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.
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