Genesis 38

Judah and Tamar

This story is the most sexually graphic story we found this far in the Bible.

Judah marries a Canaanite woman (uh oh!) and has 3 sons. The first, Er, marries a woman named Tamar, but Er angers God and God kills him.

Judah tells his second son, Onan, to marry Tamar. This happens. This might seem kind of gross, but we hear more about this in the Mosaic law. I wonder if this was a custom that had already been established, or this event was the precedent that was later codified in the Mosiac code.

Don't get mad at me for talking about this now, as it's in the Bible, but Onan does not want to have a kid with Tamar because this kid would be Er's heir and not Onan's. So, Onan spills his seed on the ground. Woah! God is angry and kills off Onan. Woah! I mean, woah!

One could read this as an anti-masturbation story, but I think that's wrong. Rather, God's anger seems to be directed at the attitude towards the widow.

Here's what I think is going on. This is an agrarian, patriarchal society where the firstborn son gets the larger inheritance (the birthright that Jacob usurped from Esau). Children, particularly sons, are one's retirement as the children take care of the parents when the parents become too old to work in the field. Agrarian societies today still have large families.

Er died without kids. He would have received the birthright from Judah, but since he died without kids, it now passes to Onan. If Onan had a son with Tamar, then that son would get the birthright as if Er never died. Then, Onan loses the birthright if he has a child with Tamar.

However, Tamar is a widow and needs a child to take care of her when she gets older. So, in a very real way, Onan's action is a death sentence to Tamar, his brother's widow. That's why God intervenes and strikes down Onan.

Back to the story, Judah has a third son who appears to be too young to get married. So, Judah sends Tamar back to her own family as a widow. Tamar waits, and waits, and waits, but it doesn't look like Judah is coming back. When she hears he's coming to visit the area, she dresses like a prostitute and gets Judah to sleep with her. We get the negotiation details, she'll get a sheep out of the deal, plus gets to hold onto his personal staff as collateral. Woah!

This reminds me of Jacob's marriage to Leah - how did either man not know who he was having sex with? Yes, they're wearing veils, but they do speak and you might be able to recognize the voice. The veils must be more like Muslim burqas.

Afterwards, this girl disappears with Judah's personal items. Judah has a sense this could get ugly if publicly known (sucker! It's in the Bible!) and tries to keep it under wraps. Tamar gets pregnant and when she starts to show (it says 3 months later) it is discovered, she's accused of prostitution and Judah wants to kill her. As it turns out, it was her all along and she has Judah's stuff as proof.

Busted!

Why is this in the Bible to begin with? Aside from showing how badly out of control Jacob's kids become, I suspect it served as a reminder to the Israelites to take care of widows, particularly if there is a family connection.

A final note - according to Matthew 1:3, the union of Judah and Tamar produces the lineage of David and Jesus. I'll also note that it's not stated whether Tamar is Canaanite or not.