Judah Wanting To Burn His Dil Tamar And Ben Spackman

[urroner]

Okay, the title is a little misleading.  Judah only wanted to burn Tamar and not Ben, but Ben wrote up a great little article about Judah's double standard and how he might have changed in the long run.  He, Ben, also noted that the story of Judah and his DIL Tamar, found in Genesis 38, is a great little story and fits right in with the relationship between him, Judah, not Ben, and his brother Joseph.

 

The article is found here: https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/story-judah-and-tamar

 

In a long nutshell, Judah goes outside of his tribe and marries an unnamed Canaanite woman.  They have three sons.  Judah finds a wife for his oldest son, Er, Ben points out that the text states the Er was wicked.  Ben also points out the following, "In Hebrew, Er’s name ?r is the consonantal inverse of “wicked,” ra’. In Hebrew terms, ?r was ra’."  (Note: I don't know what the '?' stands for, maybe an unknown vowel.)
 

 

NIV 38:7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death.

 

 

Tamar didn't have a child by Er, so, due to the levirate law, Judah instructs his second son Onan to marry Tamar and raise children for Er, but Onan had a better idea.  Why not just have sex with Tamar and then pull out.  God killed Onan for doing that.  A footnote in the article states that God didn't kill Onan for simply "spilling his seed on the ground," but that doing so with his SIL. "Onan has placed his sexual relationship with his sister-in-law in the category of incest—a capital offense."

 

So, there was Tamar, again without a husband and any children.  Judah has another son, Shelah, who could raise children to Er.  Judah drags his feet on getting the two together.

 

 

Time passes. Judah’s wife dies, and Judah’s mourning comes to an end. 24  Shelah has grown enough to be given to Tamar, yet Judah withholds him from her. Judah travels to the sheepshearing at Timnah. Tamar, informed of his trip, conceals her identity with a veil and places strategically places herself in Judah’s path at “in an open place” (Genesis 38:14).

 

Judah sees her and decided that it had been to long since he had sex, so here was the opportunity to stop wasting time.  Judah had to pay Tamar, but he didn't have anything to pay her with, so she demanded his staff, seal, and cord.  Ben points out that this would be similar to somebody leaving their wallet or driver's license with somebody until payment could be made.  Judah promised a sheep.  He later sent a sheep, but Tamar couldn't be found and nobody in the area could remember any woman like that.  Judah didn't know who she was.

 

Later, Judah becomes aware that Tamar is pregnant and the only way she could have become so was buy playing a harlot, so he orders her to be burned.  Well, Tamar shows Judah the staff, seal, and cord of the man who had made her pregnant and asked him to identify the owner.

 

Judah admits he was the man and that he was guilty of withholding his son from from her.  She has twins and that's basically the end of the story.

I remember reading that story several times in the past and every time, I thought "What a weird story and why is it here?"  Ben set me straight on that.

 

Ben points out that the story ties very closely into the story of Judah's brother Joseph.  You will have to read the article to find the different ties.  I assure you, it will be well worth your time.

Ben also points out that Judah changed over time.  He went from be a very selfish person to a person who was willing to sacrifice himself for his brothers.when they appeared before their brother Joseph, whom they thought was probably very dead or never to be seen again.

[Calm]

Ben has a brother, Joseph?  

Edited December 25, 2013 by calmoriah

[Robert F. Smith]

............................................   

 

In a long nutshell, Judah goes outside of his tribe and marries an unnamed Canaanite woman.  They have three sons.  Judah finds a wife for his oldest son, Er, Ben points out that the text states the Er was wicked.  Ben also points out the following, "In Hebrew, Er’s name ?r is the consonantal inverse of “wicked,” ra’. In Hebrew terms, ?r was ra’."  (Note: I don't know what the '?' stands for, maybe an unknown vowel.)

 

.............................................   

Thanks for calling Ben's fine article to my attention.  His explanation of the wordplay was not felicitous:

 

Ben Spackman, "The Story of Judah and Tamar," Religious Educator 11/1 (2010): 65-76, online at https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/story-judah-and-tamar

 

--metonymic play on name Er at Gen 38:7,

 

The text describes the firstborn, Er, simply as “wicked.” The author/editor apparently considered the nature of his wickedness unimportant to relate; rather, what matters for the purpose of the story is that Er, as Tamar’s first husband, died before engendering children. Here also we have our first wordplay. In Hebrew, Er’s name ‘?r is the consonantal inverse of  “wicked,” raʻ. In Hebrew terms, ‘?r was raʻ.

 

Hebrew Er is ˁēr (ער) the reverse of which is raˁ (רע) “wicked.”

[urroner]

Thanks for calling Ben's fine article to my attention.  His explanation of the wordplay was not felicitous:

 

Ben Spackman, "The Story of Judah and Tamar," Religious Educator 11/1 (2010): 65-76, online at https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/story-judah-and-tamar

 

--metonymic play on name Er at Gen 38:7,

 

The text describes the firstborn, Er, simply as “wicked.” The author/editor apparently considered the nature of his wickedness unimportant to relate; rather, what matters for the purpose of the story is that Er, as Tamar’s first husband, died before engendering children. Here also we have our first wordplay. In Hebrew, Er’s name ‘?r is the consonantal inverse of  “wicked,” raʻ. In Hebrew terms, ‘?r was raʻ.

 

Hebrew Er is ˁēr (ער) the reverse of which is raˁ (רע) “wicked.”

Thanks.  I had no idea what the question mark stood for.  I figured that the original text was in some font that got lost along the way.