128 Is The Bible God’s Word?“harlot” and that she was with "CHILD BY WHOREDOM AND
JUDAH SAID, BRING HER FORTH, AND LET HER BE BURNT."
(Genesis 38:24). Judah had deliberately spurned her as a “witch”
and now he sadistically wants to bum her. But this wily Jewess
was one up on the old man. She sent the “ring," the “bracelet,”
and the “staff," with a servant, beseeching her father-in-law to
find the culprit responsible for her pregnancy. Judah was in a fix.
He confessed that his daughter-in-law was more “RIGHTEOUS”
than himself, and “HE KNEW HER AGAIN NO MORE." (verse
26). It is quite an experience to compare the choice of language
in which the different Versions describe the same incident. The
Jehovah's Witnesses in their “ New World Translation” trans
late the last quotation as — "HE HAD NO FURTHER INTER
COURSE WITH HER AFTER THAT."' This is not the last we will
hear about in the “Book of God" of this Tamar whom the Gospel
writers have immortalized in their "Genealogy of their Lord.”
INCEST HONOURED1 do not want to bore you with details, but the end verses of
Genesis 38 deal with a duel in Tamar’s womb: about the twins
struggling for ascendancy. The Jews were very meticulous about
recording their “first-borns.” The first-bom got the lion’s share of
their father’s patrimony. Who are the lucky winners in this
prenatal race? There are four in this unique contest. They are
“ PHAREZ and ZARAH of TAM AR by JU D AH .” How? You
will see presently. But first, let us have the moral. What is the
moral in this episode? You remember Er and Onan: how God
destroyed them for their several sins? And the lessons we have
learnt in each case was “ REPROOF.” Under what category of
Timothy will you place the incest of Judah, and his illegitimate
progeny? All these characters are honoured in the "Book of God”
for their bastardy. They become the great grandfathers and great
grandmothers of the “ only begotten son of God.” (?)
- The Jehovah's Witness Version is more explicit in its choice of words. It does not hesitate
to call a spade a spade! Compare Ezekiel 23 with any other Version, and see the
difference.