What Does Genesis 38:3 Mean?

She conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. The birth of Er is the first of three sons born to Judah and his Canaanite wife in three consecutive verses: Er, Onan, and Shelah. The rapid succession of births is reported with no description of the sons' personalities or the household's character during their childhood years. What Genesis gives is the names and the sequence: three sons born, and then the older two will die within a few verses of their introduction. The speed of the narration is proportional to the speed of divine judgment that follows.

The name Er in Hebrew means "watcher" or may be a wordplay on "evil" (ra). The text will tell us in verse 7 that "Er was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death": the only other member of the patriarchal family to receive that specific verdict is Onan in verse 10. Er's wickedness is not described; the narrative withholds all detail about what he did. The judgment is stated without the crime. What we know about Er is only what the text tells us: named by his father, married to Tamar, too wicked to live.

The birth of three sons to Judah at this point in the patriarchal narrative also sets up the chapter's covenantal concern: levirate succession. The ancient Israelite custom by which a dead brother's widow was taken by the next surviving brother to produce an heir for the dead man's line required brothers. Judah has three sons: enough for two levirate obligations. He will lose the first two and then withhold the third. The three births reported in Genesis 38:3 to 5 are thus specifically a genealogical record; they are the setup for the covenantal failure that will occupy the rest of the chapter.