He, who took upon Himself the sins of the world and did not reject the prospect of being born from fallen Adam, found it equally unburdensome to come forth from Judah, who was tainted by incest.
The temporal context the narrator intends to associate with Judah's marriage corresponds to the onset of Joseph's trials. This is substantiated by Judah's age; being born fourth during Jacob’s second seven years in Mesopotamia (Genesis 29:34, 35), and thus less than four years before Joseph's birth (Genesis 30:25), he would have been around twenty at the start of Joseph's tribulations (Genesis 37:2). Based on the examples of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, it is reasonable to conclude that Judah would not have wed prior to this juncture. However, since the interval from Joseph's hardships to the Israelites' migration into Egypt spans no more than 23 years (Genesis 37:2, 36; Genesis 41:46, 47; Genesis 45:6), it raises the question of how all the events surrounding Judah and his household, including the birth of Esrom and Jemuel—the sons of Phares recorded among those who journeyed to Egypt (Genesis 46:12)—could fit within this timeframe.
To resolve this issue, one could contend that Esrom and Jemuel are listed among the migrant group not by their birth order but as representatives of the descendants of Ira and Abnan. Alternatively, it may be proposed that this list and the accompanying actions, or the ambiguous nature of the migration, extend according to the narrator's perspective to the death of Jacob, which occurred 17 years after the migration began (Genesis 46:7; Genesis 50:22). Nevertheless, Judah's experiences during the 23 years leading up to the Exodus must conclude, as they do in the Mosaic account, with the birth of Phares and Zara. The city of Odollam subsequently became part of the territory belonging to the tribe of Judah (Num. 15:1; 35).
THEOSIS