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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. XXXVIII.
This chapter gives us an account of Judah and his family, and such
an account it is that one would wonder that, of all Jacob’s sons,
our Lord should spring out of Judah,
If we
were to form a character of him by this story, we should not say,
“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise,”
But God will show that his choice is of grace and not of
merit, and that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even
the chief, and is not ashamed, upon their repentance, to be allied
to them, also that the worth and worthiness of Jesus Christ
are personal, of himself, and not derived from his ancestors.
Humbling himself to be “made in the likeness of sinful flesh,”
he was pleased to descend from some that were infamous. How
little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah,
to boast, as they did, that they were not born of fornication!
We have, in this chapter,
I. Judah’s marriage
and issue, and the untimely death of his two eldest sons,
II. Judah’s incest with his daughter-in-law Tamar,
without his knowing it,
III. His confusion, when it
was discovered,
IV. The birth of his twin sons, in
whom his family was built up,
&c.
| Judah’s Profligacy. | B. C. 1717. |
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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.
6 And Judah took a
wife for Er his firstborn, whose name
was Tamar.
7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn,
was wicked in the sight of the
LORD; and the LORD slew him.
8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in
unto thy brother’s wife, and marry
her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
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, lest
that he should give seed to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did
displeased the LORD: wherefore he
slew him also.
11 Then said Judah
to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain
a widow at thy father’s house, till
Shelah 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.
Here is,
1. Judah’s foolish friendship with
a Canaanite-man. He went down from his
brethren, and withdrew for a time from their
society and his father’s family, and got to be
intimately acquainted with one Hirah, an
Adullamite,
v. 1.
It is computed that he
was now not much above fifteen or sixteen
years of age, an easy prey to the tempter.
Note, When young people that have been
well educated begin to change their company,
they will soon change their manners, and
lose their good education. Those that go
down from their brethren, that despise and
forsake the society of the seed of Israel, and
pick up Canaanites for their companions, are
going down the hill apace. It is of great
consequence to young people to choose proper
associates; for these they will imitate,
study to recommend themselves to, and, by
their opinion of them, value themselves: an
error in this choice is often fatal.
2. His
foolish marriage with a Canaanite-woman, a
match made, not by his father, who, it
should seem, was not consulted, but by his
new friend Hirah,
v. 2.
Many have been
drawn into marriages scandalous and pernicious
to themselves and their families by
keeping bad company, and growing familiar
with bad people: one wicked league entangles
men in another. Let young people be
admonished by this to take their good parents
for their best friends, and to be advised by
them, and not by flatterers, who wheedle
them, to make a prey of them.
3. His children
by this Canaanite, and his disposal of
them. Three sons he had by her, Er, Onan,
and Shelah. It is probable that she embraced
the worship of the God of Israel, at least in
profession, but, for aught that appears, there
was little of the fear of God in the family.
Judah married too young, and very rashly;
he also married his sons too young, when
they had neither wit nor grace to govern
themselves, and the consequences were very
bad.
(1.) His first-born, Er, was notoriously
wicked; he was so in the sight of the Lord,
that is, in defiance of God and his law; or,
if perhaps he was not wicked in the sight of
the world, he was so in the sight of God, to
whom all men’s wickedness is open; and
what came of it? Why, God cut him off
presently
(v. 7):
The Lord slew him. Note,
Sometimes God makes quick work with sinners,
and takes them away in his wrath,
when they are but just setting out in a wicked
course of life.
(2.) The next son, Onan, was,
according to the ancient usage, married to the
widow, to preserve the name of his deceased
brother that died childless. Though God
had taken away his life for his wickedness,
yet they were solicitous to preserve his memory;
and their disappointment therein,
through Onan’s sin, was a further punishment
of his wickedness. The custom of
marrying the brother’s widow was afterwards
made one of the laws of Moses,
Onan, though he consented to marry the
widow, yet, to the great abuse of his own
body, of the wife that he had married, and of
the memory of his brother that was gone, he
refused to raise up seed unto his brother, as
he was in duty bound. This was so much the
worse because the Messiah was to descend
from Judah, and, had he not been guilty of
this wickedness, he might have had the
honour of being one of his ancestors. Note,
Those sins that dishonour the body and defile
it are very displeasing to God and evidences
of vile affections.
(3.) Shelah, the third son,
was reserved for the widow
(v. 11),
yet with
a design that he should not marry so young
as his brothers had done, lest he die also.
Some think that Judah never intended to
marry Shelah to Tamar, but unjustly suspected
her to have been the death of her two
former husbands (whereas it was their own
wickedness that slew them), and then sent her
to her father’s house, with a charge to remain
a widow. If so, it was an inexcusable piece
of prevarication that he was guilty of. However,
Tamar acquiesced for the present,
and waited the issue.
12 And in process of time 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, and covered her with a veil,
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.
15 When Judah saw
her, he thought her to be an harlot;
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; (for he knew not
that she was his daughter in law.)
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?
18 And he said, What pledge
shall I give thee? And she said, Thy
signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff
that is in thine hand. And he gave
it her, and came in unto her, and she
conceived by him.
19 And she arose,
and went away, and laid by her veil
from her, and put on the garments of
her widowhood.
20 And Judah sent
the kid by the hand of his friend the
Adullamite, 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?
And they said, There was no harlot
in this place.
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: behold, I sent
this kid, and thou hast not found her.
It is a very ill-favoured story that is here
told concerning Judah; one would not have
expected such folly in Israel. Judah had
buried his wife; and widowers have need to
stand upon their guard with the utmost caution
and resolution against all fleshly lusts.
He was unjust to his daughter-in-law, either
through negligence or design, in not giving
her his surviving son, and this exposed her
to temptation.
I. Tamar wickedly prostituted herself as
a harlot to Judah, that, if the son might not,
the father might raise up seed to the deceased.
Some excuse this by suggesting
that, though she was a Canaanite, yet she
had embraced the true religion, and believed
the promise made to Abraham and his seed,
particularly that of the Messiah, who was to
descend from the loins of Judah, and that
she was therefore thus earnestly desirous to
have a child by one of that family that she
might have the honour, or at least stand fair
for the honour, of being the mother of the
Messiah. And, if this was indeed her desire,
it had its success; she is one of the
four women particularly named in the genealogy
of Christ,
Her sinful practice
was pardoned, and her good intention
was accepted, which magnifies the grace of
God, but can by no means be admitted to
justify or encourage the like. Bishop Patrick
thinks it probable that she hoped Shelah,
who was by right her husband, might
have come along with his father, and that he
might have been allured to her embraces.
There was a great deal of plot and contrivance
in Tamar’s sin.
1. She took an
opportunity for it, when Judah had a time of
mirth and feasting with his sheep-shearers.
Note, Time of jollity often prove times of
temptation, particularly to the sin of uncleanness;
when men are fed to the full, the
reins are apt to be let loose.
2. She exposed
herself as a harlot in an open place,
v. 14.
Those that are, and would be, chaste, must
be keepers at home,
Tit. ii. 5.
It should
seem, it was the custom of harlots, in those
times, to cover their faces, that, though they
were not ashamed, yet they might seem to
be so. The sin of uncleanness did not then
go so barefaced as it does now.
II. Judah was taken in the snare, and
though it was ignorantly that he was guilty
of incest with his daughter-in-law (not knowing
who she was), yet he was willfully guilty
of fornication: whoever she was, he knew
she was not his wife, and therefore not to be
touched. Nor was his sin capable, in the
least, of such a charitable excuse as some
make for Tamar, that though the action was
bad the intention possibly might be good. Observe,
1. Judah’s sin began in the eye
(v. 15):
He saw her. Note, Those have eyes, and
hearts too, full of adultery (as it is
that catch at every bait that presents
itself to them and are as tinder to every
spark. We have need to make a covenant
with our eyes, and to turn them from beholding
vanity, lest the eye infect the heart.
2. It added to the scandal that the hire of a
harlot (than which nothing is more infamous)
was demanded, offered, and accepted–a kid
from the flock, a goodly price at which her
chastity and honour were valued! Nay, had
the consideration been thousands of rams,
and ten thousand rivers of oil, it had not
been a valuable consideration. The favour
of God, the purity of the soul, the peace of
conscience, and the hope of heaven, are too
precious to be exposed to sale at any such
rates; the Topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal
them: what are those profited that lose their
souls to gain the world?
3. It turned to the
reproach of Judah that he left his jewels in
pawn for a kid. Note, Fleshly lusts are not
only brutish, but sottish, and ruining to
men’s secular interests. 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.
III. 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. 23.
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.
2. 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.
| Birth of Phares and Zarah. | B. C. 1714. |
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24 And it came to pass about three
months after, 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.
25 When she was
brought forth, she sent to her father
in law, saying, By the man, whose
these are, am I with child: and she
said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are
these, the signet, and bracelets, and
staff.
26 And Judah acknowledged
them, and said, She hath been more
righteous than I; because that I gave
her not to Shelah my son. 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.
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? this
breach be upon thee: therefore his
name was called Pharez.
30 And
afterward came out his brother, that
had the scarlet thread upon his hand:
and his name was called Zarah.
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,
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,
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.
II. 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,
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?
so it was now said to
him, “See, are these thy signet and bracelets?”
Judah, being convicted by his own
conscience,
1. 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.
2. 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.
III. 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
(Matt. i. 3),
to perpetuate the
story, as an instance of the humiliation of
our Lord Jesus. 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.
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