ותקרא את שמו שלה והיה בכזיב וגו'. פי' על כן קראה שמו שלה על שפסקה מלדת כי לשון שלה ולשון כזיב אחד שהרי כתוב אחד אומר אל תכזב בשפחתך וכתוב אחר אל תשלה בי וכזיב לשון הפסקה הוא כמו וכמוצא מים אשר לא יכזבו מימיו. ומפי מורי ז"ל שמעתי כי כך היה מנהגם הוא היה קורא שם לבנו ראשון והיא קוראה שם לבנו שני. וא"כ מן הדין היה לו ליהודה לקרוא שם לשלישי. והיא קראה לו שם כדכתיב ותקרא לכך הוצרך לומר שהיה יהודה בכזיב בלדת אותו ולא היה באותו מעמד לקרוא לו שם וכזיב שם מקום: ותקרא את שמו שלה והיה בכזיב בלדתה אותו, “she called his name Shelah, as he (her husband) was in a place called Keziv at the time when she gave birth to him.” (standard explanation) The expression “shelah” and “keziv,” are identical in meaning. They appear in connection with inability to give birth, such as in Kings II 4,16 when the woman from Shunem being promised by the prophet Elisha that she would give birth to a son tells him not raise false hopes as she knew she was past the age when this was possible. The words she used were אל תכזב. When she upbraided the prophet after the son she did bear had died before growing up, she reminded him of what she had said then and used the verb שלה. (verse 28 in the same chapter) The word כזב meaning interruption in the sense of termination, also occurs in Isaiah 58,11: וכמוצא מים אשר לא יכזבו, “like a spring whose waters do not fail.” According to this, the name shelah indicated that his mother knew she would not bear any more children. [This leaves the question of why the masculine והיה, “he was,” is used in our verse Ed.] My teacher told me that כזיב is the place of a town or village. It was customary in those days that mother and father named their children alternately. The father would name the firstborn, so that it would have been Yehudah’s turn to name the son born third. Seeing that he was not at home when this son was born, the mother decided to name him instead. This is why the Torah explains why Yehudah had not named Shelah.