t12papocrypha
Testament of Judah 8
Judah recounts his marriage to Bathshua, daughter of Barsan king of Adullam, a union entered through a feast-hospitality bond rather than covenant lineage. She bears Er, Onan, and Shelah. Jehovah strikes Er and Onan dead for unstated wickedness, leaving them without heir — the covenant line cannot pass through branches that violate its terms. Shelah survives, and Judah addresses his descendants as Shelah's children, establishing the genealogical frame for what follows. The narrative is bare lineage accounting: which sons lived, which died, and why the line narrows.
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Moreover, I had much cattle, and I had for the chief of my herdsmen Iran the Adullamite. And when I went to him I saw Barsan, king of Adullam, and he made us a feast; and he entreated me, and gave me his daughter Bathshua to wife. She bare me Er, and Onan, and Shelah; and the two of them the Lord smote that they died childless: for Shelah lived, and his children are ye.
