Wesley Corpus

Chapter XXXVIII How little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah, to boast, as they did, that they were not born of fornication John 8:41. We have in this chapter, Judah's marriage and issue, and the untimely death of his two eldest sons, ver. 1 - 11. Judah's incest with his daughter - in - law Tamar, ver. 12 - 23. His confusion when it was discovered, ver. 24 - 26. The birth of his twin sons in whom his family was built up, ver. 27 - 30. Judah went down from his brethren - Withdrew for a time from his father's family, and got intimately acquainted with one Hirah an Adullamite. When young people that have been well educated begin to change their company, they will soon change their manners, and lose their good education. They that go down from their brethren, that forsake the society of the seed of Israel, and pick up Canaanites for their companions, are going down the hill apace. He took her - To wife. His father, it should seem, was not consulted, but by his new friend Hirah. And Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord - That is, in defiance of God and his law. And what came of it Why God cut him off presently, The Lord slew him. The next brother Onan was, according to the ancient usage, married to the widow, to preserve the name of his deceased brother that died childless. This custom of marrying the brother's widow was afterward made one of the laws of Moses, Deu 25:5. Onan, though he consented to marry the widow, yet to the great abuse of his own body, of the wife he had married, and the memory of his brother that was gone, he refused to raise up seed unto his brother. Those sins that dishonour the body are very displeasing to God, and the evidence of vile actions. Observe, the thing which he did displeased the Lord - And it is to be feared, thousands, especially of single persons, by this very thing, still displeased the Lord, and destroy their own souls. Shelah the third son was reserved for the widow, yet with design that he should not marry so young as his brothers had done, lest he die also.