Having beaten their brother, thrown him
down a well and then sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites, the brothers of Joseph go
about their lives as if nothing had happened. The next chapter of Genesis takes place in
the life of Judah and you might remember that it was Judah who had convinced his brothers
not to kill Joseph, but to instead sell him to the Ishmaelites in the first place.
We understand that during these times, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with
a man of Adullam named Hirah. And it was here that Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named
Shua, whom he fell in love with and married. Now, technically, this was a big no-no, for
if we hearken back to chapter 28 of Genesis, we see Isaac telling Jacob that he should
not marry Canaanite women because these women were pagans, they were not God fearing
and ultimately, they were corrupt. We are told, “So Isaac called for Jacob and
blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman” (Genesis 28:1)
Fast forward a generation and here is Judah doing exactly that which his grandfather cautioned
against. Judah goes on to have children with the Canaanite woman Shua and she bears him a son named
Er, a son named Onan and another son named Shelah. She gave birth to these
children in the land of Kezib. Now, when Er was old enough, Judah picked
a wife for him, whose name was Tamar. But rather suddenly, Genesis tells us,
“But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord
put him to death.” (Genesis 38:6) It’s quite wild that the biblical God decides
that Er is no good and so kills him off, and it stands out in this chapter because we
are never told what it was that Er did wrong. Some have speculated however that whatever it
was, it must’ve been pretty terrible because God brought upon him immediate termination,
as opposed to just punishing him and showing him the errors of his ways. Another idea is
that because Er’s father was Judah (who had been wicked enough to participate in the
selling of Joseph) and because Er’s mother was Shua (a Canaanite woman), there was
no way Er could have been a good person, so it was better to just have him snuffed
before he caused even more problems. With Er dead, this left Tamar (the woman Judah
had picked to marry his son) without a husband. So, like a piece of clothing, Tamar became
a hand-me-down to the next sibling Onan. We are told,
“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.” (Genesis 38:8)
In some ancient traditions, if a husband died, it wasn’t out of the norm for his brother to marry
his wife and to start making babies together. In this example though, the sons that are produced
would never be considered sons of the brother, but instead sons of the now deceased husband.
Indeed, the brother would only be acting in place of the husband and though indeed he would be the
biological father, this would not be recognised. With this system, the dead husband’s name would
be carried on and his legacy would be prolonged. In a way, it also provided some security for the
wife here, for with the continued pregnancies, she would give birth to children to support her.
Onan knew of all of this, of course and because he knew the sons he bore to Tamar would never be
recognised as his own, he chose not to impregnate her. We are told his pull out game was legendary.
“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 keep from providing offspring
for his brother.” (Genesis 38:9) Readers and scholars see Onan as villainous,
because though he does have sex with Tamar, it can be argued that he does so for his own
gratification, not because he is fulfilling his duty in providing her with sons. Why
else would he spill his semen on the ground? He is using sex selfishly, some might argue and
cares not at all for his brother’s widow, but only to satisfy his own needs whilst maintaining
as little responsibility as possible. But it’s also possible that Onan didn’t want to fulfill
his obligation because he didn’t want to have a child that, according to the laws and customs of
his people, would never be recognised as his own. To a more modern audience, this is likely
multifaceted and Onan might even be praised for not wanting to bring a child into this
world that he’d not be able to call his own. However, to the biblical God, Onan
is wicked for doing this and like his brother, he is also killed. We are told,
“What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.” (Genesis 38:10)
Now, with two of his sons dead, this only left Judah with his youngest boy Shelah. But Shelah
was too young to take on the responsibilities of taking care of his brother’s widow, so Judah told
Tamar to go and live as a widow in her father’s household until Shelah was of age to claim her.
“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.” (Genesis 38:11) Some reluctance by Judah to hand over
Shelah can be gathered here, for by now, it would be reasonable to start suspecting Tamar
of being somehow cursed. One son dying early after being married to a woman was a tragedy, but two
sons dying after marriage was mighty suspicious. So, some argue that with Judah sending
Tamar away to live with her father, he was hoping to spare his last son Shelah from
suffering the same fate. Tamar did indeed end up leaving and returned to her father’s house, which
again may have been a gambit on behalf of Judah, who hoped to delay giving his son away (and
possibly to spare him from dying). Ultimately, with Tamar out of the way, Judah could marry
Shelah onto some other woman - one who wasn’t the common denominator in his other sons’ demise.
Unfortunately, this left Tamar in a bit of a sorry state because now she was twice widowed and
childless, and with no means to support herself. In the years that followed, Judah’s wife - the
Canaanite daughter of Shua - died. We are told that Judah was massively aggrieved over this,
but when he did recover, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and
his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him. At this time, Tamar learned that Judah was
on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep, so she took off her widow’s clothes and covered
herself up in a veil to disguise herself. There, she sat at the entrance to Enaim, which
was on the road to Timnah, for by now she had seen that though Shelah had now grown up,
Judah had not given him to her as a husband. Indeed, life without a husband and children would
be problematic for Tamar and so, she wanted to secure a third husband as quickly as possible.
Indeed, Shelah had been promised to her by Juddah, but evidently, Judah had not lived up to his
promise and appeared to be definitely holding out on her. Therefore, in an effort to force his
hand, Tamar came up with a scheme of her own. Knowing that Judah’s wife had passed away
and knowing that he was on his way to Timnah, she donned a veil, which was typically the
item of clothing a prostitute might’ve worn. Indeed, she planned to meet Judah in
disguise and there she planned to seduce him. Genesis tells of the account;
“When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
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.” (Genesis 38:15-16) As we can see, the disguise worked a charm
and Tamar’s intended outcome comes about quite perfectly. If she cannot have the offspring
of Judah’s son who was promised to her by him, then she will take Judah himself
and make her own children by him. “And what will you give me to
sleep with you?” she asked Juddah. “I’ll send you a young goat
from my flock,” he said. So yes, not only is Tamar using Judah to get
the sons she was promised, she’s also hustling him out of a goat too. Furthermore, she asks
Judah for a pledge in the form of his seal, its cord and the staff in his hand.
The bible tells us, “So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by
him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.” (Genesis 38:18-19)
Indeed, it would appear that Tamar did leave with Judah’s seal, its cord and his staff and that
after she had slept with him, she went on with her life as normal and did get away with it.
In fact, Judah is even seen to send his friend the Adullamite with the young goat as payment
to Tamar, but when the Adullamite gets there, he obviously cannot find her.
He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute
who was beside the road at Enaim?” And the men who lived there laughed and
said, “There is no shrine prostitute here.” So the Adullamite went back to Judah and he
told him that he couldn’t find the prostitute and that the men who lived there said there
was no prostitute there in the first place. Judah was now feeling pretty embarrassed by
the whole thing. You see, he had already given her his seal, its cord and his staff and clearly
she’d fled and robbed him. Now he was even going to send her a young goat! It would have been
humiliating for Judah if such news got out, so instead of pursuing the matter further and risking
anyone finding out, he chose to cut his losses. He tells the Adullamite, “Let her keep what she
has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but
you didn’t find her.” (Genesis 38:23) Three months later Tamar could no longer
hide her pregnancy and began to show. As she was known to have no husband,
everyone assumed she had incurred the baby through prostitution and so, they went to
tell Judah of this. When Judah heard of this, he was outraged and he told the people,
“Bring her out and have her burned to death!” Judah’s reaction just goes to show us that
he didn’t really care that much about Tamar, despite having been married to two of his
sons. Though she is his daughter by law, he does not view her as a daughter in any other
sense and appears to be more than willing to cast judgement on her for the apparent transgression
without hearing her side of the story. Considering Judah may have come to view Tamar
as a bad omen, with the death of his sons, it may have been true that he was eager to be rid of
her. Furthermore, he doesn’t realise the irony of condemning her for prostitution, considering he’d
partaken in that very same prostitution himself. Now as she was being brought out, Tamar sent a
message to Judah and told him, “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added,
“See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.” (Genesis 38:25)
Check and mate, Judah. Judah immediately recognised the items as
belonging to him (which paints him as being just as guilty as her) and he immediately came to the
realisation that the man who had impregnated her was in fact himself. This causes him to admit his
wrongdoings and to admit that he had been unfair to Tamar in denying her his third son, which
is what led her to commit this elaborate ruse. He said, “She is more righteous than I,
since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” The bible continues to tell us that after this,
that Judah did not sleep with Tamar again. When the time came for her to give
birth, there were twin boys in her womb! As Tamar gave birth to one of them, he put out
his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it onto his wrist and said, “This one
came out first.” But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out instead, and the midwife
said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And when he came out, he was named Perez,
followed by his brother, who had the scarlet threat on his wrist, who was named Zerah.
What’s interesting about these births is that much later in the bible, Perez is noted as an ancestor
of Jesus Christ. It shows believers that despite the less than ideal situation, the biblical God
still finds merit in these children who were essentially born out of deception, and places
one of them in the genetic line of the Messiah. As always guys, if you’ve enjoyed
today’s episode, then don’t forget to give this video a like and don’t forget to
subscribe for more content just like this. Until next time!
