Adullamite.—The town of Adullam, near which was David’s famous cave, has been clearly identified by Lieut. Conder (Tent-work, ii. 158). It lay in the great valley of Elah, which formed the highway from Hebron to the country of the Philistines, some two or three miles south of Shochoh, and fifteen or sixteen miles west by north from Hebron. Judah “went down” thither, not as Abenezra and others have supposed, because it was to the south, but because it was towards the sea, and the road is an actual descent from the hill country of Judah into the Shephelah, or lowland, in which Adullam was situated. The sons of Jacob often, probably, with a few retainers, made expeditions in search of pastures for their cattle; and Hirah, apparently, had shown Judah hospitality on some such journey, and finally a friendship had grown up between them. “Turned in to,” however, literally means pitched (his tent) close by; and the friendship between Judah and Hirah, thus accidentally formed, seems to have ended in Hirah taking the charge of Judah’s cattle.

At Kezib. - This appears the same as Akzib, which is associated with Keilah and Mareshah Joshua 15:44, and therefore, lay in the south of the lowland of Judah. This note of place indicates a change of residence since her other children were born. In the year after this birth the dishonor of Dinah takes place. "Took a wife for Er." Judah chose a wife for himself at an early age, and now he chooses for his first-born at the same age. "Was evil in the eyes of the Lord." The God of covenant is obliged to cut off Er for his wickedness in the prime of life. We are not made acquainted with his crime; but it could scarcely be more vile and unnatural than that for which his brother Onan is also visited with death. "And be a husband to her." The original word means to act as a husband to the widow of a deceased brother who has left no issue. Onan seems to have been prompted to commit his crime by the low motive of turning the whole inheritance to his own house. At the time of Er's death Judah must have been in his twenty-seventh year; Joseph was consequently in his twenty-third, and Jacob had for ten years past had his headquarters at Hebron. Hence, the contact with Timnah, Adullam, and Enaim was easy.

Ge 38:1-30. Judah and Family.

1. at that time—a formula frequently used by the sacred writers, not to describe any precise period, but an interval near about it.Judah marries a Canaanitish woman, who bears him three sons, Genesis 38:1-5. He marries his eldest son to Tamar, Genesis 38:6. He being wicked is slain by God, Genesis 38:7. The second son is commanded to marry her, Genesis 38:8. His wickedness, Genesis 38:9; and death, Genesis 38:10. He promises her his third son, but performs not, Genesis 38:11. She by a subtle practice commits incest with him, Genesis 38:13. He gives her a pledge, Genesis 38:18. She is found with child; Judah commands her to be burnt, Genesis 38:24. She brings to her father the pledge, Genesis 38:25. He acknowledges it; acquits her, and condemns himself, Genesis 38:26. She brings forth two sons, Genesis 38:27-30.

This story is not without difficulty, if we consider how little time is allowed for all the events of this chapter, there being not above twenty-three years between Judah’s marriage and the birth of Pharez, yea, and the birth of his sons too, Hezron and Hamul, who are said to go into Egypt with Jacob, Genesis 46:12. But there are two ways proposed for the resolution of it, as the phrase, at that time, may be understood two ways; either,

1. More largely, for the time since Jacob’s return from Padan to Canaan, and so the history may be conceived thus, Judah was married some years before the selling of Joseph, though it be here mentioned after it, and so out of its place, as being the foundation of all the following events, which are here placed together, because they followed the selling of Joseph. Judah, and Er, and Onan, and afterwards Pharez, are supposed each to marry and have a child at fourteen years old, which, though unusual, wants not examples both in sacred and profane writers. And they that will quarrel with the Scripture, and question its authority for some such uncustomary occurrences which it relates, show more of impiety than wisdom in it, and shall do well to consider, that God might so order things by his providence, and record such things in his word, upon the same account on which he hath put several other difficult passages in Scripture, partly to try and exercise men’s faith, humility, and modesty; and partly to punish the evil minds of ungodly men, and for their sins to lay an occasion of stumbling and cavilling at the Scriptures before them that greedily seek and gladly catch at all such occasions. Or,

2. More strictly, for the time following the sale of Joseph, which seems the more probable way, and so the story lies thus, Judah was now about twenty years old when he married, and the three first years he hath three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. The two first marry each when they were about seventeen years old. Three years after both their deaths, and when Shelah had been marriageable a year or two, and was not given to Tamar, Judah lies with Tamar and begets upon her Pharez. But as for Hezron and Hamul, they are said to go into Egypt with Jacob, as also Benjamin’s ten sons are said to go with him thither, to wit, in their father’s loins, because they were begotten by their father in Egypt, whilst Jacob lived there, of which more in its proper place.

Judah went down from his brethren; probably in discontent, upon occasion of quarrels arisen among them about the selling of Joseph, whereof Judah was a great promoter, if not the first mover.

A certain Adullamite, of the city of Adullam; of which see Joshua 12:15 15:35.

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 had its name from thence in David's time; it was ten miles from Eleutheropolis to the east (i), and eight from Jerusalem to the southwest (k); hither he turned, or stretched out (l); 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 (m) 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.

(i) Jerom de loc. Heb. fol. 88. F. (k) Bunting's Travels, p. 78. (l) "et tentorium fixerat", Schmidt. (m) Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 8. 2.

(a) Moses describes the genealogy of Judah, because the Messiah should come from him.