Genesis 38:26 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 38:26
And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
righteous
צָֽדְקָ֣הtza.de.Kah
H6663
to be (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
gave
נְתַתִּ֖יהָne.ta.Ti.ha
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Shelah
לְשֵׁלָ֣הle.she.Lah
H7956
Shelah · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
son
בְנִ֑יve.Ni
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
her
לְדַעְתָּֽהle.da'.Tah
H3045
to know (properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
again
יָסַ֥ףya.Saf
H3254
to add or augment (often adverbial · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 24:17 And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
John 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesu…
Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
1 Peter 4:2-3 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Genesis 37:33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
Genesis 38:14 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the w…
2 Samuel 16:22 So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 38:24–end
Here is, I. Judah's rigour against Tamar, when he heard she was an adulteress. She was, in the eye of the law, Shelah's wife, and therefore her being with child by another was looked upon as an injury and reproach to Judah's family: Bring her forth therefore, says Judah, the master of the family, and let her be burnt; not burnt to death, but burnt in the cheek or forehead, stigmatized for a harlot. This seems probable, Gen 38:24. Note, it is a common thing for men to be severe against those very sins in others in which yet they allow themselves; and so, in judging others, they condemn themselves, Rom 2:1; Rom 14:22. If he designed that she should be burnt to death, perhaps, under pretence of…
Bring her forth, and let her be burnt--In patriarchal times fathers seem to have possessed the power of life and death over the members of their families. The crime of adultery was anciently punished in many places by burning (Lev 21:9; Jdg 15:6; Jer 29:22). This chapter contains details, which probably would never have obtained a place in the inspired record, had it not been to exhibit the full links of the chain that connects the genealogy of the Saviour with Abraham; and in the disreputable character of the ancestry who figure in this passage, we have a remarkable proof that "He made himself of no reputation" [Phi 2:7].
Next: Genesis Chapter 39
Adam Clarke on Genesis 38:26
She hath been more righteous than I - It is probable that Tamar was influenced by no other motive than that which was common to all the Israelitish women, the desire to have children who might be heirs of the promise made to Abraham, etc. And as Judah had obliged her to continue in her widowhood under the promise of giving her his son Shelah when he should be of age, consequently his refusing or delaying to accomplish this promise was a breach of truth, and an injury done to Tamar.
John Gill on Genesis 38:26
And Judah acknowledged them,.... He knew them, and owned them to be his:
and said, she hath been more righteous than I; he means, not with respect to the sin of uncleanness committed by them, in which she was the greatest criminal; she sat not only in the way to tempt him to it, but she knew who he was, and wilfully committed incest with him; whereas he thought and knew of nothing else but simple fornication; but with respect to the affairs in connection between them: she had on her part, according to his direction, kept herself a widow, in expectation of being given to his son Shelah for a wife; but he had not made good his part, he had not fulfilled his promise, he had neglected to give h…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 26.) But Judas acknowledged and said: she is more righteous than I, because I did not give her to my son Selom. In Hebrew, it says, she has been justified by me: not that she was just, but that in comparison to her, I have done less evil, not seeking base immorality, but seeking children.
He then said, "She is more innocent than I," that is, "She is more righteous than I. What great sinners my sons were. 'Because of this, I did not give her to my son Shelah.' She is innocent of that evil suspicion that I held against her and [for which] I withheld my son Shelah from her." She who had been cheated out of marriage was justified in her fornication, and he who sent her out on account of his first two sons brought her back for the sake of his last two sons. "He did not lie with her again" because she had been the wife of his first two sons; nor did he take another wife, for she was the mother of his last two sons.
What is the meaning of "She has more right on her side than I"? In other words, she is guiltless, whereas I condemn myself and without anyone to accuse me I confess—or rather, I have sufficient accuser in the pledge given by me. Then Judah goes on to supply a defense for Tamar by saying, "because I did not give her to my son Shelah." Perhaps, however, this happened for the reason that I am about to give. I mean, Judah thought that it was through her fault that death fell on Er and Onan. For fear of this he did not give Shelah to her despite promising to do so. Accordingly, so as to prove in fact that she was not responsible for their death but rather that they were punished for their own wickedness ("God took his life" the text says, remember, and again, "he put him to death," in reference to the second one), Judah himself had intercourse with his own daughter-in-law all unawares. He learned by later developments that, far from it being her fault, those men's wickedness made them liable to suffer punishment. So Judah admitted his own sin, delivered her from punishment and, the text says, "had no further relations with her," showing that he would not previously have had intercourse with her if he had not done so in ignorance.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Pharez — Breach, the elder of the twin sons of Judah (Gen. 38:29). From him the royal line of David sprang (Ruth 4:18-22). “The chief of all the captains of the host” was of the children of Perez (1 Chr.…
Shelah — Petition. (1.) Judah’s third son (Gen. 38:2, 5, 11, 14). (2.) A son of Arphaxad (1 Chr. 1:18).
Tamar — Palm. (1.) A place mentioned by Ezekiel (47:19; 48:28), on the southeastern border of Palestine. Some suppose this was “Tadmor” (q.v.). (2.) The daughter-in-law of Judah, to whose eldest son, Er, she…
Judah · .His incest with his daughter-in-law — .His incest with his daughter-in-law
Shelah · 1. — 1.
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And Judah acknowledged them. The open reproach of Tamar proceeded from the desire of revenge. She does not seek an interview with her father-in-law, for the purpose of appeasing his mind; but, with a deliberate contempt of death, she demands him as the companion of her doom. That Judah immediately acknowledges his fault, is a proof of his honesty; for we see with how many fallacies nearly all are wont to cover their sins, until they are dragged to the light, and all means of denying their guilt have failed. Here, though no one is present who could extort a confession, by force or threats, Judah voluntarily stoops to make one, and takes the greater share of the blame to himself. Yet, seeing t…
But when Thamar, after waiting a long time, saw that Shelah had grown up and yet was not given to her as a husband, she determined to procure children from Judah himself, who had become a widower in the meantime; and his going to Timnath to the sheep-shearing afforded her a good opportunity. The time mentioned ("the days multiplied," i.e., a long time passed by) refers not to the statement which follows, that Judah's wife died, but rather to the leading thought of the verse, viz., Judah's going to the sheep-shearing. ויּנּחם: he comforted himself, i.e., he ceased to mourn. Timnath is not the border town of Dan and Judah between Beth-shemesh and Ekron in the plain (Jos 15:10; Jos 19:43), but…
She is more righteous than I am: Judah acknowledged that he had shirked his responsibility to provide an heir. It was sinful for Judah to go to a prostitute, but Tamar had a legal right to be the mother of Judah’s child and had acted on that right. In the book of Ruth, the elders analogously blessed the marriage of Boaz and Ruth, praying that God would make Ruth like Tamar (Ruth 4:12; cp. Matt 1:3, 5).
Rashi on Genesis 38:9
ושחת ארצה AND HE DESTROYED ONTO THE GROUND — He 'threshed inside and winnowed outside' (Genesis Rabbah 85:5).
