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We Who Thirst by Jessica LM Jenkins
Delve into the captivating tales of women from the Bible, exploring their lives within ancient cultures and historical contexts. These narratives reveal not only their stories but also the profound love and beauty of the God we worship.
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We Who Thirst by Jessica LM Jenkins
023 Tamar: Reclaiming Justice Against All Odds
Genesis 38 introduces us to Tamar, a woman whose story has been tragically misrepresented throughout church history. Often labeled as "deceptive" and "sexually dubious," she's rarely given the dignity her narrative deserves. But what if everything we thought we knew about Tamar is wrong?
Diving deep into ancient Near Eastern cultural context reveals a stunning truth: Tamar wasn't morally questionable—she was fighting for justice when every legitimate avenue was blocked. As a widow denied her legal rights, she existed in a precarious limbo, unable to remarry yet denied the security promised to her. When Judah refused to fulfill his obligation to provide her his third son Shelah as a husband after the deaths of his first two sons, Tamar took extraordinary measures to secure her position and future.
The story exposes fascinating details about marriage customs of the time. Unlike our modern individualistic view of marriage, these unions were business agreements between families with legal obligations. As the intended matriarch of Judah's household, Tamar would have held significant authority over food, medicine, and household religion—a position of power that was ripped away when she was sent back to her father's house. Her bold scheme to disguise herself and intercept Judah wasn't merely about having a child—it was about claiming her rightful place and provisions.
What makes this account truly remarkable is God's perspective. Rather than condemning Tamar, the text portrays her actions as righteous, with even Judah admitting "she is more righteous than I." Her inclusion in Jesus's genealogy further confirms divine approval. This challenges toxic teachings that silence women facing abuse and reminds us that our God consistently champions justice for the vulnerable, even through unconventional means.
Have you ever considered how God might view creative resistance to injustice? This episode might just transform how you see not only Tamar but other "difficult" women in scripture who refused to accept their unjust circumstances.
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Welcome back to the we who Thirst podcast. We are continuing our Women in Context series with an episode on Tamar from Genesis 38. This is a woman who often, when she's taught about, is kind of talked about in a negative light in my experience in evangelical circles, to the point that a footnote in the ESV study Bible remarks that Tamar, rahab and Bathsheba were women of questionable character. Often when this story is taught she is described as a woman who is deceiving and sexually dubious and just kind of a negative example. She is someone that most people don't know quite what to do with her story and so I hope we can really unpack that today. This episode is going to kind of have three sections in it. As we go through, first, I'm going to read my own translation or reading of Genesis 38 from the Hebrew. It'll sound a little different. It'll get us out of our usual translation that we're used to reading all the time in our daily work. So it'll sound a little bit different, which will help us hear the story in a new way. It also I will, in my first read-through I will be using the name meaning instead of the name, because in Hebrew often not always, but often names have meanings that can have some significance to the account, to the story as you go through. We see this with Abraham and Sarah. His name means father of many, or exalted father, depending whether it's Abram or Abraham, and that is the crux of his entire story is that he doesn't have children, but his name means father. So you have these interplays going on with names. So I'm going to use wherever I can. We don't know the meaning behind every name, so some I'll just use it as it reads in our English Bibles, but some I will offer the name meaning instead of the name, to help us hear and get into the story closer to how the original hearers would have heard and understood the story. So that's going to be the first part of the episode. Then I'll walk through Genesis 38, talking about historical context elements. Let's see what the original hearers would have understood but that we missed in the text because of our culture is so dramatically different from theirs. And then we'll conclude talking about the. So what? How do we interpret this passage? How does it impact our lives? What do we walk away from this passage, knowing about God and ourselves as a result of studying Genesis 38 and Tamar? So let's dive in together Genesis 38.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then things happened at this time, and then the Lord be praised, went down from his brothers and he turned aside to a man of Adullam and his name was Hira. And then the Lord be praised saw that there was a daughter of a man of Canaan and his name was Shua. And then he took her and he came into her and she conceived and she bore a son and then he called his name was Shua, and then he took her and he came into her and she conceived and she bore a son and then he called his name Protector or Ur, and she conceived again and then she bore another son and she named him Vigorous. And she continued again and then she bore a son and she named him Cece and he was at Shezeb when she bore him. And then the bore a son and she named him Cicin and he was at Shezib when she bore him. And then the Lord be praised took a woman for Ur or Protector, his firstborn, and her name was Palmtree.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And that Protector, ur, the firstborn of the Lord be praised, was evil, raw in the eyes of the Lord. And then the Lord caused him to die. And then the Lord be praised, said to Vigorous, come into the wife of your brother and perform the brother-in-law duty with her and raise up seed for your brother. And then Vigorous knew that the seed would not be his. And it happened that when he came in to the wife of his brother he would ruin the earth so that he would not give seed to his brother. And then that was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And then the Lord caused him to die like his brother. And then the Lord be praised said to Palmtree his daughter-in-law remain a widow in your father's house until ceasing, my son.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then the days became numerous and when the daughter of Shua, the wife of the Lord be praised, died, and then the Lord be praised observed his time of mourning, and then he went up to his sheep shearers, he and Hira, his friend the Adulamite. They went towards Timnah and then it was told to palm tree saying behold, your father-in-law is going to Timnah to shear his flocks. Then she removed her garments of widowhood from upon her and then she covered herself with a veil and then she wrapped herself up and then she sat in the entrance of Ennain, which kind of means eyes or well, which was on the way towards Timnah, for she saw that ceasing was grown up and she herself was not given to him as a wife. And then, the Lord be praised saw her. And then he assumed she was prostituting, for she covered her face. And then he turned aside to her at the way and he said Please, grant, let me come in to you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And then she said what will you give me that you come in to me? And he said I myself will send a kid goat from the flock. And she said If you give me a pledge until you send it. And then he said what pledge should I give you? And then she said your signet ring and your cord and your staff which is in your hand. And then he gave to her and he came to her and she conceived by him. And then she arose and then went and then she removed her veil from upon her and she put on her garments of widowhood and then, the Lord be praised sent the kid go at the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to take the pledge back from the hand of the woman. But he didn't find her and he asked the men of the place saying where is the cult prostitute who was upon the way to Anain, and they said there isn't in this area a cult prostitute. And then he returned to the Lord be praised and he said I did not find her. And also the men of the place said there is not in this place a cult prostitute. And then the Lord be praised said let her take the things lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent the kid goat and you didn't find her.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then it happened about three months later that the Lord be praised was informed, saying your daughter-in-law Palmtree has fornicated and also she is pregnant from her fornication. And then the Lord be praised said Cause her to come out and let her be burned. As she was being brought out, she herself sent to her father-in-law saying Behold, whose are these? Because from him I myself am pregnant. And then she said please recognize to whom these things belong, the signet or the seal, the cord and the staff. And then the Lord be praised recognized. And then he said she is more righteous than me, for on account of this I did not give her to ceasing my son. And then he did not continue to know her again. And then it happened, in the time of her giving birth, that behold, twins were in her womb. And then it happened, as she was giving birth, that one put out a hand and the midwife took hold and as she tied upon his hand, a scarlet thread saying this one came out. A hand and the midwife took hold and as she tied upon his hand, a scarlet thread saying this one came out first. And then it happened as he drew his hand back, behold, his brother came out instead. And then she said what a breach you have breached for yourself. And his name was called breach or Perez. And after his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread upon his hand, his name was called Shining or Zerah. So that is our story that we are working through today.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Genesis 38. There is a lot going on here. That makes more sense when you understand the historical context. But before we dive into the historical context of this passage, let's back up just a little bit to chapter 37, because we need to start there to get some of the whole picture that's going on fully and contextually. So Genesis 37 starts by basically saying this is the family of Jacob. Chapter 36 goes through the family of Esau and all of his descendants and the genealogy of Esau. 37 says this is the family of Jacob and then starts into a very long story that's mostly about Joseph.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So 37 starts with Joseph and we have young Joseph, who is 17 at the beginning of chapter 37. He's having dreams. He's having dreams that his brothers bow down to him. He has dreams that his parents and his brothers bow down to him, that he is ruling them, and this, as you might expect, causes a giant uproar in the family. Joseph is the 11th of 12 of the 12 sons. So when you think about family structure, you have your patriarch and matriarch, which the matriarchy is shared between Leah and Rachel, which causes a lot of tension. There isn't a clear matriarch in this home. Jacob is the clear patriarch. So you have the patriarch and the matriarch. Then you have the oldest son, who was Reuben. However, we found out earlier that Reuben has dishonored his father by sleeping with Bilhah, his father's concubine, his father's secondary wife. So Reuben in some ways has disqualified himself from the birthright, from the oldest son position, because he went behind his father's back and had sex with his father's concubine Reuben's in a bad place with his dad.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Next in line are Simeon and Levi. They are second and third. They killed an entire town of people after a man from that town raped their sister. So they've kind of been in bad blood because their dad was not thrilled that they went and murdered this town, the men in this town. Their dad was like now we're all in danger because you went and killed them and they still live in that region. So Levi and Simeon also not in the best graces with their dad.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The next in line, number four, is Judah, or the Lord be praised. Joseph is number 11, but Joseph is having these dreams that he is going to rule and he is the father's favorite. So even though there's a clear birth order, the first three have kind of disqualified themselves. Jude is kind of in the running to be the firstborn, joseph's the favorite. That creates a lot of tension because nobody knows, is daddy going to go down the line? Is he going to give the birthright inheritance to the oldest, or one of the oldest, depending on who has maybe or maybe not disqualified themselves, or is he going to skip everybody and just go to his favorite kid? That's kind of the question. And Joseph's having dreams. They don't appreciate it and you're familiar with this story. Jacob gives Joseph the fancy coat, the brothers are out shearing. They can tell Joseph's coming a long way off because this audio was created with podcastleai.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The brothers are out shearing. They can tell Joseph's coming a long way off because blaring neon sign clothing and Reuben and they want to kill him. Reuben's like let's not kill him because Reuben wants to save Joseph by saving his favorite son. Judah, I believe, has the idea to throw Joseph in the cistern or to sell Joseph, and so Judah's right there at the front getting rid of Joseph, and then all the brothers work together to kill a kid goat, put his blood on the coat, and then they ask their father do you wrap this coat with the blood? And of course Jacob does and he is sorrowful. He has lost his favorite son and he refuses to be comforted. That's how chapter 37 ends.
Jessica LM Jenkins:It seems that right after that Judah packs up and leaves his family. He is not staying with his family at all. He has left their area. Verse 1 of 38 says he went down from his brothers, has largely separated himself from his family.
Jessica LM Jenkins:At this point and there's a lot in Genesis 38 where Judah and Joseph in the remaining chapters are being shown in contrast to one another they're both separate from their families. How do they act when they're not with their tribe, with their household, under the ultimate patriarch of their tribe, jacob. When they are out on their own, having to make their own decisions, what do they do? Well, 38 today is what Judah chooses to do. His name means the Lord be praised. His mother gave that to him when she was four children into having sons. But he does not act like the Lord is anywhere on his mind whatsoever in this chapter until maybe the very end. So Judah leaves his family, so take. He's away from Jacob, he's away from his brothers. He is separated. He is gone to be with this friend, hira the Adulamite. The only time Hira and Adulam is mentioned in the Old Testament or in the Bible really is in Genesis 38.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We have very little information on who this is, but he's a really good friend of Judah's, evidently because they are hanging out and maybe living in very close proximity together, or maybe with each other. And so Judah, while he's living with Hira, he sees a daughter, a Canaanite woman, a daughter of a man of Canaan, the daughter of Shua. So he marries a Canaanite. This is not something that is really encouraged. In the line of Abraham, esau married Hittite women and Rebekah was absolutely upset with that, which is part of the reason Isaac sent Jacob to Rebekah's family to find a wife, where he met Rachel and Leah. So marrying Canaanite women, marrying Hittite women, they're not the same, but these sorts of foreign women are not at all what this family is supposed to be doing. So for the original hearers of this, this is warning signs. He's leaving the family, he's away, he's hanging out with Canaanites and Adumites and he's marrying a Canaanite woman. So he marries this woman and he takes her and she gets pregnant and has a son. And then your English text in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew says and then he called his name Protector or Ur. Some commentators mentioned it's more likely other textual sources and translations have that she named. Typically we've seen in Genesis that the women name the sons or the babies, not the men. So it's odd that he would name it. But a lot of other textual sources have it as she named, not he named, which she names the other two. So it makes sense that this is just an error of some kind. And so the name of the firstborn is Ur or protector.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then she conceives again and she bears a son and she named him Vigorous or Onan. And then she continued again and she bore another son. The text reads as though she's having these kids one right after another. She is just popping them out. She continued again and she bore a son and she named him Sising or Sela. This is her last son and he was at Shezib when she bore him.
Jessica LM Jenkins:That phrase he was at Sheazib when she bore him. That phrase he was at Shazib when she bore him has a lot of nobody quite knows what it's talking about. That Was it he, being Judah, was at Shazib. He's off somewhere else and she has this baby by herself when Judah's not home. One article I read said that Shazib could mean in call, that's when a baby is born in the embryonic sac. He comes out fully in the sac in call, which would be very significant. But the word shazib this is the only time it's used in the Hebrew Bible, so nobody quite knows what it means, whether it's a place name, whether it's an anatomical term, whether it's a very specialized term having to do with childbirth, like in call. Nobody quite knows what it means. Whatever it is, it's significant for Selah ceasing and his birth. So Judah has three sons in rapid quick succession. Between verse 5 and verse 6, we have a decade or two go by, because now Judah is taking a wife for Ur, his firstborn, verse 6, and then.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Judah took a woman for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar, which means palm tree. It's very common in the Bible for women's names to be plants or animals or flowers or some sort like that. It is not a negative connotation at all. Palm trees, specifically if you look at the rest of the Old Testament, have to do with joy. You can look at Joel 1.12 for joy. They have to do with beauty. We see palm trees referenced in Song of Solomon to describe someone's beauty. Also in the Psalms, a palm tree has a significance of blessing and flourishing. So you get kind of this joyful, beautiful, flourishing palm tree. That is who Judah brings into his home to marry his son, ur. Now there's some significant things about this marriage, in particularly because Ur is his firstborn son. So we need to think family structure. So you have Judah and his Canaanite wife. Then you have Ur. He's the firstborn, judah's the patriarch. His Canaanite wife is the matriarch. Ur will be the next patriarch of this household. So the woman brought in to be Ur's wife should be the next matriarch of the household. This is a position of importance in the household. Now our text doesn't tell us this because it assumes that we know, but we often don't. So what does a matriarch do? Why would this matter?
Jessica LM Jenkins:I come out of a complementarian circle that was very hierarchical. The husband has all authority and he might delegate some authority to his wife, say to do menu planning and budgeting around food. But in the complementarian world, hierarchical, complementarian world, the husband delegates that authority to the wife, but it is really his. He has 100% of the authority in the house. He just shares some of it with her. That wasn't necessarily how it was viewed within the household in the ancient world. According to authors like Carol Myers etc. The matriarch had carte blanche authority over several areas alongside her husband. The husband had the external facing authority of legal, religious face of the family. But the wife had authority over food. She had a lot of authority in the realm of reproduction. She had authority in medicine, household religion, light storage. She had a lot of things where she had control, she had power and it wasn't delegated to her by her husband. That it's ultimately all his. He just gives her enough authority to do these tasks. In the ancient culture these were considered the matriarch's authority and even the patriarch is not allowed to question her on these things. It is carte blanche her authority period, paragraph. End of discussion. She has a serious position in the household. It is a very strong position in the household.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So Judah brings Tamar in to be the next matriarch. She is marrying the firstborn son but unfortunately Ur was Ra. There's a play on the Hebrew Ur was Ra. It takes Ur's name and basically flips it around backwards. Ur was evil.
Jessica LM Jenkins:One commentator very greatly said Ur erred, to get that play on words in English Ur erred and the Lord killed him. We don't know what he did. He may have mistreated Tamar, he may have done any number of other evil things, but Ur erred. It's also important to note that Judah may not be worshiping Jacob's God at this point. He has moved away from his family.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We have no idea what the religious flavor of this family is at all, although Judah did marry a Canaanite woman who likely would have brought all of her religion and household religion into Judah's home. Let that sink in for a second. She's a matriarch, she has a lot of power when it comes to household religion and he went out and he married a Canaanite who would likely bring all of that in. So there could be idolatry, there could be sexual indiscretion, there could be. We don't know. The text does not tell us. But Ur was a bad guy. He was not a protector and he was not protected from God. God kills him for his evilness, so the Lord causes Ur to die. Then Judah turns to the next son and he instructs him on what he should do. But let's back up for a second.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Judah's wife was Canaanite, but Tamar, who Judah brought in, we do not know anything about her background. I find this incredibly fascinating in Genesis 38. Because Judah's wife we know her father's name, we know her nationality. We don't know her name. She is nameless. She has no identity outside of her nation and her father and her husband, those are the only things that give her identity.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Tamar is almost the opposite. We don't know who her father is, we don't know her nationality, but she has a name, she is named, and we see her come up again later on. We see her come up in the book of Ruth, which I'll be doing an entire series on the book of Ruth starting in a couple weeks, so you can look forward. We'll bring Tamar back up as we talk through Ruth. She comes up in the book of Ruth and then Tamar appears again in the book of Matthew and she's included in the genealogy of Jesus, but we don't have any idea about her background. We don't know where she comes from or who she is. Some scholars say her name is Hebrew, so therefore she might have been a Hebrew woman. But we don't know that for sure because Adam and Eve are also Hebrew names and if they were human, literal people, they lived before the Hebrew nation was. This audio was created with podcastleai.
Jessica LM Jenkins:They lived before the Hebrew nation was, or the Hebrew language was there. They predate Hebrewness, but they have Hebrew names. So having a Hebrew name doesn't necessarily mean you're Hebrew, though it could, but we don't know who Tamar is. But she stands alone as an individual in this passage, which is fascinating because this is a culture that is communal. They are a communal culture, so to not say who a woman is is unique. It's very interesting that they don't mention that. So she married Ur. God kills Ur. Judah, in verse 8, goes to Vigorous, to Onan, and says come to the wife of your brother and perform the brother-in-law duty with her to raise up seed for your brother.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Some of you, as you're listening, may be very familiar with marriage and the brother-in-law laws. To some of you, this may be brand new, so I'm going to break it down for a minute. What is going on in verse eight? Because this feels like all sorts of icky. I know, as a woman in 2025, that if my husband had a brother, he doesn't. But if he had a brother and my husband died, there is no way I would want to marry my husband's brother. There's no way I would want to marry my sister's brother. I married my husband. That's the only man I want to be married to. I do not like the idea of being passed around just because I didn't have a baby or a son. So what is going on here in a verse that feels icky?
Jessica LM Jenkins:This is the first introduction to Leveret marriage in the Bible, and Leveret marriage is a custom, a cultural custom from the ancient Near East that predates the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law prescribes a form of leverant marriage in Deuteronomy 25. Let me read to you verses 5 and 6 from Deuteronomy 25, and that says from the NIV if brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. So basically, brother A dies, wife A does not have a son, so brother B has to marry wife A and the first son that she has will be considered brother A's son and get his inheritance. This is a law that protects family inheritance, but it has other features as well.
Jessica LM Jenkins:When we think about marriage today, like when my husband and I got married. It was an individual decision that I made and my husband made. We decided to marry Our parents both gave their blessing as a formality, but they really have nothing to do with our marriage. We still have relationships with them, we love them, but they have no say so over our marriage, that it does not affect them. You know, except for a social in any way, shape or form. Our parents did not talk to each other before we got married. They, like, met at our wedding. They didn't really talk to each other before the marriage and they didn't have any agreements with each other about our marriage. It was our decision.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Well, in the ancient world, a marriage was as much in many ways a business agreement as it is a social agreement. Often the patriarchs and the matriarch would often have some say-so, and even the woman and the son who are getting married, the bride and the groom they would have some say-so as well. The degree that they would have say-so may depend on the patriarch and the type of man he was, whether he's willing to consider their thoughts, whether he's not. Some were, some weren't, but a marriage in the Old Testament in the ancient Near East is two families making an agreement it was often in writing making an agreement that we are going to contribute financially to this marriage to make sure that they have the best possible chance for a life and a business of their own, because the household is a business. In the ancient world we think of business as separate from our domicile where we live. For them, it's all together House business, all of it's together. It is one package. So in marriage you're contributing to a household, you're creating, in some ways, a new mini business. And another thing that's going on is both families are agreeing that this marriage union will have children.
Jessica LM Jenkins:To further the family line, the woman would come into her husband's household to be part of his household. She leaves her household of birth and moves to her husband's household, but her parents and his parents are agreeing that they will have children. Sometimes there was clauses in the marriage contract. If she doesn't have children, what will that mean as far as divorce and this, that and the other thing? And on the flip side, if the husband dies and doesn't give her children, his family is still obligated to make sure she has children. Okay, so when there's a marriage happening, it's not just oh, we're going to pass the woman down the line. It's there is family obligation to make sure she has children, that the patriarch signs on the dotted line and says line and says I take that responsibility when I marry my son to this woman. So when we get to verse eight, what's happening here is Judah is fulfilling this responsibility. He's saying our household, the household of Judah, took on the responsibility that Tamar have children when she married Ur, responsibility that Tamar have children when she married Ur. That is part of what we all as a household signed up for when they got married. It is likely Judah would have also paid some sort of surety payment to Tamar's family.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Some people talk about women in the Old Testament as though they are bought and sold because of surety payments like this. Don't think of it like I'm going to pay you 100 shekels of silver for a cow, like you're buying and selling. It's more of a surety Marriages. Take a while. You walk up, you hand somebody $100 and you take home your cow. It's like it happens. But when it comes to a marriage it's a lot lower. You have to prepare the wedding, you have to get ready for the move, you have to do all the things. So the surety payment says while all of the things are getting done, my son is not going to go marry the pretty girl. Three houses down there's a surety payment. We will marry your daughter, we're not going to run off sideways on you.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Often, according to research I've been doing in these ancient cultures, the father would often give that surety payment to the bride in some of these cultures on her wedding day. So the surety payment would become part of her belongings that she brings into the new marriage. That gives her kind of a fallback plan Should she become a widow, should she be divorced. These are finances that she has at her disposal to help her potentially in the future. Her father would also give her her portion of her inheritance. We often call it a dowry, but that's what a dowry is it's her portion of the inheritance. Her brother might get land, because land is passed through the men, but the girls would get some form of inheritance, whether it's household goods, it could be grinding stones, it could be looms, it could be animals, it could be servants, it could be cloth, it could be jewelry, money, other forms of wealth. But she would come into the marriage with, possibly, the surety payment returned to her personally as well as a dowry from her father. So she comes in with some finances that she's bringing into the marriage, but they are in many ways hers. She may allow her husband or father-in-law control over them, or culturally they would take control over them. But should there be a divorce or widowhood, those items get returned to her to take care of her when she's in an uncertain position in society.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So Judah, in verse 8, steps forward. He says okay, we're going to fulfill our commitments to Tamar, come into the wife of your brother, perform the brother-in-law duty with her and raise up seed for your brother. But then vigorous Onan knew that the seed wouldn't be his. So it happened that when he came into her he would, the Hebrew says, ruin the earth. That's basically a euphemism for cloitus interruptus. He has sex with her and then withdraws at the point of ejaculation so that he doesn't get her pregnant. And he does this on purpose, and it sounds like he did this repeatedly. So he is willing to use her for pleasure, but not give her her due.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Now, why would Er do this? Well, if, right now, or why would Onan do this, excuse me, onan would do this to her use her for sexual pleasure, but not give her a pregnancy, because right now Onan is the firstborn because Ur died. So now all of the rights and privileges of being the firstborn come to him. Tamar pregnant, that baby leapfrogs over him in the family structure to be the firstborn because it would be Ur's child and the line goes through Ur. So Onan doesn't want to lose his position in the family and he says I'm not doing it, I'm not going to raise up seed for my brother, I'm going to take all that position for myself. Thank you very much. I will use this woman for my own pleasure, but I'm not going to give her her due. I'm going to also keep her from getting what she needs. It's very likely the text doesn't say this is my own opinion Onan may have had another wife because he would want to raise up seed for himself, he would want children for himself, to carry on his own line.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So this may be a second marriage. So Tamar is shuttled in kind of as a second wife under his wife. So she's lost her matriarchal position to be and she's not going to have the child that's due her, the patriarch to be, child. He's denying her this. Well, what he does is evil in the eyes of the Lord, and God killed him like his brother, ur. So then, verse 11, the Lord be praised. Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow in your father's household until Selah, my son, grows up. For he said, because he might die like his brothers. So basically, judah doesn't want to give the third to her. He's looking at her. He's like my first two kids died after being married to this woman. This is a black widow, maybe a witch. Sometimes women who had lots of husbands died on them were thought to be witches. Um, one of the commentaries or sources I was reading said and Judah was like I'm not a good idea, so I want to get rid of her.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So he sends her to be a widow in her father's household. He sends her home, but she's still technically under his authority, under his domain. She's legally part of his household, even though she has been shamed by being told to go back to her daddy's house. It's likely that he would have kept the surety, the dowry, all of the money and things that she brought in. They would still be in Judah's household that they can all use. But she's been kicked out because she's kind of like a bride-in-waiting. It doesn't necessarily go with her. It's been mingled into their family's finances and so they're just they. Potentially the text doesn't say this, but this is how some of it could have happened in the ancient Near East, that these finances would have just this audio was created with podcastleai.
Jessica LM Jenkins:How some of it could have happened in the ancient Near East that these finances would have just stayed in Judah's house. While Tamar is penniless and shamed and moved back to her father's house. She's in this really precarious position as a widow. She doesn't have a husband. She cannot marry outside of Judah's house, but Judah doesn't want her in the house to marry his younger son, so he sent her away. So she has no position. She's just in this awkward limbo state and Judah says he'll marry her to the third son, but until that son grows up she's just in an awkward limbo status while being shamed by being sent away because Judah doesn't want anything to do with her. Her status while she's waiting for Judah is she has no status. She's not a wife, she's a widow. But she also has nothing to take care of herself. She is merely at the mercy of her family to take care of her, which it sounds like they did. But they're not under any obligation because they gave her inheritance and everything else when she got married. So Tamar went and she remained in her father's house. The Hebrew just says and then the days became numerous, so an unspecified period of time happens and then the daughter of Shua, the wife of Judah dies, his nameless wife. She had a name in real life, we just don't know what it was. She dies and he goes through a period of mourning and likely the period of grief, a period of mourning and likely the period of grief. And then he decides, okay, I need to get back to real life. And he goes up to see his sheep shearers in Timnah and he takes Hira, again his friend. He seems to make questionable sexual decisions when he's hanging out with Hira. Maybe Hira's not the best influence. Anyway, I digress. He goes to see his sheep shearers, he and Hira, and they go towards Timnah and then it was told verse 13, to Tamar saying behold, your father-in-law is going to Timnah to shear his flocks, and we don't know if that was back with Jacob or where Judah's brothers are, but he's going to Timnah to shear his flocks. So that Hagar makes a series of very purposeful, intentional decisions she removes her garments of widowhood from upon her, she covers herself with a veil, also indicating married women didn't normally have a veil. She wraps herself up and she goes and she sits in the entrance of Enaym, which could mean eye, or well, or spring. They often called springs eyes of water, the water coming out, which was on the way to Timnah. So she goes to Enim. Maybe she was living close to Enim at the time and he had to pass by to get to Timnah. So she sat she's at Enim, on the way to Tim, for she saw that Selah was grown up and she was not given to him as a wife. Maybe Judah got him a different wife, maybe he's I mean, being single isn't really an option. So she's realizing Judah's not going to follow through on his word. I'm not being given to him, I don't have any other options. So she makes a very calculated, risky, gutsy choice and she sits on the way to Timnah.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So then, verse 15, judah, as he passed by, saw her and he assumed that she was a prostitute, for she covered her face. Scholars are they can't agree, and we don't know for sure whether. Do prostitutes always cover their face? Is that a sign of something else? Is it that she's sitting at this particular spot that he thinks she's a prostitute? Is it because she covered her face? We're not sure.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Whatever the situation was, she was sending prostitution signals and Judah picks up on them. So he turns to her and he says please, please, let me come into you. It's a little rougher than that in the Hebrew. It's not like a polite please, it's like hey, you, I want to have sex, let me do this. For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And so she says what will you give to me that you come into me? She acts like a very shrewd businesswoman, knowing exactly what she's about and exactly what she's needing. She says what will you give me to come into me? And he says I myself will send a kid from the flock, a baby goat or sheep, I will send that to you. And she said OK, obviously you don't have it with you. So what's a pledge, a surety, a down payment until you send it? And he's like huh, what should I give you? And she says I want your seal, your cord and your staff.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Often men would have a seal they used. Sometimes it was a ring. In my Hebrew text originally I said signet ring. It might have been a ring. It could also have been a circle seal on a cord around his neck, um, but they use those for payments, as a signature on any legal documents, any agreements. You need your seal, um, it's kind of like your signature. It's um, like your driver's license, social security card, kind of thing, your seal, your cord and your staff the staff is the position of his patriarchal authority. It's kind of thing You're seeing your seal, your cord and your staff the staff is the position of his patriarchal authority. It's kind of like your ID badge at work saying this is who I am and this is how important I am. And, yes, you have to let me up to C-suite in my building. Thank you very much. And so she's like give me your driver's license, social security card and work badge. And he gave it to her. And then he came to her and she conceived by him. And then she arose and she went and she removed the veil and she put on the garments of her widowhood Verse 20,.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And then Judah sent to her the kid goat in the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to take the pledge back. He wants his stuff back from this woman. But the friend did not find her, and so he's asking around where is she? Where is she? Where is she? And the men of the place are like there's no woman like that here, like there's not a prostitute hanging out at our gates. I don't know what you're talking about. And so verse 22,. The friend returns to Judah and says I didn't find her. But the men said there wasn't. And so Judah, at this point he's nervous, this is an awkward situation. And he's basically like, okay, I don't want us to be shamed, it's an honor. Shame.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Culture Men had freedom to visit prostitutes. It may not have been the norm, but if one is available, they were allowed to do it. Sexual immorality there's very much a gender inequality when it came to sexual freedom. Men couldn't sleep with another man's wife and shouldn't be sleeping with another man's daughter. But a prostitute is kind of in this liminal space and she's okay. And it doesn't matter that you're married, you're not cheating on your wife to sleep with a prostitute. Culturally, in their culture, you're allowed to do what you want with a prostitute. So he's, but you still I mean you don't necessarily want to advertise it and it is kind of shameful when, like, you did this but now you can't find her, you didn't know where she is, like, and you gave her your stuff, like, are you an idiot? So Judah doesn't really want this getting out anywhere, so he just tells his friend okay, hush, hush, let's not do this.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And so it happens about three months later that it's discovered that Hagar is pregnant and Judah was informed, saying behold, tamar has been unfaithful, immoral. She fornicated, she is pregnant from her immorality. Judah seems furious. In two words, in the Hebrew text, he utters a death sentence upon her, which in English would be cause her to come out and let her be burned. Burning is only for the most. In any ancient Near Eastern culture, only the most egregious crime, stoning, was more common than burning, and there were other things that were way more common than even stoning. But the death penalty, and he's, I mean, we already have established that Jude is not a fan of Tamar. He kind of wants to get rid of her, which is why she's at her father's house, so he doesn't have to deal with her, because he's hoping maybe everybody will just forget about her, out of sight, out of mind. And so he says bring her out and let her be burned. Finally I can just get rid of her.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And she, as she's being brought out, sends by a messenger. There's messengers going back and forth a lot, so this is public, this is not private. She's not sending him a text that only he gets. She's sending by hand of a messenger, I imagine maybe a sister or another woman in her family whose eyes are like Tamara, you got him Brilliant, you got him girlfriend. Anyway, whoever has this, she sends it by a messenger somebody she trusts literally with her life, someone who is in her corner, takes the seal and the cord and the staff, but somebody who also will be listened to by Judah's family and by all the people. So they're not just going to swipe it from this person like a child. A child. It might be like they just swipe it and be like you don't know what you're talking about.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So this is somebody with enough status that they're going to be heard. They can't be ignored and they can't just have the stuff swiped from. So she sends back the seal and the cord and the staff with this messenger to Judah with the message that says do you recognize these? Because these belong to the father of my baby. That says, do you recognize these? Because these belong to the father of my baby. So she comes in and she shows Judah the objects that he is the man who got her pregnant, both revealing the fact that he saw a shrine prostitute and we don't know what her motivation was. But the effect of her actions is revealing all the things he was doing against her. It forces him to admit. I didn't give her my third son, which I was legally obligated to do. I potentially kept her surety payment and down rate to enrich my household while sending her away. I shamed her by sending her away and subtly blaming her for the death of my two sons, and now she, through a creative application of the rules, has brought it to light that I have not done what I was required to do.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We're not sure if Tamar had this in mind, but the Hittite version of leveret marriage indicates the father-in-law could have sexual obligations towards the bride as well. In the Hebrew world, in the Mosaic law, leveret marriage is just the brothers. The father doesn't have anything to do with it. But in the Hittite version of leveret marriage, which again, tamar and Judah predate the Mosaic law, so they're going off of local traditions in the ancient Near East. In Hittite version of Leveret marriage the father might need to marry the bride to make sure she has an heir. So she may be applying Hittite law to their situation.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And that's why she roped Judah into it. Because if you're not going to give me your son, she had no access to Selah, she had access to Judah and under Hittite law that would be acceptable. But he's not doing it. So she does it at great risk to her life. Because what if Judah had lifted the veil while he was doing his deed? That would have it would game over. At great risk. She does this. So let's we've worked through this story and I comment. Send me a DM, send me an email. This audio was created with podcastleai.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And I comment. Send me a DM, send me an email. Comment on the social media posts. I want to hear your thoughts as we walk through the story. But let's talk about the so what? What does any of this mean? What? Why does this matter? If we look at Judah, we see this is a huge turning point for him that kind of catapults him to being the man he needs to be. We see this later on in his interactions with Jacob and Joseph. But Judah, for our purposes, is not the focus of this chapter. Most commentaries and everywhere else will talk to you ad nauseum about Judah. I'm not going to do that. Let's talk about Tamar.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We can look at this story from a couple different lenses. We can look at it from the position of the original participants, those who are acting out the events. What did they know? What did they not know? They don't know anything about Mosaic law, because this is all they have. Or we could look at it from the original hearer's perspective, those who were given the book of Genesis by the redactor, whether that redactor's Moses or post-exilic editors, we don't know who the redactor is. There's several theories. I'm not going to get into them. So are we dealing from the original hearer's perspective, who has the whole book of Genesis and is hearing the whole book of Genesis in flow, and possibly has knowledge of Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy as well. Which perspective are we looking at? Let's look at a couple different ones and think through some observations, some implications, maybe even some applications.
Jessica LM Jenkins:One thing I think is really important from this passage we don't know her motivation. I've gotten some questions. Was she a woman of faith? Was she acting out of faith? Did she have trust in the Lord to take care of her? One person wanted to know would she have been forced into worshiping her father's gods when she went back to her house, if she was worshiping the Lord with Judah? We have no idea what's going on. Judah doesn't seem to be following God very well at all.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In this passage he's removed himself from the family of promise, tamar. We don't know her background, whether she knew the Lord or whether she's a Canaanite, pagan. We have no idea if she has faith. But what we do know is that our God is a God of justice and our God delights that justice prevailed for Tamar. That's why Judah, as patriarch, is able to say she is more righteous than me. We don't know if it was her purpose, if she purposed to do this. But the effect of what she did challenged an abusive man in authority and the effect of Tamar's actions required the abusive man to own up to what he did publicly and to give her justice and what she deserved legally, according to the customs of their day.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And as we think through Tamar's story from that vantage point, it presses on a lot of gender politics and power politics in our churches and in our communities, because there's a lot of churches and there's a lot of places that tell women no, you don't stand up to men in authority who have abused you. First, peter 3, you just pray, be quiet and pray. You don't need to seek outside help, you don't need to go to the police. You don't need to go to the law. You don't need to have anyone back up your legal right. You don't even really deserve legal rights. You just need to pray and trust that God will come through for you.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But in stories like JL in Judges or Tamar here in Genesis 36, we have women who stand up, using creative means to deal with abusive men in power. And they may not be thinking through I'm going to challenge an abusive man in power that may not be their thought frame. We don't know what their thought frame is, but the results of their actions are that an abusive man in power is challenged. Their actions are that an abusive man in power is challenged and, in this case, admits it. Judah admits I messed up. She's more righteous than me. The Hebrew, literally, is righteous from me. She is righteous, not me. She wins. Yeah, I accept the public shame that this brings and he has to. As a man in power who has used and abused her by sending her away, possibly keeping all of her stuff, denying her her rights, he has to admit what he's done. He doesn't continue to use her. He doesn't sleep with her again.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Our God is a God who likes it when justice is served, and it would do those in our circles who have power to take that seriously. Curiously, exodus 22 says, starting verse 21,. Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you are foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. Tamar is kind of presented as both, so she has a father, but she's definitely a widow. Do not take advantage of the widow. If you do, and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry, my anger will be aroused and I will kill you with your swords. Your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The God of Genesis. Even though we do not know if Tamar or Judah were paying attention to him at all, we don't know their relationship with God at all but we do know that the God of Genesis cares about widows and he providentially made sure Tamar's scheme worked so that she would get justice and so that Judah would be challenged. So on one level, as we look at the story of Tamar, we can see our God is a God of justice and he delights when it is carried out and when widows get what they deserve, what they are owed. God delights in women who do creative things. They may be outside the norm. Obviously it's not her deception and seduction of Judah that he is saying is more righteous than him. Her sexual act there, the deceiving of him, is not what Judah is uplifting, but it is the fact that she acted within the law of the land to bring to light the injustice done against her and have a child.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Some commentators I've seen say oh, tamar wanted the baby, she wanted the baby to take care of her in her old age, and all of that is true. We cannot view Tamar simply as a woman with baby fever or a woman who's hoping this baby that she's going to have to take care of will grow up to take care of her. Tamar, I believe that she's going to have to take care of, will grow up to take care of her. Tamar, I believe and this is my I might be reading a little bit, but this is my belief Tamar is a woman who recognizes the position she is owed as matriarch, the financial implications that she's been sent away while still technically being part of Judah's household, so her capital is still invested in his business, but she has no part of it. She's recognizing this, in my opinion, and wants to do something about it, because her key to position and power in that family and I don't use those words like she's power hungry, but it is what she is owed from the marriage contract Judah signed. It is the equivalent of us taking the contract to the lawyer and saying, look, read it, make them, give me what they said. Only she doesn't have the voice because her father's not standing up and doing anything about it. He's not advocating, he's not going to Judah and saying, hello, give her the third son, why is she with me? Why is she still in my house? Do your job. Her dad's not doing that, judah's not doing that, so she has to find a creative way when she doesn't have a legal standing voice to do it.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We also see later on Tamar's included in Jesus' line, in Jesus' lineage. This is a woman God delights in. As we read the Psalms, our God is a God who loves justice. Our God is a God who likes women. Our God is a God who cares for his people. Throughout this story, he is working behind the scenes to bring Judah around to where he needs to be and to care for Tamar, making sure that in the end she gets what she is owed and she is cared for as a widow.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The weak, the wounded, the vulnerable have a special place in God's heart. He sees them, he cares for them, he works on their behalf. He sees them, he cares for them. He works on their behalf. Even 1 Peter 3, that is so often used against women to keep them silent, to keep them not using their voices Even 1 Peter 3 says husbands, be gentle with your wives or God won't listen to your prayers. It is an echo of Exodus 22, where God says treat widows kindly, or they will cry out and I will attack you, the weak, the wounded, the vulnerable. God cares about them.
Jessica LM Jenkins:There are all sorts of parallels in this chapter between Judah and Jacob and Joseph. Judah fell into sexual indiscretion where Joseph stayed pure. Jacob lost a son and refused to be comforted. Judah loses two sons and a wife and is comforted and outdoing his sexual indiscretions. There's lots of parallels, but what stays the same is the God who is working through very imperfect people to bring forward a perfect Jesus, because ultimately that's what we need.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And in the meantime, he is using women like Tamar to showcase his justice and his loyalty and his grace and his delight in women who do things in creative ways to get the job done that sometimes go outside of the conventional boundaries, though not necessarily outside moral boundaries. She used some deception on Judah, but she was within the cultural, elaborate marriage bounds to get pregnant by Judah. She is not a loose woman. She is not a woman of questionable character, as the ESV Bible said. She is a woman that I hope had faith in Yahweh, faith in the Lord. The text does not tell us, but she is a woman who's included in Jesus' line because God thinks she's something special, because she not only has sons that move to David, but she is a woman who cares about what God cares about and is willing to risk her life for the types of things that God cares about, to risk her life for the types of things that God cares about.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So, as we close up this discussion of Tamar, I can't wait to talk to you further. I want to hear what from this episode is new to you, what shocked you, what was interesting to you, and any further questions you have. I have posts on Instagram and on threads. Go to one of those posts, comment. Let me know what you thought of the episode. Let me know your questions, your favorite parts, all of that. I can't wait to talk to you more, and we will be starting Ruth before too long, so be sure to tune back to learn about Ruth in her historical context. Have a great day. This audio was created with podcastleai.
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