விரிவுரை தற்போது ஆங்கிலத்தில் மட்டுமே கிடைக்கிறது. தமிழ் மொழிபெயர்ப்பு நடைபெறுகிறது.
Genesis 38 — Judah and Tamar
Judah leaves his brothers, marries a Canaanite, and has three sons. Two die in wickedness. Tamar, the widow of the eldest, is denied the third son. She disguises herself as a harlot and conceives by Judah. When her pregnancy is exposed, Judah confesses she is more righteous than he. She bears twins — Perez and Zerah. Perez stands in Christ's genealogy.
“She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son.”
— Genesis 38:26
- v.1-11 Judah's sons; the death of Er and Onan; Tamar withheld
- v.12-23 Tamar's deception; the pledge of signet, bracelets, staff
- v.24-26 The exposure; Judah's confession
- v.27-30 The birth of Perez and Zerah
The narrator does not tell us specifically what Er's sin was. Onan's sin is specified (verse 9); Er's is not. The text is content to say wicked in the sight of the Lord — that is judgment enough.
The Lord slew him. God's judgment in the time of the patriarchs was sometimes direct and immediate. Ananias and Sapphira are the New Testament parallel (Acts 5:1-11).
Judah confesses publicly. The moment of repentance is one of the most striking in the Bible. The man who consigned his daughter-in-law to harlotry now admits she has acted more righteously than he.
He knew her again no more. Real repentance changes future behavior, not just present words. The chapter ends with Judah a different man than it began.
Perez (Pharez) means breach or one who breaks forth. He pushed past his brother — the unexpected one becoming first.
Perez stands in the genealogy of David and Christ (Matthew 1:3; Ruth 4:18-22). The line of Messiah runs through this scandalous chapter. God writes straight with crooked lines.
When you are caught — and you will be — say what Judah said. She has been more righteous than I. Confession without excuses, repentance without bargaining, is the only path forward. The man who refuses to admit his wrong remains in it; the man who admits it is at the beginning of being free.
The genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 explicitly names Tamar (verse 3) — one of four women named, all of them with sexual scandal in their stories. The Messiah comes from a line that includes Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. The lineage of grace runs through the broken.
Judah went down — the language of moral descent. He left the family and made friends among the Canaanites. The trouble in this chapter begins with that separation.
The chapter is dropped into the Joseph narrative as a deliberate contrast — Joseph going down to Egypt as a slave, but resisting sin; Judah going down to Adullam as a free man, and falling into it.