JUDAH & TAMAR (GEN 38)
Around this time, Judah left home and, moving to Adullamite he saw a Canaanite woman and, disregarding the instruction of his father (to not inter-marry with the surrounding ‘nations’ but to keep the bloodline clean) he married her, and she became pregnant, giving birth to a son, and he named the boy Er. Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, Onan. And when she gave birth to a third son, she named him Shelah.
(ALL 3 BOYS WERE BORN OUTSIDE THE CLEAN `HEBREW’ BLOODLINE AND UNABLE TO CARRY ON THE LINE OF COVENANT PROMISE).
And in the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. But Er was a wicked man in the eyes of YAHUAH, so much so that YAHUAH snuffed him out (killed him).
Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Please go and marry Tamar, your brother’s wife, as our law requires (OF THE BROTHER OF A MAN WHO HAS DIED - LEVIRATE MARRIAGE). You must give your brother a descendant so he can share a double portion of his firstborn inheritance.”
But Onan was cold-hearted and selfish and not willing to give his dead brother an heir (who would take a big chunk of the inheritance). So he reluctantly agreed to have sex with Tamar (his deceased brother’s wife), but whenever he did, he pulled out and spilled his semen (his seed) on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother.
And YAHUAH saw Onan’s wicked heart (denying his dead brother’s wife a child) and his evil behaviour of spilling his seed (AS IS THE SIN OF MASTURBATING) and YAHUAH wiped out Onan too (killed him).
Then Judah said to Tamar (his daughter-in-law), “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah had no intention of giving Tamar his youngest son, because he was afraid Shelah might die too, like his two older brothers. So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home.
And some years later Judah’s wife died. And after the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Kirah went up to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep. And someone told Tamar, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
And Tamar was fully aware that Shelah (Judah’s youngest son who he had promised to her) was fully grown up, but still no arrangements had been made (by Judah) for him to come and marry her and give her a son.
So she decided to take matters into her own hands, changing out of her widow’s clothing and covering herself with a veil (burka - the veil of a common prostitute) to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enayim, which is on the road to Timnah.
And Judah noticed her and thought she was a common whore, since she had covered her face. So he stopped and made her an offer, “Let me have sex with you,” he said (not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law!)
“For how much?” Tamar asked.
“I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised her.
“How do I know you’ll actually send the goat?”
“What kind of guarantee do you want?”
“Leave me your identification seal and its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.”
So Judah gave them to her. Then he had sex with her, and she became pregnant (just as she had hoped). Afterward she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.
WHILE YAHUAH HATES ALL WHORING, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘CULTIC’ AND ‘COMMON’ PROSTITUTION IN SCRIPTURE. “CULTIC PROSTITUTION” IS PERFORMING A SEXUAL ACT AT A PAGAN TEMPLE IN THE WORSHIP OF A DEITY AND IS CONSIDERED WICKED IDOLATRY TO YAHUAH.
Later Judah asked his friend Kirah the Adullamite to take the young goat to the woman he had just slept with and to get back the things he had given her as his guarantee. But Kirah couldn’t find her. So he asked the men who lived there, “Where can I find the cult prostitute who was sitting beside the road at the entrance to Enayim?”
“We’ve never had a cultic prostitute here,” they replied.
So Kirah returned to Judah and told him, “I couldn’t find her anywhere, and the men of the village recon they’ve never had a cult prostitute there.”
“Then let her keep the things I gave her,” Judah said. “I sent the young goat as we agreed, we’ll be a laughing-stock in the village if we went back again looking for her.”
About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has fallen pregnant by whoring like a prostitute.”
“Bring her out, and let her be burned for her adultery, for she is still bound to this family!” Judah demanded.
But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this message to her father-in-law: “The man who owns these things made me pregnant. Look closely old man, whose seal and cord and walking stick are these?”
And Judah recognized them immediately and said, “I understand why she did all this to me now, because I broke my promise and never arranged for her to marry my son Shelah.”
And Judah wept and repented, acknowledging that he’d gone astray by his disgraceful behaviour of sleeping with his daughter-in-law, and he never slept with Tamar again but turned from his ignorance.
And when the time came for Tamar to give birth, it was discovered that she was carrying twins. And while she was in labor, one of the babies reached out his hand and the midwife grabbed it and tied a scarlet string around the child’s wrist, announcing, “This one is coming out first.”
But then he pulled his hand back in, and his brother came out instead! “What? How did you push past and break through first?” The midwife exclaimed.
So he was named Parets (‘breaking out’). Then the baby with the scarlet string on his wrist was born, and he was named Zerak (‘scarlet’).
DESPITE JUDAH’S DISREGARD FOR THE CLEAN BLOODLINE OF HIS FATHERS, YAHUAH SNEAKILY MAINTAINED PURITY THROUGH TAMAR, FOR THOUGH JUDAH’S 3 BOYS WERE UNCLEAN HALF-BREEDS, TAMAR WAS A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF SHEM (THE COVENANT LINE OF PROMISE), SO BY TAMAR STICKING TO THE TRUTH (OF THE PROMISES GIVEN TO HER), HER SON PARETS CONTINUED THE CLEAN, UNPOLLUTED BLOODLINE FROM NOAH, WHICH PASSED THROUGH ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB. THIS IS THE ROYAL BLOODLINE FROM WHICH KING DAVID AND MESSIAH YAHUSHA WAS BORN.
