Genesis 38
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 38
The Sons of Judah.[a] 1 At that time Judah set out from his brothers and made camp with a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. 2 Here Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. 3 She conceived and bore a son and named him Er. 4 She conceived another time and bore a son and named him Onan. 5 She bore still another son and named him Shelah. She was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.
6 Judah took a wife for his firstborn son Er, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, the firstborn of Judah, did things that were wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord caused him to die.
8 Judah then said to Onan, “Marry the wife of your brother to fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her and to assure descendants for your brother.”[b] 9 But Onan knew that the child would not have been considered to be his own. Every time that he slept with the wife of his brother, he spilled his seed on the ground so that he would not have to give his brother a son.[c] 10 This greatly displeased the Lord, and the Lord caused him to die, too.
11 Thereupon Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Return to the house of your father as a widow until my son Shelah will have grown up.” For he thought, “Let him not die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and returned to the house of her father.
12 Quite some time later the daughter of Shua, the wife of Judah, died. When Judah had finished his time of mourning, he went to Timnah to the sheep shearers. Hirah, the Adullamite, went with him.
13 Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah, to the sheep shearers of his flock.” 14 Tamar took off her clothes of mourning, put on a veil, and completely covered herself. Then she went and sat at the gate to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She realized that Shelah had already grown up, but she had not yet been given to him in marriage.[d]
15 [e]Judah saw her and thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He headed over to her and said, “Let me sleep with you.” He did not know that this was his daughter-in-law.
She said, “What will you give me to sleep with me?”
17 He said, “I will send a goat from the flock.”
She said, “Will you give me a pledge to hold until you will have sent it?”
18 “What pledge shall I give you?” he asked.
“Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff in your hand.”
He gave them to her and slept with her, and she conceived. 19 Then she got up and left. She took off her veil and put her clothes of mourning back on.
20 Judah sent his friend the Adullamite with the goat to claim the pledge from the woman, but he could not find her. 21 He asked the men of that place, “Where is the temple prostitute who was in Enaim alongside the road?”
They answered, “There has never been a temple prostitute there.”
22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I did not find her. Even the men of that place said, ‘There has never been a temple prostitute there.’ ”
23 Judah said, “Let her keep them. Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I sent her the goat, but you could not find her.”
24 About three months later, Judah was brought the following news: “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, played the harlot and she is also pregnant from her harlotry.” Judah said, “Let her be brought out and burned!”
25 She had already been brought out when she sent this message to her father-in-law: “The man to whom these objects belong is the father of the child.” She continued, “Do you know to whom this signet ring, cord, and staff belong?”
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is innocent and I am guilty, for I did not give her my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
27 When her time to give birth arrived, it was discovered that she had twins in her womb. 28 While she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it to the hand saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But, when he pulled his hand back, his brother came out. She said, “What a breach you have opened for yourself!” He was named Perez. 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread tied around his hand, came out. He was named Zerah.
Footnotes
- Genesis 38:1 In contrast to the innocent Joseph, who is struck down by the evil deeds of others, stand the moral troubles of the House of Judah, which, in combination with the corruption and violence of the other brothers, make it resemble a flower that is beaten down by a storm. It is, however, to the credit of Judah, who had suggested the selling of Joseph (Gen 37:26-27), that he later redeems himself by offering himself as a slave in the place of Benjamin in order to spare his father suffering that might prove fatal.
The present story gives the juridical reason why Perez, an ancestor of David (Ru 4:18, 22), is regarded as Judah’s firstborn son; it is an application, although an abnormal one, of the law of the levirate, which is of very ancient origin; it was already followed by the Assyrians and Hittites and was later adopted by Israel (Deut 25:5-10). The detail about the birth of the twins (Gen 38:28-30) seems to point to a usurpation in favor of Perez. But above and beyond the juridical considerations, we have here the disconcerting choices of the Lord. When his time comes, Joseph will enjoy the rights of a firstborn in the inheritance of his father (Gen 48–49), but the Messiah will be the descendant of Judah and Tamar by way of Perez. God does not prefer the most worthy, and he uses sinners in weaving the web of salvation. - Genesis 38:8 This verse describes “the law of the levirate” (from the Latin, levir, meaning “brother-in-law), which was decreed in Deuteronomy (25:5-6) and constituted a legal obligation in Israel (see Mt 22:24).
- Genesis 38:9 The law of the levirate required that in marrying Tamar, widow of Er, Onan should provide the dead man with a posterity. His sin is twofold: against social justice and Tamar, by deliberately and unlawfully preventing primogeniture, and against marriage, by frustrating its purposes.
- Genesis 38:14 Tamar wants her right to children respected, no matter what the cost; Judah was preventing her from exercising this right (see v. 26).
- Genesis 38:15 We might question why Judah was so open about his relations with a prostitute yet ready to put his daughter-in-law to death for being one. The answer lies in the place of women in that time and place. The most important task of women was to bear children to perpetuate the family line. In order to ensure that the children really belonged to the husband, the bride was expected to be a virgin and to refrain from having relations with anyone but her husband. If a wife became an adulteress, she risked the penalty of death. There were, however, some women who did not belong to any man. They could be temple prostitutes supported by offerings or common harlots supported by the men who sought them out. The children of such women were nobody’s heirs, and the men who used their services did not adulterate anyone’s bloodlines. In opposition to such a secular outlook Scripture enhances the status of women (Gen 1:27f; 2:23) and strongly condemns prostitution (Lev 19:29).
