Shelah (son of Judah)

According to the Bible, Shelah/Shela (] , to be married to Shelah [] . In the Book of Chronicles, "Shelah" is identified as being the name of a clan, containing a subclan named "Er".

According to biblical scholars, the description of "Shelah" is an eponymous aetiological myth concerning fluctuations in the constituency of the tribe of Judah, with "Shelah" representing the newest clan to become part of the tribe [J. A. Emerton, "Judah And Tamar"] [Cheyne and Black, "Encyclopedia Biblica"] ; the Book of Chronicles' description of "Er" as a descendant of Shelah, suggests that "Er" was in reality the name of a clan that was originally equal in status to the "Shelah" clan, but was later subsumed by it [J. A. Emerton, "Judah And Tamar"] [Cheyne and Black, "Encyclopedia Biblica"] .

Scholars have argued that the Tamar narrative, of which the description of Shelah is a part, secondarily aims to either assert the institution of levirate marriage, or present an aetiological myth for its origin [J. A. Emerton, "Judah And Tamar"] ; Shelah's role in the narrative would thus be as the example of a brother refusing to perform levirate marriage [J. A. Emerton, "Judah And Tamar"] . Emerton regards the evidence for this as inconclusive, though classical rabbinical writers argued that this narrative concerns the origin of levirate marriage ["Genesis Rabbah" 85:6] .

Possible Qur'anic references

The Qur'an refers to a prophet named "Saleh", who was sent to a society known as the "Thamud", who lived in homes cut into mountains. The Qur'an's description of "Saleh" is fairly limited, although he is stated to have been born 9 generations after Noah; according to the biblical Genealogy of Abraham, Abraham was born about 10 [the masoretic text makes it 10 generations, the septuagint makes it 11] generations after Noah, and therefore "Shelah" would have been born about 13 generations after Noah. The vague similarity in hypothetical time period, and the similarity of the names, has led to the opinion that the Qur'an's "Saleh" is the biblical "Shelah"; the equation, however, is controversial, since there is almost nothing in common between the Qur'anic narrative of Saleh and the Biblical narrative of Shelah. Many scholars of Islam equate the Thamud with the Edomites at Petra, due to the mention of them living in rock-cut homes; the name of "Saleh" may derive from this origin - Petra's historic name was "Se'lah", meaning "rock" in Hebrew, others believe it comes from the Arabic Word "صالح" (Sali'h) meaning the good one.

Madaen Saleh ( Saleh's towns, in Arabic مدائن صالح ) in the north of Saudi Arabia is place of destroyed city of thamud because they still unbelievers. thamud demand some evedences from Saleh that he was a prophet of Allah, So Allah create a camel from the rocks but the kill that camel. And because of that Allah destroy their towns. ( the story is list in Quran more than one time )

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