Tamar’s righteousness from generation to generation

About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.  And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.

Judah, as he is found here in Genesis 38, hardly seems like someone with trustworthy discernment about who is righteous or not. But through the generations Tamar’s righteousness was remembered by Judah’s descendents as an established fact.

“We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

So far from forgetting what Tamar did, she is remembered as the one who heroically gave Perez to Judah despite Judah’s best efforts to destroy his own inheritance. Her struggles are like those of Rachel and Leah who themselves built up Jacob’s house in much distress.

It all brought about fruitfulness and prosperity and there is no sign that anyone feels ashamed. They invoke the whole story as one of triumph and blessing.

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