Since I recently used the title “What Just Happened,” I had to come up with another way to explain this passage in the Bible. Moses wasn’t instructed by God to be brief in certain portions of the book of Genesis. Subsequently, when Moses writes the Lord slew Er, no further details are unveiled. This is where reading the Bible turns into studying the Bible as today’s passage requires further examination.
At that time Judah withdrew from his brothers and went to [lodge with] a certain Adullamite named Hirah. 2 There Judah saw and met a daughter of Shuah, a Canaanite; he took her as wife and lived with her. 3 And she became pregnant and bore a son, and he called him Er. 4 And she conceived again and bore a son and named him Onan. 5 Again she conceived and bore a son and named him Shelah. [They were living] at Chezib when she bore him, Genesis 38:1-5.
According to one statistical site, there are 250 angel encounters in the Bible. While death is mentioned in 1752 times in the Bible, only 7 of these accounts refer to angels of death. However, if God slew Er and Onan over a short period of time, their deaths might also be part of a curse. Since Moses is also the author of Deuteronomy 28, God could have simply allowed Er and Onan to die prematurely. Unfortunately, Moses just isn’t specific enough to know for sure.
Now Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn; her name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him, Genesis 38:6-7.
After cross referencing these passages with the King James Version of the Bible, this translation also uses the phrase, “God slew him.” Upon further examination of a Bible commentary, I discovered that Moses was trying to say that Er and Onan both were cut off by God. Subsequently, each suffered an untimely death shortly after committing their wicked acts. If you want to know what really happened in the Bible. some passages require further examination.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 