Genesis 38:20

Maimonides {c} says, before the law was given, if a man met a woman in the street, and he and she agreed, he gave her hire, and he lay with her, and went away, and such an one was called "Kedeshah", a harlot, the word used afterwards for Tamar: and she conceived by him; she proved with child upon it. {c} Hilchot lshot, c. 1. sect. 4. Genesis 38:19 Ver. 19. And she arose and went away,.... To her father's house immediately, as soon as ever she had parted with Judah; and lest she should be found by the person that would be sent with the kid, and be discovered, she made all the haste she could: and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood; that it might not be known or suspected that she had been abroad. Genesis 38:20 Ver. 20. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite,.... Who went with him to Timnath, and was privy to all this wickedness, and kept the secret; but would have acted the more friendly and faithful part had he dissuaded him from it: him he employed to carry the kid he had promised, and not any of his servants, for the greater secrecy: and to receive [his] pledge from the woman's hand; his signet, bracelets, and staff, or whatever they were: but he found her not; she was gone from the place where she sat, or where she retired to with Judah. Genesis 38:21 Ver. 21. Then he asked the men of that place,....

38:1-30 The profligate conduct of Judah and his family. - This chapter gives an account of Judah and his family, and such an account it is, that it seems a wonder that of all Jacob's sons, our Lord should spring out of Judah, Heb 7:14. But God will show that his choice is of grace and not of merit, and that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. Also, that the worthiness of Christ is of himself, and not from his ancestors. How little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah, to boast as they did, Joh 8:41. What awful examples the Lord proclaims in his punishments, of his utter displeasure at sin! Let us seek grace from God to avoid every appearance of sin. And let that state of humbleness to which Jesus submitted, when he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, in appointing such characters as those here recorded, to be his ancestors, endear the Redeemer to our hearts.

And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite,.... Who went with him to Timnath, and was privy to all this wickedness, and kept the secret; but would have acted the more friendly and faithful part had he dissuaded him from it: him he employed to carry the kid he had promised, and not any of his servants, for the greater secrecy: and to receive his pledge from the woman's hand; his signet, bracelets, and staff, or whatever they were: but he found her not; she was gone from the place where she sat, or where she retired to with Judah.

18. signet, &c.—Bracelets, including armlets, were worn by men as well as women among the Hebrews. But the Hebrew word here rendered "bracelets," is everywhere else translated "lace" or "ribbon"; so that as the signet alone was probably more than an equivalent for the kid, it is not easy to conjecture why the other things were given in addition, except by supposing the perforated seal was attached by a ribbon to the staff.

Judah now comes into criminal, and, though unknown to him, incestuous sexual intercourse with Tamar. "And many were the days," a year or somewhat more. "To Timnah." This town is about twenty miles northwest of Hebron. There is another, however, in the hills about seven miles south of Hebron. "Put on a veil;" to conceal her face from Judah, or any other beholder. "The qate of Enaim." This is supposed to be the same as Enam Joshua 15:34 . "And thy lace." This is the cord by which the signet was suspended round his neck. "Courtesan." The original word קדשׁה qedêshâh means one consecrated to the worship of Ashtoreth, in which chastity is sacrificed.

After this had occurred, Thamar laid aside her veil, put on her widow's dress again, and returned home. When Judah, therefore, sent the kid by his friend Hirah to the supposed harlot for the purpose of redeeming his pledges, he could not find her, and was told, on inquiring of the inhabitants of Enayim, that there was no קדשׁה there. הקּדשׁה: lit., "the consecrated," i.e., the hierodule, a woman sacred to Astarte, a goddess of the Canaanites, the deification of the generative and productive principle of nature; one who served this goddess by prostitution (vid., Deuteronomy 23:18 ). This was no doubt regarded as the most respectable designation for public prostitutes in Canaan.

Ephesians 1:14 . ὅς ἐστιν ἀρραβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν : which is an earnest of our inheritance . So with the RV, rather than “who is the earnest,” etc., of the AV. The reading ὅ is preferred by Lachm., Alf., WH, etc., as supported by [72] [73] [74] [75], Athan., Cyr., Chrys., etc. The TR is the reading of [76] [77] [78], Thdrt., Damasc., Theophyl., etc.; the masc. form ὅ being due to attraction to the following ἀρραβών , as, e.g. , in τῷ σπέρματί σου ὅς ἐστι Χριστός , Galatians 3:16 . The word ἀρραβών (or ἀραβών , the form preferred by Tisch. and regarded by WH as only Western, cf. Westcott and Hort’s New Testament in Greek , II., App., p. 148) is the LXX reproduction of the Heb. צֲרָבוֹן which occurs in Genesis 38:17-18 ; Genesis 38:20 and is rendered “pledge”. It is found in classical Greek of earlier date than the LXX ( e.g. , Isaeus, De Cir. her. , 23; Aristotle, Pol. , i., 11; Menander, Frag. Com. (Meineke), iv., pp. 268, 283; etc., cf. Light., Notes, ut sup. , p. 323), and is supposed, therefore, to have come from the Phœnicians into Greek use. At an early date it was introduced also into Latin, but by what channel we know not. In Latin it occurs in the three forms- arrabo, rabo ( e.g. , in Plautus, Truc. , iii., 20), and arra ( e.g. , Aul. Gell., xvii., 2). It survives in the forms arra, arrhes in the languages most directly derived from the Latin; as also in our arles , the obsolete English earlespenny , etc.

In this there is nothing miraculous, or in the nature of direct revelation. It consists of the ordinary operations of the Spirit on the heart, producing repentance, faith, hope, joy, conformity to God, the love of prayer and praise, and the Christian virtues generally; and these things are the evidences that the Holy Spirit has renewed the heart, and that the Christian is sealed for the day of redemption. And given the earnest of the Spirit - The word used here (ἀῤῥαβών arrabōn from the Hebrew צרבון ‛arabown means properly a pledge given to ratify a contract; a part of the price, or purchase money; a first payment; that which confirms the bargain, and which is regarded as a pledge that all the price will be paid. The word occurs in the Septuagint and Hebrew, in Genesis 38:17-18; Genesis 38:20. In the New Testament it occurs only in this place, and in 2 Corinthians 5:5, and Ephesians 1:14, in each place in the same connection as applied to the Holy Spirit, and his influences on the heart. It refers to those influences as a pledge of the future glories which await Christians in heaven. In regard to the "earnest," or the part of a price which was paid in a contract, it may be remarked: (1) That it was of the same nature as the full price, being regarded as a part of it; (2) It was regarded as a pledge or assurance that the full price would be paid.

14 . the earnest ] The Gr. word is arrhabôn . It appears in the LXX. (only in Genesis 38:17-18 ; Genesis 38:20 ); in the later Greek classics (e.g. Aristotle); and in the Latin classics. It is Shemitic (Heb. ’êrâbhôn , Genesis 38) by derivation. See further, Additional Note, p. 164. It probably reached the Greeks and Latins through the (Shemitic) Phenician traders. By derivation it has to do with exchange , and so first means a pledge (the word used here by the ancient Latin versions) to be exchanged between two parties to an agreement—first given, then on fulfilment returned. But usage brought it to the kindred meaning of an earnest; a part of a price, given as a tangible promise of the payment of the whole in time. Thus it is defined by the Greek lexicographers. It was used for the bridegroom’s betrothal-gifts to the bride; a case exactly in point here. In ecclesiastical Latin, prose and verse, it appears usually in the shortened form arra . It survives in the French arrhes , the money paid to strike a bargain.— Arrhâbôn occurs elsewhere in N. T. 2 Corinthians 1:22 ; 2 Corinthians 5:5 . There, as here, it denotes the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the saints, as the part-payment of their coming “weight of glory,” the inmost essence of which is the complete attainment ( 1 John 3:2 ) of that likeness to their Lord which the Spirit begins and developes here ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ).