Chapter 38

Judahs family
v1 At that time Judah went down, away from his brothers. He turned aside to stay with a man from Adullam. The man was called Hirah. v2 There, Judah saw the daughter of Shua, a *Canaanite. Judah married her. He had sex with her. v3 She became *pregnant and she had a baby son. Judah called him Er. v4 She became *pregnant again and she had another baby son. She called him Onan. v5 She had another baby son in addition to those. She called him Shelah. She was in Chezib when he was born. v6 Judah took a wife called Tamar for his oldest son Er. v7 But the *Lord saw that Er, Judahs oldest son, was wicked. And the *Lord killed him. v8 Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brothers wife. Have sex with her. Become the father of children for your brother. v9 Onan knew that the children would not be his. So when he had sex with his brothers wife, he spilled the liquid from his sex part. He spilled it onto the ground. He did not want to have children for his brother. v10 The *Lord was angry about what Onan did. And the *Lord killed him too. v11 Then Judah said to his sons wife Tamar, Stay in your fathers house. Stay a widow until Shelah, my son, is a man. Judah was afraid that Shelah might die, like Shelahs brothers. So Tamar went to live in her fathers house. v12 After some time, Judahs wife, who was Shuas daughter, died. Judah was sad. When he was not as sad, he went up to Timnah. He went there with his friend Hirah, the man from Adullam. Judahs men were cutting the wool off his sheep at Timnah. v13 Someone told Tamar that her husbands father was going up to Timnah. He was going there to cut the wool off his sheep. v14 Tamar saw that Shelah was a man. But Judah had not made her Shelahs wife. So she took off her widows clothes. She put on a *veil and she covered herself up. Then she sat at a cross-roads. The cross-roads was on the way to Timnah. v15 Tamar had covered her face. She wanted Judah to think that she was a *prostitute. Judah saw Tamar. He thought that she was a *prostitute. v16 He went over to Tamar. She was at the side of the road. Judah said, Come. Let me have sex with you. He did not know that the woman was his sons wife. Tamar said, What will you pay to me if I have sex with you? v17 Judah answered, I will send to you a *kid from my *flock. Tamar said, Will you give a *pledge to me until you send the *kid? v18 Judah said, What *pledge do you want? Tamar replied, I want your *seal and string. And I want the stick that you are holding. So Judah gave them to Tamar. He had sex with her. She became *pregnant by him. v19 Then Tamar got up and she went away. She took off her *veil. She put on her widows clothes. v20 Judah sent the *kid with his friend, the man from Adullam. Judah wanted to get back his *seal and stick. However, the man from Adullam could not find Tamar. v21 He asked the men that were near, Where is the *prostitute that meets people in the *temple? She was by the side of the road. She was at the cross-roads. The men replied that there had not been a *prostitute there from the *temple. v22 So Judahs friend went back to Judah. The friend said, I could not find her. Also I spoke to the men that lived there. And they said that there had not been a *prostitute there from the *temple.

v23 Judah replied, Let the woman keep for herself the things that I gave as a *pledge. We do not want people to laugh at us. As you can see, I sent this *kid to her. But you could not find her. v24 After three months people told Judah, Tamar, your sons wife, has had sex. She is expecting a baby because she has had sex. Judah said, Bring Tamar out and burn her. v25 When people were bringing Tamar out, she sent a message to her husbands father. She said, My childs father is the man that owns these things. Here ar e the *seal and string and stick. Please notice who owns them. v26 Then Judah said that they were his. He said, Tamar is right and I am wrong. I did not make her my son Shelahs wife. Judah did not have sex with her again. v27 When the time for the birth had come, there were *twins inside her body. v28 When she was having pains because of the birth, one *twin put out his fist. The nurse who was helping at the birth took a red *thread. And she tied it round his hand. She said, This child was born first. v29 But as the baby pulled back his hand, his brother was born instead. She said, How you have pushed yourself out, Perez! v30 Afterwards his brother was born. The brother still had the red *thread on his hand. His name was Zerah. Reuben, Simeon and Levi had all upset Jacob. They were his three oldest sons. Jacob did not want them to have the *birthright. So, Jacob decided that Joseph would receive the *birthright. But now, Jacob thought that Joseph was dead. So, Judah became Jacobs most important son. Judah was Jacobs 4th son, after Reuben, Simeon and Levi. But much of Judahs life would also disappoint Jacob. Judah had three sons. The first son, called Er, married Tamar. But Er was so evil that God killed him. The people then had a custom that they considered important. If a widow did not yet have a child, the unmarried brother of the dead husband would marry the widow. Then, they would have children together. So, Ers brother, called Onan, married Tamar. But he too was evil, and God killed him. Judah promised that Tamar could marry Judahs last son, called Shelah. But when Shelah became old enough to marry, Judah did not arrange the marriage. So, Tamar made a plan. She covered her face so that nobody would recognise her. She pretended to be a *prostitute. And she tempted Judah. Afterwards, Judah discovered that Tamar was expecting a baby. He was very angry that she had acted as a *prostitute. He wanted to kill her. But she was able to show that Judah himself was responsible for her situation. Judah felt very guilty. He confessed that he had been unfair to her. And he allowed her to live. In fact, she had *twins (two babies born together). The oldest, called Perez, received the *birthright among Judahs *descendants. Judahs character and attitudes changed after this event. Before it, he was responsible for the sale of Joseph as a slave (Genesis 37:26-27). Afterwards, Judah himself offered to become a slave in order to save Benjamin (Genesis 44:16-34). Among Jacobs sons, Judah was the oldest son who received Jacobs *blessing (Genesis 49:812). And that *blessing was very special. Jacob said that Judahs *descendants would include the kings of the *Israelites. And the special *descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15) and of Abraham (Galatians 3:16) would be a *descendant of Judah too. This special *descendant means Jesus (Hebrews 7:14). God sent Jesus to free people from their *sins.

Notes on the verses

Verses 1-5 The writer never tells us the name of Judahs wife. Jacobs sons did not marry into their own *tribe as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had done. Verse 6 Tamar was probably a *Canaanite. Verse 7 The writer does not tell us what Ers *sin was. This was the first time that God killed one particular person only. (Or anyway, Er is the first one that we can read about.) In the great flood, God had killed nearly everyone. And in Sodom and Gomorrah, he had killed all the inhabitants except for Lots family. Verses 8-10 Tamar had no children and Onan was unmarried. There was an ancient custom for people in this situation. The family expected a dead mans brother to have sex with the dead mans widow. If a child was then born, people accepted it as the dead mans child. It meant that the child would *inherit instead of the brother. However, the brother was the childs actual father. It is not clear whether people expected the brother to marry the widow. Perhaps they expected him just to have sex with her. But, among the *Israelites, the brother had to marry her. Sex between people who were not married was always wrong. Onan was evil because he was doing a wrong thing to Tamar. A wife or widow was ashamed if she had no children. Onan was not obeying God. God had told Onans relatives to have large families. Also, Onan was not obeying his father. Verse 11 This promise meant that Tamar and Shelah were engaged. Verse 12 Instead of his friend Hirah, some translations say his *shepherd Hirah. Hirah may have been a *shepherd. But here he was Judahs friend. The time when people cut the wool off sheep was a very important occasion. There were *feasts for the men that cut off the wool. And there was much wine at the *feasts. Verses 13-14 We do not know whether *prostitutes usually wore *veils. Tamar wore one so that Judah would not know her. Maybe other *prostitutes wore *veils so that people did not know them. Tamar covered her face because she did not want people to know her. We read here, Then she sat at a cross-roads. But some translations say, Then she sat at the side of the road. That place was on the way into Enaim. The original *Hebrew text has this. Then she sat at the opening of the eyes. Some writers a long time ago thought that it meant this. She sat where two roads came together. That seems to be a likely place for a *prostitute to meet people. There, people were going from one place to another. Verses 16-17 Sex between very close relatives in a family was very evil. But Judah did not recognise her. He agreed a price for sex. Verse 18 A *pledge was a thing that a person gave as a promise. It was a promise that th e person would pay a certain price. The person had agreed about the price. When the person had paid the price, then he or she received the *pledge back again. Tamar asked for some things that belonged to Judah. The *seal was a small tube that someone had made out of metal or stone. It had special marks. Those marks showed that the *seal belonged to Judah. The owner kept the *seal on a string. The stick probably had special marks on it too. So those things could only belong to Judah. They could not belong to anyone else. Verse 20 Judah sent the *kid so that he would receive his *pledge back. Verse 21 Hirah asked for a *prostitute that meets people in the *temple. Before, in verse 15, the writer used the word for an ordinary *prostitute. A *prostitute from the *temple was more important than an ordinary *prostitute. It was more polite to ask for a *prostitute from the *temple. But only people who served *idols would use a *prostitute from the *temple. So, perhaps Judah served *idols at this time.

Verse 23 Judah was a rich man. He was afraid that his friends would laugh at him. They might laugh because a *prostitute had kept his *seal and stick. Actually, she had stolen them. Judah had tried to pay the *prostitute with the *kid. And Judah emphasised here that Hirah certainly knew it. Verse 24 Tamar was engaged to Shelah. Her father had promised to give her to Shelah as a wife. So, when Tamar had sex with someone else, that was *adultery. *Israelites used to punish people that had done *adultery. Later, the *Israelites threw stones at such people until those people were dead, as a punishment. But Tamar was also guilty because she had become a *prostitute. Judah felt great shame that a member of his family had become a *prostitute. Verse 25 Tamar was able to prove that she had had sex with Judah. She still had his *pledge. The *seal and stick had special marks. They could only belong to Judah. Verse 26 Judah knew that he had done something wrong. He had been unfair to her. He had not done the things that he promised to do. He had not followed the custom to help her to have a baby. So, he confessed that he was wrong. Afterwards, he acted in the right manner. He never had sex with Tamar again. Verses 27-30 Tamar had *twins. It was important for the family to know who was born first. That son would have the *birthright, and he would become the leader of Judahs family.