Commentary
Skeptic's Annotated Bible
38:1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
38:2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.
Bom-chicka-wow-wow.
Remember, all the men of the village of Shechem were killed, all of the women and children taken for slaves, and all of their possessions taken, for the crime of Shechem sleeping with Dinah, Judah's sister. Somehow I doubt that the brothers of Shuah will exact the same revenge on the family of Israel for Judah's crime.
38:3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
38:4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.
38:5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
38:6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
38:7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
I wonder what he had done? It must have been pretty heinous to have raised the ire of the LORD, considering what horrible things have been done by this family so far, that God didn't care about.
38:8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
This is a strange request; are we supposed to accept that this is normal practice for this time in history? If your brother dies before getting his wife pregnant, it's your duty to get her (your sister-in-law) pregnant on your brother's behalf? Very strange.
38:9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
It seems that Onan agrees with me, that this is not an honorable request that Judah made of him. So rather than get his sister-in-law pregnant, he pulls out. I notice, though, that he wasn't so guilt-ridden that he couldn't go "in unto" his brother's wife; he just pulls out before "raising up seed" to his brother.
38:10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
God kills Onan because of his coitus interruptus. We didn't exact any revenge upon Simeon and Levi for the slaughter of all of the males of a village (who were all innocent of any crime); and yet Onan gets smote because he wouldn't get his sister-in-law pregnant?
This nonsense defies any sense of fairness, morality or logic possible.
Okay, of course I know that this story is used by Christians to ban masturbation, of all things. But the problem wasn't that Onan was masturbating; the problem was that he pulled out. That he wouldn't get his sister-in-law pregnant. If anything, this should be understood as an injunction against coitus interruptus, not masturbation. Or put another way, have more sex! With your dead brother's wife! (Or something.)
38:11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
So Judah sends his daughter-in-law back to her father's house for a spell, until his youngest grandson is old enough to do the job that Er and Onan left unfinished.
38:12 And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted,
Judah was comforted because his wife died? I got confused over the woman's name; I thought her name was Shuah, but it sounds now like this was her father's name (the Canaanite). Since it doesn't really matter I'll leave it alone for now, but if I have to draw this family tree again I'll fix it.
and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
38:13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.
38:14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
Let's see if I'm getting this. Tamar knows that Judah, her father-in-law, was on his way to Timnath to shear his sheep. Tamar is upset that she didn't get to sleep with the now-mature Shelah, so she takes off her mourning garments, puts on a veil, and goes and sits where Judah will see her.
38:15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.
38:16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
Bible-sanctioned prostitution! Here Judah and Tamar are negotiating over price.
38:17 And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?
One young goat is the price to sleep with a prostitute.
38:18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her,
Bom-chicka-bow-wow. Adultery, prostitution and incest in one single act, with a side order of deceit. What a righteous family!
and she conceived by him.
Of course. See, the problem here is that they didn't have good birth control in Judah's time. If Judah had had a condom this could have been avoided. Or, if he could just keep it in his pants.
38:19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
38:20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not.
Yeah, if Hirah could find her, then she'd have to accept the goat and the trap would fail.
38:21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place.
38:22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place.
38:23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.
38:24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
It sounds like Judah doesn't realize yet that Tamar was the harlot that he slept with three months ago; just that she was a harlot who got knocked up. Either that, or he does realize he's the father of her unborn baby and he wants to burn her to death before she reveals the secret. Either way it's bad for Judah.
Hmm, by the way, notice that Tamar is pregnant and Judah wants to put her to death. There's absolutely NO CONCERN shown here about the life of the unborn child (or the life of the mother). You'd think that every unborn child in the Bible was guarded by a raging mob of frothing angels, the way the pro-life groups rail against abortion. But in fact, this appears to be a non-issue.
38:25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
38:26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.
He "knew" her no more; that is, he didn't sleep with her any more. But she's more righteous than Judah? Judah's crime was sleeping with a prostitute (who he didn't know was his daughter-in-law); and not allowing his youngest son Shelah to get her pregnant. Tamar's crime was being the prostitute and the entrapment of Judah (to what end?). Yeah, they're both pretty bad.
38:27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
38:28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
38:29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.
Pharez (Perez) means "breach."
38:30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.
I hope this foreshadowing is brought back up later; otherwise, why go through the trouble of telling the story about the scarlet thread?
You know, one of the reasons I make these diagrams myself is that I can't figure out how to get any of the (very good) genealogy software programs to keep up with all of the incest, multiple marriages and so on that are described in the Bible to create intelligible family trees. They just weren't designed for this degree of perversion. But now this is really baffling; I can't see a clear way to describe in the family tree shown above that Judah slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar (though they weren't really married) and had two children as a result. This will have to do, but it doesn't really capture the perversity of the situation. They're not really married; she's his daughter-in-law; and there's the odd description of which child was born first.
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