Genesis 38.11-14-Tamar Disguises Herself as a Temple Prostitute to Deceive Judah
Wednesday November 15, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 38:11-14-Tamar Disguises Herself as a Temple Prostitute to Deceive Judah
Lesson # 239
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 38:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Genesis 38.
By way of review, we have noted the following:
In Genesis 38:1, we read where Judah left his brothers in Dothan and headed back home to Hebron to see his father Jacob but instead turned aside and came into contact with a man named Hirah who lived in the city of Adullam.
In Genesis 38:2-5, we read where Judah marries a Canaanite woman who bears him three sons named Er, Onan and Shelah.
In Genesis 38:6-10, we read where the Lord kills two of Judah’s sons, Er and Onan because of their involvement with evil.
This evening, we will study Genesis 38:11-14, which records that after realizing that Judah had no intention of fulfilling his obligations under the levirate marriage customs, Tamar disguises herself as a temple prostitute in order that she might become pregnant through him.
Genesis 38:1, “And it came about at that time, that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.”
Genesis 38:2, “Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her.”
Genesis 38:3, “So she conceived and bore a son and he named him Er.”
Genesis 38:4, “Then she conceived again and bore a son and named him Onan.”
Genesis 38:5, “She bore still another son and named him Shelah; and it was at Chezib that she bore him.”
Genesis 38:6, “Now Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.”
Genesis 38:7, “But Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD took his life.”
Genesis 38:8, “Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your brother's wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.’”
Genesis 38:9, “Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother.”
Genesis 38:10, “But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; so He took his life also.”
Genesis 38:11, “Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up’; for he thought, ‘I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers.’ So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.”
After Onan died for refusing to fulfill his duty of a brother-in-law by marrying Tamar and raising a child who would be the heir of Er and carry on his line, Tamar then looks to Judah to provide his son Shelah to perform this duty, however he refuses, though not telling her.
This custom was common all through the Middle East in ancient times and is often called Levirate marriage (from the Latin levir, “a husband’s brother”) and was later incorporated into the Mosaic Law (See Deuteronomy 25:5-10).
It was practiced into the time of the Lord Jesus (See Matthew 22:23-30; Mark 12:18-25; Luke 20:27-35) and was allowed only when a brother died without leaving any children.
Therefore, this custom called for the surviving brother to become a surrogate for the deceased husband who posthumously gained a child, socially acknowledged as being his progeny and heir.
So it was already the custom in the days of the patriarchs that if a man died without children, his next younger brother would marry his wife and have intercourse with her and have children.
The first son from such a marriage would then be recognized legally as the son and heir of the dead brother.
Therefore, Judah did not ask Er and Onan to do something that was socially unacceptable or was rejected by God since the custom appears in the Mosaic Law.
Judah had an obligation to Tamar, having contracted with her and her father to marry his son, and no doubt had told her about the spiritual responsibilities and privileges of the Abrahamic Covenant that this would entail.
It appears Tamar agreed to fulfill the responsibilities of being a member of God’s covenant people and yet Judah’s sons Er and Onan were not willing, which resulted in their deaths since they were in effect rejecting their covenantal responsibilities to God.
The phrase “his (Judah’s) daughter-in-law” reveals that Judah was obligated contractually to Tamar to provide his son Shelah as a surrogate under the laws pertaining to “Levirate” marriage.
However, he violates his daughter-in-law by shirking his responsibilities in providing his son Shelah to fulfill the requirements pertaining to the laws of “Levirate” marriage.
Judah’s statement, “Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up” is a promise to Tamar that he will give his son Shelah in order to fulfill his contractual obligation to her in regards to “Levirate” marriage customs.
The statement “for he thought, ‘I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers” reveals that the promise is a lie and hypocrisy on the part of Judah.
Judah’s promise “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up” was hypocrisy because it was a pretense of having concern for Tamar, which he did not possess as revealed in the statement “for he thought, ‘I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers.”
Judah fails to see that the Lord killed his two sons because they were evil themselves in that they refused to fulfill their covenantal responsibilities to God and so it appears that Judah is superstitious in that he considers Tamar a wife who brings bad luck.
Tamar was not free to remarry since under the laws of Levirate marriage, her father-in-law was to provide his son Shelah as a surrogate.
She goes back to her father’s house in Adullam fully assuming that Judah would provide his only surviving son as a surrogate and she was subject to the authority of her father-in-law.
Therefore, Judah sinned against Tamar by forcing her to live as a widow.
We must remember though that Judah did want a grandson who would carry on his family line and patriarchal leadership.
It appears that Judah did not know what to do and so he simply deferred his decision and sent Tamar back to her father in Adullam hoping that this would cause her to forget the whole matter so that he would not have to have Shelah marry her.
Genesis 38:12, “Now after a considerable time Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and when the time of mourning was ended, Judah went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.”
The phrase “after a considerable time” in the original Hebrew text is literally, “the days increased” or we would say, “after many days” and refers to an unspecified amount of time that was at least long enough to demonstrate that Judah had no intention of allowing Shelah to marry Tamar.
Sometime after Tamar left Judah’s home, another death takes place in Judah’s family this time it is his wife whose name is not identified in this passage due to God’s disapproval of her.
She must have been a relatively young woman because Judah could hardly have been more than forty.
It appears that like her sons, her death may also have been a judgment from the Lord reflecting her own responsibility in the training of Er and Onan and their resulting attitudes of rebellion against God.
The notice that Judah’s wife dies helps explains why he consorts with a prostitute (Compare with 1 Corinthians 7:2-6) but by no means justifies his actions.
It also helps us to understand why Tamar took matters into her own hands and defends her actions against possible accusation of threatening Judah’s home (Compare Matthew 19:9).
“The time of mourning” would last seven days after the burial and would involve loud wailing, short cries of sorrow for someone as well as the tearing of clothes, wearing sackcloth, a coarse and uncomfortable material worn next to the skin (2 Sam. 3:31), fasting (2 Sam. 1:12) and beating one’s breast (Isa. 32:12).
These actions were considered appropriate signifying anguish in the ancient world.
Then, our text says that Judah went with his Canaanite friend Hirah to see his sheepshearers in Timnah.
If you recall, “Hirah” according to Genesis 38:12 and 20, was a friend of Judah and was a citizen of the city of Adullam, which was approximately 3 miles southwest of Bethlehem and 8 miles northwest of Hebron.
He was a bad influence upon Judah since he was a Canaanite and the Canaanites were immoral degenerates and under a divine curse as prophesied by Noah in Genesis 9:24-27.
Sheep shearing was an annual event carried out in the spring and entailed large numbers of men working at great distances from their homes for an extended period of time.
It also involved not only the work itself but also involved partying and celebration and the consumption of great amounts of alcohol (See 1 Samuel 25:2-37; 2 Samuel 13:23-28), which helps to explain Judah’s actions in consorting with a prostitute in that alcohol breaks down one’s norms and standards.
“Timnah” is the proper noun timnah (hn*m+T!) (tim-naw), which means, “an assigned or allotted portion” and was approximately 10 miles west of Bethlehem and 5 miles west of Adullam.
Many archaeologists identify it with Tel el Batashi, about four miles west-northwest of Beth-Shemesh.
Some commentators contend that the Timnah mentioned in Genesis 38:12 was located in the southern part of the tribal territory of Judah (Josh. 15:57).
However, this does not fit so well with the location of “Enaim,” which is described in Genesis 38:14 as on the road to Timnah (38:14), which is in the northern part of Judah’s territory (Josh. 15:34).
Genesis 38:13, “It was told to Tamar, ‘Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.’”
Tamar is still waiting for Judah to fulfill his contractual obligations to her in providing Shelah as a surrogate to carry on the name of his brothers, Er and Onan and so that Tamar can be the mother of the Judaic line.
But as we noted Judah had no intention of giving Shelah to Tamar because he feared the Lord would kill him.
Therefore, Tamar was being unfairly treated as though it were her fault that Judah’s sons died when in reality they died because of their own rebellion against the Lord.
Undoubtedly, she was not very happy being back in her father’s home and her father could not have been happy with Judah as well since he was reneging on his contractual obligations and not fulfilling the requirements under the Levirate marriage customs.
The fact that it was told to Tamar that Judah was going up to Timnah to take part in the festivities indicates that she had spies watching out for Judah.
She now knows that Judah had no intention of fulfilling his contractual obligations to her.
Remember, Tamar is a believer since Matthew 1:3 and Ruth 4:18 record her being in the genealogy of Jesus Christ and so like Rahab, Tamar was a Canaanite woman who believed in God’s covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Matthew 1:1-2, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.”
Matthew 1:3a, “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.”
So she wanted to be a part of God’s plan and to become the mother of the Judaic line as Judah had evidently promised her, which was the line of Christ.
Therefore, we see Tamar becoming desperate, deciding if she was ever going to become the mother of the Judaic line as Judah had promised her, it would have to be accomplished outside of an actual marriage relationship with Judah’s son.
She would have to arrange for Shelah, or perhaps even Judah himself, to have intercourse with her without realizing it since he would never do so intentionally.
Genesis 38:14, “So she removed her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gateway of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife.”
The fact that Tamar was still wearing widow’s garments beyond the usual period of mourning was her way of demonstrating publicly that Judah had not fulfilled his levirate obligation.
Remember, Judah had finished mourning over his wife and here is Tamar still in mourning clothes when her husband had died before Judah’s wife and so we can see that the wearing of the widow clothes was a public protest against Judah.
Tamar takes off the widow’s garments and puts on the attire of a temple prostitute hoping that when Judah saw her that he would employ her “services” as a prostitute and thus give her the long-awaited opportunity to become the mother of his successors in the Judaic line.
Now, we must understand and emphasize that Tamar is disguising herself as a temple prostitute rather than a common harlot.
The Canaanites made a distinction between a temple prostitute and a common whore since the former they considered to be a legitimate part of their society since it was an essential element of the Canaanite religion.
In Genesis 38:21-22, Judah’s Canaanite friend describes Tamar with the noun qadhesh (vd@q*) (kaw-dashe), “a cult prostitute, dedicated to cultic prostitution” clearly indicating that Tamar was posing as a temple prostitute rather than a common harlot (Compare with Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22).
Judah who was of course an Israelite and not a Canaanite describes Tamar with the verb zanah (hnw) (zaw-naw), which denotes “the act of committing prostitution,” or “to act as a prostitute” indicating that he recognized Tamar as a common harlot.
Also indicating that the Canaanite men viewed Tamar’s attire as that of a temple prostitute rather than a common harlot was that she wore a veil.
According to Middle Assyrian law (ca. 1200 B.C.), the daughters, wives and concubines of free Assyrian males, as well as sacred prostitutes had to be veiled in public but a whore must not veil herself.
The penalty was severe if a common whore did veil herself in that she would be flogged fifty times with staves and would have pitch poured on her head.
The fact that Tamar was veiled would indicate that she was disguising herself as a temple prostitute rather than a common whore and would help to conceal her identity from Judah.
Now, we must understand the profession of a temple prostitute in the days of Tamar and Judah was considered respectable but of course this is not to justify her actions since the Word of God condemns prostitution (See Leviticus 19:29; 21:14; Deuteronomy 22:21).
Leviticus 19:29, “Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness.”
In many ancient religious systems, all the women of the community were expected to devote themselves on occasion to this practice as an actual votive offering to their pagan gods and goddesses.
Male and female prostitutes were tied closely to pagan concepts of fertility religion, which included imitative or sympathetic magic.
Through intercourse with the devotees of the gods, the worshippers believed that they influenced the gods to grant them fertility and increase in their families, lands and crops.
Male and female prostitutes were the central feature of the Canaanite fertility religion, which were outlawed under the Mosaic Law (See Deuteronomy 23:17).
Deuteronomy 23:17, “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a cult prostitute.”
Judah does “not” make a distinction between a temple prostitute and a common whore though his friend Hirah, who was a Canaanite, does make a distinction.
This indicates that the Canaanites considered temple prostitution legitimate, which is totally in contradiction to God’s standards as recorded in Scripture.
Genesis 38:14 records that Tamar “sat in the gateway of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah,” which would enable her to cross paths with Judah since she knew that he would have to pass by there in order to get to Timnah.
“Enaim” is the proper noun `enayim (<y!n^yu@), which means, “double spring” and was identified as being on the road to Timnah, which was in the northern part of the territory of Judah according to Joshua 15:34.
The fact that Tamar saw that Shelah had grown up and yet had not been given to her by Judah demonstrated to her that he had no intention of fulfilling his contractual obligation to her and helps us to understand her actions in disguising herself as a temple prostitute, which by no means justifies her actions.
Shelah is never mentioned again in Scripture but only his clan is noted in Numbers 26:20 and it is recorded that one of his sons was named Er according to 1 Chronicles 4:21.
The fact that Tamar disguises herself as a temple prostitute reveals that Judah consorted regularly with prostitutes since she was convinced that if she could only look like a prostitute, Judah would take things from there and that her purposes would be realized.
The fact that Judah regularly used prostitutes is further indicated in that he does not manifest any of the naivety of one who is new at this sort of thing and in fact handled the arrangements like an experienced man of the world as recorded in Genesis 38:15-19.