Recap: (see Genesis 35b) We have just started the last section of Genesis and we have seen how Joseph was sold as a slave in Egypt.
Read Genesis 38:1-30
Again, this seems an odd interruption to the narrative, and hardly something that any of us would have liked recorded. However, by the time we have finished this study we will see why it was actually important!
1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.
It appears that this took place 25 miles towards the north-west, on the borders with lowland Philistine country. It also appears that he took his own flock of sheep with him (Genesis 38:12).
At that time – what time? When these events occurred has been a problem for commentators. Judah got married and had three children. His firstborn Er, when he was old enough, was married to Tamar. He and his next brother died. ‘After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died’ (Genesis 38:12). Judah then slept with Tamar, and she had Perez. When he was old enough, Perez also married and had two boys (Genesis 46:12) all before they joined Joseph in Egypt.
Joseph was seventeen when he went to Egypt. He was thirty when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and nine years later the family joined Joseph in Egypt. Which leaves 22 years – not enough for Judah to marry and have Er, for Er to marry, for his widow Tamar to wait until Judah’s third son Shelah was old enough to marry, for Judah to then father Perez, and for Perez to marry and have children of his own too.
However we have already seen that the lists of sons names are more important than times and places (see Genesis 35:23-26 – but Benjamin was born on the journey home.) It is possible therefore that it was important to include the sons of Perez, even if Perez himself was only a child when he went to Egypt. That’s only my idea; you may want to struggle with the dates yourself!
Again I have spent fruitless time on this so have decided to get on with the study:
2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her;
Judah should have known better. He saw the trouble his own sister Dinah had caused, he would have been well aware of the tensions caused when Esau married a Canaanite woman. (Genesis 28:8-9 – It is interesting to note that the Ishmaelites were considered to be Canaanites even though they too could trace their ancestry back to Abraham).
3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
It would appear that at this point Judah had left home to set up his own family. Possibly he also found that living with his father’s grief, knowing the truth about Joseph, was too much for him.
6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
8 Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfil your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.’
When Judah left home, he may well have been aware that the role of ‘firstborn’ had been forfeited by his three older brothers (Reuben, Simeon and Levi) and that it was therefore up to him to marry and produce a male heir. When his own firstborn son (Er) died it was considered the responsibility of Judah’s next son, Er’s brother Onan to provide a grandson on his behalf, so that the inheritance could continue to pass through the line of the oldest son.
Onan knew that by producing a son for Er (the firstborn), it would effectively mean that there would be no inheritance left for him. But Onan also knew that if Er had no son, the inheritance would pass directly to him and his own descendants. (Compare Ruth 4:5-6)
9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to avoid providing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
The deaths of Er and Onan seem to be reported in a very matter-of-fact way, but the power of the Lord to give and take away life cannot be ignored (Remember Acts 5:1-11).
11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.’ For he thought, ‘He may die too, just like his brothers.’ So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
What is behind Judah’s thinking here?
Er married Tamar, and he died. Onan took his place, and he died. If for some reason the giving of Shelah to Tamar also resulted in his death, not only would Er have no descendants, but neither would he. As it was, Shelah was now Judah’s legal heir and perhaps Judah could protect him by keeping him at home.
This took place at Timnah, and Judah may well have then returned to the rest of his brothers at the family home, 25 miles away – although he appears to have left his sheep there, in the charge of local shepherds.
12 After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
I imagine this was intended purely as a business trip, to check on the amount of wool produced from his flock, and maybe arrange for its sale, and he’d obviously sent word ahead to the shepherds for them to be ready.
13 When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,’ 14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
For Judah, it was ‘out of sight, out of mind’; for Tamar, a valuable inheritance was at stake. However, for Tamar, it was obvious that she was not going to have a child by Shelah, so guessing the likely outcome, she made herself available to Judah.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realising that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, ‘Come now, let me sleep with you.’
‘And what will you give me to sleep with you?’ she asked.
17 ‘I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,’ he said.
‘Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?’ she asked.
18 He said, ‘What pledge should I give you?’
‘Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,’ she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.
So far Judah was in blissful ignorance. Probably the next day his friend was sent with the payment and that would be the end of the matter.
20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, ‘Where is the shrine-prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?’
‘There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here,’ they said.
22 So he went back to Judah and said, ‘I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, “There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here.”’
23 Then Judah said, ‘Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughing-stock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.’
For Judah this was still only a minor irritation, he’d carried out his share of the bargain, he couldn’t be blamed if the girl had decided to leave town. Besides he didn’t want to make a fuss – it might become embarrassing.
24 About three months later Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.’
Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned to death!’
As Tamar had no husband, it was the duty of her father-in-law to punish the wrong-doer, and obviously that was the appropriate sentence in those days. Pregnancy could not be hidden and everyone knew she had no husband.
25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these,’ she said. And she added, ‘See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are.’ 26 Judah recognised them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not sleep with her again.
Now Judah was in deep trouble. Effectively he had to adopt Tamar as his wife, but note ‘he did not sleep with her again’.
Why did Judah say ‘She is more righteous than I’ ?
27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, ‘This one came out first.’ 29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, ‘So this is how you have broken out!’ And he was named Perez. 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.
Once again we see a struggle for the privilege of being firstborn!
Perez won, and in the lists of descendants he comes first (Genesis 46:12, Numbers 26:19-20).
So why was this passage included at all?
The best answer is given in Ruth 4:18-22
18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron,
19 Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
21 Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
22 Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.
And so to Jesus! (Matthew 1:1-16)
Here again we are shown that we are not chosen because of our own merit, or what we can do for Jesus, rather what he can do through us – it is all by grace.
