Bible Strands
Genesis 38:12
After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Judah’s actions after his wife’s death, positioned between his command for Tamar to remain in her father’s house (Gen 38:11) and her subsequent knowledge of his journey to Timnah (Gen 38:13).
The words — וַ/יִּנָּ֣חֶם (va/i.yi.Na.chem) = and he was comforted, and הַ/יָּמִ֔ים (hai./ya.Mim) = the days. The phrase הַ/יָּמִ֔ים וַ/יִּרְבּוּ֙ (the days increased) marks the passage of mourning time before וַ/יִּנָּ֣חֶם records Judah’s relief.
The thread — The comfort motif echoes Isaac’s consolation after Sarah’s death in Gen 24:67, while the location Timnah reappears in Josh 15:10 as a territorial marker and Judg 14:1 as Samson’s destination.
Why it lands — The text records the end of Judah’s mourning and his return to routine, forcing the reader to note the unresolved tension between his restored normalcy and Tamar’s suspended status.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah’s wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
Cross-references
- Joshua 15:10 The border curled westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, ran along the northern slope of Mount Jearim (that is, Chesalon), went down to Beth-shemesh, and crossed to Timnah.
- Genesis 24:67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.
- Judges 14:1 One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman.
- 2 Samuel 13:39 And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death.
- Genesis 31:19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
- Genesis 38:1 About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite.
- Joshua 15:35 Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah,
- Joshua 15:37 Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-gad,
- Joshua 15:57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah—ten cities, along with their villages.
- Joshua 19:43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron,