What is the significance of genesis 38

So, Tamar takes matters into her own hands. She disguises herself as a prostitute, knowing what kind of person Judah is. Then she allows him to impregnate her, but keeps his signet ring so she can later prove that he is the father Genesis When Judah learns that Tamar is pregnant, he orders her to be executed.

This reflects a double standard practiced in many cultures: the idea that a man can have sex with anyone as Judah slept with what he thought was a prostitute but a woman cannot. But God has no double standard: sin is as wrong for a man as it is for a woman. That was the moral of the story. Judah was immoral and raised two immoral sons, and now is caught in his guilt. By challenging the double standard of his culture, the writer argues against sin. But whole-book context shows us more.

It is plain that whoredom, as well as wine, and new wine, takes away the heart first, else it would never take away the signet and the bracelets. He lost his jewels by the bargain; he sent the kid, according to this promise, to redeem his pawn, but the supposed harlot could not be found.

He sent it by his friend who was indeed his back-friend, because he was aiding and abetting in his evil deeds the Adullamite, who came back without the pledge. It is a good account if it be but true of any place which they here gave, there is no harlot in this place; for such sinners are the scandals and plagues of any place.

Judah sits down content to lose his signet and his bracelets, and forbids his friend to make any further enquiry after them, giving this reason, lest we be shamed, v. Either, 1. Lest his sin should come to be known publicly, and be talked of. Fornication and uncleanness have ever been looked upon as scandalous things and the reproach and shame of those that are convicted of them.

Nothing will make those blush that are not ashamed of these. Lest he should be laughed at as a fool for trusting a strumpet with his signet and his bracelets.

He expresses no concern about the sin, to get that pardoned, only about the shame, to prevent that. Note, There are many who are more solicitous to preserve their reputation with men than to secure the favour of God and a good conscience; lest we be shamed goes further with them than lest we be damned. Gen Here is, I. Judah's rigour against Tamar, when he heard she was an adulteress.

She was, in the eye of the law, Shelah's wife, and therefore her being with child by another was looked upon as an injury and reproach to Judah's family: Bring her forth therefore, says Judah, the master of the family, and let her be burnt; not burnt to death, but burnt in the cheek or forehead, stigmatized for a harlot. This seems probable, v.

Note, it is a common thing for men to be severe against those very sins in others in which yet they allow themselves; and so, in judging others, they condemn themselves, Rom. If he designed that she should be burnt to death, perhaps, under pretence of zeal against the sin, he was contriving how to get rid of his daughter-in-law, being loath to marry Shelah to her. Note, It is a common thing, but a very bad thing, to cover malice against men's persons with a show of zeal against their vices.

Judah's shame, when it was made to appear that he was the adulterer. She produced the ring and the bracelets in court, which justified the fathering of the child upon Judah, v. Note, The wickedness that has been most secretly committed, and most industriously concealed, yet sometimes is strangely brought to light, to the shame and confusion of those who have said, No eye sees.

A bird of the air may carry the voice; however, there is a destroying day coming, when all will be laid open. Some of the Jewish writers observe that as Judah had said to his father, See, is this thy son's coat? Confesses his sin: She has been more righteous than I. He owns that a perpetual mark of infamy should be fastened rather upon him, who had been so much accessory to it. Note, Those offenders ought to be treated with the greatest tenderness to whom we have any way given occasion of offending.

If servants purloin, and their masters, by withholding from them what is due, tempt them to it, they ought to forgive them. He never returned to it again: He knew her again no more. Note, Those do not truly repent of their sins that do not forsake them. The building up of Judah's family hereby, notwithstanding, in the birth of Pharez and Zarah, from whom descended the most considerable families of the illustrious tribe of Judah.

It should seem, the birth was hard to the mother, by which she was corrected for her sin. The children also, like Jacob and Esau, struggled for the birthright, and Pharez obtained it, who is ever named first, and from him Christ descended. He had his name from his breaking forth before his brother: This breach be upon thee, which is applicable to those that sow discord, and create distance, between brethren. The Jews, as Zarah, bade fair for the birthright, and were marked with a scarlet thread, as those that came out first; but the Gentiles, like Pharez, as a son of violence, got the start of them, by that violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers, and attained to the righteousness of which the Jews came short.

Yet, when the fulness of time is come, all Israel shall be saved. Both these sons are named in the genealogy of our Saviour Mt. Some observe that the four eldest sons of Jacob fell under very foul guilt, Reuben and Judah under the guilt of incest, Simeon and Levi under that of murder; yet they were patriarchs, and from Levi descended the priests, from Judah the kings and Messiah.

Thus they became examples of repentance, and monuments of pardoning mercy. Donate Contact. Blue Letter Bible is a c 3 nonprofit organization. APA Format. Chicago Format. SBL Format. Share This Page. Follow Blue Letter Bible. Blue Letter Bible. Login To Your Account. But, he refuses to have a child with her.

He knew that the offspring would not be his and so did not fulfill his husbandly duties, so to speak. This too was wicked in the eyes of the Lord and God struck down Onan as well. So Judah is down two sons because of this woman.

And he was not going to lose another. What happens next sounds like it was taken from the script of the Young and the Restless. He is lonely and sad for a while, but eventually is comforted enough to go about his life. Judah is furious that she became pregnant and believes she has been immoral with another man until he finds out that it was he that has been the immoral one.

Tamar eventually has the twins and names them Perez and Zerah. And that is the last we hear of Tamar and her children for a while. Why is this story important? Why does God choose to interrupt the story of Joseph and his technicolor dream coat to tell us this very odd story about Judah and Tamar?

Why indeed? Let me remind you that the story of Joseph is not about enduring through tough times. The story of Joseph is not remaining faithful to God in the midst of persecution. The story of Joseph is not about having moral fiber even when no one else around you does. Those are all true, and they are definitely part of the story, but they are not the crux of the story.

God promised a serpent-crushing Seed of Abraham that will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth and He will move Heaven and earth to ensure that this will happen. So why is this chapter in our Bibles? And despite coming up with the idea of selling Joseph into slavery, Judah has an especially important role to play in that plan which is why an entire chapter is devoted to him. The chapter begins with Judah looking like a lost cause.

He then does what is frowned upon in Genesis and marries a Canaanite woman Gen.