Onan

ONAN, Son of Judah, and Grandson of the Patriarch Jacob. Judah having given a young Woman named Tamar to his eldest Son Er for a Wife, Er died without leaving any Children behind him. Judah then caused his second Son Onan to marry Tamar, that he might revive the Name of his Brother, and raise Successors to him. But Onan seeing that the Children that might be born to him would be deemed to belong to his Brother, by an abominable Action prevented Tamar from becoming a Mother. This was so displeasing to the Lord, that he caused him to die¹. The Kind of his Death is unknown, but there is great Probability that he was smote by some extraordinary Malady. The Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, a Book very much Apochryphal, says that Onan lived a Year with Tamar without consummating his Marriage; and that Tamar making her Complaints of this to Judah, he expostulated with Onan about it, who following the Counsel of his Mother who was a Canaanite, and who had no Affection for Tamar, hinder’d her from being a Mother by the Commission of a detestable Action. This was the Occasion of his being struck to Death in an unusual Manner.

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