John Gill Commentary Genesis 38

And it came to pass at that time
This some refer to the time of Jacob's coming from Padanaram into Canaan, soon after he came to Shechem, and before the affair of Dinah; but to this may be objected the marriage of Judah at an age that may seem too early for him, his separation from his brethren, and having a flock of his own to keep, which seems not consistent with the above history: wherefore it is better to connect this with the history of Joseph's being sold into Egypt; for though there were but twenty three years from hence to Jacob's going down into Egypt, Joseph being now seventeen, and was thirty years when he stood before Pharaoh, after which were seven years of plenty, and two of famine, at which time Jacob went thither with two of Judah's grandsons, Hezron and Hamul, (Genesis 46:12) , which make the number mentioned;

yet all this may be accounted for; at seventeen, Er, Judah's firstborn, might marry, being the eighteenth from the selling of Joseph, and the marriage of his father; and Onan at the same age, which was the nineteenth; and allowing two or three years for Tamar's staying for Shelah, there was time for her intrigue with Judah, and bearing him two sons at a birth, before the descent of Jacob into Egypt; as for his two grandsons, they may be said to go into Egypt; as Benjamin's sons did in their father's loins, being begotten there during Jacob's abode in it:

that Judah went down from his brethren :
not from Dothan to Adullam, as Ben Melech observes, as if this separation was at the time and place of the selling of Joseph; but rather from Hebron thither, after he and his brethren were come home to their father, and had reported and condoled the death of Joseph; and Judah is said to go down, because he went from the north to the south, as Aben Ezra notes; whether this departure from his brethren was owing to a misunderstanding or quarrel between them on account of the affair of Joseph, or on any account, is not certain:

and turned in to a certain Adullamite ;
an inhabitant of Adullam, a city which afterwards fell to the tribe of Judah, and where was a famous cave, that has its name from thence in David's time; it was ten miles from Eleutheropolis to the east ^F9 , and eight from Jerusalem to the southwest ^F11 ; hither he turned, or stretched out ^F12 ; that is, his tent, with his flock, which he extended to Adullam, as Ben Melech interprets it, and joined to this man, whose name [was] Hirah ;
whom the Jews ^F13 fabulously report to be the same with Hiram king of Tyre, in the days of David and Solomon, and that he was the husband of Nebuchadnezzar's mother, and lived twelve hundred years.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Jerom de loc. Heb. fol. 88. F.
• F11: Bunting's Travels, p. 78.
• F12: (jyw) "et tentorium fixerat", Schmidt.
• F13: Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 8. 2.

And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite
Onkelos and Jonathan, and so Jarchi and Ben Gersom, interpret it a "merchant", to take off the disgrace of his falling in love with, and marrying a Canaanitish woman, which was forbidden by his ancestors Abraham and Isaac, and which his father avoided:

whose name [was] Shuah ;
not the name of the woman he married, but the name of her father, as appears from (Genesis 38:12) ; and who very probably was a man of note in the country:

and he took her ;
to be his wife, with her and her father's consent, not by force:

and went in unto her ;
cohabited with her as his wife.

And she conceived, and bore a son, and he called his name Er. Which signifies a "watchman"; but the reason of the name given by the Targum of Jonathan is, "because he should die without children;" as if it was the same with Ariri, "childless".

And she conceived again, and bore a son As soon as she well could: and she called his name Onan; the first son Judah gave the name to, but his wife named this, so called from grief or sorrow; the reason of it, according to the above Targum, was, ``because his father would mourn for him;'' he was a Benoni, see (Genesis 35:18) , whose sin and immature death caused sorrow.

And she conceived, and bare a son; A third son: and called his name Shelah; which signifies tranquil, quiet, peaceable and prosperous, and is a word that comes from the same root as Shiloh, that famous son of Judah that should spring from him, (Genesis 49:10).

The reason of the name, as given by the Targum, is, ``because her husband forgot her:'' and she was at Chezib when she bare him;

Chezib is the name of a place, by some taken to be the same with Achzib or Ecdippe, now Zib, see (Micah 1:14); it seems to be a city in the tribe of Judah; and Jerom says, in his time there was a desert place of this name near Adullam, on the borders of Eleutheropolis; the reason of her being here at the time of her delivery, and of this circumstance being related, is not certain.