Judah and Tamar

Students

38 About that time Judah left his kinsmen, and settled near a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 Judah saw there a daughter of a Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her. He lay with her, 3 and she conceived, and bore a son, and he named him Er. 4 Then she conceived again, and bore a son and named him Onan. 5 She bore still another son, and named him Shelah: and it was at Chezib that she bore him.

6 Now Judah found a wife for Er his eldest son, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s eldest son, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord took his life. 8 Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Go and lie with your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.’ 9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, in order not to raise up offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was evil in the sight of the Lord: therefore he took his life also.

11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, ‘Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah my son is grown up’; for he said to himself, ‘I will not let him marry her, he must not die like his brothers.’ So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

12 After many days had passed, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he went up to see about his sheep-shearers at Timnah, with his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 Someone told Tamar, saying, ‘Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.’ 14 She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil. She sat, veiled, in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up without her being given to him as wife. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute; because she had veiled her face. 16 So he turned aside to her by the roadside, and said, ‘Permit me, I pray you, to lie with you.’ For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, ‘What will you give me to lie with me?’ 17 He said, ‘I will send you a young goat from the flock.’ She said, ‘Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?’ 18 He said, ‘What pledge should I give you?’ And she said, ‘Your seal-ring and your chain and your staff that is in your hand.’ So he gave them to her, and lay with her, and she became pregnant. 19 And she got up, and went away, and took off her veil, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

20 Now when Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, he could not find her. 21 He asked the men of her place, saying, ‘Where is the sacred prostitute, who was at Enaim by the wayside?’ They replied, ‘There has been no sacred prostitute here.’ 22 So he returned to Judah, and said, ‘I have not found her; and the men of the place said, “There has been no sacred prostitute here.”’ 23 Judah said, ‘Let her keep the pledge, otherwise we will be put to shame. I have sent this goat, and you have not found her.’

24 Now after about three months, Judah was told, ‘Tamar your daughter-in-law has been acting like a whore and is pregnant.’ Judah said, ‘Bring her forth and let her be burnt.’ 25 But when she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, ‘By the man to whom these things belong, I am with child.’ She also said, ‘Look at them and see if you know whose these are, the seal-ring and the chain and the staff.’ 26 When Judah recognised them, he said, ‘She is more in the right than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.’ But he did not lie with her again.

27 When her time came to give birth, it was found that twins were in her womb. 28 While she was in labour, one put out a hand and the midwife took and bound on his hand a bright red thread, saying, ‘This one came out first.’ 29 But he drew back his hand, and his brother came out, and she said, ‘What a breach you have made for yourself!’ Therefore he was named Perez[fn]. 30 Afterward his brother came out, who had the bright red thread on his hand; therefore he was named Zerah[fn].