Shelah (also known as Shelah) was the third son of Judah and his Canaanite wife Bath-Shua. He was promised as a husband to Tamar after his two older brothers Er and Onan died, but Judah did not keep his promise. Shelah became the ancestor of a clan within the tribe of Judah.
After Er and Onan died, Judah promised that Shelah would be given to Tamar as a husband when he grew up, but Judah did not keep the promise because he feared that Shelah would also die.
11Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah is grown up." For he thought, "He may die too, like his brothers." So Tamar went and settled in her father's house.
14So she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, on the road to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah was grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.