16 Not realizing(A) that she was his daughter-in-law,(B) he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”(C)

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?”(D) she asked.

17 “I’ll send you a young goat(E) from my flock,” he said.

“Will you give me something as a pledge(F) until you send it?” she asked.

18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal(G) and its cord, and the staff(H) in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.(I) 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes(J) again.

20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite(K) in order to get his pledge(L) back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute(M) who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

22 So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”

23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has,(N) or we will become a laughingstock.(O) After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”(P)

25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”(Q)

26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I,(R) since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.(S)” And he did not sleep with her again.

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16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?

17 And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?

18 And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

20 And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not.

21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place.

22 And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place.

23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.

24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.

26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

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