Genesis

Judah and Tamar

At this time, Judah left his brothers and went to stay with an Adullamite named Hirah.

There, Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua. He married her,

and she gave birth to a son he named Er.

She had another child and named him Onan.

Then, she had a third child named Shelah, and she was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.

Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn son. Her name was Tamar.

But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord took his life.

Then Judah told Onan: “Lie with your brother’s widow and fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law; the child to be born will be your brother’s heir.”

But Onan knew the child would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s widow, he spilled the semen on the ground so that he wouldn’t give an heir to his brother.

What he did was displeasing to the Lord, who took his life as well.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law: “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah, my son, has grown up,” for he was afraid that Shelah, like his brothers, might die. So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

After a long time, the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died. When Judah felt consoled, he went up to Timnah to join his sheep-shearers, accompanied by his friend Hirah, the Adullamite.

It was reported to Tamar: “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

She removed her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah, for she recognized that Shelah was a grown man and had not been given to her in marriage.

Judah saw her and since her face was veiled, he took her for a prostitute.

He approached her on the roadside and said, “Allow me to sleep with you,” for he didn’t know she was his daughter-in-law. She asked: “What will you give me to sleep with you?”

He said: “I will send you a kid from my flock.” She replied: “Will you give me a pledge till you send it?”

“What pledge shall I give you?” he asked. She answered: “Give me your seal, your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her;

then she rose and left him and, taking off her veil, she put on her widow’s clothes. And she became pregnant.

When Judah sent the kid with his friend, the Adullamite, to recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her.

So he asked the local people: “Where is the prostitute who was by the road at Enaim?” “There has been no prostitute there,” they said.

He returned to Judah and reported: “I didn’t find her, and even the local people said that there was no prostitute there.”

Judah then said: “Let her keep it all for herself, lest the people finally laugh at us. At least I sent her the kid, even if you didn’t find her.”

About three months later, Judah was informed: “Tamar, your daughter-in-law played the prostitute and she is now with child.” Judah said: “Bring her out and let her be burned.”

As they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I have become pregnant by the man who owns these things. Find out to whom this seal, cord, and staff belong!”

Judah acknowledged them and said: “She is more righteous than I am since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he had no further intercourse with her.

When the time came for her to give birth, she was carrying twins.

As she was giving birth, one of them stuck out his hand, and the midwife tied a scarlet thread around his wrist, saying, “This one is the firstborn.”

But he withdrew his hand, and his brother came out first, and she said: “What a rift you have made for yourself!” And he was called Perez.

Then his brother, with the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out, and he was given the name Zerah.