What Does Genesis 38:1 Mean?

(1) **At that time.**—This does not mean at the time of Joseph’s sale; for as there was only an interval of twenty-two years between that event and the descent into Egypt, this period is scarcely long enough for the events recorded in this chapter. According to the usual chronology, Judah, Leah’s fourth son, would not have been more than eight years old when he left Padan-aram, and only one year at most older than Joseph, the son of Jacob’s old age. But the more true chronology which we have followed, gives time for him to have been Joseph’s senior by twenty years, and the events recorded here probably began soon after his father’s arrival at the tower of Eder. **Adullamite.**—The town of Adullam, near which was David’s famous cave, has been clearly identified by Lieut. Conder (*Tent-work, *ii. 158). It lay in the great valley of Elah, which formed the highway from Hebron to the country of the Philistines, some two or three miles south of Shochoh, and fifteen or sixteen miles west by north from Hebron. Judah “went down” thither, not as Abenezra and others have supposed, because it was to the south, but because it was towards the sea, and the road is an actual descent from the hill country of Judah into the Shephelah, or lowland, in which Adullam was situated. The sons of Jacob often, probably, with a few retainers, made expeditions in search of pastures for their cattle; and Hirah, apparently, had shown Judah hospitality on some such journey, and finally a friendship had grown up between them. “Turned in to,” however, literally means *pitched *(his tent) *close by; *and the friendship between Judah and Hirah, thus accidentally formed, seems to have ended in Hirah taking the charge of Judah’s cattle.