Verse 17. - And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock - literally, a kid of the goats (ver. 20; cf. Judges 15:1). And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? - literally, if thou wilt give me a pledge (עֵרָבזֹן, from עָבַ, to give in pledge, a word peculiar to traders which the Greeks and Romans appear to have borrowed from the Phoenicians, the originators of traffic: cf. ἀῥῤαβών, arrhabo: vide Gesenius, p. 652) until thy sending (sc. then I consent to thy proposal).

38:1-30 The profligate conduct of Judah and his family. - This chapter gives an account of Judah and his family, and such an account it is, that it seems a wonder that of all Jacob's sons, our Lord should spring out of Judah, Heb 7:14. But God will show that his choice is of grace and not of merit, and that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. Also, that the worthiness of Christ is of himself, and not from his ancestors. How little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah, to boast as they did, Joh 8:41. What awful examples the Lord proclaims in his punishments, of his utter displeasure at sin! Let us seek grace from God to avoid every appearance of sin. And let that state of humbleness to which Jesus submitted, when he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, in appointing such characters as those here recorded, to be his ancestors, endear the Redeemer to our hearts.And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock,.... Either from Timnath, where his flock was shearing, or rather from Adullam, where he lived; since it is probable he was now returning from Timnath, where he had been feasting and making merry with his shearers, and so in a disposition to commit such an action:

and she said, wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? she made no objection to the hire or present, only required a pawn, or security for it till she had it; and this was her view indeed in asking an hire that she might have something to produce, should she prove with child by him, to convince him by whom it was.