There he saw a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, and he married her. When he slept with her,
Parallel translations
- WEB Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her, and went in to her.
- KJV And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.
- BSB There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.
- NKJV And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her and went in to her.
- NASB Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her as a wife and had relations with her.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Judah marries a Canaanite woman, ignoring his family's concern to avoid such unions.
Overview
Abraham and Isaac had both taken care that their sons not marry Canaanites, yet Judah does so casually. The quick, undescribed union signals Judah's drift from his fathers' covenant convictions. God will nevertheless weave even this compromised marriage into His redemptive purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Chr 2:3The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah; which three were born to him of Shua’s daughter the Canaanitess. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in Yahweh’s sight; and he killed him.
- Gen 24:3I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
- Gen 3:6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.
- 2 Sam 11:2At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
- Judg 14:2He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me as my wife.”
- Judg 16:1Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.
- Gen 6:2God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
- 2 Cor 6:14Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
- Gen 6:4The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
- Gen 46:12The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
- Gen 34:2Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 38:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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