Judah's Wicked Sons
Rabbi Yehudah ben
Shomeyr
And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went
down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was
Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was
Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her. And she conceived, and bare a
son; and he called his name Er. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and
she called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and
called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. And Judah took
a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Er, Judah's firstborn,
was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto
Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy
brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass,
when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest
that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased
the Lord: wherefore he slew him also. Gen. 38:1-10(KJV)
We see here that Judah married a Canaanite woman.
Canaanites come from Noah's grandson Canaan, whose father was Ham. The Canaanite
peoples were a conglomerate of many tribes of peoples who descended from Ham's
son Canaan which includes the original Egyptians prior to the Hyksos were black
people. As a matter of fact, mankind from Adam to Noah was black.
Scientifically it had to be such for us to have the variety of skin tone we
have in the peoples of the world today. Skin tone, which is called melanin has
to be present before there can be a lack of it. It wasn’t until Noah’s three
sons who were each born with different degrees of melanin that they set the
stage for the various colors of peoples of the world. Ham and hence Canaan was
like Noah; black. So Judah being from Shem had a burnished orangey bronze color
to his skin and as we see in the passage above, he married a black Canaanite
woman and thus the Tribe of Judah was likely darker than the other tribes which
came from Leah and Rachel. Bilhah and Zilpah were thought to be Cannanite women
and so in the beginning a good portion of the Tribes of Israel were brown or
even black. We still have Black Hebrews today, most notably the Igbo tribe of
Nigeria who is by and large descended from Zilpah’s son Gad and Gad’s sons Eri,
Areli and Arodi. So thus being said David, Solomon and even Yeshua were not
white, nor were they black, but likely a reddish bronze skin color with wavy
hair. David was indeed described as “Ruddy” meaning “Red” (I Sam 16:12; 17:42).
Have you ever wondered what Er did to offend GOD
to the point that He deemed him “evil” and slew him?
First off, Er means, “Enemy” and or “Awaken”.
Speaking of the enemy or our fallen nature that had awakened in Er. Jasher
45:23-24 says that Er refused to impregnate his wife Tamar, refusing to fulfill
the Divine mandate to “Be fruitful and multiply (Gen. 9:1).” He used his wife
Tamar for nothing more than to satisfy his sexual desires. He had reduced his
helpmeet to an object and did not treat her as a wife, nor did he fulfill her
needs and desire for a family. This is what the LORD deemed as “evil” or “wicked”
which means in the Hebrew; “twisted” and or “perverted.”
According to the Torah, the brother next in line
is to marry the dead brothers widow and sire children in his name.
If brethren
dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead
shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto
her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother
unto her.And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall
succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out
of Israel. Deut. 25:5-6
Onan did the very same thing Er did and “spilt his seed on the
ground.” But Onan went a step further in his evil (perverseness) by not only dehumanizing
Tamar and using her for his own sexual pleasure, but refused to sire a child in
the name of his dead brother as the Torah commanded, and so GOD slew Onan,
whose name means “complaining” and “sorrow.” Onan caused Tamar “sorrow” and
Onan “complained;” “If my brother refused to give Tamar children, why should I?
After all, it’s Er’s fault he didn’t leave any children to preserve his name,
so why should I do that for him!?”
And Onan knew
that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's
wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his
brother. Gen. 38:9
This passage has been grossly taken out of context to condemn the act of masturbation
upon the grounds of “spilling seed,” when masturbation has nothing to do with
the passage above and why GOD slew Er and Onan. It has EVERYTHING to do with;
1. the failure to see a wife as a human being and not an object. 2. Refusing to,
“be fruitful and multiply.” 3. Refusing to obey Torah and sire children on
behalf of a deceased brother.
If you want a passage condemning the act of masturbation you will not find
any. There is no verse that says, “Thou shalt not masturbate.” The closest you
will get is what Yeshua said…
Ye have heard that it was said by
them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Matt. 5:27-28
