Son of Judah. If the name be derived from Anoh, it signifies trouble. We have this man’s short history, Gen. 38. 8 - 10. and short as it is, it is awful. From this man’s sin arose the name of Onanism to that particular offence which he was guilty of, and for which the Lord slew him. Who shall say the numbers which since his days have fallen into it? And who shall calculate the army which by Onanism have hastened the termination of a life of sin, and hurried themselves into eternity! Into how many streams of evil, diffusing themselves into all the parts of our poor fallen nature, hath that one deadly poison the old serpent put into Adam manifested itself through all our passions! Blessed Lord Jesus! what, but for thy gracious recovery of our nature, could have saved the wretched race of Adam from the wrath to come.
O´nan (strong, stout), second son of Judah, who, being constrained by the obligations of the ancient Levirate law to espouse Tamar, his elder brother’s widow, took means to frustrate the intention of this usage, which was to provide heirs for a brother who had died childless. This crime, rendered without excuse by the allowance of polygamy, and the seriousness of which can scarcely be appreciated but in respect to the usages of the times in which it was committed, was punished by premature death (Gen 38:4, sq.)
O’nan. (strong). The second son of Judah, by the Canaanitess, "the daughter of Shua." Gen 38:4; 1Ch 2:3. "What he did was evil in the eyes of Jehovah and he slew him also, as he had slain his elder brother." Gen 38:9. His death took place before the family of Jacob went down into Egypt. Gen 46:12; Num 26:19. (B.C. 1706).
Judah’s second son by the Canaanitess, daughter of Shua (Gen 38:4). Slain by Jehovah for the unnatural means which he took to have no issue by his brother Er’s widow, whom he had married according to the custom, to perpetuate the race (Gen 38:4-9).
[O’nan]
Second son of Judah by a Canaanitess, ’daughter of Shua’: he was slain by Jehovah for his sin. Gen 38:4-10; Gen 46:12; Num 26:19; 1Ch 2:3.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Schulim Ochser
A son of Judah; he refused to enter into a levirate marriage with his sister-in-law after the death of his elder brother Er, and it was for this reason that the Lord "slew him also" (Gen. xxxviii. 7-10).
ONAN.—A son of Judah (Gen 38:4; Gen 46:12, Num 26:19, 1Ch 2:3). After the decease of his elder brother, Er, he was instructed by his father to contract a levirate marriage with Tamar. The device by which he evaded the object of this marriage ‘was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him’ (Gen 38:8-10).