Genesis 38:1 - Meaning and Application

This begins with Judah’s foolish friendship with a Canaanite man. He left his brothers and, for a time, separated himself from his father’s household. Then he became close friends with Hirah, an Adullamite from the town of Adullam (Genesis 38:1). Judah was likely only about fifteen or sixteen years old, so he was easy prey for temptation.

This is a warning for young people. When those who have been well taught begin to choose different friends, they soon change their ways and lose what they were taught. Anyone who goes down from the company of their brothers, despises the fellowship of Israel’s people, and takes Canaanites as close companions, is going downhill fast. The friends young people choose matter greatly, because they copy them, try to win their approval, and even judge their own worth by them. A wrong choice here can bring lasting ruin.

Judah also made a foolish marriage with a Canaanite woman. This match was arranged, not by his father, who likely was not even asked, but by his new friend Hirah (Genesis 38:2). Many people have been led into shameful and harmful marriages by keeping bad company and growing too familiar with wicked people. One sinful partnership often leads to another. Young people should learn from this to treat their good parents as their best friends, and to take their advice instead of listening to flatterers who flatter them in order to use them.

Judah had three sons by this Canaanite wife, Er, Onan, and Shelah. It is likely that she at least claimed to follow the God of Israel, but there is no sign that the fear of God was really in that home. Judah married too young and too carelessly, and he also married his sons too young, before they had the wisdom or grace to govern themselves. The results were very bad.

Er, the firstborn, was openly wicked. He was wicked in the sight of the Lord, meaning he lived in open defiance of God and his law, or perhaps simply that his wickedness was fully known to God, as all wickedness is. God did not delay in judging him, but struck him down at once (Genesis 38:7). Sometimes God deals quickly with sinners and takes them away in his anger when they are only just beginning a sinful life.

Onan, the next son, followed the ancient custom of marrying his brother’s widow so he could preserve the dead brother’s name, since the brother had died without children. Even though God had judged Er for his wickedness, they still wanted to preserve his memory, and Onan’s sin made that impossible. This custom was later written into the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 25:5). Onan agreed to the marriage, but he refused to give his brother offspring, wasting his own body, wronging his wife, and dishonoring the memory of his dead brother. This was even worse because the Messiah was to come through Judah’s line, and Onan might have had the honor of being one of Christ’s ancestors. Sins that shame the body and defile it are very displeasing to God and show corrupt desires.

The third son, Shelah, was kept back for the widow (Genesis 38:11), though with the plan that he would not marry so young as his brothers had, so that he would not die too. Some think Judah never truly meant to give Shelah to Tamar. He may have wrongly suspected her of causing the deaths of his two older sons, when in fact their own wickedness had brought about their death. If that was his thinking, then sending her back to her father’s house and telling her to remain a widow was dishonest and unjust. Tamar, for her part, accepted this for the time being and waited to see what would happen.