Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick
and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” Genesis 37:32 NASB
Please Examine– I think we should create a new Bible board game. We could call it CLUE. We would provide various verses on cards and little icons of characters to move around a board picture of the Middle East. The object of the game would be to find out how one person’s actions and words reveal another person’s psychological struggles. But, of course, that’s exactly what the Bible already does. It is, in fact, a huge game of CLUE. The problem is that you and I can’t find the clues because they are in Hebrew, not English. So most of the time we simply have no idea how one story actually reveals another story. We need help to see the clues. With that in mind, let’s look at one clue, a tiny taste of how to read the text as it was written, not as it is translated.
Notice the words, “please examine,” in this verse. In Hebrew, these words are really one verb plus a suffix. The verb is nākar, and in this verse it is in the form, haker (hakker) coupled with the suffix na. You will recognize this important particle naas the attachment that turns a command into a request.[1] So the translators render the verb, “please examine.” However, the verb form, hakker, is about recognition, not examination. In this verse, Judah asks Jacob to recognize the bloodstained coat of Joseph in his duplicitous attempt to convince Jacob that his son, Joseph, has been killed by wild animals. You know the story. Or at least you thought you did.
Now something odd happens in the narrative. We expect this tragedy to lead into the story of Joseph in Egypt, but suddenly the plot takes a detour, or so it seems. Instead of following Joseph to Egypt, we peer into the sexual escapades of Judah’s two sons and Judah himself with Tamar. You also know this story, or you thought you did. But here comes the clue. After Judah impregnates Tamar disguised as a temple prostitute, she presents herself, obviously pregnant, to the chief of the tribe—Judah. He, of course, is outraged. Then Tamar offers articles that will identify the father and she says, “I am with child by the man to whom these things belong. Please examine and see, whose signet ring and cords and staff are these?” (Genesis 38:25) Did you see the clue? She uses the same Hebrew phrase, haker na, that Judah himself used to deceive his father. She doesn’t ask him to examine the articles. She asks him to recognize them. Avivah Zornberg comments:
“What Judah recognizes is not simply his pledge to Tamar—the seal and cord and staff that symbolize his authority. He recognizes, in effect, himself. In response to Tamar’s weighted invitation, ‘Please recognize (haker na),’ he rises above the dismemberings of experience. From the loom of forgetting fall his own words to Jacob, as he presented him with Joseph’s torn coat: ‘Please recognize (haker na) . . .’ (37:32). Then, Jacob had been asked to acknowledge tornness; now, Judah is asked to reassemble that tornness. In the word of the midrash [of Rashi], Tamar pleads with him, ‘Please, recognize your Creator, and do not hide your eyes from me.’ . . . It is Judah who is able to reconstitute the fragments of a repressed past into a narrative of pity and responsibility; the shards cut by callousness are recollected in acts of awareness that Tamar simply calls ‘recognizing God.’”[2] In other words, the story of Judah and Tamar is not a detour at all. It is a story of resolution, of the healing of repressed trauma, in the life of Judah. Only then can the Joseph story continue.
Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick.
Topical Index: Judah, Tamar, Jacob, Joseph, haker na, nākar, recognize, Genesis 37:32
[1]See my article, “The Hidden Please,” on the web site.
[2]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. 277.
BY THE WAY, this is Today’s Word #7000. A day for celebration, I think.
Skip, or someone, please help by explaining what Judah’s “repressed trauma” (a deeply distressing or disturbing experience) was and why the “resolution” of that was necessary for the Joseph story to continue. It may be that this is just too overly complex for me, or could it be that such finding of “clues” may not, in actuality, be leading to the discovery of an important explanation of some hidden mystery of truth. OR…..maybe it’s just too early in the morning for me! Sorry.
7,000 Today’s Words. Wow! Certainly a milestone of diligence, perseverance, faithfulness, and industriousness. Praise be to YHVH for the good things He has done! Thank you, Skip. May you be blessed by Him always.
Judah’s betrayal of his brother and his lies to his father. That’s continuing trauma and has effects in the family for a long time. But Judah doesn’t deal with this until his own sons die. Then he begins to understand what a father’s grief is like. Judah’s final restoration can’t occur until he confronts Joseph and offers himself as substitute.
Sorry, but I’m just not yet seeing how Judah’s betrayal of his brother and his lies to his father are a repressed trauma for him. I’m also not understanding how this part of the story is a resolution, or how what happens here is necessary for the progression of the Joseph story. Guess I will just have to ponder it further. Thanks.
Don’t you think covering up the murder (for that is what it is) of your brother and lying to your father about it is traumatic?
But Judah didn’t kill Joseph. He actually spared his life, and his brothers agreed with him to sell him to Midianite traders, instead. Also, some people don’t have enough conscience to be traumatized (deeply distressed or disturbed) by their own evil actions toward others, whether feigning someone’s death or lying about it.
But, also, I still don’t understand how we can conclude that there was resolution of something in his life or also why it was necessary for this event with Tamar to be placed in this part of the story line to be able to move onto the rest of the Joseph story.
Anyways, I’ll keep pondering it. Thanks again.
Curses are there to follow sin for the purposes OF traumatizing us until we do (hopefully) get to a place of recognition. Judah obviously got cursed. One of the curses of sin, unfortunately, is that children tend to ACT OUT the sins of the parents (do as they are done by). Thus, his wicked sons. Like father, like sons.
Judah eventually recognized the curse and the origin and in the sorrow of taking the responsibility (for his tribe) of lying to his father (thankfully), and in the process of setting that sin right, he qualified his line to take responsibility for the entire tribe forever after. Halleluah!
And Judah leaves, out of what must be his repressed guilt, and hangs out with the people of the land and slips into their idolatrous ways.
We can search for CLUES hidden in plain sight or we can begin to take our CUES from Yeshua as He now has a Monopoly on game of Life.
Our next move is no Chance or Risk or a Trivial Pursuit.
Thanks for the past 7,000 TW. Looking forward to the next 7,000….one at a time!
7000, today’s word may YAHWEH bless you and keep you may be cause his face to shine on you and grant you PEACE always as you continue for another 7000 chapters., Congratulations!
Congratulations on the 7000th! And THANK YOU!!
Seven has been the number of completion. I hope NOT in this case. A big Thank You for sharing all these golden nuggets of discovery and insight. They certainly has been a blessing and a dagger of sorts in my side as I’ve had to wrestle with many of the paradigm changing thoughts they have put forth. It’s been good though. So thankful to have “stumbled” across these TW’s. Blessings to you, Skip.
Wow, what a challenge. As always the TW sends me to scripture. I am blessed as a result.
7000 blessings, and more to come. I thank God for the blessings He gives through you, Skip, and I praise Him for your response. May the 7000 blessings return to you multiplied.
7,000 TW’s!! Thank you for being obedient you YHWH in starting TW I have grown so much in my study of His word! Here’s to 7,000 more!
Skip, congrats on #7000!
Not a day goes by when you’ve not opened, expanded,
or stretched me with insights I’d never receive otherwise.
Thank you ever so much.
Happy 7000th! Shalom
I must express my gratitude also for being a part of this sharing experience! It has totally impacted my life in a number of months. Every day I look forward do this “devotion”.
Thank you Skip and continued blessings on you because we all know that this type of teaching is costly to the teacher, blessed but costly! The Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly!
Thank you, for all 7000 of them!!!
Cheers!
I find this T.W. like skipping a stone on the surface of a deep lake. Much more is below the surface than expressed.. In my Sonoma State U course on “Effective Design and Construction Team Leadership ” last week we discussed how to humbly initiate real shared dialogue. It is done with an open ended question that implies an invitation to discuss. More often than not that is the positioning of Skip within T.W. and in that we see his success of the last 7000 T.W. Although entirely off subject I share in celebration. For when we can come to an open pool of shared dialog that is well guarded we find synergy, understand and real ilumination.Thanks for that Skip,
It’s possible that repressed trauma was an issue in Judah’s life, but I think the story of Tamar and Judah is more about God protecting the lineage. When Tamar’s husband, Er died, it was his brother, Onan’s responsibility to give her a child, but he refused. Scripture says that both Er and Onan were wicked and God put them to death. Judah refused to allow his third son to marry Tamar…perhaps fearing that he too would die. But Tamar refused to accept that she would die without children. Tamar’s decision to pose as a shrine prostitute (while not exemplary) was certainly an act of desperation in response to Judah’s refusal to follow the protocol of that day. In the end, she exposed his failure to that protocol, along with his vulnerability to shrine prostitution. Whether it was for sexual pleasure of if he hoped to benefit from the superstition of the fertility cults, we know that idolatry was a temptation in Jacob’s family and their descendants for generations to come.
The first born child (of the twins that Tamar bore from the impregnation from Judah) was Perez. It was from the line of Perez that King David was eventually born. God moves His plan forward regardless of our not so stellar choices.
And this kinsman redeemer responsibility, Torah!
Thanks for this reminder Leslee. Yes, when confronted by Tamar with the truth, Judah immediately recognized his failure and repented. This quite possible “planted the seed” for his noble choices in Egypt, as you mention below.
You got it, in all three comments. The point is to stop making it all theological and start asking what it says about us, what it would be like for us to be Judah, Tamar, Joseph, Jacob. The story doesn’t travel on theological rails. It travels to the rails of trauma and resolution.
Your articulation is important. But what I am trying to get readers to understand is that these are REAL HUMAN BEINGS, and although God works His plan through them, if we don’t recognize the human elements in all these events we will miss a crucial part of the restoration process, a process that is not simply about how God gets His way, but rather about how (divinely arranged?) circumstances affect the emotional lives of the players.
Agree. God does some of His best work through the lives of dysfunctional people. Restoration is of primary concern to Him but we humans are often slow to open our hearts to such profound love. Hindsight is often when we connect the dots until
Perhaps both lessons are equally important…1) observing the real human trauma, how if affects the biblical characters and how we can identify, relate and learn vicariously from their ordeals/trauma/pain etc; and, 2) a reassuring awareness that God can work His plan, regardless of us. His Covenants are eternal!! Hallelujah!!
I was blessed to have a one-on-one Hebrew teacher, a young pastor working on his doctorate in Hebrew. I was part of his “homework”. A class of six became four, three, then one. This hidden “na” was one of our studies. It still can bring me to tears when I see it in the “hidden” text.
I have studied Genesis a lot, looking for Torah there. Because it is there! Unwritten, in the hearts and actions of these stories.
How does the town know she’s pregnant? She must not be bringing the woman’s monthly offering for post-mentrual cleansing.
Judah orders Tamar to be burned alive for this pregnancy before her request to recognise. This hints that she is a priest’s daughter.
He professes her greater righteousness. Why? He has had sex with his daughter in law, a sin punishable by death. She disguised herself, making his sin unintentional. He can rightly seek forgiveness for this sin.
And he knows her no more, as he should. Again, Torah in action.
His sin against Joseph is also one punishable by death. Intentional. Yehovah’s grace in a woman who clearly knows Yah! She, I believe, plants the seed in Judah that grows to his offering himself as substitute.
How fortunate you were Leslee to have a Hebrew teacher…..wish I could find one here in Buckinghamshire, UK. I have loved TW and often share and discuss it with friends here and abroad. Thanks Skip…haven’t read them all but been reading since about 2008/9.
As many have noted, you have opened up so many intriguing revelationary and sometimes controversial concepts/thoughts and paradigm shifts. All have enriched, I am sure,our individual and collective walks with YHVH and given much to chew on, thank you and all who comment and contribute. Here’s to another 7000!
Shabbat shalom
Christine
Thank you for 7,000 days of digging deep into the wells of the Word and sharing clean, living water. You change lives and families. You change communities. You are successfully changing the world and encouraging His will to be done on earth as in heaven. To Life!
Skip! Thank you SO MUCH for your devotion to Yah in spreading His word and wisdom! may He, HaDosh, Blessed be He, continue to bless you!
Hi Skip, Congratulations on your perseverance. It must have been difficult going in the early days with so few readers and supporters. I praise the day we met you and Roseanne seven years ago in the early days of my quest to find “truth”. Little did I know where it would lead. Thanks so much. Shalom
I recently discovered Skip and this amazing community that he had built. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experience. I am anxiously waiting for another 7000 articles, congratulations!!!
Skip (or Mark) doesn’t somebody need to change the search bar now to read “Search more than 7000 Today’s Word studies here”?
Craig, if you read this, my email crashed and I lost everybody’s address a while back. My new address is hayeslaurita at gmail dot com. Sorry!