[(Gen. 38:1:) THAT JUDAH WENT AWAY FROM HIS BROTHERS AND TURNED ASIDE TO A CERTAIN ADULLAMITE .] This text is related (to Micah 1:15): I WILL YET BRING TO YOU ONE WHO SHALL DISPOSSESS YOU, O INHABITANT OF MARESHAH; TO ADULLAM SHALL COME THE GLORY OF ISRAEL .¹⁹ R. Judah and R. Nehemiah differed. The one said: The tribal patriarchs married their sisters, since it is stated (in Gen. 37:35): THEN ALL HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS²⁰ AROSE TO COMFORT HIM. And how many daughters were there? They were simply their brothers' twelve twin sisters. A given brother's mother bore twins at his birth , and he would marry her. Moreover, it says so about Benjamin (in Gen. 35:17): BECAUSE THIS ALSO IS A SON FOR YOU.²¹ "Because this is a son for you" is not stated, but BECAUSE THIS ALSO IS A SON FOR YOU, since his mother had already given birth to his twin sister. Ergo (in Gen. 37:35): THEN ALL HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS AROSE…. Hence you learn that they married their sisters. But R. Nehemiah maintains: His daughters were his daughters-in-law. Since one's son-in-law is like his son, and his daughter-in-law, like a daughter, one does not refrain from calling his daughter-in-law his daughter.²² Our masters have said: Judah, who was the eldest in his father's house, married a Canaanite. Thus it is written (in Gen. 38:2): AND JUDAH SAW THERE THE DAUGHTER OF A CERTAIN CANAANITE . And the prophet proclaims (in Micah 1:15): TO ADULLAM SHALL COME THE (HOLY ONE) [GLORY] OF ISRAEL. Ergo (according to Gen. 38:1-2): THAT JUDAH WENT AWAY FROM HIS BROTHERS AND TURNED ASIDE TO A CERTAIN ADULLAMITE WHOSE NAME WAS HIRAH. AND JUDAH SAW THERE THE DAUGHTER OF A CERTAIN CANAANITE WHOSE NAME WAS SHUA. SO HE TOOK HER AND WENT IN UNTO HER .

footnotes: ¹⁹ Rashi on Gen. 37:35; see Gen. R. 85:1. ²⁰ According to R. Judah, the plural here shows that Jacob had more than one daughter. ²¹ Gen. R. 82:8. ²² Gen. R. 84:21.