis 38:1:1, 38:2:1, 38:5:1, 38:7:1, 38:8:1, 38:9:1, 38:11:1, 38:12:1, 38:13:1, 38:14:1, 38:15:1, 38:16:1, 38:17:1, 38:18:1, 38:21:1, 38:23:1, 38:24:1, 38:25:1 and 38:26:1, Malbim on Genesis 38:20:1. Four short comments carry English. Radak reads the naming of the three sons as a record of ordinary family custom: "Yehudah named the first son, whereas his wife named the second son. This appears to have been the custom at that time", and explains the break in the pattern at the third by Judah's absence (Radak on Genesis 38:3:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). On the death of the second son he writes one line, that "both brothers had been guilty of the same sin" (Radak on Genesis 38:10:1), and on Tamar's removing of her veil he notes only that it came from her head and face (Radak on Genesis 38:19:1). Sforno reads the friend's report back to Judah as a warning about reputation, that pressing the search further "would be liable to hurt his image" (Sforno on Genesis 38:22:1, Munk translation, CC-BY).
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-six of them Midrash and four Talmud, and the rabbis are where the weight of the Jewish reading of this chapter sits. Bereshit Rabbah is cited at 41:7, 60:15, 61:4, 63:8, 74:5, 85:5, 85:8 and 85:14, the last three running through Tamar's widowhood, her waiting at the road and the birth of the twins. Midrash Lekach Tov is cited at Genesis 38:2:1, 38:3:1, 38:7:1, 38:8:1, 38:19:1 and 38:21:1, Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Vayeshev 14, 18, 19, 20 and 25, Midrash Aggadah at Genesis 38:3:1, 38:4:1, 38:16:1 and 38:30:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 38:4:1, 38:6:1 and 38:22:1, Aggadat Bereshit at 27:2, 61:3, 64:1, 64:3 and 83:1, and Bamidbar Rabbah at 9:24 and 21:11. The Ein Yaakov collection is cited three times, at Pesakhim 3:6, Niddah 2:3 and Bava Kama 8:9 in the Glick edition. The four Talmud locators are Jerusalem Talmud Demai 1:1:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Ketubot 7:5:4 early in the chapter, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:5 at Tamar's sending of the pledge, and Bava Kamma 92a:22 at Judah's acknowledgement.
Sources: Radak, Radak on Genesis 38:3:1, 38:10:1 and 38:19:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Sforno, Sforno on Genesis 38:22:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 38:1:1, 38:2:1, 38:5:1, 38:7:1, 38:8:1, 38:9:1, 38:11:1, 38:12:1, 38:13:1, 38:14:1, 38:15:1, 38:16:1, 38:17:1, 38:18:1, 38:21:1, 38:23:1, 38:24:1, 38:25:1 and 38:26:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Malbim, Malbim on Genesis 38:20:1, cited only; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah 41:7, 60:15, 61:4, 63:8, 74:5, 85:5, 85:8 and 85:14; Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 38:2:1, 38:3:1, 38:7:1, 38:8:1, 38:19:1 and 38:21:1; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 14, 18, 19, 20 and 25; Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 38:3:1, 38:4:1, 38:16:1 and 38:30:1; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 38:4:1, 38:6:1 and 38:22:1; Aggadat Bereshit 27:2, 61:3, 64:1, 64:3 and 83:1; Bamidbar Rabbah 9:24 and 21:11; Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 3:6 and Niddah 2:3; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 8:9; Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 92a:22; Jerusalem Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud Demai 1:1:4, Jerusalem Talmud Ketubot 7:5:4; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:5.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Judah's Sons and a Widowed Tamar
Genesis 38:1-2
Judah left his brothers: Judah leaves his brothers straight after proposing the sale at Genesis 37:27 and settles near Hirah the Adullamite. There he takes a Canaanite wife, the daughter of Shua. Abraham made his servant swear not to take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites at Genesis 24:3, and Isaac charged Jacob the same way at Genesis 28:1.
Genesis 38:1
“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.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua: The verbs run saw, took and slept with, the same three used of Shechem with Dinah at Genesis 34:2. Judah's wife goes unnamed in Genesis. The Chronicler also knows her only as the Canaanite daughter of Shua, at 1 Chronicles 2:3.
Genesis 38:2
“And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite--Like Esau [Ge 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)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 38:2
“For neither he nor his other brethren were ignorant that they sojourned in the land of Canaan, under the stipulation, that afterwards their enemies were to be cut off and destroyed, in order that they might possess the promised dominion over it.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Genesis 38:3-5
she conceived and gave birth to a son: Three sons arrive in three verses, Er, Onan and Shelah. Judah names the first and their mother names the other two. Jerome reads Chezib as a word carrying the sense of deception, and Clarke ties the name instead to Achzib, a town that later fell to the tribe of Judah. Two of the three are dead within five verses.
Genesis 38:3
“And she conceived, and bare a son, and he called his name Er. Which signifies a "watchman": but the reason of the name given by the Targum of Jonathan is,"because he should die without children;''as if it was the same with Ariri, "childless".”
she named him Onan: The name Onan is usually taken from on, vigor or strength, the word Jacob uses of Reuben as the firstfruits of his vigor at Genesis 49:3. Numbers 26:19 lists Er and Onan among the sons of Judah with the record that both died in the land of Canaan. Neither left a clan.
Genesis 38:4
“And she conceived again, and bare a son,.... As soon as she well could: and she called his name Onan; the first son Judah gave the name to, but his wife named this, so called from grief or sorrow; the reason of it, according to the above Targum, was,"because his father would mourn for him;''he was a Benoni, see Gen 35:18, whose sin and immature death caused sorrow.”
another son and named him Shelah: Shelah is the son who lives, and his line lasts. Numbers 26:20 counts the Shelanites among the clans of Judah, and 1 Chronicles 4:21 names a son of his Er, the name of the brother who died. His descendants included the clans of linen workers at Beth-ashbea.
Genesis 38:5
And he was at Chezib when she bare him - This town is supposed to be the same with Achzib, which fell to the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:44. “The name,” says Ainsworth, “has in Hebrew the signification of lying; and to it the prophet alludes, saying the houses of Achzib shall be (Achzab) a lie to the kings of Israel, Mic 1:14.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 38:6-7
Judah acquired a wife for Er: Judah acquires Tamar for his firstborn, and Genesis never says where she came from or whose daughter she was. Er is wicked in the sight of the LORD, who puts him to death. The text leaves the wickedness unnamed. Clarke notes that the Hebrew letters of the name Er reversed spell the word for wicked.
was wicked in the sight of the LORD: Er is the first single person in Scripture whom the LORD is said to put to death. The Chronicler repeats it at 1 Chronicles 2:3. Judah had helped take a son from his father, and now he buries his own firstborn.
Genesis 38:7
“And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord,.... That is, exceedingly wicked, as this phrase signifies, Gen 13:13, was guilty of some very heinous sin, but what is not mentioned; according to the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi, it was the same with his brother Onan's, Gen 38:9, which it is suggested he committed, lest his wife should prove with child, and lose her beauty; but if it had been the same with his, it would have been expressed as well as his.”
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 38:7
Er - was wicked in the sight of the Lord - What this wickedness consisted in we are not told; but the phrase sight of the Lord being added, proves that it was some very great evil. It is worthy of remark that the Hebrew word used to express Er’s wickedness is his own name, the letters reversed. Er ער wicked, רע ra. As if the inspired writer had said, “Er was altogether wicked, a completely abandoned character.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 38:7
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 38:8-10
Judah tells Onan to raise up offspring for his dead brother, the duty of a brother-in-law. That duty is levirate marriage, where a man fathers a son for his brother's widow and the first child counts as the dead brother's. Onan takes the wife and spills his seed on the ground so no offspring will be his brother's. The LORD puts him to death as well.
Genesis 38:8
“Judah said unto Onan . . . marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother--The first instance of a custom, which was afterwards incorporated among the laws of Moses, that when a husband died leaving a widow, his brother next of age was to marry her, and the issue, if any, was to be served heir to the deceased (compare De 25:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the offspring would not belong to him: The Hebrew marks the act as repeated, each time he went in to her. A son counted to Er would inherit the firstborn's share of Judah's estate, and with Er's line empty that share would pass to Onan. He took the marriage and refused its purpose.
Genesis 38:9
“Onan knew that the seed should not be his - That is, that the child begotten of his brother’s widow should be reckoned as the child of his deceased brother, and his name, though the real father of it, should not appear in the genealogical tables.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
What he did was wicked: Deuteronomy 25:7 to 10 later let a man refuse this duty openly, at the price of public shame before the elders. Onan cheated the widow of a child in secret. Boaz takes up the duty willingly at Ruth 4:10, to raise up the name of the dead.
Genesis 38:10
“Those sins that dishonour the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile actions. Observe, the thing which he did displeased the Lord - And it is to be feared, thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displeased the Lord, and destroy their own souls.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 38:10
“Wherefore he slew him also - The sin of Onan has generally been supposed to be self-pollution; but this is certainly a mistake; his crime was his refusal to raise up seed to his brother, and rather than do it, by the act mentioned above, he rendered himself incapable of it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judah puts Tamar in her father's house on a promise tied to a date that never comes. The verse gives his own reason, that Shelah may die like his brothers. He treats the widow as the danger to his last son. She waits there as a widow.
Genesis 38:11
“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; however Tamar acquiesced, and waited for the issue.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Tamar Waits Beside the Road
Genesis 38:12-14
his sheepshearers at Timnah: Judah's wife dies, and he goes up to his sheepshearers at Timnah. Jamieson calls the sheepshearing the most festive season of the farming year. Tamar puts off her widow's garments, covers her face with a veil, and sits at the entrance to Enaim on his road. Shelah had grown up and she was still a widow.
Genesis 38:12
“In process of time - This phrase, which is in general use in the Bible, needs explanation; the original is וירבו הימים vaiyirbu haiyamim, and the days were multiplied. Though it implies an indefinite time, yet it generally embraces a pretty long period, and in this place may mean several years.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The message calls Judah her father-in-law, and that tie still binds her to his house and his promise. Sheepshearing brought feasting and drink, and the shearing feasts of Nabal at 1 Samuel 25 and of Absalom at 2 Samuel 13:23 to 28 both end in trouble. Tamar acts on the news at once.
Genesis 38:13
“And it was told Tamar,.... By some of her neighbours, or by some of Judah's family: saying, behold, thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep; which might be told her as an indifferent thing, without any design in it; but she took notice of it, and it gave her an opportunity she wanted.”
sat at the entrance to Enaim: Petah Enaim means the opening of the two springs, and the place is often identified with Enam in the lowland of Judah at Joshua 15:34. Her reason is Shelah, grown and still withheld from her. The widow's garments were the sign of the waiting Judah had imposed at verse 11.
Genesis 38:14
“Some excuse this by suggesting that she believed the promise made to Abraham and his seed, particularly that of the Messiah, and that she was therefore desirous to have a child by one of that family, that she might have the honour, or at least stand fair for the honour of being the mother of the Messiah.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 38:14
“And, if this was indeed her desire, it had its success; she is one of the four women particularly named in the genealogy of Christ, Matt. i. Her sinful practice was pardoned, and her good intention was accepted, which magnifies the grace of God, but can by no means be admitted to justify or encourage the like.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 38:15-16
he thought she was a prostitute: Judah takes her for a prostitute, and the veil over her face is the whole of his reason. Gill reads the place she sat in as the other half of it, a woman waiting by the road. The writer adds that Judah did not know she was his daughter-in-law. She sets the terms and asks what he will give.
Genesis 38:15
“When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot,.... By her posture and the place she was in: because she had covered her face; with her veil, that he did not know her; for this is not given as a reason why he took her to be an harlot; the reason of this was, because she sat in the public road; but having covered her face he could not discern who she was, and therefore, from the other circumstance, concluded that she was an harlot, and sat there to prostitute herself to any that passed by.”
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 38:15
“While Tamar was making supplication to God for these things, behold, Judah came out and saw her. The prayer of Tamar inclined him, contrary to his usual habit, [to go] to a harlot. When she saw him, she was veiled, for she was afraid.”
Ephrem the Syrian · written before 373 · COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 34:4patristic
Genesis 38:15
“Thought her to be a harlot - See the original of this term, Gen 34:31 (note). The Hebrew is זונה zonah, and signifies generally a person who prostitutes herself to the public for hire, or one who lives by the public; and hence very likely applied to a publican, a tavern-keeper, or hostess, Jos 2:1; translated by the Septuagint, and in the New Testament, πορνη, from περναω, to sell, which certainly may as well apply to her goods as to her person.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law: The law later forbids relations between a man and his daughter-in-law at Leviticus 18:15, and Leviticus 20:12 sets death as the penalty for both. Tamar alone knows who stands before her.
Genesis 38:17-18
The price Judah offers is a young goat from his flock. Tamar asks for a pledge to hold until the goat comes, and she takes his seal, his cord and the staff in his hand. Those three named a man in that country and made his word binding, the way a signature does now. She becomes pregnant by him.
Genesis 38:17
“Wilt thou give me a pledge till thou send it? - The word ערבון erabon signifies an earnest of something promised, a part of the price agreed for between a buyer and seller, by giving and receiving of which the bargain was ratified; or a deposit, which was to be restored when the thing promised should be given.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The seal was a small engraved cylinder or stamp, worn on the cord around the neck and pressed into clay to sign. Men of rank in the ancient Near East carried a seal and a staff carved at the head. The Hebrew for staff, matteh, later names the tribe of Judah.
Genesis 38:18
“But the Hebrew word here rendered "bracelets," is everywhere else translated "lace" or "ribbon"; so that as the signet alone was probably more than an equivalent for the kid, it is not easy to conjecture why the other things were given in addition, except by supposing the perforated seal was attached by a ribbon to the staff.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 38:19-20
she removed her veil: Tamar removes the veil and puts her widow's garments back on, and the evidence stays in her keeping. Judah sends Hirah with the young goat to collect the pledge, and Hirah cannot find her. The seal, the cord and the staff are hers now.
Genesis 38:19
“And she arose and went away,.... To her father's house immediately, as soon as ever she had parted with Judah; and lest she should be found by the person that would be sent with the kid, and be discovered, she made all the haste she could: and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood; that it might not be known or suspected that she had been abroad.”
with the young goat to collect the items: Judah sends the payment by a friend and keeps out of sight himself. The price is a young goat, the animal whose blood he and his brothers put on Joseph's robe at Genesis 37:31. Now Judah is the one deceived.
Genesis 38:21-23
the shrine prostitute who was beside the road: Hirah asks for the woman with a different word from the one the writer used. He asks after a qedeshah, a woman consecrated to a shrine, where verse 15 called her a zonah, a common prostitute. The men of Enaim answer that no shrine prostitute has been there. Judah drops the search to keep from being laughed at.
Genesis 38:21
“Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? - Our translators often render different Hebrew words by the same term in English, and thus many important shades of meaning, which involve traits of character, are lost. In Gen 38:15, Tamar is called a harlot, זונה zonah, which, as we have already seen, signifies a person who prostitutes herself for money. In this verse she is called a harlot in our version; but the original is not זונה but קדשה kedeshah, a holy or consecrated person, from קדש kadash, to make holy, or to consecrate to religious purposes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
So Hirah returned to Judah: Hirah comes from Adullam, a town in the lowland of Judah listed at Joshua 15:35. David later hid in the cave of Adullam at 1 Samuel 22:1. His report gives Judah a witness that he tried to pay.
Judah is careful to show he kept his word to a stranger by the road. His promise of Shelah to Tamar at verse 11 stayed unkept. He leaves his seal in the one pair of hands that can name him.
Genesis 38:23
“Lest he should be laughed at as a fool for trusting a whore with his signet and his bracelets. He expresses no concern about the sin, only about the shame. There are many who are more solicitous to preserve their reputation with men, than to secure the savour of God, lest we be shamed goes farther with them than lest we be damned.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
She Is More Righteous Than I
Genesis 38:24-25
About three months later: Three months later Judah hears that Tamar is pregnant and sentences her to burning in one breath. She sends his own pledge back with a request to examine the seal and cord and staff. Judah and his brothers had sent Joseph's bloodied robe to their father at Genesis 37:32 and told him to examine it. Henry marks how severe men are about their own sin.
Genesis 38:24
“Bring her forth, and let her be burnt - As he had ordered Tamar to live as a widow in her own father’s house till his son Shelah should be marriageable, he considers her therefore as the wife of his son; and as Shelah was not yet given to her, and she is found with child, she is reputed by him as an adulteress, and burning, it seems, was anciently the punishment of this crime.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 38:24
“Note, it is a common thing for men to be severe against those very sins in others in which yet they allow themselves; and so, in judging others, they condemn themselves, Rom. ii. If he designed that she should be burnt to death, perhaps, under pretence of zeal against the sin, he was contriving how to get rid of his daughter-in-law, being loath to marry Shelah to her.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: Tamar holds back the pledge until she is already being led out. She sends it to Judah alone and accuses no one before the crowd. The judgment passes back into the judge's own hands.
Genesis 38:25
“The signet - חתמת chothemeth, properly a seal, or instrument with which impressions were made to ascertain property, etc. These exist in all countries. Bracelets - פתילים pethilim, from פתל pathal, to twist, wreathe, twine, may signify a girdle or a collar by which precedency, etc., might be indicated; not the muslin, silk, or linen wreath of his turban, as Mr. Harmer has conjectured. Staff - מטה matteh, either what we would call a common walking stick, or the staff which was the ensign of his tribe.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 38:25
“Some of the Jewish writers observe that as Judah had said to his father, See, is this thy son's coat? ( ch. xxxvii. 32 ) so it was now said to him, "See, are these thy signet and bracelets?" Judah, being convicted by his own conscience, 1. Confesses his sin: She has been more righteous than I.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judah recognizes his own seal and cord and staff, and he passes the sentence on himself. She is more righteous than I are his words, and the reason he names is Shelah, the son he never gave her. That is the first confession of wrong from any son of Jacob. He never has relations with her again.
Genesis 38:26
“She hath been more righteous than I - It is probable that Tamar was influenced by no other motive than that which was common to all the Israelitish women, the desire to have children who might be heirs of the promise made to Abraham, etc. And as Judah had obliged her to continue in her widowhood under the promise of giving her his son Shelah when he should be of age, consequently his refusing or delaying to accomplish this promise was a breach of truth, and an injury done to Tamar.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 38:27-28
there were twins in her womb: Twins are in the womb, and Wesley hears the struggle of Jacob and Esau at Genesis 25:22 breaking out again in the family that came from it. One hand comes out first and the midwife ties a scarlet thread around the wrist. Clarke reads the thread as the care taken over the right of the firstborn. The hand goes back in.
Genesis 38:27
“And it came to pass in the time of her travail,.... When her time to bring forth was come, and her pains were on her, and her midwife with her: that, behold, twins were in her womb; which the midwife could discover before the birth of either.”
3 more voices on this verse
Genesis 38:27
“Observe in this, I ask you, a mystery and a prediction of what is to come. You see, after the midwife bound the scarlet thread around his hand to make Zerah recognizable, then "he drew his hand back, and his brother came out." He yielded precedence to his brother, it is saying, and the one thought last came out first, and the one thought first emerged after him. "The midwife said, 'What a breach you have made for yourself!' He was called Perez." The name, in fact, means "breach" or "division," as you might say.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 62.8-9patristic
Genesis 38:27
“What is one to say of Tamar, who brought to birth the twins Zerah and Perez? Their separation at the moment of birth was like a wall that divides the two peoples, and the hand tied with the scarlet ribbon already then speckled the conscience of the Jews with the passion of Christ.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 123.12patristic
Genesis 38:27
“5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the L ORD ; and the L ORD slew him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the midwife took a scarlet thread: The word for scarlet, shani, is the color of the cord Rahab ties in her window at Joshua 2:18. Rahab and Tamar are both named in the line of Jesus at Matthew 1:3 to 5. The thread was the only record of which twin came first.
Genesis 38:28
“The midwife - bound upon his hand a scarlet thread - The binding of the scarlet thread about the wrist of the child whose arm appeared first in the birth, serves to show us how solicitously the privileges of the birthright were preserved. Had not this caution been taken by the midwife, Pharez would have had the right of primogeniture to the prejudice of his elder brother Zarah. And yet Pharez is usually reckoned in the genealogical tables before Zarah; and from him, not Zarah, does the line of our Lord proceed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 38:28
“It should seem the birth was hard to the mother, by which she was corrected for her sin: the children also, like Jacob and Esau, struggled for the birth-right, and Pharez who got it, is ever named first, and from him Christ descended.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 38:29-30
He pulls his hand back, his brother comes out first, and she names him Perez, a breach. The other comes out with the scarlet thread on his wrist, and he is named Zerah. The younger goes ahead of the elder. Ruth 4:18 traces David's line from Perez, and Matthew 1:3 names Perez and Zerah of Tamar.
Genesis 38:29
“How hast thou broken forth? - מה פרצת mah paratsta, this breach be upon thee, עליך פרץ aleycka parets; thou shalt bear the name of the breach thou hast made, i. e., in coming first into the world. Therefore his name was called פרץ Parets, i. e., the person who made the breach. The breach here mentioned refers to a certain circumstance in parturition which it is unnecessary to explain.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
ConnectionsMatthew 1:3
he was named Zerah: The twin with the scarlet thread on his wrist is named Zerah, rising, the Hebrew verb for the sun coming up. Achan of the tribe of Judah descends from him at Joshua 7:1, and so do the wise men Ethan and Heman at 1 Chronicles 2:6. Achan took the devoted things at Jericho.
Genesis 38:30
“His name was called Zarah - זרה Zarach, risen or sprung up, applied to the sun, rising and diffusing his light. “He had this name,” says Ainsworth, “because he should have risen, i. e., have been born first, but for the breach which his brother made.” There are several subjects in this chapter on which it may not be unprofitable to spend a few additional moments. 1. The insertion of this chapter is a farther proof of the impartiality of the sacred writer.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative set aside from the Joseph account, turning on a pledge given and produced in evidence, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Examine this, said twice in two chapters | Judah and his brothers sent Joseph's bloodied robe to their father at Genesis 37:32 and told him to examine it. Three months after the road to Timnah, Tamar sends Judah his own seal, cord and staff with a request to examine them. The man who made his father identify a garment is made to identify his own pledge.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 38:24 and 25. | Genesis 38:25 |
| The young goat promised and the pledge kept | Judah offers a young goat from his flock and Tamar asks for a pledge to hold until it comes. The goat is sent with Hirah and the woman cannot be found, so the seal, the cord and the staff stay in her keeping. Those three named a man in that country and made his word binding.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 38:17 and 18. | Genesis 38:17, Genesis 38:18, Genesis 38:20 |
| Two words for one woman | Verse 15 has Judah take Tamar for a zonah, a common prostitute. Hirah asks the men of Enaim after a qedeshah, a woman consecrated to a shrine, and they answer that no such woman has been there. The word the friend uses is the more respectable of the two.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 38:21 to 23. | Genesis 38:15, Genesis 38:21 |
| The hand out first and the brother out first | One twin puts out a hand, the midwife ties a scarlet thread on the wrist, and the hand goes back in. His brother comes out ahead of him and is named Perez, a breach, and the one with the thread is named Zerah. John Wesley hears the struggle of Jacob and Esau at Genesis 25:22 breaking out again in the family that came from it.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765, on Genesis 38:27 and 28. | Genesis 38:27, Genesis 38:28, Genesis 38:29, Genesis 38:30 |
The historical value
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter is the fullest account in Scripture of levirate duty before the law states it. Judah tells Onan to raise up offspring for his dead brother, and the duty is that a man fathers a son for his brother's widow and the first child counts as the dead brother's.
It also records how a man was identified before writing was common. The seal, the cord and the staff are the three things that named a man in that country and made his word binding, which is why a pledge of them settles the case at verse 26.
The sheepshearing at Timnah is the same seasonal absence that covered Rachel's theft at Genesis 31:19, and Jamieson calls it the most festive season of the farming year.
The debated concept
What Tamar did and how to weigh it is the chapter's question, and Judah's own words at verse 26 are the text's answer rather than a reader's. He says she is more righteous than he, and the reason he names is Shelah, the son he never gave her. One position holds the verse as a comparison in that one matter, the duty owed against the duty taken, and no approval of the method. A second holds that the chapter's whole construction, the withheld son, the pledge, the sentence and the reversal, presents her as the one keeping faith with the family line. Both rest on verse 26, and Genesis records that Judah never had relations with her again.
The second question is what Er did. The text says he was wicked in the sight of the LORD, who put him to death, and names nothing. Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew letters of Er reversed spell the word for wicked, which is an observation about the writing rather than about the man.
The New Testament's use
Matthew 1:3 names Perez and Zerah of Tamar in the genealogy of Jesus, so this chapter stands in the first paragraph of the New Testament and Tamar is the first of the four women named there.
Ruth 4:18 opens the generations of Perez and runs the line to David, which is the other half of the same reach.
The divine connection
The LORD acts twice in this chapter and both times it is a death, at verse 7 and at verse 10, and the text states the cause on the second and withholds it on the first. Nothing else in the chapter is attributed to God at all. What the chapter carries is the line, and the line is traced by two other books rather than by this one. At the Evidence Standard the claim is that Genesis records the events without approval and that Ruth 4:18 and Matthew 1:3 are the places Scripture says what came of them.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis, c. 390, on Genesis 38:5 and John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, 1554, on Genesis 38:26.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.