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Genesis 38:13-15
New Catholic Bible
Genesis 38:13-15
New Catholic Bible
13 Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah, to the sheep shearers of his flock.” 14 Tamar took off her clothes of mourning, put on a veil, and completely covered herself. Then she went and sat at the gate to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She realized that Shelah had already grown up, but she had not yet been given to him in marriage.[a]
15 [b]Judah saw her and thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 38:14 Tamar wants her right to children respected, no matter what the cost; Judah was preventing her from exercising this right (see v. 26).
- Genesis 38:15 We might question why Judah was so open about his relations with a prostitute yet ready to put his daughter-in-law to death for being one. The answer lies in the place of women in that time and place. The most important task of women was to bear children to perpetuate the family line. In order to ensure that the children really belonged to the husband, the bride was expected to be a virgin and to refrain from having relations with anyone but her husband. If a wife became an adulteress, she risked the penalty of death. There were, however, some women who did not belong to any man. They could be temple prostitutes supported by offerings or common harlots supported by the men who sought them out. The children of such women were nobody’s heirs, and the men who used their services did not adulterate anyone’s bloodlines. In opposition to such a secular outlook Scripture enhances the status of women (Gen 1:27f; 2:23) and strongly condemns prostitution (Lev 19:29).
