Genesis 38

Common English Bible

Tamar’s place in Judah’s family

38 At that time, Judah moved away from his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah. ² There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her. After he slept with her, ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom she^[a] named Er. ⁴ She became pregnant again, gave birth to a son, and named him Onan. ⁵ Then she gave birth to one more son and named him Shelah. She was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.

⁶ Judah married his oldest son Er to a woman named Tamar. ⁷ But the Lord considered Judah’s oldest son Er immoral, and the Lord put him to death. ⁸ Judah said to Onan, “Go to your brother’s wife, do your duty as her brother-in-law, and provide children for your brother.” ⁹ Onan knew the children wouldn’t be his so when he slept with his brother’s wife, he wasted his semen on the ground, so he wouldn’t give his brother children. ¹⁰ The Lord considered what he did as wrong and put him to death too. ¹¹ Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Stay as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” He thought Shelah would die like his brothers had. So Tamar went and lived in her father’s household.

¹² After a long time, Judah’s wife the daughter of Shua died. Then, after a period of mourning, he and his neighbor Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah, to those who were shearing his sheep. ¹³ Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is now on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” ¹⁴ So Tamar took off the clothing she wore as a widow, covered herself with a veil, put on makeup,^[b] and sat down at the entrance to Enaim on the road to Timnah, since she realized that although Shelah had already grown up, she hadn’t been given to him as a wife.

¹⁵ Judah saw her and thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. ¹⁶ He turned to her beside the road and said, “Let me sleep with you,” because he didn’t know she was his daughter-in-law.

She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with you?”

¹⁷ He said, “I will give you a kid goat from my flock.”

She said, “Only if you give me some deposit, as security to guarantee that you will send it.”

¹⁸ He said, “What kind of deposit should I give you?”

And she said, “Your seal, its cord, and the staff in your hand.” He gave these to her, slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

¹⁹ Then she got up, left, and took off her veil, dressing once again in the clothing she wore as a widow. ²⁰ Judah sent the kid goat with his neighbor Hirah the Adullamite so he could take back the deposits from the woman, but he couldn’t find her. ²¹ He asked the locals of that place, “Where’s the consecrated worker^[c] who was at Enaim on the road?”

But they said, “There’s no consecrated worker here.”

²² So he went back to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. The locals even said, ‘There’s no holy woman here.’”

²³ Judah said, “Let her keep everything so we aren’t laughed at. I did send this kid goat, but you couldn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has become a prostitute and is now pregnant because of it.”

And Judah said, “Bring her out so that she may be burned.”

²⁵ When she was brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law, “I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things. See if you recognize whose seal, cord, and staff these are.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She’s more righteous than I am, because I didn’t allow her to marry my son Shelah.” Judah never knew her intimately again.

²⁷ When she gave birth, she discovered she had twins in her womb. ²⁸ At birth, one boy put out his hand, and the midwife took it and tied a red thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ As soon as he pulled his hand back, his brother came out, and she said, “You’ve burst out on your own.” So he was named Perez.^{[d] 30} Afterward, his brother with the red thread on his hand came out, and he was named Zerah.^[e]