Preface: Judah leaves his family and takes up with a Canaanite woman, having 3 children by her. Judah decides to choose a wife (Tamar) for his first son (aka, a levirate marriage), but he dies. The wife is given to his second son in order to raise up seed for his deceased brother, but then he dies. Then Joseph has to figure out what to do about Tamar.

There are many chapter commentaries on the book of Genesis. This will be the most extensive examination of Genesis 38, where you will be able to examine in depth every word of the original text. Every attempt has been made to make this both a complete and self-contained study. Therefore, all references, vocabulary, and related concepts should be found within this extensive study. Easy access links to more in-depth studies of some vocabulary words, concepts and doctrines are also provided.

Outline of Chapter 38:

Introduction

         vv.     1–5           Judah Separates from his Brothers and Starts a Family

         vv.     6–11         Judah Chooses Tamar as a Wife for his Oldest Son and then Dismisses Her

         vv.    12–23         Judah Engages with a Prostitute (who is actually Tamar)

         vv.    24–26         Judah and the Pregnant Tamar

         vv.    27–30         Tamar Bears Twins

Addendum

Charts, Graphics and Short Doctrines:

         Preface               Quotations

         Introduction         The Prequel of Genesis 38

         Introduction         The Principals of Genesis 38

         Introduction         The Places of Genesis 38

         Introduction         The Patriarchal Timeline for Genesis 38

         Introduction         Paragraph Divisions of Modern Translations for Genesis 38 (from Dr. Bob Utley)

         Introduction         A Synopsis of Genesis 38

         Introduction 

         Introduction 

         Introduction         Preliminary points for Genesis 38

         v.       1              Genesis 38 is not an insertion

         v.       1              Map of the Shephelah

         v. 

         v.       2              Bible Distortions by Homosexuals

         v. 

         v.       2              Doctrine of the Canaanites

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         v. 

         v.       5              The Meaning of Chezib

         v.       5              Memories from 1994/2016

         v. 

         v.       5              Reviewing Gen. 38:1–5/Time Constraints on This Chapter

         v.       6              Arranged Marriages

         v. 

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         v.       8              Levirate Marriage in the Ancient World

         v. 

         v. 

         v.       9              Women Want Protection and Security

         v.       9              Levirate Marriage in the Old Testament

         v.       9              The People of the First Recorded Levirate Marriage

         v.       9              Surprising things about a levirate marriage

         v.       9              Robert Dean and Jack Ballinger on the Levirate Marriage

         v.       9              The Levirate Marriage from the woman’s perspective

         v. 

         v. 

         v.      11              A Review of Genesis 38:1–10

         v. 

         v.      12              Ballinger: Judah Suffers as His Father Jacob Suffered

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         v.      15              The Implied Backstory to Judah and Tamar

         v. 

         v.      15              Hebrew Glossary for Prostitute and other Nasty Words

         v. 

         v. 

         v.      16              Judah and Tamar, By Horace Vernet (an oil painting)

         v. 

         v.      18              The Three Items (Genesis 38:18)

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         v.      20              A Review of Genesis 38:1–19

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         v.      24              Juda and Thamar (a painting)

         v.      24              Reviewing Genesis 38:1–24

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         v. 

         v.      26              Judah and Tamar, a painting by Cornelis van Haarlem (1562–1638)

         v. 

         v.      27              A Review of Genesis 38:1–26

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         v. 

         Summary            Closing Points on Genesis 38 from Robert Dean

         Summary            The Context of Genesis 38 (Robert Dean)

         Summary            William Ramey Organizes the Chiasmi of Genesis 38:1–30

         Summary            Ron Snider’s Timeline for Genesis 38

         Summary            Summarizing Genesis 38/postscript

         Summary 

         Summary            A Set of Summary Doctrines and Commentary

         Summary            B. H. Carroll Summarizes Genesis 38

         Summary            Edersheim Summarizes Genesis 38

         Summary            A Summation of the Reasons for Recording Genesis 39

Summary

         Summary 

         Addendum          Judah and Tamar: A postscript

         Addendum          Why Genesis 38 is in the Word of God

         Addendum          What We Learn from Genesis 38

         Addendum          Josephus’ History of this Time Period

         Addendum          A Complete Translation of Genesis 38

         Addendum          Word Cloud from a Reasonably Literal Paraphrase of Genesis 38

         Addendum          Word Cloud from Exegesis of Genesis 38

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An Introduction to Genesis 38

I ntroduction: Some portions of Genesis seem to be quite significant—Abraham’s defeat of the kings from the east in Gen. 14 (which changed history); the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which, even today, is contemplated with great interest. Gen. 38 is an unusual chapter. Judah, who is in the line of promise, takes up with a woman and has several children by her. His first child dies the sin unto death; and the second son is called upon to raise up a son in the name of his deceased older brother. He agrees, but then, at the last moment, withdraws himself. He may end up doing this on several occasions, with the appearance that he is doing what is asked of him, but he is simply in it for the enjoyment, and not the responsibility. So he dies the sin unto death.

Judah is concerned that his other sons may die, so he asks her to simply remain unmarried and without children. The third son of Judah grew to manhood, but he was not given over to her. Judah, having lost 2 sons, did not want to lose his third son.

During this same time, Judah’s wife dies. When going up with a friend to Timnah, he comes across a woman who he thinks is a prostitute—however she is his daughter-in-law, out of her widow’s clothing, and with her face covered. So, she gave the appearance of being a prostitute.

Judah is intrigued and he makes a deal with her: sex for a young goat. Since he does not have the young goat with him, he promises her and she requires him to give him a pledge of personal items that he is carrying. In having sex, she conceives by Judah.

When his daughter-in-law turns out to be pregnant, Judah calls for his daughter-in-law to be burned, as punishment. She reveals that she is pregnant by Judah. Quite obviously, that changes everything. How can he call for her execution if he is the man who made her pregnant and he did not give her his third son, as custom of that day required.

She has two sons, who carry on Judah’s name. One of these sons would be in the line leading to Jesus Christ.

I rarely read the work of another person before I begin to work on a chapter, for fear of undo influence. Once I have finished with the general exegesis, then I go to a hundreds of different sources and fill in some details. However, with Chapter 38, after reading a portion of it, I went to J. Vernon McGee for a synopsis and the short, no-nonsense explanation for which he was famous. It seems as though the Bible here goes off on this unusual, inexplicable tangent. It all has a reason and a purpose for being there (even if we are not sharp enough to discern them). So it is with this chapter. There was a pervasive immorality in the land of Canaan, an immorality that the Jews had to be separated from.

I spent a lot more time researching this chapter than most, and found a great many excellent resources (Ron Snider, Jack Ballinger, Robert Dean). Nearly every commentary that I read from had some excellent insights as well as some mistaken notions about this chapter.

The time frame of this chapter has pretty much a built-in minimum based upon the events in this chapter. Judah will get married, he will have 3 sons; all 3 sons will grow to adulthood; two of them will get married; and Judah’s wife will die. This suggests a minimum number of years of around 20. Before Joseph is sold into slavery, he is 17 years old (Gen. 37:2), he will enter the palace of Pharaoh at age 30 (Gen. 41:46), and this will be followed by 7 years of prosperity and 1 year of depression which causes his brothers to come to him in Egypt (Gen. 41:53–57 42:1–5). That makes Joseph at least 38 or 39 when his brothers come to him. So, on the high end, this story of Judah must be able to fit within the 21 or 22 years of what is happening with Joseph in Egypt.

We abruptly leave Joseph as a slave in the home of Potiphar in Gen. 37 and return to Canaan to visit the family of Jacob back in the land of Canaan for Gen. 38. Actually, the narrative of Gen. 37 left us the option of two directions to go: (1) we could follow Joseph into slavery in Egypt (Gen. 37:36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.) or (2) we could stay with Jacob’s family in the land (Gen. 37:34–35 Then Jacob [thinking that his son Joseph was dead] tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, "No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning." Thus his father wept for him.). The author, whom I believe is Joseph, chooses to follow the life of Jacob and his sons—in particular, one set of incidents in the life of Judah.

To understand what is going on, keep in mind that there are 3 men that we have been concentrating on: Reuben, Judah and Joseph. Reuben is the firstborn and should have received the rights, privileges and responsibilities of the firstborn. However, Reuben never seems to fully embrace his responsibilities. He is always stuck somewhere between doing the right thing and being influenced by his younger brothers to do the wrong thing. A true leader cannot do this. A true leader has to do the right thing, whether those under him like it or not. He cannot choose to do something in between good and evil or between right and wrong. If he recognizes right and wrong, the one with authority must stand with what is right.

The second man we have been watching is Judah. You will recall that when the older brothers talked in the previous chapter, only Reuben and Judah were specifically identified and associated with particular quotes. Judah would become the patriarch of the ruling tribe, but it is clearly not because he is a great man. In fact, in this chapter, Judah is going to come off looking anything but.. Nevertheless, he will redeem himself later in the book of Genesis.

The patriarch we would expect to head the ruling tribe instead of Reuben is Joseph. He faces a variety of injustices and yet, rises to the second highest office in the land of Egypt. He reigns, exercising his authority with great wisdom and restraint. He does not use his authority to harm those who have harmed him. This will not be ignored by God. God will give Joseph the double portion (usually reserved for the firstborn).

The Bible has a great historic arc to it, and most people have no appreciation for this great arc because they see the Bible as a single book (which it is). The Old Testament is made up of books that were composed over a period of over 1000 years (I would contend that the single book of Genesis was composed over a period of 1500 years).

There are two important issues before us: (1) which son will be the head of the ruling tribe; and (2) which son will be the father from whom the Lord Jesus Christ will come? There are 3 possible men: (1) Reuben, the firstborn; (2) Jacob, the 4^th born; and (3) Joseph, the 11^th born. Joseph will exhibit the grace of God in his life, despite being persecuted by his brothers. In the narrative, if one of these 3 men has something to say, then we will know it. If Simeon or Levi or Asher has something to say, they will be referred to as the brothers.

No one during the lifetimes of these brothers knows which tribe will be the ruling tribe; no one during their lifetimes knows from which tribe will come the Lord Jesus Christ. No one during the life of Moses, some 400 years later, will know these things. Yet, the writer of this portion of Genesis seems to know that it must come down to these three men. Does Joseph (the likely author of Gen. 37–50) know this? Is he thinking in terms of the ruling tribe? Is he thinking in terms of the future Messiah? It is unclear that he has this on his mind. Who would know this? Who would know the end from the beginning? God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit knows that it comes down to these 3 men and the tribes which will come from them. Therefore, what they say and do is carefully recorded. What Dan does or what Zebulun does is just not that important.

(1)(2)                                                         (1)(2)(3)

From the time that Joseph is taken to Egypt to the time that his brothers come to Egypt, a period of at least 20 years transpires. The Bible Hub has Joseph going into slavery 1898 b.c.; and then Jacob and his sons go down to Egypt 1875 b.c. This is consistent with the events of Gen. 38 occurring within the limits of such a timeline.

We will follow a portion of Judah's life, a person that we may mistakenly thought to be a reasonably righteous man. Reuben had suggested the selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites, but only as a cover to rescue Joseph (but Reuben failed to act quickly enough).

We will see in this chapter that Judah was a poor excuse for a believer, self-righteous with a double standard. Part of this is character defect and part of it is the world in which he lived. He was unduly influenced by the immorality of the Canaanites (many of whom were later executed by God's command for their depravity), as were his brothers. God had to remove the Jews so that they did not end up like the other peoples of that land. Furthermore, we find the line of Christ in this chapter, where we would not expect to find it.

As McGee pointed out, everything which is in the Bible is God's Word and is therefore true, but this does not mean that God approves of everything which occurred. It is simply an honest record of what has happened. Our understanding of the rest of Scripture along with the customs and mores of that day, allow us to comment and to exegete.

With regards to authorship, it is difficult to tell. I am leaning more and more toward Joseph or Reuben writing a majority of the previous chapter and Judah writing this one; all later to be combined with the writings of Jacob and Joseph and edited either by Joseph or Moses. The events recounted here would have been known by a variety of people, but Judah would know the majority of them, as he was involved. The time frame is quite easy to pinpoint because of the information given to us about Joseph in other chapters. This chapter has to run parallel to the life of Joseph, from being taken into slavery to the point where he sees his brothers again. Based on information from other chapters, 22 years is the length of the events found in this chapter.

Although it is possible that the events of this chapter begin prior to Joseph being sold into slavery, that is quite unlikely. Judah will separate from his family, and this will appear to be a fairly strong act of separation. Most of the time, a choice like that would be precipitated by something—and what makes more sense than for Judah to separate from his family rather than to continue lying, along side of his brothers, about what happened to Joseph. You may be able to lie to your father once or twice; but it is very difficult to continue a lie the clearly affects the emotional well-being of your father. I would say that Judah could not longer deal with this, and just went out on his own, which is represented by the events recorded in this chapter of Genesis.

So, the events of this chapter appear to run parallel to the selling of Joseph into slavery and Judah apparently reunites with his family when the famine strike them all (causing the brothers to all travel as a family to Egypt.

This chapter of Genesis is clearly a separate document from the one which later gives us Joseph's history in Egypt. However, that does not mean that Joseph did not write the final composition of these events. Obviously, Joseph would be too far removed to know by time and space to know all that transpired in the life of Judah. However, when he reunites with his family, there will likely be times when they share their histories with one another. Although this chapter does not fit in seamlessly with Gen. 37 and 39, there is at least one other chapter which clearly was experienced by the other sons of Jacob and not by Joseph, but was placed into the Word of God, the account of this final quarter of Genesis. Moses would have been too far removed from it by time to know anything of what happened here, apart from learning this information by hearing it and memorizing it. Judah is likely the primary author, making him second most likely author for the previous chapter (but I think Joseph clearly write most or all of the final sections of Genesis).

This is one of the few times that we will examine the life of Judah and it isn't a pretty sight. He even failed when it came to the morality of his day, let alone with true morality. For the past couple chapters, we have seen failure after failure in the lives of the sons of Jacob. One can lay fault with Jacob and his late spiritual growth spurt and with his favoritism; but he is spiritually grown and his sons are men now—responsible for their own behavior.

You may ask, why is any of this important? Judah will be the line of Christ. In fact, in this very chapter, we will see exactly how his line is the line of the Messiah—and it will be some unusual twists and turns.

When comparing this to the chapter which follows, you have two people in this chapter who do not appear to be adjusting to the plan of God: Joseph and Tamar; and in the next chapter, we study the man most adjusted to the justice of God—Joseph. In both cases, in this and the next chapters, God’s will is clearly the issue, and God’s will is done, despite Judah’s hard-heartedness in this chapter, and in synch with Joseph’s divine viewpoint thinking in the next chapter. God’s will is moving forward in both chapters, no matter who is onboard and who is not.

The Patriarchal Timeline for Genesis 38

Although many commentators covered this chapter, it was missing in the works of Josephus and barely mentioned by Edersheim or Carroll.

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Judah Separates from his Brothers and Starts a Family

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:                       Note: I compare the Hebrew text to English translations of the Latin, Syriac and Greek texts, using the Douay-Rheims translation; George Lamsa’s translation, and Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton’s translation as revised and edited by Paul W. Esposito, respectively. I often update these texts with non-substantive changes (e.g., you for thou, etc.). I often use the text of the Complete Apostles’ Bible instead of Brenton’s translation, because it updates the English text.

The Septuagint was the earliest known translation of a book (circa 200 b.c.). Since this translation was made before the textual criticism had been developed into a science and because different books appear to be translated by different men, the Greek translation can sometimes be very uneven.

When there are serious disparities between my translation and Brenton’s (or the text of the Complete Apostles’ Bible), I look at the Greek text of the Septuagint (the LXX) to see if a substantive difference actually exists (and I reflect these changes in the English rendering of the Greek text). I use the Greek LXX with Strong’s numbers and morphology available for e-sword. The only problem with this resource (which is a problem for similar resources) is, there is no way to further explore Greek verbs which are not found in the New Testament. Although I usually quote the Complete Apostles’ Bible here, I have begun to make changes in the translation when their translation conflicts with the Greek and note what those changes are.

The Masoretic text is the Hebrew text with all of the vowels (vowel points) inserted (the original Hebrew text lacked vowels). We take the Masoretic text to be the text closest to the original. However, differences between the Masoretic text and the Greek, Latin and Syriac are worth noting and, once in a great while, represent a more accurate text possessed by those other ancient translators.

In general, the Latin text is an outstanding translation from the Hebrew text into Latin and very trustworthy (I say this as a non-Catholic). Unfortunately, I do not read Latin—apart from some very obvious words—so I am dependent upon the English translation of the Latin (principally, the Douay-Rheims translation).

Underlined words indicate differences in the text.

Bracketed portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls are words, letters and phrases lost in the scroll due to various types of damage. Underlined words or phrases are those in the Dead Sea Scrolls but not in the Masoretic text.

I will only list the translation from the Dead Sea Scrolls if it exists and if it is different from the Masoretic text.

The Targum of Onkelos is actually the Pentateuchal Targumim, which are The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel. On the Pentateuch With The Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum From the Chaldee by J. W. Etheridge, M.A. From http://www.becomingjewish.org/texts/targum/onkelos_genesis.html and first published in 1862.

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text (Hebrew)        And so he is in the time the this and so goes down Judah from with his brothers. And so he turns as far as a man, an Adullamite, and his name [is] Hirah.

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Targum (Onkelos)                  And it was at that time that Jehuda went down from his brethren, and turned aside to an Adulamite man whose name was Hira. Translation for Onkelos and Pseudo-Jonathan by J. W. Etheridge, M.A. (1862).

Targum (Pseudo-Jonathan)   It was at that time that Jehuda bad gone down from his property, and separated himself from his brethren, and had inclined to a man an Adullemite whose name was Hira,...

Jerusalem targum                  .

Revised Douay-Rheims         At that time Juda went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Odollamite, named Hiras.

Latin Vulgate                          .

Aramaic ESV of Peshitta        It happened at that time, that Yudah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

Peshitta (Syriac)                    AND it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brothers, and turned in to a certain Arlemite, whose name was Hirah.

Septuagint (Greek)                Judah and Tamar. Gn.38.1-30

And it came to pass at that time that Judas went down from his brethren, and came as far as to a certain man of Odollam, whose name was Iras.

NETS (Greek)                        .

Brenton’s Septuagint             .

Significant differences: 

Limited Vocabulary Translations:

Bible in Basic English             Now at that time, Judah went away from his brothers and became the friend of a man of Adullam named Hirah.

Easy English                          At that time, Judah left his brothers. He went to stay with a man from the town of Adullam. His name was Hirah.

Easy-to-Read Version            .

God’s Word™                         Judah’s Sin with Tamar

About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man from Adullam whose name was Hirah.

Good News Bible (TEV)         .

International Children’s B.     Judah and Tamar

1About that time, Judah left his brothers. He went to stay with a man named Hirah. Hirah was from the town of Adullam.

The Message                         About that time, Judah separated from his brothers and hooked up with a man in Adullam named Hirah.

Names of God Bible               .

NIRV                                      .

New Simplified Bible              .

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

Common English Bible           Tamar’s place in Judah’s family

At that time, Judah moved away from his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah.

Contemporary English V.       About that time Judah left his brothers in the hill country and went to live near his friend Hirah in the town of Adullam.

The Living Bible                     .

New Berkeley Version           .

New Century Version             .

New Life Version                    Judah went away from his brothers at that time. He visited a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.

New Living Translation           Judah and Tamar

About this time, Judah left home and moved to Adullam, where he stayed with a man named Hirah.

Partially literal and partially paraphrased translations:

American English Bible          After that, Judah left his brothers and traveled on for some distance. Then he [ran into] a man from OdolLam named Iras, [who went to work for him].

Beck’s American Translation .

International Standard V        Judah’s Life among the Adullamites

Right about then, Judah left his brothers and went to live with an Adullamite man named Hirah.

New Advent (Knox) Bible       A time came when Juda left his brethren up in the hill country, and went to lodge with a man called Hiras, at Odollam.

Revised Knox Bible      .

Translation for Translators     Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar tricked Judah into making her pregnant

At that time, Judah left his older and younger brothers and went down from the hilly area and stayed with a man who lived in Adullam town, whose name was Hiram.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Awful Scroll Bible                   It occurred, that Judah was to go down with his brothers, and was to turn aside to a man of Adullam, named Hirah.

Conservapedia                       It happened in that season that Judah went down from his brothers, and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, and his name was Hirah.

Ferrar-Fenton Bible                About this same time Judah went and separated from his brothers, and joined with an Adulamite, whose name was Hirah.

God’s Truth (Tyndale)           .

God’s Truth (Tyndale)           And it fortuned at that time that Judas [Judas (exact spelling)] went from his brethren and got him to a man called Hira of Odollam, and there he saw the daughter of a man called Sua a Cananite. A portion of v. 2 is included for context.

HCSB                                     Judah and Tamar

At that time Judah left his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah.

Jubilee Bible 2000                  .

H. C. Leupold                         2. The Danger that threatened Jacob’s Sons (Chapter 38)

And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down away from his brethren and pitched his tent near a man of Adullam, whose name was Hirah.

Lexham English Bible            Judah and Tamar

And it happened [that] at that time Judah went down from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite, whose name [was] Hirah.

NIV, ©2011                             Judah and Tamar

About that time Judah went down from his brothers and he camped near an Adullamite man, whose name was Hirah.

NIV – UK                                .

Catholic Bibles (those having the imprimatur):

Christian Community (1988)  The story of Judah and Tamar

It happened at this time that Judah left his brothers and went to stay with an Adullamite by the name of Hirah.

The Heritage Bible                 And it was at that time, that Judah descended from his brothers, and spread out his operation to a man of Adullam, whose name was Hirah.

New American Bible (2002)   About that time Judah parted from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah.

[1-30] This chapter, from the Yahwist source, has nothing to do with the Joseph story in which Judah is still living with his father and brothers. The sacred author inserted this independent account from the life of Judah at this place to mark the long lapse of time during which Joseph's family knew nothing of his life in Egypt. This is apparently a personalized history of the early days of the tribe of Judah, which interbred with several Canaanite clans, though some of these soon became extinct.

New American Bible (2011)   Judah and Tamar.*

About that time Judah went down, away from his brothers, and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah.

[38:1–30] This chapter has subtle connections to the main Joseph story. It tells of the eponymous founder of the other great tribe of later times, Judah. Having already been introduced as one of the two good brothers in 37:26–27, he appears here as the father-in-law of the twice-widowed Tamar; he has reneged on his promise to provide his son Shelah to her in a levirate marriage. Unjustly treated, Tamar takes matters into her own hands and tricks Judah into becoming the father of her children, Perez and Zerah. Judah ultimately acknowledges that his daughter-in-law was right (“She is in the right rather than I,” v. 26). In contrast to Judah’s expectations, the family line does not continue through his son Shelah, but through the children of Tamar. Similarities relate this little story to the main narrative: the deception involving an article of clothing (the widow’s garments of Tamar, Judah’s seal, cord, and staff) point back to the bloody tunic that deceives Jacob in 37:31–33; a woman attempts the seduction of a man separated from his family, for righteous purposes in chap. 38, for unrighteous purposes in chap. 39.

New Jerusalem Bible             It happened at about that time that Judah left his brothers, to go down and settle with a certain Adullamite called Hirah.

New RSV                               .

Revised English Bible            ABOUT that time Judah parted from his brothers, and heading south he pitched his tent in company with an Adullamite named Hirah.

Jewish/Hebrew Names Bibles:

Complete Jewish Bible           (iv) It was at this time that Y’hudah went off from his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah who was an ‘Adulami.

exeGeses companion Bible   YAH HUDAH AND TAMAR

And so be it, at that time,

Yah Hudah descends from his brothers

and turns to a man

- an Adullamiy whose name is Hirah:...

Hebrew Roots Bible               And it happened at that time that Judah went down, away from his brothers, and turned aside to a man of Adullam named Hirah.

Hebrew Names Version         .

JPS (Tanakh—1985)               About that time Judah left his brothers and camped near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.

Judaica Press Complete T.    .

Kaplan Translation                 Judah and Tamar

Around this time, Judah left his brothers. He became friends with [See Genesis 38:12,20. Others, 'He camped around until he came to....' (Redak).] a man of Adullam [This is a city some 41 miles south of Shechem, and 11 miles northwest of Hebron. It is identified with Tel esh-Sheikh Madhkur. See Joshua 12:15, 15:35, 1 Samuel 22:1, 2 Samuel 23:13, Micah 1:15, Nehemiah 11:30.] by the name of Hirah [He was the foreman of Judah's shepherds (Genesis 38:12; Tzava'ath Yehudah 8:1). From the expression, 'his name was Chirah,' we see that he was a righteous person. There is a tradition that whenever the expression, 'his name was,' precedes the actual name, the person in question was righteous (BaMidbar Rabbah 10; Esther Rabbah 6:2).]. The Kaplan Translation, particularly in Exodus through Deuteronomy, takes note of historic rabbinic opinions.

Natural Israelite Bible             .

Orthodox Jewish Bible           And it came to pass at that time, that Yehudah went down from his achim, and turned in to an ish Adulami shmo Chirah.

Restored Names Version       .

The Scriptures 1998              And at that time it came to be that Yehuah left his brothers, and turned aside to a man, an Aullamite whose name was Ḥirah.

Expanded/Embellished Bibles:

The Amplified Bible                .

The Expanded Bible              Judah and Tamar

About that time, Judah ·left [^Lwent down from] his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah in the town of Adullam [^Ca Canaanite city nine miles northwest of Hebron].

The Geneva Bible                  .

Kretzmann’s Commentary    Verses 1-11

The story of Judah, Shuah, and Tamar

And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. After the episode with Joseph, Judah separated himself from his brothers and moved down from Hebron, which is in a mountainous region, toward the southeastern plains, pitching his tent near the town of Adullam and entering into friendly relations with a man by the name of Hirah.

NET Bible®                             Judah and Tamar

At that time Judah left [Heb “went down from.”] his brothers and stayed [Heb “and he turned aside unto.”] with an Adullamite man [Heb “a man, an Adullamite.”] named Hirah. When it comes to making an actual material change to the text, the NET Bible® is pretty good about indicating this. Since most of these corrections will be clear in the more literal translations below and within the Hebrew exegesis itself, I will not continue to list every NET Bible® footnote. Some of their notes will be reproduced in the exegesis of the chapter.

Syndein/Thieme                     .

The Voice                               It was about this time that Judah decided to leave home, so he parted company with his brothers and went to see Hirah, a fellow from Adullam.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

American KJV                        .

Brenner’s Mechanical Trans....and it came to pass in that appointed time, Yehudah ^[Praised] went down from his brothers and he stretched unto a man, one of Adulam ^{[Witness of the people]}, and his title was Hhiyrah ^{[Bleached white]},...

Concordant Literal Version    And coming is it at that season that down is Judah going from his brothers and is turning aside unto a man, an Adullamite, and his name is Hirah.

A Conservative Version         .

Context Group Version          .

Darby Translation                  .

Emphasized Bible                  .

English Standard Version      .

English Standard V. – UK       .

Evidence Bible                       .

Green’s Literal Translation    And it happened at that time that Judah went down, away from his brothers, and turned aside to a man of Adullam named Hirah.

King James 2000 Version      .

21^st Century KJV                   .

Modern English Version         Judah and Tamar

At that time Judah left his brothers and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

NASB                                     .

New European Version          Judah and His Sons

It happened at that time, that Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

New King James Version       Judah and Tamar

It came to pass at that time that Judah departed from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.

Owen's Translation                .

Third Millennium Bible            .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

Webster’s Bible Translation  At that time, Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

World English Bible                .

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young’s Updated LT             And it comes to pass, at that time, that Judah goes down from his brothers, and turns aside unto a man, an Adullamite, whose name is Hirah.

The gist of this verse:          Judah departs from his brothers and begins to hand out with a man named Hirah, an Adullamite.

Translation: It is at this time that Judah goes down away from his brothers. As we saw in the previous chapter, the sons of Jacob were not very kind men. They overreacted to a rape of their baby sister (by killing men who were not responsible); and he was one of the brothers involved in selling their youngest brother into slavery.

As we see above, there is a phrase to connect the two chapter narratives: And it happened at that time (MKJV); It came to pass at that time that (VW); About that time (God’s Word); and, And at that time it came to be that (The Scriptures 1998). I was hoping to come across meanwhile, back at the ranch; but I could not find that one.

In this chapter we have a repeated figure of speech called a pleonasm [pronounced PLE-o-nasm] (or redundancy), which is a phrase whose lack would not seem to affect the meaning or the grammatical completeness of the sentence. It is the Qal imperfect, 3^rd masculine singular of hâyâh (הָיָה) [pronounced haw-YAW], which is typically translated and it came to pass. This occurs six times in this chapter (vv. 1, 7, 24, 27, 28 and 29) as opposed to but once in the previous chapter (v. 23), whereas there were ample opportunities to use that phrase in the previous sentence and ample reasons to leave it out in this chapter. What is the difference? It is a difference of style. Joseph will have the same style in his writings and it will be a phrase, although used sparingly prior to this chapter, will be found quite often after this. This is a way of saying that time has passed, but not a great deal of time (as in Gen. 38:12). This is also a possible indication that authorship changed between chapters 37 and 38 (if Joseph was the ultimate author/editor, which I believe he was, then he may have retained some of the idiosyncracies of his source material).

The Holy Spirit chooses each and every word, but that each and every word expresses the emotions, the thoughts and the vocabulary of the human author. This means that the use of this word is not superfluous, but the way the human and the divine author express emphasis. For almost 2000 years, this particular phrase would endure through many authors.

To sum up, we find this phrased used for:

1.               Emphasis

2.               An expression which tells us time has passed

3.               Possibly an indication of a different author or a different set of circumstances.

They seem unable to measure their reactions to this or that situation. A normal morality appears to elude them. We will find the same thing in this chapter. Judah will become very self righteous about his life and that of his daughter-in-law.

In Gen. 37, we bring Joseph and Judah together; and then they go off in two different directions: Joseph off to Egypt as a slave and Judah back to his father to lie about Joseph’s death. Both narratives are important.

In the book of Genesis, there are several unusual narratives, and this chapter is certainly one of the most unusual. Key to this chapter is keeping in mind the preliminary points already presented. However, like the previous chapters which we have studied, this will have great meaning to us, despite the dramatic cultural differences that we will encounter.

Throughout Genesis, there are some narratives that, on your first read, you may wonder, now why is this here? All of Genesis is recorded for a reason—this is the Word of God, after all, authored by both man and by God the Holy Spirit. So, there ought to be a very human reason why this or that is recorded in Scripture; and a divine reason as well. Nevertheless, even knowing this, the narrative of Gen. 38 is still going to strike you as being very unusual.