The Bible generally uses two different terms for large groups: “people” and “nations.” When it uses “nation,” it is talking about a group with the desire for good as its ultimate underlying motivation; when it uses the term “people” it is talking about a group whose deep motivation is to seek true ideas and concepts. As with all symbolism in the Bible, this can be also used in a negative sense, to describe groups with the lust for evil or those driven by false concepts. It can also be used in the abstract, with “nation” representing desires for good themselves and “people” representing true ideas themselves. In a way, these meanings make sense if we look at the two words themselves. “People” brings to mind a collection of individuals, and that is somewhat how it is with ideas -- you can have many of them that inter-relate, but also stand somewhat on their own, individually. “Nation” is a more unified term, reflecting the way that a desire for good tends to unify other feelings.

4913. 'Seeing that I have not given her to Shelah my son' means because what was external was of such a nature. This becomes clear from what has been explained already - that Tamar could not be given to Shelah, Judah's son, because if she had been the joining together would have been as that of a wife and husband married to each other through the law of leviratical marriage. But the semblance of religion existing among the Jewish nation which he was to represent was not like that husband but like a father-in-law joined to a daughter-in-law as to a prostitute.