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.
Genesis 38 pauses the story of Joseph to record a shameful episode in Judah's family. The turning point comes when Judah, who had just ordered Tamar burned, gets back the pledge he had given her. He admits the guilt is his, and he names his own failure: he never gave her to his son Shelah. From that same family came the line that leads to Christ.
What "more righteous than I" means
Does Judah's sentence mean Tamar stood right before God? One writer answers from the Septuagint, the old Greek translation of the Old Testament.
William KellyThe sense here is not absolute justification but comparative justification. It is like Judah's words in the Septuagint version of Genesis 38:26: "Tamar is justified rather than I" — that is, more righteous.
Commentators differ over how much credit Judah's words deserve. Another writer thinks the comparison misses the real point.
L. M. GrantJudah at least gave her credit for being more righteous than he was (v. 26). But he was in fact more guilty than Tamar, and righteousness was not involved in the matter at all.
The double standard exposed
Judah was ready to burn Tamar for a sin he shared. The pledge she produced ended the pretence.
Edwin N. CrossJudah acts as if he is right and without blame. But he is the one with the greater guilt. It was he who caused Tamar to stumble and now he wants her punished... Judah was the prime mover in these sins and now he places all the blame on Tamar... He has a double standard, which is not acceptable to a holy God.
The same pattern in David
The same thing happened later in David. One writer sets the two men side by side.
An Outline of Sound WordsWhen Judah was told of Tamar's condition, he said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned." He was quick to pronounce the most severe sentence against a sin he had taken part in himself. So it was with David! When Nathan the prophet told him his parable, David burned with anger against the man in the story, and he swore to Nathan that the man who had done this must die.
Confession as the sign of a changed heart
Judah does not argue, shift the blame, or bury the evidence. The verse adds that he never went near Tamar again. One writer sees more than shame in that confession.
An Outline of Sound WordsWhen Judah exclaimed, "She is more righteous than I," we cannot doubt it was the evidence of a divine work in his soul. The precious fruit of that work came out later in his words to his father and to Joseph.
Another writer draws out what God does with such an admission.
Edwin N. CrossThis is the way God works. A frank confession will secure His mercy... Having established righteousness, He is now free to show mercy.
Grace running through the wreckage
Judah's own house bred the evil that shamed him. One writer traces what God still brought out of it.
William KellyIt was not Reuben or any other of the tribal heads, but Judah, who proposed the sale of Joseph. Now his own house showed the evil which drew down curse on curse. In the end its head had to own the sad shame of Tamar — more righteous than himself, though he had sentenced her to die by fire. Yet by this guilty Judah, and by Tamar, came He who cleanses from all sin by His blood.
Her name is written into the family record of Jesus. One writer explains why God put it there.
Frederick W GrantThe history of Tamar shows us in God's own marvellous way how Christ comes into connection with Judah, and so her name appears in the Lord's genealogy in the gospel of Matthew... It is Tamar's sin that is insisted on... Tamar's sin alone brought her into the Lord's genealogy, and God has taken pains to record it, and to record it twice. In the same way, simply as sinners, we have a title to rejoice in a work done for the need of sinners. Judah shall find in a coming day his title, not in legal righteousness, nor in descent from Abraham, but in what God has emphasized for us here.
Summary
- Compared. Judah's words weigh him against Tamar. They do not say that either of them stood righteous before God.
- Exposed. He was the prime mover in the sin, yet he demanded the harshest sentence on the woman he had wronged. A holy God will not accept that double standard.
- Repeated. David did the same when Nathan told his parable. He condemned in another man the sin he had committed himself.
- Owned. Judah hid nothing and blamed no one. Writers read that confession as the first evidence of God's work in him. It bore fruit in how he later spoke to his father and to Joseph.
- Redeemed. From this guilty man and this shamed woman came the line of Christ. Tamar's name stands in Matthew 1 not for her goodness, but as proof that salvation is for sinners.