Genesis 38:16-26

New International Version

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.