38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought,22 “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.”23 So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
tnHeb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”
snI don’t want him to die like his brothers. This clause explains that Judah had no intention of giving Shelah to Tamar for the purpose of the levirate marriage. Judah apparently knew the nature of his sons, and feared that God would be angry with the third son and kill him as well.