The story related in this chapter has remained one of the most puzzling of the many found in the book of Genesis. It seems like an intrusion, having nothiing whatever to do with the rest of the Joseph story which it interrupts. The story told in it is sordid and does not seem to serve any purpose.
The story is, in fact, quite well connected with the Joseph narrative though not in ways most of us more familiar with Western modes of story-telling would expect. It also serves a very important point—one that, if this story is missing here, most readers of Genesis who read all the way to the end of the book will tend to forget—within the larger story of salvation told in the Old Testament. Let us see what some of these might be.
In older cultures in which books tend to be rare, learning for most people came through hearing. Until the invention of voice recorders the only record of what one hears is one's memory. Story-tellers and historians in such cultures have to find ways that will help their hearers remember their story more efficiently. Two common elements used in many such cultures is similarity in the sound (which includes, therefore, identical expressions) and similarity in the motif.
We find the author of Genesis doing an amazing job of this in this story. The story of Joseph reaches an emotional climax not at the end of the story, not at the conclusion of the chapter but at that point when Joseph's brothers presented the blood stain coat to the father (37:32-33):
32They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."
33He recognised it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."
The story of Judah and Tamar in this chapter reaches a climax when Tamar was discovered to be pregnant and Judah, thinking she had "played the harlot," demanded that she brought out and burned. She cooly sends the articles of pledge she had earlier gotten from her father-in-law with a message (38:25-26):
25As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are."
26Judah recognised them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah."
I am certain you would have discovered the connection between the two by now. It is in the word 'recognize.'
English literature tends to favour variations instead of repetitions, and have varied the translation even though the Hebrew words are the same. So, in the Hebrew texts, Joseph's brothers said to Jacob, "We found this. Please recognize (hakker-na') if it is your son's robe or not?" and Jacob "recognized it (wayyakkira) and said, 'This is my son's robe.'" Likewise, Tamar's message to Jacob was "I am pregnant by the man who owns these. Recognize (hakker-na') whose these are . . ." and Judah "recognized (wayyaker) them and said . . ."
But it is more than just the sound of the same words being repeated that is important. Notice also that the entire story of Jacob and his sons are bound together by the theme of recognition. Jacob received his father's blessings meant for his brother Esau by acting on the fact that his father did not failed to recognize his voice. Here these two stories work on the fact that both men recognized their respective objects. When the story returns to Joseph in Egypt, his brothers would come before him but fail to recognize him, but he recognized them and in the process brought reconciliation.
Beyond this, of course, is the question, "What is the theological point of the story?" To answer this question it is best if we have gone through the story in more detail first.
This story, it should by now surprise us little, is intricately put together, and is composed of two chiastic structures, one of which (the second one below) is a subset of the larger (the first below):
A. Future of Judah's Line in Jeopardy (Judah's Two Sons killed), v.1-12.
B. Tamar responds to the realization that she would not be given to Shelah, v.13-14.
C. Judah's Encounter with Tamar as a Shrine-Prostitute, v15-18.
a. Judah mistakes Tamar for a prostitute, v.15-16.
b. Judah gives Tamar the articles of pledge, v.17-18.
D. Judah sends the goat to retrieve his articles of pledge but his friend could not find the woman, v.20-21a.
E. The men of the area claim there hasn't been any shrine-prostitute there, v.21b.
F. Judah's friend returns to Judah with report that he could not find the woman, v.22a.
E'. Judah's friend reports that the men of the area claimed there hasn't been any shrine-prostitute there, v.22b.
D'. Judah resigns to the fact that his friend could not find the woman despite his sending the goat to retrieve his articles of pledge, v.23.
C'. Judah's Encounter with Tamar accused of Prostitution, v24-25.
a. Judah is told Tamar played the prostitute and is now pregnant, v.24.
b. Tamar sends Judah the articles of pledge, v.25.
B'. Judah responds to his failure to give Tamar his son Shelah, v. 26.
A'. Future Judah's Line Affirmed (Two Sons born to Judah), v.27-30.
As we noted above, the story begins with the killing of Judah's two sons by Yahweh for their wickedness (vv1-12). Shaken, Judah withheld his youngest son, Shelah, from Tamar (what might happen to him too?). In so doing he placed the future of his line in jeopardy. The threat of this possibility is structured like this:
A. Judah goes down to stay with his friend Hirah the Adullamite, v.1.
B. Judah marries the daughter of Shua, and the birth of his sons, v.2-5.
C. Judah gets Tamar as wife for his son Er, v.6.
D. Er was wicked in Yahweh's sight, so Yahweh kills him, v.7.
E. Judah instructs Onan to lie with his brother's wife in order to produce an offspring for his brother, v.8.
F. Onan realized that the seed will not be his, v.9a.
E'. Onan spills his seed whenever he lies with his brother's wife in order that his brother will not have an offspring, v.9b.
D'. What Onan did was wicked in Yahweh's sight, so Yahweh kills him, v.10.
C'. Judah schemes to keep Tamar from his son Shelah, v.11.
B'. Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, dies, v.12a.
A'. Judah goes up to Timnah with his friend Hirah the Adullamite, v.12b.
His journey down to Timnah sets the stage for his conjugal encounter with Tamar.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2016