Genesis 38 explained: Judah, Tamar and a Broken Promise

Judah's own family (vv. 1-7)

Right after the brothers sell Joseph, the story turns to Judah, who moves away, marries a local Canaanite woman and has three sons. His eldest, Er, marries Tamar, but the text says only that Er was wicked and the LORD ended his life, without saying what he did.

Onan refuses (vv. 8-10)

By custom, a dead man's brother fathered a son with the widow to carry on the dead man's name and inheritance, but Onan slept with Tamar while making sure she would not conceive, and he dies too. Many read his wrong as using her while denying his brother an heir (v. 9); some Christian traditions have also read it as condemning that sexual act itself.

Tamar is left waiting (vv. 11-16)

Judah sends Tamar back to her father's house to wait for his youngest son, Shelah, but he fears losing Shelah too and never gives him to her. So when Judah, now a widower, goes to the sheep shearing, a time of feasting, she trades her widow's clothes for a veil by the road, and he takes her for a prostitute.

The missing pledge (vv. 17-23)

As a pledge until he pays her with a young goat, she asks for his seal on its cord and his staff, things as personal as a signature, and she becomes pregnant. When his friend returns with the goat, no one there knows of such a woman, and Judah drops it so he will not be laughed at.

Judah is exposed (vv. 24-26)

Three months later Tamar is found pregnant, and Judah, as head of the family she was promised into, orders her burned, a death sentence. She sends back his things asking him to recognize them, much as the brothers once made Jacob recognize Joseph's bloodied robe (37:32), and Judah admits she is more in the right than he is.

Twin boys (vv. 27-30)

One twin's hand comes out first and is tied with a red thread, but his brother pushes ahead and is named Perez, meaning 'breaking out'; the other is Zerah. Perez becomes an ancestor of King David, and Christians note that Matthew's Gospel names Tamar in Jesus' family line.

Key verse: Genesis 38:26

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on how to judge Tamar: many see her daring trick as justified, as Judah's words in verse 26 suggest, while others, especially older interpreters, see wrong on both sides with Tamar simply less to blame.

Something to think about

When someone with little power is denied what they are owed, is it ever fair for them to break the usual rules to get it?