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Genesis 38:13
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11 Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, a“Remain a widow in your father’s house till my son Shelah is grown.” For he said, “Lest he also die like his brothers.” And Tamar went and dwelt bin her father’s house.  
12 Now in the process of time the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died; and Judah awas comforted, and went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.  
13 And it was told Tamar, saying, “Look, your father-in-law is going up ato Timnah to shear his sheep.”  
14 So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and asat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she saw bthat Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife.  
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face.
16 Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
Commentaries:


No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Genesis 38:13.

Genesis 38:13-14

You see, her widow's garments would have identified her to the outside world as a widow. But she took them off from her, ...

Judah thought she was a harlot because of the way she was dressed. That is why it specifically said she took off her normal clothing. Now what was in her heart? She wanted a husband that was promised to her, and the way she decided to get it was to seduce Judah, and so she seduced him using clothing. That must have been, for the times anyway, pretty revealing, because he fell right into the trap.

Excerpted from Knowing God: Formality and Customs (Part 4)

Genesis 38:13-14

Now you come to her motives for what she was doing here. She saw that Judah was tricking her, or keeping her from what was rightfully hers. Whether she was thinking that she would be barren (because, remember, she was probably by this time in her early twenties and beginning to feel like she was an old maid) and that Judah had a responsibility to her and he was not fulfilling it. Like Sarah and Rachel, and others, she was going to somehow take matters into her own hands and work this out. So she decides to pose as a harlot.

Excerpted from Christ's Female Ancestors

 
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