1At that time, Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2There, Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite man named Shua. He took her, and went in to her. 3She conceived, and bore a son; and he named him Er. 4She conceived again, and bore a son; and she named him Onan. 5She yet again bore a son, and named him Shelah. He was at Chezib when she bore him. 6Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in Yahweh’s sight. So Yahweh killed him. 8Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” 9Onan knew that the offspring wouldn’t be his; and when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. 10The thing which he did was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and he killed him also. 11Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
12After many days, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite. 13Tamar was told, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” 14She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife. 15When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law.
She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
17He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.”
She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”
18He said, “What pledge will I give you?”
She said, “Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.”
He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him. 19She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. 20Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, but he didn’t find her. 21Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?”
They said, “There has been no prostitute here.”
22He returned to Judah, and said, “I haven’t found her; and also the men of the place said, ‘There has been no prostitute here.’” 23Judah said, “Let her keep it, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this young goat, and you haven’t found her.”
24About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute. Moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution.”
Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” 25When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “I am with child by the man who owns these.” She also said, “Please discern whose these are—the signet, and the cords, and the staff.”
26Judah acknowledged them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, because I didn’t give her to Shelah, my son.”
He knew her again no more. 27In the time of her travail, behold, twins were in her womb. 28When she travailed, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This came out first.” 29As he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out, and she said, “Why have you made a breach for yourself?” Therefore his name was called Perez. 30Afterward his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
The genealogy of Matthew departs from the standard recording of the history of a Jewish family line, in that it contains women within the genealogy. Additionally significant is that each of the women has a problematic past, and a couple of the women, even a sordid past. Let us look at each woman in the order in which she appears in the Bible.
Tamar had a number of marriages to the sons of Judah, who each died, and she married another son, based on the levirate law, in which surviving sons must marry a widowed daughter-in-law. When Judah was willing to violate this law, and he denied her right to marry another son, Tamar acted as a prostitute to trick him into bearing two sons to her (Gen 38:27-30), one whose name was Perez, an ancestor of Jesus.
The next woman mentioned is more familiar to the average reader of the Bible. Rahab was the prostitute who hid the two spies when they were inside the city of Jericho (Josh 2:1-21; 6:22-25). Due to her faith (Heb 11:30-31), she was preserved when Jericho was destroyed. What is most significant in the story of Rahab is that she was the mother of Boaz, the person who later married Ruth.
Ruth was not an Israelite, but was rather a woman of Moab, with no claim to an inheritance in Israel, even though she married one of the sons of Elimelech (God is my king) and Naomi (pleasant), and accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem. Boaz fulfilled his duty as a kinsman redeemer, taking Ruth as his wife. From them comes Obed, who begat Jesse, the father of David the king (Ruth 4:17-22).
Bathsheba is not mentioned by name in the genealogy, but identified as the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was a faithful soldier in the army of David the King (2 Sam 11:1-27), who died in battle at David's design (2 Sam 11:14-18). One cannot be sure why Matthew chose not to mention her by name, but it may be that this emphasizes that David the king had unlawful sex with another man's wife, and so had not married her before she became pregnant with a son who died as a baby (2 Sam 12: 13-19), even though afterwards she bore king Solomon (2 Sam 12:24-25).
The last woman to be mentioned is Mary (Matt 1:18-25), the virgin who was especially blessed to become the mother of Jesus, God in the flesh. The author is careful to indicate that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but he was not the Father of Jesus, whose physical beginning came through the Holy Spirit.
All of these women were special in the plan of God, and though each were outcasts by human standards they were women of faith according to the Bible, important to the coming of the King Messiah Jesus.