Genesis 38 - Introduction

XXXVIII.
FAMILY HISTORY OF JUDAH.

This episode is no interruption of the narrative, for, as we have seen, the Tôldôth Jacob is the history generally of Jacob’s posterity, and especially of the next great event in their development into a nation, namely the descent into Egypt. Two main reasons may be assigned therefore for giving this history of Judah’s life; the first, that it shows the great risk of utter contamination incurred by the patriarchs in living among the Canaanites; the second, and more important, that Judah was invested by his father with the rights of primogeniture, and therefore that this history belongs to the genealogy of the Messiah.