Genesis 38:26
But he acknowledging the gifts, said: She is juster than I: because I did not give her to Sela, my son. However, he knew her no more.
Open Genesis 38:26 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Qui, agnitis muneribus, ait : Justior me est : quia non tradidi eam Sela filio meo. Attamen ultra non cognovit eam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐπέγνω δὲ Ἰούδας καὶ εἶπεν Δεδικαίωται Θαμὰρ ἢ ἐγώ, οὗ εἵνεκεν οὐκ ἔδωκα αὐτὴν Σηλὼμ τῷ υἱῷ μου· καὶ οὐ προσέθετο ἔτι τοῦ γνῶναι αὐτήν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּכֵּ֣ר יְהוּדָ֗ה וַיֹּ֨אמֶר֙ צָֽדְקָ֣ה מִמֶּ֔נִּי כִּֽי עַל כֵּ֥ן לֹא נְתַתִּ֖יהָ לְשֵׁלָ֣ה בְנִ֑י וְלֹֽא יָסַ֥ף ע֖וֹד לְדַעְתָּֽה
Haydock's commentary
Juster. For Juda had been guilty of injustice; and had thus exposed her to the danger of following a life of lewdness. (Haydock)
She remained a widow afterwards, as she was now rendered unfit to be married either to Juda or Sela. The latter married another woman, Numbers xxvi. 19. (Calmet)
While Juda was engaged in this unlawful commerce, and yielded to the temptation, Joseph was triumphing over a much greater temptation, in rejecting the solicitations of his master's wife. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary
9. Helvidius will answer, “What you say, is in my opinion mere trifling. Your arguments are so much waste of time, and the discussion shows more subtlety than truth. Why could not Scripture say, as it said of Thamar and Judah, ‘And he took his wife, and knew her again no more’? Could not Matthew find words to express his meaning? ‘He knew her not,’ he says, ‘until she brought forth a son.’ He did then, after her delivery, know her, whom he had refrained from knowing until she was delivered.”
St Jerome Against the Pelagians, Book I
17. Need we be surprised that, when saints are compared, some are better, some worse, since the same holds good in the comparison of sins? To Jerusalem, pierced and wounded with many sins, it is said, “Sodom is justified by thee.” It is not because Sodom, which has sunk for ever into ashes, is just in herself, that it is said by Ezekiel, “Sodom shall be restored to her former estate”; but that, in comparison with the more accursed Jerusalem, she appears just. For Jerusalem killed the Son of God; Sodom through fulness of bread and excessive luxury carried her lust beyond all bounds. The publican in the Gospel who smote upon his breast as though it were a magazine of the worst thoughts, and, conscious of his offences, dared not lift up his eyes, is justified rather than the proud Pharisee. …
St Ambrose Concerning Repentance, Chapter VIII. In urging repentance St. Ambrose turns to his own case, expressing the wish that he could wash our Lord's feet like the woman in the Gospel, which is a great pattern of penitence, though such as cannot attain to it find acceptance. He prays for himself, especially that he may sorrow with sinners, who are better than himself. Those for whom Christ died are not to be contemned
73. Preserve, O Lord, Thy work, guard the gift which Thou hast given even to him who shrank from it. For I knew that I was not worthy to be called a bishop, because I had devoted myself to this world, but by Thy grace I am what I am. And I am indeed the least of all bishops, and the lowest in merit; yet since I too have undertaken some labour for Thy holy Church, watch over this fruit, and let not him whom when lost Thou didst call to the priesthood, to be lost when a priest. …