Gen 38:11 | KD | STEP | The sudden death of his two sons so soon after their marriage with Thamar made Judah hesitate to give her the third as a husband also, thinking, very likely, according to a superstition which we find in Tobit 3:7ff., that either she herself, or marriage with her, had been the cause of her husbands’ deaths. He therefore sent her away to her father’s house, with the promise that he would give her his youngest son as soon as he had grown up; though he never intended it seriously, “ for he thought lest (פּן אמר, i.e., he was afraid that) he also might die like his brethren .” But when Thamar, after waiting a long time, saw that Shelah had grown up and yet was not given to her as a husband, she determined to procure children from Judah himself, who had become a widower in the meantime; and his going to Timnath to the sheep-shearing afforded her a good opportunity. The time mentioned (“the days multiplied,” i.e., a long time passed by) refers not to the statement which follows, that Judah’s wife died, but rather to the leading thought of the verse, viz., Judah’s going to the sheep-shearing. ויּנּחם: he comforted himself, i.e., he ceased to mourn. Timnath is not the border town of Dan and Judah between Beth-shemesh and Ekron in the plain ( ; ), but Timnah on the mountains of Judah ( , cf. Rob. Pal. ii. 343, note), as the expression “ went up ” shows. The sheep-shearing was a fête with shepherds, and was kept with great feasting. Judah therefore took his friend Hirah with him; a fact noticed in in relation to what follows.

‏ Genesis 38:11

The sudden death of his two sons so soon after their marriage with Thamar made Judah hesitate to give her the third as a husband also, thinking, very likely, according to a superstition which we find in Tobit 3:7ff., that either she herself, or marriage with her, had been the cause of her husbands’ deaths. He therefore sent her away to her father’s house, with the promise that he would give her his youngest son as soon as he had grown up; though he never intended it seriously, “for he thought lest (פּן אמר, i.e., he was afraid that) he also might die like his brethren.”

But when Thamar, after waiting a long time, saw that Shelah had grown up and yet was not given to her as a husband, she determined to procure children from Judah himself, who had become a widower in the meantime; and his going to Timnath to the sheep-shearing afforded her a good opportunity. The time mentioned (“the days multiplied,” i.e., a long time passed by) refers not to the statement which follows, that Judah’s wife died, but rather to the leading thought of the verse, viz., Judah’s going to the sheep-shearing. ויּנּחם: he comforted himself, i.e., he ceased to mourn. Timnath is not the border town of Dan and Judah between Beth-shemesh and Ekron in the plain (Jos 15:10; Jos 19:43), but Timnah on the mountains of Judah (Jos 15:57, cf. Rob. Pal. ii. 343, note), as the expression “went up” shows. The sheep-shearing was a fête with shepherds, and was kept with great feasting. Judah therefore took his friend Hirah with him; a fact noticed in Gen 38:12 in relation to what follows.