Post by alon on Jun 4, 2016 18:51:57 GMT -8
Genesis 38
The story of Tamar in this chapter is inserted into the story of Joseph as a parallel record of the beginnings of the tribes of Judah. The central character is Tamar, a woman of good moral character and great courage. She was wronged, as she had the right to a son, and her first husband had the right to an heir; but she was denied this. However she stood up for her rights and for her familial responsibilities and as a result was one of four females in the line of Melech Dovid and HaMoshiach Himself who were named in scripture. Interestingly enough, they all had “problems” in either their marriages or in sexual relations. Tamar means ‘date palm,’ a source of shade and food. She was a giver of life.
All the people in this story saw only their own plight; their own rights and in most cases their own selfish ambitions. However God was at work to fulfill His promise to multiply the Jewish people and through them to bring the Moshiach. This is a central theme of Genesis, and the story of Tamar's is a primary example. God worked through these people, good and bad, to bring about His long term plan of redemption for His people and, through them, the world.
There are several lessons for us herein:
* bad things can happen to good people
* good can come from evil
* God has a plan, even when we can’t see or understand
* His plans involve good for us, and also have eternal benefits
* God can use the actions of evil men to bring about His purposes
* this is a foundational story in the Jewish quest for social justice
Bereshis 38:1-7 (OJB) And it came to pass at that time, that Yehudah went down from his achim, and turned in to an ish Adulami shmo Chirah. And Yehudah saw there a bat ish Kena’ani shmo Shua; and he took her, and went in unto her. She conceived, and bore ben; and he called shmo Er. And she conceived again, and bore ben; and she called shmo Onan. And she yet again conceived, and bore ben; and called shmo Shelah; at Keziv, when she bore him. And Yehudah took a wife for Er his bechor, whose shem was Tamar. And Er, bechor Yehudah, was rah in the eyes of Hashem; and Hashem slaughtered him.
There is an interesting wordplay here. ‘Er’ spelled backwards is ‘rah’- evil. Yehudah on the other hand means ‘give praise to God.’ An odd name considering his opposition (albeit unwittingly) to God’s overall plan in this story. Yet as he himself also was in the line of Moshiach through Tamar it may make some sense. Onan means ‘virile one,’ yet he refused to give Tamar a child as the law required. Note that we are seeing evidence that the “law” was in place before there were any Jews, and long before Sinai. The law discussed here is stipulated later in 
:
Deuteronomy 25:5-6 (ESV) “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
Genesis 38:8-11 (ESV) Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house.
Onan did not want to raise a child that was not legally his, nor did he want an heir that would replace him as firstborn, thus entitled to a double portion of the inheritance. He was guilty of offense on two counts: failure to perform the Levirate obligation to Tamar, and disobedience to his father. So he was justly punished by God; he died. After his death Tamar was sent away unfulfilled, with a promise that later the family of Yehudah would meet their obligations. However as we all know as time passes the perceived obligation fades in men’s minds. Her remaining childless was a disgrace in her culture, as this was seen as a punishment from God.
The loss of Yehudah’s two sons is a foreshadowing of Ya'akov’s (perceived) loss of Yosef and Simeon. His fear that Shelah would die is as Ya'akov’s fear that he would loose Benyamin if he sent him to Egypt.
Genesis 38:12-13 (ESV) In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”
Tamar was patient, however it became apparent that Yehudah was not going to give her his third son to fulfill the Levarite obligation. So she decided she would have to act on her own to obtain what should have rightfully been given her. And like Yoseph with his father in law, the decived became the deceiver:
Genesis 38:14-15 (ESV) she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
Prostitutes were required to cover their faces, and no respectable woman would be cought lingering alone at a crossroads or a city gate. So it was easy for Yehudah to mistake her for a zerah- a prostitute.
Ya'akov had used deceit before, in ch 27 when he tricked his father into giving him the blessing of the firstborn. There as now a disguise was used to achieve God’s purposes. And in both cases the trickery was necessary to obtain what was rightfully theirs. Ya'akov had bought that birthright from Esau for a bowl of red stew, and Tamar was due an heir by law. Both would have otherwise been denied, with disastrous results to the people God would call his own, as well as to the world.
Genesis 38:16-17 (ESV) He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—”
Still grieving the loss of his wife, Yehudah sought comfort in the arms of a prostitute. It is interesting to note the role of a kid in deceiving a grieving parent in the last chapter, where a kid was slain and here where it is the price to redeem a pledge. In these we see the promise of haMoshiach which the union would eventually produce.
Bereshis 37:31 (OJB) And they took the kesones Yosef, and did shachat the se’ir izzim (slaughtered the kid of the goats), and dipped the kesones in the dahm;
Bereshis 38:18-19 (OJB) And he said, What ervon shall I give thee? And she said, Thy chotam (signet), and thy [signet neck] cord, and thy staff that is in thine yad. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and took off her tze’if from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
Amazingly Yehudah leaves the requested items with Tamar as a pledge of payment. These were items of great worth, and all easily identifiable as his. That he acted so foolishly shows the state of his mind after the death of his wife. His seal impression in the clay could authenticate documents as from him. The cord also, if carried by a messenger would authenticate the message. But most amazing is that he gave up his staff. Herodotus describes the staff of each person with their own emblem carved at the top. As Yehudah was a tribal leader, his staff carried great authority. It would have also carried the names of his forebears, his tribal lineage.
To Tamar, these items represented the son she should have to succeed her dead husband; the son who would take his place as the tribal leader. To God, they were security for the throne of Yisro’el and ha’olam.
Bereshis 38:20-21 (OJB) And Yehudah sent the gedi izzim by the yad of his friend the Adulami, to get back his ervon from the yad haisha; but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the kedesha (cult prostitute) that was on the crossroads by the derech? And they said, There was no kedesha in this place.
Tamar had already left, and Yehudah’s friend looks for her in vain. Here a different term for prostitute is used, kedesha. It can mean cult prostitute, or it can also just mean prostitute. Kedesha (q’deshah) does however carry the connotation of a devotee.
Genesis 38:23-24 (ESV) And Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.” About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
While his comment on the loss of his personal articles of authority sounds offhand, Yehudah must have had many sleepless nights over this. He would still be ill at ease over the incident three months later when Tamar was found pregnant and accused of adultery. Yet he accepted this accusation before he even saw her, let alone spoke with her to hear her side. Perhaps he still blamed her for the death of his other sons; for whatever reasons, he summarily pronounced judgement on her. Hebrew law would later stipulate that both the man and the woman must die:
Deuteronomy 22:22 (ESV) “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
As head of the tribe, Yehudah had the right to pass judgment on her, but he also had a responsibility to judge fairly. Even pagan law, the Code of Hammurabi, Law 129, says ‘If the wife of a man has been caught while lying with another man, they shall bind them and throw them into the water. If the husband of the woman wishes to spare his wife, then the king in turn may spare his subject.’
Yehudah pronounced death by fire on Tamar. The capital charge brought against her was not prostitution, but adultery. In the next chapter (ch 39) adultery is also charged of Yosef by Potepher’s wife. So this episode ties in well with the narrative of Yosef.
Genesis 38:25 (ESV) As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.”
The same terminology is used in the previous chapter: Genesis 37:32 (ESV) And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.”
These are the only two places in the entire TNK where this phrase appears.
Genesis 38:26 (ESV) Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.
Yehuda had to recognize she had been justified in her actions, while he, had she not acted could well have been shamed. To not provide her a son and his dead son an heir would have been a grievous breach of the law, already in effect before Sinai. However we later see it codified in :
Deuteronomy 25:9-10 (ESV) then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.’ And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’
The penalty for not upholding or performing the Levirate law was public, confrontational, and humiliating for the entire family. The woman who had been denied came to the man in public assembly, pulled his sandal off of his foot, spat in his face, and said “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.” In the context of that time, from which it must be viewed if we are to understand, it meant a kind of public disgrace which could not be lived down. There is a lot of symbolism at play here: the foot is the male genitalia, the sandal the female, and the spit represented semen. Public shaming was an effective enforcement incentive in those times.
The statement “And he did not know her again” seems to me to indicate Tamar was taken care of by her late husband’s family, but shown respect in that she was not taken advantage of. All that is now left is the birthing story, however it is significant that she was not called by name again in this narrative. Her significant work is done; not to say her further labors were not important:
Genesis 38:27-30 (ESV) When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
Tamar’s insistence on having her rights as well as upholding the law was rewarded with not just one, but two sons. This story is of course reminiscent of the birth of Yaacov and Esau. Perez means ‘breach’ or ‘he who pushes through’; the one who breaks through a wall. It also implies energy, an explosive quality. Zerah means ‘scarlet.' Zerah was coming out first, but Perez “pushed through” and was born first. It is through Perez the line of Melech Dovid and thus Moshiach would come. Interestingly enough, HaMoshiach Yeshua Himself would make an oblique reference to this much later when He said:
Matthew 11:12 (ESV) From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, [Or has been coming violently] and the violent take it by force.
The key to understanding this lies in understanding Hebrew traditions and culture and understanding of the Hebrew language itself. When you understand what Yeshua was talking about, the scripture becomes much clearer.
“forcefully” G971 βιάζω biazō bee-ad'-zo From G970; to force, that is, (reflexively) to crowd oneself (into), or (passively) to be seized: - press, suffer violence.
The Hebrew equivalent is “perets” from which we get “perez” H6556 פֶּרֶץ perets peh'-rets From H6555; a break (literally or figuratively): - breach, breaking forth (in), X forth, gap.
Micah 2:12-13 (ESV)
I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
the Lord at their head.
If you have never seen livestock when the gate to their pen is opened, you can’t get a clear picture of this. It is usually pandemonium, with animals leaping over each other trying to force their way out. Think of pagans at a shopping mall on Black Friday. There was a midrash on that passage from Micah, well known in the time of Yeshua, which depicted this breach-maker as a different person than the king. The Jewish sages understood this to be a Messianic prophecy, and that Elijah had to come first before the Messiah. It is a picture of God gathering the remnant of Israel like a shepherd, penning His sheep in a makeshift corral. It's crowded with people anxious to get out. The breach maker (Hebrew word “perets”) kicks open the gate and the sheep push and jump and climb and burst out. In the Midrash, the breach maker and the king are two different people. The one who went before, breaching the wall to start the stampede was Elijah. The King, who passes through the gate leading the flock out is HaMoshiach. Because of Malachi 4:5, the Jews always knew that Eliyahu would come before HaMoshiach. And they are correct; in the end it will be so as Yeshua returns. However Yeshua is here referencing this passage saying that Yochanon has come in the role of Eliyahu. As a result, the Kingdom of Heaven is “breaking out!” And they are led by this ancestor of Perez, the infant who took the kingdom by force and came out of the womb first!
Dan C
Resources: JPS TNK, “Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus“, by Bivin and Blizzard, some study notes and of course my father and others.
