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.

2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.

3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.

4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.

5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. [ This town is supposed to be the same with Achzib, which fell to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 44. "The name," says Ainsworth, "has in Hebrew the signification of lying; and to it the prophet alludes, saying the houses of Achzib shall be (Achzab) a lie to the kings of Israel, Micah i. 14. ]

6 And Judah took a wife for Er [ Hebrew: to awake or watcher. ] his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. [ Hebrew: means palm tree, source of life. ]

7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD ; [ What this wickedness consisted in we are not told; but the phrase sight of the Lord being added, proves that it was some very great evil. It is worthy of remark that the Hebrew word used to express Er's wickedness is his own name backwards in Hebrew "ra" means wicked. evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity. ] and the LORD slew him.

8 And Judah said unto Onan, [ Hebrew: trouble or mourner. ] Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. [ Why Was Tamar to Marry the Brothers of Her Husband? Ancient customs of the Middle East provided that a brother of a deceased man should marry his widow. Under Moses this custom became law (see Deuteronomy 25:5–10). The purpose of such a marriage was to produce a male heir for the dead man and thus perpetuate his name and memory. It was regarded as a great calamity to die without a son, for then the man’s lineage did not continue and also the man’s property reverted to someone else’s family (through daughters, if he had any, or through other relatives). It may be that Onan, who by virtue of the death of his older brother would have been next in line for the inheritance of Judah, refused to raise up seed through Tamar because the inheritance would have stayed with the elder son’s family. He went through the outward show of taking Tamar to wife but refused to let her have children. Thus when Judah failed to keep his promise to send the youngest son to her, Tamar resorted to deception in order to bear children. That is, that the child begotten of his brother's widow should be reckoned as the child of his deceased brother, and his name, though the real father of it, should not appear in the genealogical tables. Leverite marriage. If a man is married and dies before he has children then it says that the widow now needs to marry the brother-in-law, and their first child will belong to the dead brother. This continues she continues to marry the next brother until that widow has a child. ]

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, [ The sin of self-pollution or masturbation, which is generally considered to be that of Onan, is one of the most destructive evils ever practiced by fallen man. In many respects it is several degrees worse than common whoredom, and has in its train more awful consequences, though practiced by numbers who would shudder at the thought of criminal connections with a prostitute. He takes her in to himself for his own pleasure but pulls out before he can get her pregnant. ] lest that he should give seed to his brother.

10 And the thing which he did [ His refusal to raise up seed to his brother and his own self-pollution. ] displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also. [ Rather than do it, by the act mentioned above, he rendered himself incapable of it. ]

11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father’s house, till Shelah [ Hebrew: Request or petition. ] 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.

12 ¶ And in process of time [ This phrase, which is in general use in the Bible, needs explanation; the original is µymyh wbryw valyirbu haiyamim, and the days were multiplied. Though it implies an indefinite time, yet it generally embraces a pretty long period, and in this place may mean several years. ] the daughter of Shuah Judah’s wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.

14 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, [ She is still morning two departed husbands. ] 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. [ We get a glimpse into Tamars mind here. She see's that Shelah is old enough to marry and he has not called for her, taken upon himself his responsibility. She is trying to live the law, and yet Judah did not keep his part of the deal. So she put's on these clothes and makes herself to look as a prostitute. Now the law of Leverite marriage is that if all of the brothers are dead and the widow of the first brother is still without child then he next recourse is to sleep with her father in law. In order that she may have seed from the same line. So Judah has not delivered Shelah to Tamar, so she will take matter's into her own hands. Even more important is the timing of when she does this. She knows were she is at in her cycle so she is not going there for any other reason other than to get pregnant. To fulfill the law the best way that she knows how to given the circumstances. ]

15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; [ The Hebrew is hnwz zonah, and signifies generally a person who prostitutes herself to the public for hire, or one who lives by the public; and hence very likely applied to a publican, a tavern-keeper, or hostess, Josh. ii. 1; translated by the Septuagint, and in the New Testament, pornh, from pernaw, to sell, which certainly may as well apply to her goods as to her person. It appears that in very ancient times there were public persons of this description; and they generally veiled themselves, sat in public places by the highway side, and received certain hire. Though adultery was reputed a very flagrant crime, yet this public prostitution was not; for persons whose characters were on the whole morally good had connections with them. ] because she had covered her face.

16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; [ So Judah's wife dies, and he and a close friend are out of town sheering their sheep, and since he is away and no one knows him. He see's a woman that is veiled at the cross roads, and he jumps to a conclusion that she must be a harlot selling her wares. So he says to himself, well I am out of town , no one knows me here and I am a widower so he goes in unto her. So she does not seduce him it is Judah that propositions her. ] (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) [ But she knows who he is. So from her eyes she see's here is my father in law that was supposed to give me his son's to marry until I have given birth to a child. Since he has not done that the next step is that I am to have child with my father in law. It is my only choice, so she has done nothing wrong. However, Judah has because he is seeking his own satisfaction for his own pleasure without marring and taking the responsibility. ] And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?

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? [ The word wbr[ erabon signifies an earnest of something promised, a part of the price agreed for between a buyer and seller, by giving and receiving of which the bargain was ratified; or a deposit, which was to be restored when the thing promised should be given. First they discuss price, I don't have anything right now but I will send a kid of the goat's and you can start your own flock. But she responds if you are going to do that I need some collateral in the meantime. ]

18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, [ some kind of seal. ] and thy bracelets, and thy staff [ Later we will see that this becomes a representation of the tribe that you are a part of. ] that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

19 And she [ Tamar. ] arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, [ So Judah wants to keep this all quiet so he get's his friend to take the goat that he promised back to Tamar. Pay the prostitue so she does not make a big deal about any of this. ] to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand: but he found her not.

21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? [ Our translators often render different Hebrew words by the same term in English, and thus many important shades of meaning, which involve traits of character, are lost. In chap. xxxviii. 15, Tamar is called a harlot, hnwz zonah, which, as we have already seen, signifies a person who prostitutes herself for money. In this verse she is called a harlot in our version; but the original is not hnwz but hdq kedeshah, a holy or consecrated person, from dq kadash, to make holy, or to consecrate to religious purposes.And the word here must necessarily signify a person consecrated by prostitution to the worship of some impure goddess. The public prostitutes in the temple of Venus are called ierodouloi gunaikev, holy or consecrated female servants, by Strabo; and it appears from the words zonah and kedeshah above, that impure rites and public prostitution prevailed in the worship of the Canaanites in the time of Judah. And among these people we have much reason to believe that Astarte and Asteroth occupied the same place in their theology as Venus did among the Greeks and Romans, and were worshipped with the same impure rites. ] And they said, There was no harlot in this place. [ The men of the town say that there is not a prostitute here nor has there ever been. ]

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.

23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: [ Not of the act, for this he does not appear to have thought criminal; but lest he should fall under the raillery of his companions and neighbours, for having been tricked out of his signet, bracelets, and staff, by a prostitute. So he is saying that I tried to pay her and it did not work so I can wash my hands of the latter and end up with a profit. Kind of seeing a trend with Judah - if there is an opportunity for profit let's take it. Started with Joseph. ] behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. [ So let's just let things be. If I continue to look for her then I might become exposed. After all she has my signit, and staff. People will know they are mine. I will be embarassed. So we see that Judah is more concerned about his exposure than his sin. ]

24 ¶ And it came to pass about three months after, [ She is beginning to show that she is pregnant. ] 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. [ She cheated on my son, how dare she. It is important to note Judah’s twisted sense of values. He had no qualms about sending Tamar home with unfulfilled promises nor of picking up a harlot along the road. But when he heard that Tamar was pregnant he was so incensed that he ordered her put to death. As he had ordered Tamar to live as a widow in her own father's house till his son Shelah should be marriageable, he considers her therefore as the wife of his son; and as Shelah was not yet given to her, and she is found with child, she is reputed by him as an adulteress, and burning, it seems, was anciently the punishment of this crime. Judah, being a patriarch or head of a family, had, according to the custom of those times, the supreme magisterial authority over all the branches of his own family; therefore he only acts here in his juridical capacity. How strange that in the very place where adultery was punished by the most violent death, prostitution for money and for religious purposes should be considered as no crime! ]

25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, [ So she has him over a barrel, as she returns his signit, and braclets and staff that he had given her as collateral. WOW - good move Tamar. ] am I with child: and she said, Discern, [ That must have been a tough moment for Judah as he suddenly became very sweaty, as the blood drained from his head, knowing it was him. His deceit had come to a quick end. Discern between the leverite law that you were supposed to keep, did you discern when it came to the sin of sleeping with me. ] I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, [ Properly a seal, or instrument with which impressions were made to ascertain property. These exist in all countries. ] and bracelets, [ µylytp pethilim, from ltp pathal, to twist, wreathe, twine, may signify a girdle or a collar by which precedency, &c., might be indicated. ] and staff. [ hfm matteh, either what we would call a common walking stick, or the staff which was the ensign of his tribe. ]

26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; [ It is probable that Tamar was influenced by no other motive than that which was common to all the Israelitish women, the desire to have children who might be heirs of the promise made to Abraham, &c. And as Judah had obliged her to continue in her widowhood under the promise of giving her his son Shelah when he should be of age, consequently his refusing or delaying to accomplish this promise was a breach of truth, and an injury done to Tamar. ] because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. [ She was living the leverite law and was justified, I(Judah) was not. ] And he knew her again no more.

27 ¶ And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.

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. [ The binding of the scarlet thread about the wrist of the child whose arm appeared first in the birth, serves to show us how solicitously the privileges of the birthright were preserved. Had not this caution been taken by the midwife, Pharez would have had the right of primogeniture to the prejudice of his elder brother Zarah. And yet Pharez is usually reckoned in the genealogical tables before Zarah; and from him, not Zarah, does the line of our Lord proceed. See Matt. i. 3. Probably the two brothers, as being twins, were conjoined in the privileges belonging to the birthright. ]

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? [ Coming first into the world. Therefore his name was called Årp Parets, i. e., the person who made the breach. A wrestling match inside the womb, he who get's out first get's the birthright. ] this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. [ The first son under leverite law belongs to the departed brother Er (who was a son born outside of the covenant), and the second son belongs to the actual biological parents straighht out of the loins of Judah himself. It is from this line that David would come and Jesus would come. ]

30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah. [ hrz Zarach, to rise or break out; risen or sprung up, applied to the sun, rising and diffusing his light. "He had this name," says Ainsworth, "because he should have risen, i. e., have been born first, but for the breach which his brother made." ]