According to the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, Shelah/Shela () was the youngest brother among
Judah's first three sons, and was born at
Chezib.
Biblical narrative
In the text, God had killed Shelah's two older brothers,
Er and
Onan
Onan ''Aunan'' was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, as the second son of Judah and Shuah, and the brother of Er and Shelah. After being commanded by Judah to procreate with the late Er's wife Tamar, he instead "spilled his s ...
. Judah was unwilling to allow
Tamar, who had been successively Er's and Onan's wife, to be married to Shelah. Judah's concern was that Tamar might be
curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...
d and Shelah might die if married to her. So Judah told her to wait until Shelah had grown up. When Shelah came of age, Judah neglected to marry him to Tamar. In the
Book of Chronicles
The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sec ...
, ''Shelah'' is identified as the name of a clan, containing a subclan named ''Er.''
The sons of Shelah the son of Judah were:
#Er, the father of Lecah
#Laadah, the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of the linen workers of the house of Ashbea
#Jokim, the men of Chozeba
#Joash
#Saraph, who ruled in Moab
#Jashubi-Lehem
"These were the potters and those who dwell at Netaim and Gederah; there they dwelt with the king for his work."
According to
biblical scholars
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 For ...
, the description of ''Shelah'' is an
eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
ous
aetiological myth
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the nature , natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation myth, creation or Cosmogony, cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. ...
concerning fluctuations in the constituency of the
tribe of Judah
According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was the first tribe to take its place in the Land of Israel, occupying the southern ...
, with ''Shelah'' representing the newest clan to become part of the tribe.
[J. A. Emerton, ''Judah And Tamar''] The Book of Chronicles' description of ''Er'' as a descendant of Shelah, suggests that ''Er'' was in reality the name of a clan that was originally equal in status to the ''Shelah'' clan, but was later subsumed by it.
Scholars have argued that the Tamar narrative, of which the description of Shelah is a part, secondarily aims to either assert the institution of
levirate marriage
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Levirate marriage has been practiced by societies with a strong clan structure in which exogamous marriage (i.e. marriage out ...
, or present an aetiological myth for its origin;
Shelah's role in the narrative would thus be as the example of a brother refusing to perform levirate marriage.
John Emerton
John Adney Emerton, (5 June 1928 – 12 September 2015) was a British Anglican priest, theologian, and academic. He was Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1995.
Early life and education
Emerton was born on 5 ...
regards the evidence for this as inconclusive, though
classical rabbinical writers argued that this narrative concerns the origin of levirate marriage.
['']Genesis Rabbah
Genesis Rabbah (Hebrew: , ''B'reshith Rabba'') is a religious text from Judaism's classical period, probably written between 300 and 500 CE with some later additions. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletical inter ...
'' 85:6
Family Tree
Notes and citations
{{reflist
Book of Genesis people
Tribe of Judah