And it came, &c.— Moses relates this transaction because it concerned the principal end which his history had in view; namely, to transmit the genealogy of Christ, who descended from Abraham by Judah; see Matthew 1:3. Le Clerc observes: "Though these words seem to connect the following events with the former chapter, yet some of them, particularly Judah's marriage, which leads to the rest, must have happened long before Joseph was sold into AEgypt; and both Judah and his children too must have married young, else the chronology will not agree; for Joseph was born six years before Jacob came into Canaan," ch. Genesis 30:25.Genesis 31:41. When he was sold into AEgypt, he was seventeen years old, ch. Genesis 37:2; Genesis 37:28. He was thirty, when he interpreted Pharaoh's dream, ch. Genesis 41:46. And nine years after, when there had been seven years plenty, and two years famine, did Jacob, with his family, go down into AEgypt, ch. Genesis 41:53-54.Genesis 45:6; Genesis 45:11. And at their going down thither, Pharez, the son of Judah, (whose birth is set down in the end of this chapter,) had two sons, Hezron and Hamul, ch. Genesis 46:8-12. Seeing then, that from the selling of Joseph, until Israel's going down into AEgypt, there cannot be above three-and-twenty years, how is it possible that Judah should take a wife, have by her three sons, one after another, that Shelah, the youngest of the three, should be marriageable when Judah begat Pharez of Tamar, Genesis 38:14; Genesis 38:24. and Pharez be grown up, married, and have two sons, all within so short a space as three-and-twenty years? This chapter must therefore be placed out of the order of time; and the events here recorded must have happened soon after Jacob came from Mesopotamia into Canaan, though Moses, for some special reasons, relates them in this place. We may add, that the words then, in those days, at that time, often refer in Scripture to a considerable space of time, Deuteronomy 10:8. 2 Kings 20:1.Matthew 3:13; Matthew 25:1. See ch. Genesis 46:12.
A certain Adullamite— An inhabitant of the city Adullam, which lay to the west of Hebron, and will be found frequently spoken of in the history of David. Shuah (whose daughter Judah met with at the house of the Adullamite) was a Canaanite; consequently this connection was highly blameable in Judah.