Woman living at the time of the Patriarchs
Bath-shua, a Canaanite woman, was Judah's wife and the mother of his first three sons.
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Also known as daughter of Shua · daughter of Shuah
Bath-shua is mentioned in 1Ch.2.3 as the Canaanite wife of Judah, son of Israel (or 'Jacob'). She gave birth to Judah's first three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. This brief genealogical note is the only information provided about Bath-shua in the Bible. Her Canaanite origin is significant, as it shows that Judah married outside of his own people, which was not in line with the patriarchs' practice of seeking wives from their own kinsmen. The mention of Bath-shua's sons is also important, as the narrative in Genesis 38 reveals that Er and Onan died due to their wickedness, leaving Judah without an heir until the birth of his twins, Perez and Zerah, through his daughter-in-law Tamar. Bath-shua's inclusion in the genealogy highlights the complex family dynamics and the importance of Judah's lineage in the history of Israel.
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BATH'-SHU'A (daughter of an oath), a variant of Bath-sheba; used in 1 Chr 3:5.
BATH'-SHU'A (daughter of an oath), a variant of Bath-sheba; used in 1 Chr 3:5.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
2 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H1323
There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.
The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judahʼs firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.