Commentary - Genesis 38:6-11

Bird's-eye view

The story of Judah and Tamar is not some strange and sordid interruption to the grand narrative of Joseph. Rather, it is a crucial pivot, a stark reminder that the line of the Messiah, the promised Seed, runs through some very dark and broken country. God is not afraid of messy genealogies. In fact, He specializes in them. This passage plunges us into the realities of covenant succession, familial duty, and profound human sin. We see God's direct and lethal judgment against wickedness, and we see the selfish rebellion of men who would rather spill their seed on the ground than fulfill their obligations. All of this is set against the backdrop of God's unblinking determination to bring forth His Christ from the line of Judah, regardless of how faithless Judah himself might be.

Here we have the raw material of the gospel. We see sin that requires a payment, a duty that must be fulfilled, and a lineage that must be preserved. The law of the brother-in-law, or levirate marriage, is not some dusty tribal custom; it is a powerful picture of redemption. It is about raising up a name for the dead, about life coming from death. And when men refuse this duty, God Himself steps in. This entire episode, as unsettling as it is, serves to magnify the grace of God, who does not wait for us to get our act together before He fulfills His promises. He writes straight with crooked lines, and the line of Judah is as crooked as they come.

Outline

Context In Genesis

This chapter is strategically placed. Right after Judah proposes selling his brother Joseph into slavery (Gen 37:26-27), we see Judah separate from his brothers and descend into a world of Canaanite compromise and familial disintegration. The contrast is stark. While Joseph is in Egypt, living faithfully before God in the house of Potiphar, Judah is making a complete hash of his own household. This is not an accidental detour in the story. It is a divine commentary. The scepter will not depart from Judah (Gen 49:10), but it will be in spite of Judah, not because of him. This account demonstrates the absolute necessity of God's sovereign grace in preserving the Messianic line. Without God's direct and often severe intervention, the line of promise would have been extinguished by the folly and wickedness of its own patriarchs.

Key Issues

Verse by Verse Commentary

6 Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

Judah is acting the part of the patriarch. He is arranging the marriage for his firstborn son, which was his duty. Everything here appears to be in order, on the surface. He is securing the next generation. The name Tamar means "palm tree," a symbol of righteousness and fruitfulness, which is a profound irony given what is about to unfold. Judah thinks he is building his own house, securing his own legacy. But as we will see, God has other plans for how this house will be built, and through whom.

7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so Yahweh put him to death.

The text is blunt and gives no details about the nature of Er's evil. And this is the point. We are not meant to speculate on the particulars of his sin. What matters is the verdict from the only Judge who matters: he was evil in the sight of Yahweh. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart, and what He saw in Er's heart was so foul that it warranted immediate, capital punishment, executed directly by God Himself. This is a terrifying thing. The firstborn, the heir of the promises, is summarily executed by the covenant Lord. This is a direct blow to Judah's plans and a stark reminder that God is the one who opens and closes the womb, who gives life and who takes it away. He will not be trifled with, especially when it comes to the line of the promised Seed.

8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up a seed for your brother.”

Here we have the introduction of what would later be codified in the Mosaic law as levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5-6). The duty was clear. Onan was to marry his brother's widow in order to provide an heir for his dead brother. This was not about sentiment. It was about preserving a name, a lineage, and an inheritance in Israel. The firstborn son of this union would be legally considered the son of the deceased brother, Er. Judah, for all his faults, understands this basic covenantal obligation. He commands his second son to do his duty.

9 And Onan knew that the seed would not be his; and it happened that when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted it on the ground in order not to give seed to his brother.

Onan's sin is frequently misunderstood and trivialized. The issue was not the physical act itself, but the wicked heart-motive behind it. He was a man consumed by selfish greed. He knew the law, he knew the duty: the seed would not be his. The child would carry Er's name and claim Er's inheritance as the firstborn. Onan wanted that inheritance for himself. So he went through the motions of the act, taking the pleasure that came with it, but he deliberately thwarted its God-ordained purpose. He was, in effect, trying to write his brother out of the family history for his own financial and personal gain. This was a profound act of hatred toward his dead brother and a direct rebellion against the command of his father and the known will of God. He was stealing from the dead.

10 But what he did was displeasing in the sight of Yahweh; so He put him to death also.

Again, the judgment is swift, direct, and final. Yahweh is watching. This is not some private family matter. The preservation of the covenant line is at stake, and God will not allow it to be derailed by the selfish schemes of wicked men. Onan's act was evil in God's sight, just as Er's character was. Two sons down. Both executed by God. The house of Judah is being pruned with a terrible severity. God is cleaning house. This is a holy violence, a necessary judgment to protect the line from which the Savior of the world would come.

11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”; for he thought, “I am afraid lest he also die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Here Judah's piety completely collapses into self-preserving fear. He makes a promise to Tamar that he has no intention of keeping. He sees the pattern: two sons have married Tamar, and two sons are dead. In his fleshly, superstitious mind, he blames Tamar. He thinks she is the problem, the bad-luck charm. He cannot see that the problem was the wickedness of his sons and the righteous judgment of God. So, to protect his last remaining son, Shelah, he sends Tamar away with a lie. He is more concerned with preserving his own posterity on his own terms than he is with obeying God or dealing justly with his daughter-in-law. He abandons his duty out of fear. And in doing so, he sets the stage for the even greater scandal to come, a scandal that God will use to ultimately bring forth the promised sons, Perez and Zerah.