Genesis 38:2

Judah married a foreign woman. That caused trouble. Their first two sons were evil. (See verses 7 and 10.) Many years before this, Esau took foreign women as his wives. And that made his parents very unhappy and it caused great trouble. (See Genesis 26:34-35.) Abraham insisted that his son Isaac should not marry a foreign woman. (See Genesis 24:3-4.) And Isaac wanted his son Jacob to marry a woman from his own family. (See Genesis 28:1-2.) So some of God’s ancient people thought that to marry a foreign woman was wrong. And some of those who married foreign women caused trouble.

But to marry a foreign woman was not always wrong. Joseph married the daughter of an Egyptian priest. (See Genesis 41:45.) That did not cause trouble. And God blessed their sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

In later times, God told his people that they must not marry foreign women. (See Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3-4; Nehemiah 13:23-25.) But some of God’s people did not obey this rule. Solomon married many foreign wives and they made him do evil things. (See 1 Kings 11:1-6.)

v7 But the *Lord saw that Er, who was Judah’s oldest son, was wicked. And the *Lord killed him. v8 Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Lie with your brother’s wife. Do the duty of a husband’s brother to her. Produce a child for your brother.’ v9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his. So whenever he lay with his brother’s wife he spilled his seed on the ground. So he did not produce a child for his brother. v10 And the *Lord was not pleased with what Onan did. So the *Lord killed him also.