Genesis 38:2 - Printer Friendly

ESV: There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her,

NIV: There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her;

NASB: Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her as a wife and had relations with her.

CSB: There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; he took her as a wife and slept with her.

NLT: There he saw a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, and he married her. When he slept with her,

KJV: And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.

NKJV: And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her and went in to her.

Abraham's offspring had been told not to take wives from the land of Canaan (Genesis 28:1). This was due to issues of idol worship: later, God would make it explicitly against His law to assimilate with the people of the land which God had promised to Israel (Deuteronomy 7:1–4). Abraham went out of his way to get Isaac a wife from outside of the land (Genesis 24:1–4), and Isaac and Rebekah were not pleased with Esau's Canaanite wives (Genesis 26:34; 27:46). Jacob, as well, had taken wives from his mother's homeland and not from the Canaanite peoples (Genesis 29:10–12).

Apparently defying this directive, Judah takes a Canaanite woman, the daughter of a man named Shua, presumably as his wife. Marriage is not explicitly mentioned but seems to be implied. Judah (Genesis 29:25) has recently conspired with his brothers to sell their younger sibling, Joseph, to slave traders (Genesis 37:26–28). For reasons unknown, Judah then moved away from his brothers and the rest of the family at Hebron to live in a town called Adullam (Genesis 38:1).

Genesis 38:1–5 explains the birth of Judah's three sons to a Canaanite woman, known only as the daughter of Shua. Two of these sons, Er and Onan, will die at the hands of God, due to their immoral actions. Tamar, a woman married in sequence to Er, then to Onan, will be abandoned by Judah. Left without support and unable to marry, she will scheme to take matters into her own hands.

Jacob's son Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. His first son marries a woman called Tamar but is put to death by God for an unnamed sin. Judah follows tradition and marries Er's widow to the next oldest brother. Onan takes advantage of the situation for sex, but deliberately refuses to give her children. God puts him to death as well. When Judah abandons Tamar, she disguises herself as a prostitute and has sex with him. Found to be pregnant, she proves Judah is the father, and he admits his guilt. She then gives birth to twin boys.

Genesis 38 departs from the story of Joseph (Genesis 37:26–28) to describe what happens when Judah moves away from his family at Hebron and marries a Canaanite woman. Two of his three sons are put to death by God, each while married to the same woman. When Judah abandons her, she works a scheme to trick him into having sex with her. Confronted with proof that he is the father in her scandalous pregnancy, she is allowed to live and gives birth to Judah's twin boys. The following chapter returns to a focus on Joseph and his rise within Egyptian society (Genesis 39:1).

The book of Genesis establishes fundamental truths about God. Among these are His role as the Creator, His holiness, His hatred of sin, His love for mankind, and His willingness to provide for our redemption. We learn not only where mankind has come from, but why the world is in its present form. The book also presents the establishment of Israel, God's chosen people. Many of the principles given in other parts of Scripture depend on the basic ideas presented here in the book of Genesis. Within the framework of the Bible, Genesis explains the bare-bones history of the universe leading up to the captivity of Israel in Egypt, setting the stage for the book of Exodus.

Accessed 5/5/2024 1:06:27 PM