Genesis 38:13–30

¹³When Tamar^p was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”^{q 14}she 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.”

²⁴About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”^m

²⁵As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”ⁿ

²⁶Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I,^o since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.^p” And he did not sleep with her again.

²⁷When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.^{q 28}As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife^r took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist^s and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out,^t and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez.^{au 30}Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist,^v came out. And he was named Zerah.^bw