The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 497

l\ntailed by his evil OOut'lK',S 11.'1 immediately W. L. Alexander in Kitlo's 'Cyclopedia '); to snggc-st the punitive l1and or God. but mo1~ probably here I\ to\vn (Josh. xv. Y~r. 8.-And .Tuda.h &a.id unto Ona.n (ob- 67) in thn mountains or Judah (Robinson, viously nftcr a sufficient interval), Go in unto ii. 343, Keil, Afford, 'Speaker's Comment- thy brother's wi.."e, a.nil ma.rryher,-literallv nry ')-he and his friend-o 1ro,µ,}v aiJroii and perform the part of levir, or husband'; (LXX.)-Hirah the Adullnmitc. brothei·, tc her, The language seems to imply Ver, 13.-And it wa.s told Tamar, enying, that what was afterwards in the code Mosaic :Behold thy fa.ther-in-law-Clr;,, a father-in- known as the Le.r; Levfratus (Dent. xxv. 5, 6) 'll"IIS at this time a. recognised custom. law, from m;ir;,, unused, to join together. Cf. The existence of the practice has bce.n traced yaµ{!Jpo,;; for yaµ1poc, a son-in-law, or gener- in different forms among Indians, Persians, ally one connected by maniagc, from yaµiw and other nations of Asia and Africa-a.nd -goeth up to Timna.th to shear his sheep. raise up seed to thy brother. As afterwards Ver. H.-And she put her widow's gar- explained in the Hebrew legislation, the first- ments oft' from her (to prevent detection Ly horn son of such n Levirate marriage became Judah), a.nd covered her with a vail,-to con· in the eye of the law the child of the dccca.scJ ce,11 her features, after the fashion of a cour- husband, o.nd was regarded as his heir. tesan (ver. 15; cf. Job xxiv. 15)-and Vers. 9, 10.-And Onan knew that the wrapped herself,-possibly with some large seed shonld not be bis; and it came to pass, mantle (Alford)-a.nd sat in an open place, when-literally, and it wa.s if, i. e. when- -literally, in the opening (i. e. gate) o/ ever (cf. Ewald, • Heh. Synt.,' § 3456)-he Enaim (LXX., Geseniu3, Keil, Kalisch, went in unto his brother's wife, tha.t he Lange, et ali~) ; l~ss happily, in the opening spilled it on the ground (literally, destl'oyed of the eyes, i. e. rn e. public o.nd. open placo to the !'round), lest that he should (or, so as (Calvin), in the parting of the ways, in bivio not to) give seed to his brother. And the itinei-is (Vulgate), in the opening (or break- t ~ which he did displeased (literally, was ing forth) of the two fountains (Aben Ezrn, t17il ~n the eyu of) the Lord :-the word J eho- Rosenmiiller)-which is by (or upon) the vah is employed not because the writer was a wa.y to Timnath ; - "close to the site of late intcrpolater, but because the sin of Onan Thsmna, now Tibnch, three miles to the cast, w::is an offence against the s:mctity o.nd pros- on an ancient road coming from Adullam, the perity of the theocratic family (Hengsten- very road by which the patriarch Judah berg) - wherefore he (i. e. Jehovah) slew would have come from Adullam to 'l'imnah, him also (vuie supra). is o. ruin called Allin, or Anim, or Ainim" Ver. 11.-Then said .Tudah to Ta.mar his (' Palestine Exploration,' quoted by Inglis) daughter-in-law, Remain a widow-alma- -for she saw tha.t Bhela.h wa.s grown (he nah, from alam, to be solitary, forsaken, was probably not much younger than either sil!llifi.es one bereft of a. hnsband, hence a. of his brothers who had died), and she wo.s widow (cf. Exod. x:xii. 21)-at thy father's not given unto him to wife-literally, for a house (cf. Levit. xxii. 13), till Bhela.h my wife. ■on be grown. It is implied that this was Ver. 16.-When (literally, ana) Judah merely a pretext on the part of Judah, and aaw her, he (literally, and he) thought her that he did not really intend to give his to be an harlot ;-literally, thought her (i. e. third son to Tamar, considering her an took hor for) an harlot, like >..oyi~,a9ai r,va unlucky woman (Dclitzsch, Keil, Kalisch), ,le. n (cf. 1 Sam. i. 13; Job xiii. 24), or or, at least, not at present, nndcr tho im- i1 1H (fem. part. of ilJJ, to commit fornica- pression that the deaths of Er and Onan had tion); vide eh. xxx.iv. 31-beca.use she had been occasioned by their too early marriages covered her face-more'meretricia. (Lange). The reason of his failure to release Ver. 16.-And he turned unto her by the Tamar from her widowhood is added in the wa.y, a.nd said, Go to, I pra.y thee, let me ensuing clause. For he Hid (sc. in his heart), come in unto thee ; (for he knew not that Lest peradventure he die also, aa his breth- she was his do.ughter-in-la.w), Though will- ren did. And Ta.mar went and dwelt in ing to commit adultery or fornication, Judnh her father's house. would have shrank from the sin of incest, Ver. 12.-And in procesa of time-liter- And she se.id, Wha.t wilt thou givo me, that ally, and the days wei·e multipli.ed (cf. eh. thouma.yest come in unto met The conduct iv. 3), which is rendered by the same words of Te.mar, though in every w11y rcprohunsible, in the A. V.-the daughter of Bhuah .Tuda.h'a is not to bo attributed to mere lust, or inor- wife died; aud ludah waa comforted (or, dinate desire for offspring, if not from tho comforted himself, ceased to mourn), and sou Shele.11, then from the father Jud11h, Lut went up unto his sheep-ahearers (vide eh. wa.s probably traceable to a secret wish on the xxxi. 19) to Timna.th,-a border town be- one hand to be avenged on Judah, and on tween Ekron and Bethshemesh (Joah. xv. 10) the other hand to assert her right to n pince Ul the plain of Judah (KRlisch, Wordsworth, amongst the ancestresses of the po.tri11rchnl 011. XXX \"JI I. 1--30.) TllE BOOK OF GENESlS.