Shelah (son of Judah)


 * This article concerns the Israelite. For the post-diluvian patriarch, see Salah.

Shelah ("Name means::request") (b. Born::Abib 2268 AM) was the third-born son of Judah.

Narrative
Each of Shelah's two older brothers, Er and Onan, married an Aramaean woman named Tamar and then died. Shelah was thirteen years old at the time and apparently was not considered a legal adult. He ought to have married Tamar himself in another year and produced children for her to satisfy what was by then a double levirate obligation. But Judah was afraid that he, too, would die. So he asked Tamar to return to her father's house and wear widow's weeds until Shelah was an adult.

But Judah never informed Tamar when Shelah came of age, and so Shelah did not marry Tamar. 

Entry into Egypt
Shelah survived to enter Egypt in Entry into Egypt::Teveth 2298 AM. The Bible lists his clan as one of the three clans of the tribe of Judah.