It seems that, for Judah, life was all about saving face. He wouldn’t admit that he didn’t want to give Shelah to Tamar, and lied to her, in order to save face. It didn’t matter that she would remain a widow in anticipation of a marriage to Shelah, refusing any other man who might wish to marry her. Moreover, when Judah couldn’t find the woman he took for a harlot, once more, he wished to save face, rather than search her out to retrieve his pledge, wherein his deed would necessarily become public, and he’d have been shamed, become a laughingstock among the local residents.
Nevertheless, Tamar’s actions proved that she was eager to perform what she considered her duty as a wife in Judah’s clan, by giving him a descendant in a legal levirate relationship with one of his sons. Yet, it was Judah who prevented her from doing what she considered her duty to him in a patriarchal society, where he was the head of his clan. She was more interested in providing descendants for his clan than he was. Imagine! What a contradiction for such a key figure in the covenant family!
Tamar was bound to show her pregnancy sooner or later, and in three months’ time her pregnancy was not only apparent, but it was told Judah that his daughter-in-law had played the harlot, and was now with child by one of her clients. When Judah found out, true to the man who wished to keep up appearances in the local community, he demanded that she be brought to him and be put to death in a public place by burning (Genesis 38:24).[1]
However, when Tamar was brought forth, she sent for Judah and told him that by the hand of the man who left these as a pledge: Judah’s signet ring, his bracelets and his staff, she was with child. Thus, she asked him to discern for himself whose they were (Genesis 38:25). When Judah saw his pledge, which he left with the supposed harlot, he understood that his own wickedness was discovered (Genesis 38:26). Not only was he publicly humiliated, but he realized that Tamar knew he had lied to her and kept Shelah from marrying her.
Finally, Judah repented of his deeds, and put away his aptness to save face by admitting to Tamar and to everyone present that she was not to be blamed, because her actions proved more righteous than his own. Thus, he raised up descendants in the names of his two sons, but he did not lay with Tamar again, because that was the abomination that gave birth to Canaan (Genesis 9:18, 22; cp. Leviticus 18:8, 15). As for Tamar, when it came time for her to deliver her babes, for she gave birth to twins, an odd thing occurred in that the first reached his hand out of her womb, and the midwife tied a scarlet thread on his finger, saying this one was born first. However, the babe withdrew his hand and his brother was born first, to the astonishment of everyone who was present (Genesis 38:27-28).
Therefore, the second babe came out of the womb first, so he was named Pharez, meaning ‘breach’ (Genesis 38:29). Afterward, his brother Zarah, who put forth his hand from the womb, was born (Genesis 38:30), but it was Pharez, who was born first, and it was from him that both David and the Messiah would descend.
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[1] This seems to be a law from the Code of Hammurabi, which was then in force throughout the Land of Canaan. However, if #157 relates to Tamar’s supposed transgression, it is not only freely interpreted, but Judah, also would have had to suffer the same fate, if the law were to be enforced.
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