Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Genesis 38:1-10
Judah Falls Further Into Sin (Genesis 38:1).
The compiler's purpose in the insertion of this separate account of Judah's private life here is to demonstrate that Judah, having betrayed Joseph (and Jacob) by instigating the selling of him to the Midianites, now as a consequence continues on a downward path. Thus the one who suggested selling Joseph to the Midianites demonstrates even more clearly his unworthiness by his subsequent behaviour which the compiler possibly sees as the fruit of his primary sin against Joseph.
It is interesting that all the oldest sons of Leah have now been discredited in Jacob's eyes. Reuben because of his taking of his father's concubine (Genesis 35:22), Simeon and Levi because they slew the men of Shechem (Genesis 34:30), and now Judah for marrying a Canaanite woman and breaking his oath to Tamar.
But why should the account have been written in the first place? It is not a covenant narrative and it is not part of the story of Joseph. The answer may well be that it is a kind of covenant narrative in the sense that it is a record of Tamar's vindication after trial, a record necessary to maintain her position in the tribe. She would want it in writing for it is her vindication before all.
‘And it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned in to a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he took her and went in unto her. And she conceived and bore a son and he called his name Er. And she conceived again and bore a son and called his name Onan. And she yet again bore a son and called his name Shelah, and he was at Chezib when she bore him.'
“Went down from his brothers.” He goes to see a friend, Hirah an Adullamite. Adullam was a Canaanite city, later in the territory of Judah (Joshua 12:15). This emphasises his Canaanite associations. Then he compounds his position by marrying a Canaanite woman. This could only add to Jacob's grief of heart, for he would undoubtedly have looked on this as going against the covenant. The lesson is that if we follow sin it will lead us and our children deeper and deeper into trouble.
It is not necessary to see this as signifying separation from the family tribe. There is no suggestion that he takes flocks and herds with him. It is a private friendship. And his visits to Shua to meet his daughter, under the guise of visiting his friend Hirah, may well have been in secret.
Nor does he necessarily lead a separate life from his brothers when he is married. While the marriage would be a shock to Jacob (compare Genesis 26:34) it was not a reason for his son leaving the family tribe. There is nothing to suggest that Judah did not bring his wife into the tribe. The point is rather stressed that he begets three sons, for this explains the following narrative. It is only when it comes to the third birth that we are told where he was. Chezeb is probably the same as Achzib, later a town of Judah, in the lowland hills. And there is nothing in this to cast doubt on the fact that he continued to work alongside his brothers. If they took the herds and flocks to Shechem they could also take them to Chezeb.
Later, however, we do read of ‘his sheep shearers' (Genesis 38:12) which may suggest a level of independence. But we might expect the sons as they grow older to exert their authority independently, even establishing sub-groups within the tribe. (But not necessarily. These sheep shearers may simply represent the group he was in charge of at the time. The flocks were very extensive). Yet if this is so it is many years later when his wife has died after two of his children have grown up.
But what is significant is that the name of his wife is never mentioned, she is only ‘Shua's daughter' (Genesis 38:12). It is as though what follows puts her beyond the pale in the eyes of the writer. This may have been because she was seen as such an evil influence on her sons (see following).
‘And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. And Er, Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of Yahweh, and Yahweh slew him. And Judah said to Onan, “Go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and raise up seed to your brother.” And Onan knew that the seed would not be his. And it came about that when he went in to his brother's wife he spilled it on the ground lest he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did was evil in the sight of Yahweh and he slew him also.'
We find here the fruit of the difference between the culture of the family tribe and the culture of the Canaanites. It is clear that the family tribe practised the custom of Levirate marriage. According to this custom, which is described later in Deuteronomy 25:5 and illustrated in the Book of Ruth, a brother of a man who dies childless has a duty to marry his brother's wife and go in to her to produce children on his brother's behalf, and those children are seen as his brother's. It was a law known and practised elsewhere. But Onan refused to accept the custom, possibly because his mother has brought him up in the Canaanite religion, and he took steps to ensure it did not work. No faithful member of the family tribe would have dared to refuse in that way. (Outwardly Onan would have to conform to the traditions of the tribe. But his mother's influence may well have had a counter-effect).
“Er was wicked in the eyes of Yahweh.” Er may also have been brought up by his mother in the Canaanite religion, and even been taken secretly to some of their festivals, thus his experience of the Canaanite religion may have meant that he indulged in sexual practises that could only be seen as an abomination by the family tribe. So when he dies it is put down to his moral and sacrilegious behaviour. Note the reintroduction of the name of Yahweh. It is clear that Er's crime is seen as going against the covenant.
“Yahweh slew him.” His early death, possibly through venereal disease exacerbated by some other disease, is seen as the judgment of Yahweh.
“And Judah said to Onan.” Onan dared not disobey the head of his sub-tribe. He carried out the motions of what he was required to do. But when he was about to ejaculate he withdrew and let the seed fall on the ground. This has nothing to do with birth control. His sin is that he refused to ‘give seed to his brother' and it was a kind of fratricide. He has disobeyed the laws of the tribe which are seen as part of the covenant (Genesis 26:5). Thus he too comes under Yahweh's disapproval and his subsequent early death is seen as the judgment of Yahweh.
But why should someone behave in this way? It may well be that he too had been brought up in the Canaanite religion and despised the tribal customs. Thus he may have seen the demand made on him as repugnant. Alternately it may have been just stubbornness and unwillingness to do his dead brother a good turn. Indeed inheritance was also involved. Er's inheritance would go to the child. It may have been mainly the idea of this that Onan did not like. And indeed it may have been a combination of all three. Whatever it was it made him refuse to comply.
(Some have cast doubt on the chronology. We know from Genesis 37:2 that Joseph was probably about eighteen when he was sold as a slave, making Judah possibly about twenty two, and say twenty three when he married and bore Er. Then in Genesis 41:46 Joseph is thirty, although we may see this as a round number indicating that he has completed his period of preparation (three for completeness times ten for intensity), and this is followed by nine years (seven good years and two bad years) at which point Joseph seeks to persuade the family to come to Egypt. Thus at this point Joseph may be roughly forty and Judah roughly forty four. Then not too long afterwards they do make for Egypt and at this point Judah seemingly has grandchildren by Perez whom he begets after his third son has grown up (Genesis 46:12), when he must be at the earliest say forty (which assumes Er married when still quite young. But this could well be so. It may be that Canaanites with their ‘advanced' sexual attitudes did marry much younger than those in the family tribe - as Judah's wife presumably did). This say some is impossible.
But this is to ignore the artificial nature of Genesis 46 (which see), for there the writer is seeking to bring the number of Jacob and his direct descendants to seventy by any means possible in order to indicate the divine perfection of the number who went up to Egypt - intensified seven (he also includes the two sons of Joseph who were born in Egypt). He is not counting them but expressing an idea. Thus it may well be that he includes the grandchildren, even though they have not yet been born, as being as it were ‘in Perez's loins').