Genesis 38:7

Genesis 38:7, in plain English

Er, Judah's oldest son, is wicked in God's eyes, and the LORD takes his life.

Why it's here

You don't get details about what made Er wicked—the Bible just states it. But the outcome is clear and devastating. Er dies young, leaving Tamar a widow before she's even had a chance to bear children. For her, this is catastrophic; without a son, she has no security, no status, no future.

Who's speaking

The narrator, speaking with divine authority

Where it sits in the story

This is where Tamar's real story begins. She's now trapped in a vulnerable position—a widow in a culture where widows without children are essentially discarded. God's judgment on Er sets in motion a chain of events that will expose Judah's character and ultimately redeem Tamar's suffering.

The scholarly reading

Er is pronounced wicked before the LORD and dies, presumably as divine punishment, though the specific nature of his wickedness remains unspecified.

Language and setting

The text offers no elaboration on Er's sin—the Hebrew רַע בְעֵינֵי יְהוָה (ra be-enei YHWH, 'evil in the sight of YHWH') is a legal judgment formula, but what constitutes his evil is deliberately obscured. Medieval commentators from Philo to Ibn Ezra speculated variously about contraception, abuse of Tamar, or general impiety, but the narrator's silence is itself significant—it prevents readers from judging the morality independently and forces them to accept divine judgment as inscrutable. The death is immediate and unexplained, establishing the supernatural gravity of the situation.

Voice

The omniscient narrator of Genesis

Significance

Er's death introduces the levirate marriage crisis that will drive the chapter's central drama—his removal from the stage opens space for Tamar's vindication and for a son born outside the expected line to become ancestor of David and ultimately Christ.

5Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.

6Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death.

8Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

9But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.

Read all of Genesis 38 — A strange detour from Joseph's story. Judah's failures and Tamar's boldness both play a role in the ancestry of the Messiah.