Gen 38 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Gen 38:1-30: 38:1-30 The story of Judah and Tamar is a carefully placed interlude; it reports what was happening in the family of Judah, who would later rise to prominence, and it shows the beginnings of assimilation with the people of the land to help explain why God sent the family to Egypt (chs 39–47 ). The Egyptians were strict separatists (43:32 ); the Israelites would retain their unique identity better in Egypt than in Canaan.

Summary for Gen 38:1-30: 38:1-30 ^a The story of Judah and Tamar is a carefully placed interlude; it reports what was happening in the family of Judah, who would later rise to prominence, and it shows the beginnings of assimilation with the people of the land to help explain why God sent the family to Egypt (chs 39–47 ^b). The Egyptians were strict separatists (43:32 ^c); the Israelites would retain their unique identity better in Egypt than in Canaan.
Summary for Gen 38:7-10: 38:7-10 ^d In this story, the Lord is mentioned as the sovereign judge who took the lives of Judah’s evil sons. 38:7 ^e That Er was a wicked man is not surprising, since his mother was a Canaanite and his father a wayward Israelite.
38:8 ^f as our law requires... . You must produce an heir for your brother: The custom that informs this episode is the law for levirate marriage (Latin levir, “husband’s brother”). By this custom, which was later incorporated into God’s law for Israel (Deut 25:5-10 ^g), if a man died childless, his brother or nearest relative would marry his widow to produce a child who would carry on the family name of the deceased and inherit his property. Apparently, the near kinsman had a right to refuse, but he would be disgraced in the family for refusing to perpetuate his brother’s name.
Summary for Gen 38:9-10: 38:9-10 ^h Onan married Tamar, but was not willing to provide an heir for his brother. He would have sex with Tamar but not fulfill his responsibility to his dead brother (38:8 ⁱ).
38:11 ^j Judah is now presented as the model for his sons’ behavior—he, too, was unfaithful to his levirate responsibility to Tamar as next kinsman (see study note on 38:8). Judah and his sons were far too Canaanite in their ways (see study note on 38:27-30; contrast Boaz, Ruth 3–4 ^k).
Summary for Gen 38:12-13: 38:12-13 ^l Without a marriage, the family’s future was in jeopardy.

• Judah’s wife died: This made Judah available to fulfill the responsibility of providing an heir.
Summary for Gen 38:14-19: 38:14-19 ^m Tamar realized that she would have to take matters into her own hands if the family were to have a future. Tamar acted in keeping with the levirate custom (see study note on 38:8) out of loyalty to her deceased husband. She had a legal right to an heir by Judah’s son or by Judah, so she lured her father-in-law into having sex with her. Jacob’s family was deceived again, this time by a Canaanite daughter-in-law.
38:17 ⁿ It would be normal for Tamar to ask for a pledge if the man did not have the money to pay. A woman in such a position would not trust anyone to send the money.
38:18 ^o identification seal: A stone or metal cylinder was engraved with distinctive designs and was usually worn around the neck on a cord; when rolled onto clay or wax, it left a distinct impression.
Summary for Gen 38:20-23: 38:20-23 ^p Judah had gone in to Tamar as a regular prostitute (Hebrew zonah, 38:15 ^q), whereas Hirah was mistakenly looking for a shrine prostitute (Hebrew qedeshah), of which there were none.
Summary for Gen 38:24-26: 38:24-26 ^r Judah played the hypocrite when he condemned Tamar to death for adultery. When she produced the seal and cord and walking stick that identified him as the father, he withdrew the condemnation.
38:26 ^s She is more righteous than I am: Judah acknowledged that he had shirked his responsibility to provide an heir. It was sinful for Judah to go to a prostitute, but Tamar had a legal right to be the mother of Judah’s child and had acted on that right. In the book of Ruth, the elders analogously blessed the marriage of Boaz and Ruth, praying that God would make Ruth like Tamar (Ruth 4:12 ^t; cp. Matt 1:3 ^u, 5 ^v).
Summary for Gen 38:27-30: 38:27-30 ^w Judah’s line continued because of Tamar. The twins replaced Judah’s two slain sons (38:7 ^x, 10 ^y); their birth was similar to the birth of Jacob and Esau (25:21-26 ^z) in that the “red” one was born first, but the other son pushed past him in later life. Jacob’s gaining the right to rule over his older brother (27:29 ^aa) seemed to be relived in Judah’s line. The line was carried on through Perez and not through the elder son Shelah, whom he had gone to such lengths to protect (38:11 ^ab; see 1 Chr 4:21 ^ac), nor through the elder twin Zerah (see Ruth 4:13-22 ^ad; Matt 1:3 ^ae).
Summary for Gen 38:29-30: 38:29-30 ^af Perez pushed past his brother, just as Joseph would soon do in relation to his brothers (chs 39–47 ^ag).