persistently evaded the sacred duty of raising up seed to his brother. It is not correct to say (with Gu.) that his only offence was his selfish disregard of his deceased brother's interests.—11. Judah sends Tamar home to her family, on the pretext that his third son Shelah is too young to marry her. His real motive is fear lest his only surviving son should share the fate of 'Er and 'Onan, which he plainly attributes in some way to Tamar herself.—in thy father's house] according to the law for a childless widow (Lv. 2213, Ru. 18).
The custom of levirate marriage here presupposed prevailed widely
in primitive times, and is still observed in many parts of the world. In
its Hebrew form it does not appear to have implied more than the duty
of a surviving brother to procure male issue for the oldest member of a
family, when he dies childless: the first-born son of the union is counted
the son, and is the heir, to the deceased; and although in Dt. 255ff. the
widow is said to become the wife of her brother-in-law, it may be
questioned if in early times the union was more than temporary. It is
most naturally explained as a survival, under patriarchal conditions, of
some kind of polyandry, in which the wife was the common property
of the kin-group (Smith, KM2, 146 ff.); and it naturally tended to be
relaxed with the advance of civilisation. Hence the law of Dt. 255-10 is
essentially a concession to the prevalent reluctance to comply with the
custom. This is also illustrated by the conduct of 'Onan: the sanctity
of the obligation is so strong that he does not dare openly to defy it;
yet his private family interest induces him to defeat its purpose. It is
noteworthy that the only other historical example of the law—the
analogous though not identical case of Boaz and Ruth—also reveals the
tendency to escape its operation.—See Dri. Deut. 280 ff. (with the
authorities there cited); also Engert, Ehe- und Familienrecht, 15 ff.;
Barton, SO1, 66 ff.
Judah's belief that Tamar was the cause of the deaths of 'Er and 'Onan (v.s.) may spring from an older form of the legend, in which she was actually credited with death-dealing power. Stucken and Je. recognise in this a common mythical motive,—the goddess who slays her lovers,—and point to the parallel case of Sara in the Book of Tobit (38). Tamar and Sara (šarratu, a title of Ištar) were originally forms of Ištar (ATLO2, 381 f.). The connexion is possible; and if there be any truth in Barton's speculation that the date-palm was sacred to Ištar (SO1, 92, 98, 102 ff.), it might furnish an explanation of the name Tamar.
12-19. Tamar's daring stratagem.—12. Bath-Shūa']
See the footnote.—was comforted] a conventional phrase for
11. (
Hebrew characters)] Ba. al. propose (Hebrew characters), after Lv. 2213; but see Is. 478.—12.
(Hebrew characters)] Apparently a compound proper name, as in 1 Ch. 23 =
