Lesson 19 – Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38)
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OPEN IT
1. Why is sex so effective in advertising?
EXPLORE IT
2. What did Judah do? (38:1-5)
3. Whom did Er marry, and what happened to him? (38:6-7)
4. What did Judah tell Onan to do, what did he do, and what happened to him? (38:8-10)
5. Why did Onan die? (38:8-10)
6. What did Tamar do? (38:11)
7. Why did Tamar go to live in her father's house? (38:11)
8. What did Tamar do when she heard that Judah had gone to Timnah? (38:13-14)
9. What happened to Judah and Tamar in Timnah? (38:15-19)
10. What did Judah do about his promise? (38:20-23)
11. How did Judah respond to the news about Tamar? (38:24)
12. How did Judah respond when he found out the truth? (38:25-26)
13. What happened when Tamar gave birth? (38:27-30)
GET IT
14. What makes sexual sin so tempting?
15. How should we deal with the temptation to engage in sexual immorality?
APPLY IT
16. What boundary or safeguard do you need this week to resist sexual temptation?
Explore It Answers
This section is designed to prompt thoughts about how and why to derive each scripture-based answer, so the actual answer is based upon individual study and may not be fully disclosed here. Here, also, are parallel verses for the key scripture texts.
Biblical Answer 2
What did Judah do? (38:1-5)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:1-5 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9
Biblical Answer 3
Whom did Er marry, and what happened to him? (38:6-7)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:6-7 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32
Biblical Answer 4
What did Judah tell Onan to do, what did he do, and what happened to him? (38:8-10)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:8-10 | Parallel Texts: Genesis 1:27; Genesis 9:6; James 3:9
Biblical Answer 5
Why did Onan die? (38:8-10)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:8-10 | Parallel Texts: Genesis 44:33-34; John 15:13; Romans 5:7-8
Biblical Answer 6
What did Tamar do? (38:11)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:11 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9
Biblical Answer 7
Why did Tamar go to live in her father's house? (38:11)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:11 | Parallel Texts: Genesis 50:20; Acts 7:9-10; Romans 8:28
Biblical Answer 8
What did Tamar do when she heard that Judah had gone to Timnah? (38:13-14)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:13-14 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9
Biblical Answer 9
What happened to Judah and Tamar in Timnah? (38:15-19)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:15-19 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32
Biblical Answer 10
What did Judah do about his promise? (38:20-23)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:20-23 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9
Biblical Answer 11
How did Judah respond to the news about Tamar? (38:24)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:24 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32
Biblical Answer 12
How did Judah respond when he found out the truth? (38:25-26)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:25-26 | Parallel Texts: Romans 12:18; Proverbs 16:7; Matthew 5:9
Biblical Answer 13
What happened when Tamar gave birth? (38:27-30)
Key Scripture: Genesis 38:27-30 | Parallel Texts: James 1:19-20; Proverbs 15:1; Ephesians 4:31-32
Commentary Summary
In Genesis 38:1-30, Judah and Tamar highlights doctrinal themes such as God’s character, human accountability, and the certainty of His redemptive purpose. The passage emphasizes the character of God, human accountability, and the certainty of His covenant purposes. The emphasis is theological, asking what the text teaches about creation, covenant, judgment, grace, salvation, and the trustworthiness of God. This summary is designed to identify the major truths being taught, not merely repeat the narrative details.
In Judah and Tamar, the flow of Genesis 38:1-30 emphasizes practical faith, obedience, and response to God. The lesson calls readers to trust God, obey His word, and respond to Him with reverence and faith. The focus here is pastoral and applicational, showing how the lesson challenges the reader to trust, repent, endure, worship, and walk in obedience. This summary is intentionally more devotional and exhortational so it does not simply duplicate the doctrinal wording used in the other commentary summaries.
Within the broader storyline of Genesis and the Bible as a whole, Genesis 38:1-30 helps move forward the pattern of promise, failure, mercy, and restoration that runs through Scripture. This section advances the book of Genesis by showing how God preserves His promise and moves the biblical story forward. This summary is shaped to sound more like a Bible Project overview by emphasizing literary flow, biblical themes, and how the lesson contributes to the unified story of Scripture. The goal is to locate the passage in the wider narrative rather than repeat the same doctrinal or devotional emphasis.
Last Week
Yet despite the deep divide among Jacob's sons, there is an even greater meaning to this chapter: the plan of God working despite the schism among his chosen people. Although God is never mentioned in this chapter, it is clear that his plan was revealed in Joseph's dreams, and it is certain that, even in the cruel and evil act of Joseph's brothers when they sold him into slavery, God was still at work not only to keep his promise to what would become the nation of Israel, but also to keep his promise to bless all nations through Abraham's offspring who would come from Israel to deliver the world from Adam's sin. That God is not mentioned at all in this chapter makes his work appear all the more powerful when his plan comes to fruition in Egypt many years later.
This Week
Once again, the narrative skips forward - this time three months - to when it became evident that Tamar was pregnant. The assumption was that as she was pregnant, and since she had no husband, she must have been engaging in prostitution to support herself. Since Judah still had a claim on her for his son Shelah, he felt no compunction about condemning her to death.
Next Week
Once again there is an ironic twist in the narration, since lifted up the head means two different things for these two servants: the cupbearer became an example of pardon from Pharaoh and the baker an example of Pharaoh's condemnation. These communicated both positive and negative messages for the rest of Pharaoh's courtiers. The fulfilment of the dreams is related in terms exactly matching the explanations given by Joseph: just as Joseph had interpreted for them (v.
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