Genesis 38:12

12 After some time Judah's wife died. When he had finished the time of mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared.

Genesis 38:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 38:12

And in process of time the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife,
died
Shuah was his wife's father, who was a Canaanite, ( Genesis 38:2 ) ; what her name was is not certain, nor the exact time of her death; it was some time after Tamar was sent home to her father's house; and some take the death of Judah's wife to be a correction and reproof to him for his ill usage of his daughter-in-law, in neglecting to give her to his son, or not designing to do it at all: and Judah was comforted:
he mourned awhile for the death of his wife, according to the custom of the country, and of those times, and then he laid aside the tokens of it, and his sorrow wore off, and he appeared in company and conversed with his friends: and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath;
a city in the tribe of Judah, ( Joshua 15:57 ) , said ^F19 to be six miles from Adullam, where Judah lived; here he had his flocks of sheep, at least this was judged a proper place for the shearing and washing of them, and this time of the year a proper time for it, at which it was usual to have a feast; and Judah went up to his shearers, not only to see how they went on with their work, but with this view to make an entertainment for them, see ( 1 Samuel 25:3 1 Samuel 25:4 1 Samuel 25:36 ) : he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite;
he took him along with him for a companion, and to partake of the entertainment.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Bunting's Travels, p. 78.

Genesis 38:12 In-Context

10 What he did displeased the Lord, and the Lord killed him also.

11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Return to your father's house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up." He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.

12 After some time Judah's wife died. When he had finished the time of mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared.

13 Someone told Tamar that her father-in-law was going to Timnah to shear his sheep.

14 So she changed from the widow's clothes she had been wearing, covered her face with a veil, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, a town on the road to Timnah. As she well knew, Judah's youngest son Shelah was now grown up, and yet she had not been given to him in marriage.