Genesis 38:14–23

¹⁴So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and ^rsat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she saw ^sthat Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. ¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face. ¹⁶Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”

¹⁷And he said, ^t“I will send a young goat from the flock.”

So she said, ^u“Will you give me a pledge till you send it?”

¹⁸Then he said, “What pledge shall I give you?”

So she said, ^v“Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” Then he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him. ¹⁹So she arose and went away, and ^wlaid aside her veil and put on the garments of her widowhood.

²⁰And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her. ²¹Then he asked the men of that place, saying, “Where is the harlot who was ²openly by the roadside?”

And they said, “There was no harlot in this place.”

²²So he returned to Judah and said, “I cannot find her. Also, the men of the place said there was no harlot in this place.”

²³Then Judah said, “Let her take them for herself, lest we be shamed; for I sent this young goat and you have not found her.”