V.1-30. About the same time Judah went down from his brothers and stayed with a man in Odollam whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there the daughter of a Cananite man, whose name was Shuah, and took her. And when he had made love to her, she conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Ger. And she conceived, and bare a son, and called his name Onan. And she continued, and bare a son, and called his name Shelah. And he 2) was at Cheshib when she bare him. And Judah gave unto Ger his first son a wife, whose name was Tamar. But he was
2) Jenaer: they.
evil in the sight of the LORD, therefore the LORD slew him. Then said Judah unto Onan, Lie with thy brother's wife, and take her in marriage, that thou mayest raise up seed unto thy brother. But Onan, knowing that if he lay with his brother's wife the seed should not be his, let it fall to the ground, and spoiled it, lest he should give seed to his brother. And it displeased the LORD that he did this, and he slew him also. Then Judah said to Tamar his wife, "Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up, for he thought that he might die like his brothers. So Tamar went and stayed in her father's house.
Home. After many days had passed, the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife, died. After Judah had mourned, he went up to shear his sheep at Timnath with Hira of Odollam, his shepherd. And it was told Tamar, Behold, thy brother in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. So she put off the widow's garments which she had on, and veiled herself, and covered herself, and sat down at the door of the way to Timnath: for she saw that Shelah was grown, and that she was not given to him to wife. And when Judah saw her, he thought that she was a harlot, because she had hid her face: and he came to her by the way, and said, Let me lie with thee, my beloved; for he knew not that she was his cord. And she answered, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest lie with me? He said: I will send thee a kid of the herd. And she said, Give me a pledge, till thou send it me. And he said, What pledge wilt thou that I give thee? And she answered, Thy seal, and thy signet, 1) And thy staff which thou hast in thy hands. And he gave it her, and lay with her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went, and put off her veil, and put on her widow's garments again. But Judah sent the goat by his shepherd from Odollam to fetch the pledge again from the woman, and he found her not. Then he asked the people of the same place, saying, Where is the harlot that sat by the way side? They answered: There was no harlot there. And he came again to Judah, and said: I have not found her; neither say the men of that place, There was no harlot there. And Judah said, She hath it unto her, lest peradventure we be put to shame: for I have sent the goat, and thou hast not found her. And it came to pass about three months, that Judah was told, saying, Thamar thy string hath whored; and, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, that she may be burned. And when she was brought forth, she sent to her brother-in-law, saying, I am with child by the man whose name this is. And said, Knowest thou the seal?
1) Fan --- tie, string (around hats, boots, clothes).
and the fan, and the staff is? Judah knew it, and said, She is more righteous than I: for I gave her not to Shelah my son: yet he slept with her no more. And when she was about to give birth, twins were conceived in her womb. And when she gave birth, one hand came out. The womb took it and tied a red thread around it, saying, "This will be the first to come out. And when he drew in his hand again, his brother came out; and she said, Why is a locker torn 2) for thy sake? And they called him Perez. 3) Then came out his brother, which had the red thread about his hand; and they called his name Serah.
I have said before that we must make a preface and embellishment of our own before every chapter, for we are so tender that we do not suffer to speak, nor to hear of human birth, and yet we have done wrong, which is horrible to say. It is true that this is an even 4) coarse chapter; yet it is written in the holy Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit wrote it, who ever has so pure a mouth and pen as we, that I do not know how to put it more highly than this. If anyone has a purer mouth and ears than he, let it stand; if he was not afraid nor ashamed to write it, neither shall we be ashamed to read and hear it.
2'. If God would have us keep discipline and shame where we should keep them, and avoid fornication where we should, we have turned it into a sham. Where we should have spoken of it out of necessity, we kept silent, but did much worse; and again. The Holy Spirit knows well what he has done, so he also speaks of his creature as it goes. Turning it back and forth, we are created to beget and bear fruit; for this he has given us members, veins, rivers, blood, and
2) compartment - hole, crack.
3) Marginal gloss: Perez. Perez, a torn; Serah means exit. Here it is meant that the saints of works put themselves outwardly as if they wanted to come forth and be the first, and become the last, about which a great tearing arises among the people of God. But the red thread around the hand is that they work carnal holiness and persecute the right saints.
4) even - significant, tremendous, very much. Cf. Col. 51V.
Flesh; we make of it what we will, so we must remain man and wife, and let nature go as it is planted. There we are so chaste and modest, we do not want to hear anything about it; what one otherwise does, one jokes about and laughs at. This is the worldly wisdom that perverts all God's order. I am also not inclined to fornication and whoredom, but to the conjugal state; therefore I have had to speak and write about it, to counsel and help the poor consciences, and to put down the false chastity of the clergy. If we are to be conjugal, then fruit must follow; but if fruit is to follow, then flesh and blood must have its natural place and course, or [it] becomes much worse.
Now this history Moses has described brightly and roughly; therefore open your eyes and think that it is written, for our teaching, by the Holy Spirit. For he should not have written it, if he did not know how it would be for man. We are not all the same, for one has these gifts from God, the other those; but if God does not keep, one is as pious as the other; if He keeps, we stand, and again. That is why he has such histories written, so that we can see who we are. [We] may not boast better than this Judah; would God that we were all so pious. But must he write this of the patriarch who was of the tribe of our Lord Christ? Could the Scripture put none to shame but the Most High? Even if the others had all been fooled, he should still have spared them. What is the Holy Spirit's pleasure that he does not prefer to write about good works? Our preachers of legends would be ashamed if they were to preach of a saint who had not done vain delectable works; but of this saint he writes none at all, so that when flesh and blood fall into it, it must become a fool about it.
But this is the opinion: The man is indeed one of the highest patriarchs, together with his brothers; but God lets them all sink, that they are stuck in the dirt, betray and sell their blood and flesh, grieve the old, miserable father so hard. Moses is not ashamed to revile his grandfathers,
1) "so" is missing in the Jena.
that it would be enough if he aligned his enemies and pagans like this. [He makes nothing but husks and whoremongers out of them, and they are to be God's people and Christ's grandfathers, and the two, his sons, are desperate boys. One of them, when he should beget children for his brother, pours it out on the ground, of which it is not lawful to preach, and yet, alas, all too much is done with maidens and boys; but he says it scantily, that he has the wife in bed, but before she should be fruitful, rather he deprives her of seed, that she could not have children. It may be preached crudely, but we must also speak of the other crude things; for God created the natural course as well as eating and drinking. Man and woman belong together in marriage, but whoever abuses it will surely find his punishment.
(5) All this, I say, is written for our admonition, that we may take hold of such rude things, how pious nature is, when God removes His hand from His great, dear saints, that they are even boys like us; so that God will not suffer us to boast of our powers and fortunes, but praise His unspeakable mercy. So that Judah leads a life like another heathen; nor will he be exalted in God's kingdom, not by the mere grace and goodness of God, who gives him sin, even though he deserves the contradiction; that nothing counts before God but the knowledge of His grace; whoever sees this sees God's kingdom; whether he does not fall, that it is God's mercy, not his ability; but if he falls, he will not perish because of it. So the saints must be put to shame for our sake, so that their nature is of no value, but only His work and grace. There is nothing inherent in us but wicked sin and shame; not one thing alone, but all things. Flesh and blood are good for nothing but stealing, murdering, robbing, cursing and blaspheming. Therefore this is a gross, carnal example, but as comforting as one in Scripture, even though flesh and blood turns up its nose at it and considers it shameful to hear.
006 But what shall we say to Thamar, his cord? She knew that he was her brother-in-law, so how does she insist before God that she is doing this on purpose, and gives him
Cause to sin, is not afraid of the friendship, that she had his sons? For it was forbidden that the cord and the brother-in-law should not touch each other; therefore he did not want to recognize her or have her as his wife after that. Summa, she also acted like a whore, although she put on an appearance and wanted to adorn it. Her first husband, Ger, was so mischievous that God did not let him live long. Then she took the other, who was also an arch-rogue, robbing her of the fruit. The third son [Sela] is now young, and the father was afraid that he would die too if he took her. But she knew that the son was also due to her. So far she was right and had a good conscience; but when she saw that he had given him another wife, she used deceit and made herself believe that he did not know her. That was deceit, and a. Harlotry.
(7) So they must be allowed to remain flesh and blood, and their works must be held in low esteem, even if they have done evil, (1) but God's grace must be seen in them. They are both in great sins. He does it in the opinion that she is a whore; but she, that he is her sister. That was even harder; still God gifted them with two sons, and Perez remains in the line of Christ. This must be read gloriously in the Gospel in all the world, and sing and say of fornication. Therefore, we also want to honestly confess that they have both been grossly deceived, even though God gave it to them; in addition, so that one sees how Christ came for the sake of sinners to help them, and is not at all ashamed that he has harlots and knaves in his family, and does not want to extinguish the rhyme; so we also have to let it stand.
(8) But this does not give room to those who say, "Now I will do what I desire. God can indeed see through the fingers of those who fall from the infirmity of flesh and blood, but He will not suffer willfulness and defiance.
(9) Further, we see that the law of Moses is very old, but it was changed again by Moses; when a brother died without an heir, the next brother or friend was guilty.
1) Erlanger: are.
to take the wife, and to raise him: seed [Deut. 25, 5.] [It] has been an old custom, perhaps arisen from Adam. Thus one reads of the Ruth, which took the Boaz; because he was her after-husband 2) [Ruth 4, 10.].
But it was a strange, difficult law, and must have been pious people who could have passed it. Therefore we read that the kings and lords have had many wives, the more part because they died to them. [It was also difficult and hard for the wives, that they had to go to their closest friends, and often had to be Cinderellas.
There is nothing else special in this chapter, except the main part, that God allows such shameful histories to be written, and yet in them he presents such a noble, comforting doctrine of his grace and goodness, to prove his miracles even in sins. For he is the God who makes life out of death, pious people out of sinners, and wins the best out of that which is 3) lost.
012 Now if the years should be reckoned, Judah was yet a young man when he did commit adultery, that is, soon after Joseph was sold, who was but seventeen years old; [he] also might have been at variance with the brethren for the same iniquity, and have smitten himself from them among the strange Canaanites; will not have been much above eighteen years old when he took the wife. For he had three sons who are manly; so the wife must also have been eighteen or twenty years old when he slept with her. This can be taken off if one reckons back according to what Moses writes afterwards [Cap. 41, 46] that Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh. I say this so that one may see how fine the government was at that time, that the young people were soon given in marriage, so that the more fornication remained; although it still helped as much as it could. Finally, there are two children, as they are born, which belongs to the secret interpretation, which we will seek.
13. the woman's name is Thamar, and she is called
2) Nachmann = the second man after the first died.
3) "so" is missing in the Erlanger.
in German, a palm tree. Now under other kind of the tree is that it carries sweet fruits, which one calls dates; so the wood has before other trees the kind, if one makes beams from it, and weights them, then it bends upward against the load; the more one presses it, the more it wants over itself. Now in this history is meant the whole mystery and essence, which is called the Gospel and Law of God. For I have said that God especially chose the Jewish people, which is called the synagogue, the ancient church and Christianity, which was the bride of His Son and His own people; to whom He gave the law and the priesthood, to teach and instruct the people daily, that they might be godly. For thus we have heard above [Cap. 25, § 26. Cap. 31, § 33 ff. Cap. 19, § 23] that the women Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, item the two daughters of Lot, were all figures and models of the people of God, who were governed by his word; thus, that the seed, by which they became pregnant, is nothing else than God's word, which the soul receives through faith, and brings forth fruits of love.
014 Now therefore it is written here, that she taketh two brethren to wife, but the third she taketh not. Then she comes to Judah her brother-in-law in the guise of a harlot. So it goes among the people until this day. The first man was wicked in the sight of the Lord, therefore he slew him; these are the preachers and teachers, who are desperate wretches, together with the people, who sin openly against the law, and keep it not.
(15) But the other, which lieth with it, and yet corrupteth it, that it be not fruitful, nor able to conceive; these are they which also have the ministry of preaching among the Jews with appearance, but it is not rightly conducted, but is corrupted, that no fruit cometh of it. These are the hypocrites, who have the right text of God's word and the law, but do not conduct it in such a way that it is better, but let it fall, and mix it under the ground, forcing it on our work. For if one wants to preach the law rightly, one must do it in such a way that it does not teach works, but recognizes what we lack; as Paul says [Rom. 3:20], "Through the law comes knowledge of sin," and that one leads the consciences away from it to the
Knowledge of grace. That would be the right way to lead the seed, from which the souls become fruitful. Those who do not lead in this way, but in the way and work of men, never come to grace, nor to fruit. Therefore this is called Onan, that is, a laborious sermon, so that only the consciences are weighed down and tortured, and no one can enjoy.
16 These two kinds of people are always found among the people, either those who take the law to the wind and even give themselves into the entrenchment, or those who only lead it for the sake of appearances. The former are the nefarious, public scoundrels, the latter are hypocrites and works saints; both are put to death, that is, condemned and rejected by God.
017 And it came to pass, that the third son should take the wife; but she could not have him. Then she went and disguised herself as a harlot, and received from the brother-in-law without his knowledge and will. God has written this so that it may be seen. If it were a secular, pagan history, it would be called shameful and whorish, but because it is God's, it should be held in all honor. We have heard above [Cap. 27, 1. 23.We also heard how Isaac, being old and blind, was deceived, that he lacked the blessing of his first son, and struck Jacob through ignorance; which means that when God let the gospel go out, it happened in such a strange way that those who got the gospel did not miss it, and again they thought that the great men and priesthoods, the wise and holy ones, should get hold of it, so they fell away, and the fishermen, bad, lowly people, came and preached it to the world. It is not that God did not know or provide that it should happen this way, but that it seems to our eyes as if it were happening accidentally, because He poses Himself so strangely that one thinks He wants to do this, but He does something else and lets it happen as if He did not know.
18. because she 1) meets Judah here as roughly as he thinks she is a harlot, means that the gospel among the people hits only those who think they are sinners; when Peter spoke in the ships [Luc. 5, 8.]: "Lord, go out from me, because I am a sinful
1) "sie" is missing in the original edition, in the Wittenberg and in the Jena.
Man." And, as Christ says [Matth. 21, 31.], "Harlots and knaves will precede you in the kingdom of heaven." Then God comes, and gives the gospel, and makes the people fruitful, who before had no fruit, that they now bear twins. So the Jews are deceived; because those who should have it did not want to grasp and accept it, the others come, who know nothing about it, and think that it is another woman. So then it seems in all God's works, so that it seems to us and is in everyone's eyes, as if God had erred and given the gospel to those to whom it does not belong.
19. further the text speaks: He no longer took them to himself, nor recognized them; that is, Christ gave leave to the synagogue, that they should no longer keep their law and customs, and is now free. He has now brought out two sons, so he leaves it at that. And she proves it by the sign which he gave her, that she had conceived by him; that is, if you look at the Scriptures, you will see that it is so, and find the signs that it should be so. Thus she remains in honor, and proves that God is such a Lord, who gives his grace to poor wretches and sinners, and rejects the great saints.
(20) But that a rift arises in the body above the birth, and he who was last comes out first, and again the first comes out last, is again the same figure. The Jews, who were to be the first, put forth their hand at the first, as if they would do it and leave those behind; but when it comes to the meeting, the works remain behind, and faith comes forward; so that the other son does not come forth with the hand alone, but with his whole being. Therefore the summa is: The faithful must appear to be the last, and yet they are truly the first; as we have also seen enough above [Cap. 25, § 37 ff.] in Esau's and Jacob's history.
(21) The fact that each one had a red thread around his hand is the figure that all the saints of works are bloodthirsty and desolate, and enemies of those who have the right faith. Thus, in this figure we have pictured what God works through the gospel in His people, how He makes the first from the last and lets the others go, and that He does not want to suffer the preachers who lead God's word to works and corrupt it, but who let it remain pure in faith, so that it can produce fruit.