38 Around that time, Yehudah (Judah) went down the hills from where his brothers were and settled near an Adullamite man named Hirah. 2 There Yehudah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife. He slept with her 3 and she got pregnant and in due course, gave birth to a son who Yehudah named Er. 4 Then she got pregnant again and gave birth a another son, and she named him Onan. 5 Then she got pregnant yet again and gave birth to a third son, and she named him Shelah. (Yehudah was in Kezib when she Onan was born.)

6 In due course, Yehudah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er was evil in Yahweh’s eyes, so Yahweh killed him. 8 Then Yehudah said to Onan, “Go to your brother’s wife and perform your brotherly duty to her to produce children for your brother.” 9 However, Onan knew that any children wouldn’t be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground so that he wouldn’t give children to his late brother. 10 But Yahweh considered what he did to be evil, so he killed him also. 11 Then Judah told his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” This was because he’d said, “So that he doesn’t also die like his brothers!” So Tamar went and lived in the house of her father.

12 A long time afterwards, Yehudah’s wife (Shua’s daughter) died. After Yehudah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah (the Adullamite) went to Timnah to where the men were shearing his sheep. 13 Then Tamar was told, “Look, your father-in-law is going to Timnah to shear his sheep.” 14 So she changed out of her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself up. Then she sat at the entrance of Enaim which is on the road to Timnah. She was doing this because she had seen that Shelah had grown up, but she hadn’t been given to him as a wife.

15 In due course, Yehudah saw her and because she had covered her face, he thought she was a prostitute. 16 So he turned to her beside the road and asked, “Please let me lie with you,” because he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law.

“What will you give me in exchange?” she asked.

17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he replied.

“But what about something to keep now as a pledge until you send it,” she bartered.

18 “What pledge should I give you?” he asked.

“Your signet ring and its cord, and your staff that you’re holding.” So he handed them to her and went and lay with her, and she became pregnant as a result. 19 Then Tamar got up and left, and she took off her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on.

20 Then Yehudah sent his friend the Adullamite to take the young goat and get the pledge back from the woman, but he couldn’t find her, 21 so he asked some of the local men, “Where’s the temple prostitute who was at Enaim beside the road?”

But they answered, “There’s never been a temple prostitute around here.”

22 So Hirah returned to Yehudah and told him, “I couldn’t find her. What’s more, the men of the place said that there hasn’t been a temple prostitute at that place.”

23 “Oh well,” said Yehudah. “Let her keep those things for herself so that we don’t become a laughingstock. Anyway, I did my duty by sending the goat, but you couldn’t find her.”

24 About three months later, Yehudah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and not only that, she’s pregnant from doing it.”

“Bring her out and let her be burnt to death.” Yehudah demanded.

25 So they got her and brought her out, but she sent a message to her father-in-law, saying, “It was the man who these things belong to that got me pregnant.” Then she added, “Please identify whose signet ring and cords and staff these are.”

26 When Yehudah recognised the items, he admitted, “She’s more in the right than I am,[ref] because I didn’t give my son Shelah to her.” But he didn’t lie with her again.

27 When the time came for Tamar to give birth, wow, she was going to have twins. 28 While she was giving birth, one of the babies poked out a hand and the midwife tied a scarlet thread around its wrist, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 However, it pulled its hand back in, then wow, its brother was delivered first. Then she[fn] said, “How did you manage to break out first?” So he named him ‘Perez’ (which means ‘break out’). 30 After that, his brother who had the scarlet thread on his wrist was delivered, and he named him Zerah.