His daughter-in-law Tamar also bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.
Here is, I. The family of Jacob. His twelve sons are here named, that illustrious number so often celebrated almost throughout the whole Bible, from the first to the last book of it. At every turn we meet with the twelve tribes that descended from these twelve patriarchs.
Commenting on 1 Chronicles 2:1-17
And the sons of Zerah,.... The other twin of Judah: Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara: five of them in all; the Targum calls them governors, and adds, on whom the spirit of prophecy dwelt; and in the Jewish chronology (n) they are said to prophesy in Egypt; and the four last are supposed to be the same with those in Kg1 4:31.
1Ch 2:3-5 The sons of Judah and of Pharez, 1Ch 2:3.f. - The five sons of Judah are given according to Gen 38, as the remark on Er which is quoted from Gen 38:7 of that chapter shows, while the names of the five sons are to be found also in Gen 46:12. The two sons of Pharez are according to Gen 46:12, cf. Num 26:21.
Commenting on 1 Chronicles 2:3-5