References (7)
Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
After this, Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." He said (thinking to himself), "Otherwise, he will also die like his brothers." And Tamar went away and lived in her father's house.
This was reported to Tamar: "See, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep."
[Timnah, now Tell Batash, was a city in Judah, 20 km northwest of Adullam and 7 km north of Beit-Shemesh. It was a border town for the territory of the tribe of Judah, see . It is here that Samson eventually takes one of the daughters of the Philistines as his wife, see .]
About three months later, someone told Judah, "Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has been a temple prostitute, and now she is pregnant; she is pregnant by prostitution." Judah said, "Bring her here and burn her."
May your house (family) be like that of Peret [Boaz’s ancestor, see ], whom Tamar bore to Judah [by a precisely levirate marriage], through the child (seed) that the Lord (Yahweh) will give you through this young woman.” [The passage is well structured as a chiasm with a central verse prophesying that the city of Bethlehem in the region of Ephrathah will have an important role in the future. Here a son will be born whose name will be highly honored, see ; , ! The passage is framed by two women in , Rachel and Leah, and Tamar and Ruth in . There is also another connection with this chapter of Genesis. In the Hebrew text, at 49–letter intervals, the names Boaz, Ruth, Oved, Jishai and David can be read out in . The five names that lead up to David in the genealogical table at the end of the book of Ruth, see , are thus found in exactly the right order with 7 x 7 letter intervals in the very paragraph dealing with Peres, five generations before Boaz. You have to be a little careful with Bible codes, but it is still a strange coincidence that points to the Bible being a divinely inspired book.]
Tamar, his daughter-in-law, bore Judah Peresh and Zerah, so that Judah's sons were five in all.
Judah begot Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar [Judah's daughter-in-law involved in a complicated relationship history, see ],
Perez begot Hezron,
Hezron begot Ram,
