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Chapter 38

Genesis 38:11

RBT Translation:

And Cast is saying to Palm-Tree his kallah,1193 `Sit bound-one1194 in the house of your father until Petition my builder is growing-great.` For he said, `Lest he is dying—also himself—like his brothers.` And Palm-Tree is walking, and she is sitting in the house of her father.

LITV Translation:
And Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah is grown. For he said, Lest he also die like his brothers. And Tamar went and lived in her father's house.
ESV Translation:
Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house.
Brenton Septuagint Translation:
And Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Sit thou a widow in the house of thy father-in-law, until Shelah my son be grown; for he said, Lest he also die as his brethren; and Tamar departed, and sat in the house of her father.

Footnotes

1193

Strong’s #3618. From kalal; a bride (as if perfect), complete one, perfect one.

1194

The Widow is Bound

Strong’s #488. Alman. A bound/tied up one. Prolonged from 'alam in the sense of bereavement. Alam (#481) means to bind, be dumb, put to silence. Root definitions like these are why some scholars in the past have denounced the etymological study of the Hebrew root system. What an interesting thing to call a widow! Refer to the “sheafs” of Joseph’s dream in Gen. 37:7.

“He has been oppressed, himself is he-who-is-humbled, and he is not opening his mouth, like the Sheep to the Slaughter he is conducted, and like an ewe [Rachel] to the faces of those-who-shave-her has been bound [alam], and he is not opening his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7 literal