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 the bereaved father. This strain of pathos and subjectivity is very marked in J in the Joseph narratives.—rent his clothes put on sackcloth] On these customs, the origin of which is still obscure, see Schw. Leben n. d. Tode, 11 ff.; Grüneisen, Ahnencultus, 61 ff.; Engert, Ehe- u. Familienrecht, 96 ff.—34b., chiefly used in reference to the dead, includes the outward tokens of mourning: Ex. 33$4$, 2 Sa. 14$2$; cf. Is. 61$3$, Ps. 35$14$.—35. all his daughters] There was really only one daughter in the family. A similar indifference to the prevalent tradition in details is seen in the disparity of age between Joseph and his brothers (v.$3$), and the assumption that Rachel was still alive ($10$).—go down as a mourner] Jacob will wear the mourner's garb till his death, so that in the underworld his son may know how deep his grief had been (Gu.). The shade was believed to appear in She'ōl in the condition in which it left the world (Schw. 63 f.).—36 (E) resuming $28b$. See, further, on 39$1$.

Ch. XXXVIII.—Judah and Tamar (J).

Judah, separating himself from his brethren, marries a Canaanitish wife, who bears to him three sons, 'Er,'Ônān and Shēlāh ($1-5$). 'Er and 'Onan become in succession the husbands of Tamar (under the levirate law), and die without issue; and Judah orders Tamar to remain a widow in her father's house till Shelah should reach manhood ($6-11$). Finding herself deceived, Tamar resorts to a desperate stratagem, by which she procures offspring from Judah himself ($12-26$). With the birth of her twin sons, Pereẓ and Zeraḥ, the narrative closes ($27-30$).

The story rests on a substratum of tribal history, being in the main a legendary account of the origin of the principal clans of Judah. To this historical nucleus we may reckon such facts as these: the isolation of Judah from the rest of the tribes (see on v.$1$); the mixed origin of its leading families; the extinction of the two oldest clans, `Er and 'Onan; the rivalry of the younger branches, Pereẓ and Zeraḥ, ending in the

] cf. 44$28$. On inf. abs. Qal used with Pu., see G-K. § 113 w.—35. ] G, adding before .—36. ] Rd. with all Vns. as v.$28$.