Genesis 38:14–23

¹⁴she took off her widow’s clothes,^r covered herself with a veil^s to disguise herself, and then sat down^t at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.^u For she saw that, though Shelah^v had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute,^w for she had covered her face. ¹⁶Not realizing^x that she was his daughter-in-law,^y he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”^z

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?”^a she asked.

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

“Will you give me something as a pledge^c until you send it?” she asked.

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

“Your seal^d and its cord, and the staff^e in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.^{f 19}After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes^g again.

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

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

²²So 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.’ ”

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