And Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Pherez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five.
Judah's line opens the tribal genealogies of Chronicles. This verse names a daughter-in-law as the mother of two of Judah's sons, counts five sons in all, and raises one question: why does God keep this on file?
One writer reads Chronicles against the earlier histories and finds the book's aim in its genealogies.
In Chronicles the ruin is read just as plainly as in the earlier books. But the point here is God's plan, settled in advance, to bring in His Only-begotten through a human line — His only begotten Son. That is to say, His purpose stands out more in Chronicles. The genealogy proves it, and gives the key to the book. The sin and rebellion of the kings brought ruin on the people, and God's purpose meets that ruin: His King shall reign.
Among the five is a firstborn who died under God's hand. Judah heads the tribes, but not for anything in himself.
God establishes the kingship according to His own counsels, and that is the character it always has in Chronicles. Judah comes first, and the Lawgiver comes from him. But God chooses Judah by pure grace, and his history teaches us this here. His wife, a Canaanite, gives him a firstborn, Er, whom the Lord killed because of his wickedness. So, just as in 1 Chronicles 1, we find the natural man first — the man whose whole history begins with the fall and judgment.
The stretch of names from Judah to David is short. What it contains is not flattering, and the writer of this comment refuses to look away from it.
Only a list of names from Judah to David! But can we find in the whole book of God a similar space as brief as this which contains so much of grace and of God's unchangeableness in purpose on the one side, and of the vileness of man's nature on the other? For the names here given are inseparably connected with both… Like Judah himself married to a Canaanite woman, take Er, Tamar, Perez — what vileness and shame!
Another writer reads Judah's whole story the same way — as failure that turns into a record of mercy.
In Judah's history we find Judah's utter wandering and misery. Yet in it, and out of it, comes the genealogy of grace. He marries Canaanites. Sin is in his family. He commits fornication with his own daughter-in-law. Everything had gone wrong. Yet out of this sprang Him in whom men should bless, saying, "May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah."
One commentator asks what brought each of the four women in Matthew's genealogy into the line.
The history of Tamar shows us, in God's own marvellous way, how Christ comes into connection with Judah. So her name appears in the Lord's genealogy in the gospel of Matthew, first of those four women's names. Their presence there shows the grace which has stooped to take up men… The record insists on Tamar's sin, as it insists on Rahab's faith. For Ruth to come in, the sentence of the law has to be set aside. And Bathsheba shows us grace triumphing even over a believer's sin… Tamar's sin alone brought her into the Lord's genealogy, and God has taken pains to record this striking fact, and record it twice.
One writer takes both names as descriptions and follows the line that came from each.
Shelah is fruitful, but Tamar's seed much more. From it Perez, the "breaker forth," breaks out into a vast fruitfulness, which fills up all the later history of Judah. From her come her kings, and her great King. Twin with Perez comes Zerah, or the sunrise. From him come singers later, such as Ethan, and warriors, such as Shammah, Sibbechai and Maharai, sturdy defenders of the throne.
The elders blessing Boaz's house reached back for a pattern and named Perez.
Is it not remarkable that this record should begin with Perez? Or that the elders and the people should hold up the house of Perez as the pattern of blessing for the house of Boaz — "May your house be like the house of Perez"? Who was Perez? Let Genesis 38 answer… But it was through Perez, son of Tamar, that the promised blessing had to come. God led His line of promise through base things of the world, and took up those whom man would reject. This was to magnify His grace and exalt His name.
- Five, then judged. The five include a firstborn the Lord struck down. Nature comes first, then God sets it aside, and the line goes on by grace rather than birth right.
- Named, not hidden. The record keeps Judah's failures in plain sight — Canaanite marriages, sin in the family, his own daughter-in-law — and out of that comes the genealogy of grace.
- Her sin is her title. Tamar enters the Lord's genealogy by the very thing that shamed her. Rahab enters by faith, and Bathsheba by grace over a believer's sin.
- Breaking forth. Perez means the one who breaks out. From him come Judah's kings and Judah's great King. From Zerah, the sunrise, come singers and defenders of that throne.
- The pattern household. God ran His line of promise through what men would reject. Then He made that house the blessing spoken over others, so that His King should reign.
The sons of Pherez Hezron and Hamul.
This verse is a single link in a chain: it names two sons of Perez, and the list runs on from here toward David. The names look bare, yet commentators find in them both the shame of the family they come from and the purpose of God that runs through it.
The chapter does not linger over Judah's family for its own sake. It moves fast, and the speed itself says what the book is about.
God's people are now in view. Not all Abraham's sons, not all Isaac's sons, but of Israel's sons, not one is left out... even the people themselves get little notice until the KING appears. So the account runs quickly from Judah the son of Israel to David (verses 3-15). The account gives just enough of the king's line of descent to show that he is of the tribe of Judah... Of the twelve sons of Israel, Judah takes first place. This is not to tell us about Judah, but about Him who came from Judah — the KING first, and afterwards the children of the Kingdom.
Perez came from Judah by Tamar — a history no family would advertise. Put the names of this short list side by side, and two things stand out at once.
Only a list of names from Judah to David! But can we find anywhere in the book of God a space this short that holds so much? On one side, grace and God's unchanging purpose. On the other, the vileness of man's nature. ... Like Judah himself, married to a Canaanite woman, take Er, Tamar, Perez — what vileness and shame! There is a Hezron and a Boaz, and with them greatness and godliness. But there is also an Achan, marked out as "the troubler of Israel, who transgressed in the thing devoted to destruction."
One writer reads the whole later history of Judah out of the meaning of Perez's name.
Shelah is fruitful, but Tamar's seed much more. From that seed Perez, the "breaker forth," breaks out into abundant fruit, and that fruit fills up all the later history of Judah. From this line come her kings, and her great King. Twin with Perez comes Zerah, the [sun] rise. From him come later singers, such as Ethan, and warriors, such as Shammah, Sibbechai, and Maharai, stout defenders of the throne.
Another writer notes that this "breaking through" and "rising up" come at one of the darkest moments in human history. He sees a sign that God had "another order of manhood in view, a generation which should reach its climax in the Beloved, in David."
The verse names only two families of Perez. One writer weighs both names for meaning.
Two families of Perez have special mention: Hezron ("enclosure"?), and Hamul ("compassionate"). They may represent two tendencies that easily come into conflict with each other, though they should not. Their true meaning shows when the two are joined.
The question mark is the writer's own — he is offering a suggestion, not a settled reading. Other lists of name meanings give "Hezron — walled in" and "Hamul — one who has been pitied."
These two names appear again in the record of the going down to Egypt. There one writer explains why they belong on the list at all.
The historian stops at Zerah and adds an extra note. Er and Onan were on the list of sons, but they did not go down to Egypt — they died before. And Perez's sons were Hezron and Hamul. They are looked at as filling up the breach... Er and Onan never got down, for they died, and Perez had two sons, who are counted in to supply their place.
Two sons of Judah died out of the line, and two sons of Perez take their place. The care behind these records had a purpose far beyond the family itself:
These family records were kept wonderfully, yes divinely. They were kept so that the title of Jesus of Nazareth to the throne might be established both in law and in nature: by law the Son of Joseph, by birth the Son of Mary.
- Shame. The short run of names from Judah to David holds grace and human vileness together — Judah, Tamar, Perez on one side, Hezron and Boaz on the other.
- Breach. Er and Onan died out of the line; Hezron and Hamul are counted in as "filling up the breach," supplying their place.
- Breaking through. Perez means "breaker forth," and from him the line breaks out into abundant fruit that fills the rest of Judah's history.
- Purpose. The chapter barely notices the people until the king appears: Judah is named not for his own sake, but for Him who came from Judah.
- Title. These records were divinely kept so that Jesus of Nazareth could be shown the rightful heir to the throne, by law and by birth.