--- title: "Genesis 38 - Study King James Bible with clarkes commentary" description: "Read Genesis 38 with clarkes commentary commentary. 1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw t" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38" --- [ Read](/kjv/genesis/38)[ Commentary](/study/genesis/38)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/genesis/38) Audio 1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name *was* Hirah. 2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name *was* Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her. 3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er. 4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan. 5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name *was* Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him. 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled *it* on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.* 11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father’s house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren *did*. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house. 12 ¶ And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah’s wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.* 13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. 14 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which *is* by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.* 15 When Judah saw her, he thought her *to be* an harlot; because she had covered her face. 16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she *was* his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? 17 And he said, I will send *thee* a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give *me* a pledge, till thou send *it*?* 18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that *is* in thine hand. And he gave *it* her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. 19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. 20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive *his* pledge from the woman’s hand: but he found her not. 21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where *is* the harlot, that *was* openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this *place*.* 22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, *that* there was no harlot in this *place*. 23 And Judah said, Let her take *it* to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.* 24 ¶ And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she *is* with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. 25 When she *was* brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these *are, am* I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose *are* these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. 26 And Judah acknowledged *them*, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. 27 ¶ And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins *were* in her womb. 28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that *the one* put out *his* hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. 29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? *this* breach *be* upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.** 30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah. [Genesis 37](/study/genesis/37) [Genesis 39](/study/genesis/39) ## Commentary To verse 1 Verse [Genesis 38:1](/kjv/genesis/38/1). ***And it came to pass at that time*** — The facts mentioned here could not have happened at the times mentioned in the preceding chapter, as those times are all unquestionably too recent, for the very earliest of the transactions here recorded must have occurred long before the selling of Joseph. Mr. Ainsworth remarks "that Judah and his sons must have married when very young, else the chronology will not agree. For Joseph was born *six* years before Jacob left Laban and came into Canaan; [Genesis 30:25](/kjv/genesis/30/25), and [Genesis 31:41](/kjv/genesis/31/41). Joseph was *seventeen* years old when he was sold into Egypt, [Genesis 37:2](/kjv/genesis/37/2); [Genesis 37:25](/kjv/genesis/37/25); he was *thirty* years old when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream, [Genesis 41:46](/kjv/genesis/41/46). And *nine* years after, when there had been *seven* years of plenty and *two* years of famine, did Jacob with his family go down into Egypt, [Genesis 41:53-54](/kjv/genesis/41/53-54), and [Genesis 45:6](/kjv/genesis/45/6); [Genesis 45:11](/kjv/genesis/45/11). And at their going down thither, Pharez, the son of Judah, whose birth is set down at the end of this chapter, had two sons, Hezron and Hamul, [Genesis 46:8](/kjv/genesis/46/8); [Genesis 46:12](/kjv/genesis/46/12). Seeing then from the selling of Joseph unto Israel's going down into Egypt there cannot be above *twenty-three* years, how is it possible that Judah should take a wife, and have by her three sons successively, and Shelah the youngest of the three be marriageable when Judah begat Pharez of Tamar, [Genesis 38:14](/kjv/genesis/38/14); [Genesis 38:24](/kjv/genesis/38/24), and Pharez be grown up, married, and have *two* sons, all within so short a space? The *time* therefore here spoken of seems to have been soon after Jacob's coming to Shechem, [Genesis 33:18](/kjv/genesis/33/18), before the history of Dinah, [Genesis 34:1-31](/kjv/genesis/34/1-31), though Moses for special cause relates it in this place." I should rather suppose that this chapter originally stood after [Genesis 33:1-20](/kjv/genesis/33/1-20), and that it got by accident into this place. Dr. Hales, observing that some of Jacob's son must have married remarkably young, says that "Judah was about *forty-seven* years old when Jacob's family settled in Egypt. He could not therefore have been above *fifteen* at the birth of his eldest son *Er*; nor *Er* more than *fifteen* at his marriage with Tamar; nor could it have been more than *two* years after *Er's* death till the birth of Judah's twin sons by his daughter-in-law Tamar; nor could *Pharez*, one of them, be more than *fifteen* at the birth of his twin sons *Herron* and *Hamul*, supposing they were twins, just born before the departure from Canaan. For the aggregate of these numbers, 15, 15, 2, 15, or 47 years, gives the age of Judah; compare [Genesis 38:1-30](/kjv/genesis/38/1-30) with [Genesis 46:12](/kjv/genesis/46/12)." See the remarks of Dr. Kennicott, at the end of *Clarke's note at "*[Genesis 31:55](/kjv/genesis/31/55)*"*. ***Adullamite*** — An inhabitant of Adullam, a city of Canaan, afterwards given for a possession to the sons of Judah, [Joshua 15:1](/kjv/joshua/15/1); [Joshua 15:35](/kjv/joshua/15/35). It appears as if this Adullamite had kept a kind of *lodging house*, for *Shuah* the Canaanite and his family lodged with him; and *there* Judah lodged also. As the woman was a Canaanitess, Judah had the example of his fathers to prove at least the impropriety of such a connection. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","width":672,"height":448,"caption":"Real Bible Believers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38","name":"Genesis 38 - Study King James Bible with clarkes commentary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38#primaryimage"},"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Read Genesis 38 with clarkes commentary commentary. 1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw t","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","name":"Study Bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary","name":"clarkes commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis","name":"Genesis"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/genesis/38","name":"38"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```