4871. 'And he said, I will send a kid of the she-goats from the flock' means a pledge assuring a joining together. This is clear from the meaning of 'a kid of the she-goats' as innocence present in the external or natural man, dealt with in 3519; and being innocence it is a pledge of conjugial love or a pledge assuring a joining together, for genuine conjugial love consists in innocence, see 2736. From this arose the custom received from the ancients that when they went in once again to their wives men would send ahead of them 'a kid of the she-goats', as is also evident from what is recorded concerning Samson in the Book of Judges,

It happened after a while, ¹ in the days of the wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the she-goats; for he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. Judges 15:1.

Much the same situation is described here in Genesis; but as the promised kid of the she-goats was not going to be accepted by her, Tamar asked for a pledge. The expression 'pledge assuring a joining together' is used, not a conjugial pledge, because on Judah's side the joining together was as it is with a prostitute.

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