Shelah

The name of at least three different persons in the OT.

1. Son of Arphaxad (grandson of Noah) and father of Eber; he lived to be 433 years old (Gen 11:14). Nothing is reported about him as a person.

2. Youngest son of Judah, who he kept, according to the requirements of levirate marriage from Tamar when he was young, afraid he might die just like his older brothers Er and Onan (Gen 38:11). Judah seemed conveniently to forget about the matter even after Shelah had grown up (v14). Tamar got her due when Judah mistook her for a shrine-prostitute and slept with her, fathering Perez and Zerah instead (v16ff.). Shelah seemed to have left and settled down in Egypt when Judah migrated there in the care of Joseph (46:12). Interestingly, Num 26:20 reckons Perez and Zerah as descendants of Shelah, though 1 Chron 2:3-6 reckons Judah as having five sons and is silent about Shelah. 1 Chron 4:21, additionally, lists other sons of Shelah (from "records from ancient times"). Shelah is recorded in Luke's genealogy of Jesus as "the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxah"; Cainan being an otherwise unknown synonym for Judah (Lk 3:35). A person by the name of Shelah is recorded as the ancestor of a list of different persons in Neh 11:5; though this could be a person now unknown to us, it is highly probable that it refers to the same person considered here.