Remain a widow, &c.— Hence it appears that the contract of marriage was so understood in those days, that if the husband died without issue, the woman must marry his next brother; and as long as any of his brethren remained, they were bound to marry his wife. It is difficult to determine with what intention Judah persuaded Tamar to retire to her father's house, till his son Shelah was grown up. Some think that it was only a pretence, and that he never intended to give her to his son.
REFLECTIONS.—Jacob is still more unhappy in his children. We have here, Judah's ill conduct. He leaves his brethren, and gets a Canaanite friend, one Hirah: bad connections for young people are very dangerous; evil communications corrupt good manners. There he meets a Canaanitish woman, and marries her. How many a youth has been thus trepanned by idle companions into a scandalous marriage, not only to the wounding of their consciences, but to the ruin of their future peace! How much wiser they who consult their parents, and make them their friends!