Lives of Scripture

Tamar married Judah's firstborn son Er, who died for wickedness the text does not detail; under the custom requiring a brother to raise up an heir for a dead man's line, she then married Judah's second son Onan, who also died after refusing to fulfill that duty honestly (Genesis 38:6-10). Judah, fearing for his third son Shelah, sent Tamar back to her father's house with a promise to give her Shelah once grown -- a promise he never kept even after Shelah was grown (38:11, 14). Widowed, childless, and wronged, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and sat where she knew Judah, himself now widowed, would pass; Judah, not recognizing her, slept with her, leaving his seal, cord, and staff as pledged payment (38:13-23). When Tamar's pregnancy became known, Judah ordered her burned for prostitution, until she produced his own pledged items as proof of whose child she carried; Judah confessed, 'She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah' (38:24-26). Tamar bore twins, Perez and Zerah, born in a scene marked by a striking reversal of expected birth order (38:27-30). Ruth 4:12 and 1 Chronicles 2:4 preserve her place in Judah's line, and Matthew 1:3 names her -- one of only a few women, and the first -- in Christ's genealogy, a wronged Canaanite widow whose determined pursuit of justice became part of the ancestry of the Messiah.