Genesis 38

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Translator Notes

1. 'At that time' (ba'et hahi) — the chapter is placed between the sale of Joseph (ch. 37) and Joseph's arrival in Potiphar's house (ch. 39). The interruption is deliberate: while Joseph descends to Egypt, the narrator pauses to trace Judah's parallel descent — geographical, moral, and familial. The juxtaposition invites comparison between the two brothers.
2. 'Judah went down' (vayyered Yehudah) — the verb yarad ('to go down, descend') is loaded. It echoes Joseph's descent to Egypt and Jacob's vow to go down to Sheol (37:35). Judah's descent from his brothers is both physical (from the hill country) and metaphorical (away from the covenant community). He separates himself from the family, marries a Canaanite, and enters a sequence of moral compromises.
3. 'Turned aside to' (vayyett ad) — natah means to turn aside, to incline, to deviate from a path. The verb subtly signals departure from the expected way. Judah turns aside to a Canaanite friend, beginning a pattern of assimilation.

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Translator Notes

1. 'The daughter of a Canaanite man' (bat-ish Kena'ani) — Judah marries outside the covenant community, in contrast to the careful search for wives within the family undertaken by Abraham (ch. 24) and Isaac (ch. 28). The text does not name the woman — she is identified only as 'daughter of Shua' (bat-Shua). Her namelessness may reflect either the patriarchal conventions of the narrative or a subtle literary judgment on the marriage.
2. 'He took her and went in to her' (vayyiqqacheha vayyavo eleha) — the rapid succession of verbs (saw, took, went in) echoes the pattern of desire-and-acquisition that characterizes problematic unions in Genesis (cf. 6:2, 'they saw... they took'). There is no courtship, no family negotiation, no seeking of divine guidance. Judah acts on impulse.

Translator Notes

1. 'Er' — the name may derive from the root 'ur ('to be awake, alert') or from 'ir ('city'). The brevity of the naming — no etymology is given — contrasts with the elaborate naming narratives elsewhere in Genesis. The lack of explanation may itself be significant: Er's story will be equally brief and unexplained.

Translator Notes

1. 'Onan' — possibly from on ('vigor, strength') or aven ('sorrow, trouble'). The mother names this child (contrast v. 3 where the father names Er), a subtle shift in agency. The name's potential connection to 'sorrow' may foreshadow his fate.

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1. 'Shelah' (Shelah) — possibly from shalah ('to be tranquil, at ease') or from the root sh-l-h ('to send'). Shelah becomes the pivotal figure in the narrative's unfolding: Judah's failure to give Shelah to Tamar triggers the crisis of the chapter.
2. 'Chezib' (Kheziv) — also known as Achzib (Josh 15:44; Mic 1:14). The place name is suggestive: the root k-z-b means 'to lie, to deceive, to disappoint.' Micah 1:14 puns on this: 'The houses of Achzib (akhzav) shall be a deception (akhzav) to the kings of Israel.' The name may foreshadow the deception that pervades this chapter.

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1. 'Tamar' (Tamar) — the name means 'date palm,' a tree associated with beauty, fruitfulness, and uprightness (Ps 92:12, 'the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree'). The name is prophetically fitting: Tamar will prove to be the righteous one in this story. Her ethnic identity is unspecified — she may be Canaanite, but the text does not say so. She will appear again in the genealogy of David (Ruth 4:12) and in the lineage of Jesus (Matt 1:3).

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1. 'Wicked in the sight of the LORD' (ra be'einei YHWH) — the nature of Er's wickedness is not specified. The narrator judges the character without detailing the offense, leaving the reader to understand that Er's evil was severe enough to warrant divine execution. This reticence is striking in a narrative that will be quite explicit about Onan's sin (v. 9).
2. 'The LORD put him to death' (vayemitehu YHWH) — direct divine judgment. The verb hemit (hiphil of mut, 'to cause to die') attributes Er's death directly to God's action. This is not natural death or accident — it is divine execution. The text asserts God's active sovereignty over life and death, particularly when covenant-line wickedness threatens the divine plan.

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1. 'Perform the duty of a brother-in-law' (yabbem otah) — the verb yibbem is a denominative from yavam ('brother-in-law'). This is the levirate marriage obligation (from Latin levir, 'brother-in-law'), later codified in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. The custom required the surviving brother to marry his deceased brother's widow and produce offspring who would legally be counted as the dead brother's heirs. The practice preserved the dead man's name, lineage, and land inheritance.
2. 'Raise up offspring for your brother' (haqem zera le'achikha) — the seed (zera) would legally be Er's, not Onan's. The firstborn of the levirate union would inherit Er's portion and carry his name. This is the crux of the obligation — and the reason for Onan's refusal.

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Translator Notes

1. 'He would waste his seed on the ground' (veshichet artsah) — the verb shichet means 'to destroy, ruin, corrupt.' Onan's act was deliberate and repeated (the Hebrew construction with hayah + imperfect indicates habitual action: 'whenever he went in'). His sin was not merely a sexual act but a calculated refusal of the levirate duty — he accepted the access to Tamar that came with the obligation while deliberately subverting its purpose.
2. 'So as not to give offspring to his brother' (levilti netan-zera le'achiv) — Onan's motivation is explicitly stated: self-interest. If Er's line continued, Er's firstborn rights and inheritance would pass to that child, diminishing Onan's own share. His refusal is an act of greed disguised as compliance — he goes through the motions of the levirate marriage while ensuring it produces no result.

Translator Notes

1. 'Evil in the sight of the LORD' (vayyera be'einei YHWH) — the same evaluative formula used for Er (v. 7). Onan's offense is specified where Er's was not: the deliberate refusal to fulfill the levirate obligation. His sin combines exploitation of Tamar (using her sexually while denying her the child that was her legal right), betrayal of his dead brother (refusing to preserve Er's name), and defiance of the family obligation his father imposed.
2. 'He put him to death also' (vayyamet gam-oto) — the word gam ('also') connects Onan's death to Er's. Two of Judah's three sons have now died under divine judgment. This creates the crisis that drives the remainder of the chapter: Judah has one son left (Shelah), and he is terrified of losing him.

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Translator Notes

1. 'Remain a widow' (shvi almanah) — Judah commands Tamar to a state of suspended life. As a widow bound by levirate expectation, she cannot remarry; yet Judah has no intention of giving Shelah to her. She is trapped between obligation and abandonment. The almanah ('widow') in Israelite society was among the most vulnerable persons, dependent on the family structure for protection and provision.
2. 'For he thought, Lest he also die, like his brothers' (ki amar pen-yamut gam-hu ke'echav) — the narrator exposes Judah's private reasoning. He blames Tamar for his sons' deaths, as if she were a dangerous woman rather than the victim of wicked husbands. His fear is superstitious rather than theological — he does not consider that God killed his sons for their own wickedness. This misplaced fear leads to injustice: Tamar is denied her legal right.
3. Tamar's compliance — she 'went and lived in her father's house' — demonstrates her patience and submission. But this obedience has limits, as the following verses will reveal.

Translator Notes

1. 'Many days passed' (vayyirbu hayyamim) — the compressed time notation covers years. Shelah has presumably grown up during this period, yet Judah has not fulfilled his promise to give him to Tamar. The passage of time heightens Tamar's desperation and confirms Judah's bad faith.
2. 'Judah's wife died... Judah was comforted' (vatamot bat-Shua... vayyinnachem Yehudah) — the verb nacham ('to be comforted, to comfort oneself') signals the end of the mourning period. Judah's mourning for his wife concludes; Jacob's mourning for Joseph (37:35 — 'he refused to be comforted') continues. The contrast is pointed.
3. 'Sheepshearing at Timnah' — sheepshearing was a festive occasion in the ancient world, associated with celebration, feasting, and commerce (cf. 1 Sam 25:2-8, Nabal's sheepshearing). The festive atmosphere provides the context for Judah's encounter with Tamar.

Translator Notes

1. The passive construction 'it was told' (vayyuggad) leaves the informant unnamed. Tamar receives intelligence about Judah's movements and acts upon it. Her plan requires precise knowledge of his itinerary — she positions herself along his route. The report triggers her decisive action.

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1. 'She removed her widow's garments' (vattasar bigdei almenutah) — clothing functions as identity in Genesis. Tamar's widow's garments marked her as bound to Judah's family, waiting for Shelah. By removing them, she sheds her assigned identity. The garment changes in this chapter mirror those in chapter 37: Joseph is stripped of his identity-garment; Tamar removes hers voluntarily. Both garment changes initiate transformative deceptions.
2. 'Covered herself with a veil' (vattekhas batsa'if) — the tsa'if ('veil') disguises Tamar's identity. Judah will not recognize his own daughter-in-law. The veil also serves as the sign of a woman available for sexual transaction, as v. 15 makes explicit.
3. 'The entrance to Enaim' (Petach Einayim) — this may be a place name ('Enaim,' a town) or a descriptive phrase meaning 'the opening of the eyes.' If the latter, the name is profoundly ironic: Judah's eyes are closed to Tamar's identity at the very 'opening of the eyes.' The wordplay suggests that this is a place where truth will eventually come to light.
4. 'Shelah had grown up, yet she had not been given to him' — Tamar's action is motivated by justice, not lust. She has waited patiently; the promise has not been kept. Judah has broken his obligation. Tamar takes matters into her own hands through a dangerous and morally ambiguous stratagem — one that the narrative will ultimately vindicate.

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Translator Notes

1. 'He took her for a prostitute' (vayyachsheveha lezonah) — the verb chashav means 'to think, reckon, consider.' Judah's assumption is based on the veil covering her face. The word zonah ('prostitute') is the common term for a woman who engages in sexual commerce. The narrator uses zonah here, though Judah will later send payment seeking a qedeshah ('cult prostitute,' v. 21-22) — a distinction that may reflect Judah's attempt to dignify the transaction or the social ambiguity of such encounters.
2. 'She had covered her face' (ki khisstah paneha) — veiling practices varied across the ancient Near East. In some contexts, veiling indicated modesty and respectability; in others, it marked sexual availability. Here the veil prevents recognition — Judah does not know his own daughter-in-law.

Translator Notes

1. 'He turned aside to her' (vayyett eleha) — the same verb (natah, 'to turn aside') used in v. 1 when Judah turned aside to Hirah. The repetition creates a pattern: Judah's life in this chapter is characterized by turning aside — from his brothers, from the covenant community, from the road, from moral responsibility.
2. 'For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law' — the narrator's parenthetical comment both exonerates Judah from intentional incest and heightens the irony. The man who should know his own family does not recognize the woman he has wronged. His ignorance is both literal (he cannot see through the veil) and moral (he cannot see his own injustice).
3. 'What will you give me?' (mah-titten-li) — Tamar negotiates. Her question serves a dual purpose: it maintains the disguise (a prostitute would negotiate payment) and it secures the pledge items that will later prove Judah's identity. Tamar's strategy is carefully calculated.

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1. 'A young goat' (gedi-izzim) — the goat motif recurs with devastating irony. In chapter 37, the brothers slaughtered a goat (se'ir izzim) to dip Joseph's robe in blood and deceive Jacob. Now Judah promises a goat as payment — and the transaction will expose his own deception. The goat binds the two chapters: deception by goat in chapter 37, exposure by goat in chapter 38.
2. 'A pledge' (eravon) — Tamar requests security for the promised payment. The eravon ('pledge, guarantee, security deposit') is a legal term for a surety left with a creditor. Tamar's insistence on a pledge is the decisive move of her plan — the pledge items will become irrefutable evidence.

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Translator Notes

1. 'Your signet, your cord, and your staff' (chotamkha ufetilekha umattekha) — Tamar requests three items that are uniquely identifying. The chotam ('signet, seal') was a personalized stamp used to authenticate documents and mark property — the ancient equivalent of a signature. The patil ('cord, string') was the cord from which the seal hung around the neck. The matteh ('staff') was a walking stick, often carved or marked distinctively. Together, these three items constitute unmistakable personal identification. Tamar is, in effect, collecting Judah's identity papers.
2. That Judah surrenders these items so readily reveals how completely desire has overridden judgment. He hands over the markers of his identity — his authority, his name, his patriarchal status — to a woman he believes is a roadside prostitute.

Translator Notes

1. Tamar's garment change is the reverse of v. 14: she removes the veil of disguise and resumes the clothing of her assigned identity. The episode is framed by two costume changes — from widow to disguised woman and back. She reenters her waiting status, but now she carries within her the proof of Judah's failure and the seed of the covenant line. The transformation is invisible to all but the reader.

Translator Notes

1. Judah sends Hirah rather than going himself — using an intermediary to maintain discretion. Hirah is tasked with recovering the pledge items that could identify Judah. The fact that the woman cannot be found begins the unraveling: the pledge items remain in Tamar's possession, and Judah has no way to recover them.

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Translator Notes

1. 'Cult prostitute' (qedeshah) — Hirah uses the term qedeshah, not zonah. The qedeshah (from qadosh, 'holy, set apart') was a woman associated with cultic or sacral prostitution, possibly connected to Canaanite fertility worship. The word carries a veneer of religious respectability that zonah ('common prostitute') does not. Hirah may be euphemizing — using the more respectable term to avoid embarrassment — or the narrative may be distinguishing between types of sexual commerce. Either way, the locals insist: no such woman has been there.
2. 'There has been no cult prostitute here' (lo-hayetah vazeh qedeshah) — the townspeople's denial is absolute. They have seen no woman matching the description. Tamar has vanished, along with Judah's identity.

Translator Notes

1. Hirah's report confirms the failure. The pledge items cannot be recovered. The mysterious woman has disappeared as completely as if she never existed — which, in a sense, she did not: the 'prostitute' was a fiction created by Tamar's disguise.

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Translator Notes

1. 'Lest we become a laughingstock' (pen nihyeh lavuz) — the word buz means 'contempt, shame, ridicule.' Judah is more concerned about public embarrassment than about the loss of his seal and staff or the moral dimensions of his behavior. His priorities are inverted: reputation over righteousness. He would rather lose his identity markers than be known as someone who patronized a prostitute and was then duped by her.
2. Judah's decision to let the matter drop ensures that the pledge items remain in Tamar's hands — the very evidence she needs. His concern for reputation becomes the instrument of his exposure.

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Translator Notes

1. 'Has played the prostitute' (zanetah) — the verb zanah ('to commit fornication, to play the harlot') is used in the qal perfect. The informers present Tamar's pregnancy as evidence of sexual immorality. The irony is devastating: Judah, who consorted with a woman he believed to be a prostitute, now condemns his daughter-in-law for the same category of behavior — behavior that he himself initiated.
2. 'Pregnant through prostitution' (harah lizenunim) — the pregnancy makes Tamar's alleged sin visible and undeniable. In a culture where a woman bound by levirate obligation was expected to remain chaste, pregnancy from an unauthorized union was a grave offense.
3. 'Bring her out and let her be burned' (hotsi'uha vetissaref) — Judah's judgment is swift and extreme. Burning was a penalty for severe sexual offenses (Lev 20:14; 21:9). As the head of the family, Judah claims judicial authority. His rush to judgment contrasts sharply with his own moral failures: he who has not fulfilled his levirate obligation, who consorted with a woman by the roadside, now demands the death penalty for the woman he wronged. The hypocrisy is staggering, and the narrative is about to expose it.

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Translator Notes

1. 'As she was being brought out' (hi mutset) — the passive participle indicates the execution process has begun. Tamar is being led to her death. She waits until the last possible moment to reveal her evidence — a dramatic choice that maximizes the confrontation's impact and gives Judah no opportunity to suppress the truth.
2. 'Please examine' (hakker-na) — the identical phrase the brothers used when presenting Joseph's blood-stained robe to Jacob (37:32). The verbal echo is deliberate and devastating. In chapter 37, Judah participated in presenting false evidence to his father with the words 'please examine — is this your son's robe?' Now Tamar presents true evidence to Judah with the same words: 'please examine — whose are these?' The deceiver is confronted by his own method. The phrase hakker-na becomes a literary thread binding the two narratives of deception.
3. 'Whose signet, cord, and staff are these?' — Tamar does not accuse Judah directly. She presents the evidence and lets it speak. Her restraint is remarkable: facing execution, she offers Judah the opportunity to recognize the truth rather than publicly shaming him. She allows him to condemn or acquit himself.

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Translator Notes

1. 'She is more righteous than I' (tsadeqah mimmeni) — Judah's confession is one of the most significant moral reversals in Genesis. The patriarch who moments ago demanded Tamar's execution now declares her the righteous party. The word tsadeqah ('she is righteous, she is in the right') does not necessarily mean Tamar's method was morally ideal, but that her cause was just: she acted to secure the offspring and inheritance that were legally hers. Judah, who failed in his obligation and then rushed to condemn her, acknowledges his own greater guilt.
2. 'Because I did not give her to my son Shelah' (ki al-ken lo-netattiha leShelah veni) — Judah identifies the root cause: his broken promise. His failure to fulfill the levirate obligation forced Tamar into her desperate stratagem. The confession is specific, not vague — he names his exact offense.
3. 'He did not know her again' (velo yasaf od leda'tah) — Judah does not continue the sexual relationship. The encounter was a single event driven by Tamar's quest for justice, not the beginning of an ongoing union. The text closes this dimension of the narrative with finality.

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1. 'Twins in her womb' (te'omim bevitnahh) — the twin motif recurs from Jacob and Esau's birth (25:24). Like that earlier birth, this one will involve a struggle for primacy and an unexpected reversal of birth order. The doubling of offspring also doubles Tamar's vindication: she sought one heir and receives two.

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1. 'A scarlet thread' (shani) — shani denotes a bright red or crimson thread, colored with dye from the kermes insect. The scarlet thread marks the firstborn's claim — a visual tag of priority. But as with Jacob and Esau, the marked one will not prevail. The scarlet thread becomes a sign of the overturned birthright.
2. 'This one came out first' — the midwife's declaration attempts to fix the birth order. But the divine pattern of Genesis repeatedly subverts human expectations of primogeniture: Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and now Zerah and Perez.

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1. 'What a breach you have made for yourself!' (mah-paratsta alekha parets) — the exclamation plays on the name Perez (Parets), from the root p-r-ts ('to break through, to breach'). The child who was not marked as firstborn breaks through ahead of his brother — a forceful, disruptive entry into the world. The breach overturns the expected order.
2. 'Perez' (Parets) — the name means 'breach, breaking forth.' Perez becomes the ancestor of David (Ruth 4:18-22) and appears in the genealogy of Jesus (Matt 1:3; Luke 3:33). Through this child of an irregular union — born of Judah's failure and Tamar's desperate justice — the royal and messianic line proceeds. God's purposes advance through the most unlikely and morally complex circumstances.

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Translator Notes

1. 'Zerah' (Zerach) — the name likely derives from zarach ('to shine, to rise, to break forth as light'). It may relate to the brightness or redness of the scarlet thread, or to the dawn-like appearance of the hand emerging first. Despite being the one initially marked as firstborn, Zerah is superseded by Perez. The pattern of reversed primogeniture continues: God's election does not follow human expectations of birth order.
2. The chapter ends with the birth of twins who represent both judgment and hope. From Judah's moral failure, Tamar's courageous act, and a birth that defied expectations comes the line through which Israel's kings — and ultimately the Messiah — will descend. Genesis 38, often treated as a digression from the Joseph narrative, is in fact essential: it establishes the Judah-Tamar-Perez lineage that will prove central to the biblical story of redemption.