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THE THIRTY-EIGHTH chapter of Genesis preserves for all time the tragic and shameful memory of Onan: he spilled his seed on the ground and the Lord slew him. He thus gave his name to a synonym for masturbation and he still furnishes the key text for the religiously sanctioned condemnation of contraception. Onan, however, is only a minor character, and his story is merely an incidental episode in the over-all drama of Genesis xxxviii—a Bible story which points a totally different moral.
Judah, son of Jacob, had married a Canaanite woman, who bore him three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah.
And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also. Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her