The Judah and Tamar story in Genesis, situated right after Joseph’s brothers sell him off to slavery, recounts the story of how Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, uses her cunning and her wiles to humiliate Judah after he fails to give her his youngest son, Shechem. Its conclusion is then immediately followed by the narration of Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt. Why is such a story, a story with overtly sexual overtones, situated as is, interrupting a story about the relationship between kin? Upon closer inspection, one will notice the many parallels between the characters of the preceding events and those in the actual narrative – most notably, the link between Joseph and Tamar, and their shared inability to act against the oppression of another party. Establishing such a link, then, the Judah …show more content…
One immediate fact, the only concrete link that ties the Judah and Tamar story to the overall arching story of Joseph, is the presence of Judah in both narratives. Through his actions in both stories, the callousness of his character is emphasized. At the beginning, it is revealed that Judah “took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar” (38: 6 – 7). Later on, after two of his sons are put to death because they were evil in the eyes of God, Judah says to Tamar, “Stay a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son is grown up” (38: 12 – 13). Unlike Isaac, who let Jacob find his own wife, Judah “took” a wife for Er. The choice of language suggests the idea that Tamar did