CHAPTER 38
There
Judah
saw
the daughter
of a Canaanite
man
named
Shua,
and he took her as a wife
and slept with
her.
Then she gave birth to
another
son
and named
him Shelah;
it was
at Chezib
that she gave birth to him.
Then Judah
said
to Onan,
“Sleep with
your brother’s
wife.
Perform your duty as her brother-in-law
and raise up
offspring
for your brother.”
But Onan
knew
that
the offspring
would not
belong
to him;
so whenever
he would sleep with
his brother’s
wife,
he would spill his seed
on the ground
so that he would not
produce
offspring
for his brother.
Then Judah
said
to his daughter-in-law
Tamar,
“Live
as a widow
in your father’s
house
until
my son
Shelah
grows up.”
For
he thought,
“He
may
die
too,
like his brothers.”
So Tamar
went
to live
in her father’s
house.
After a long
time
Judah’s
wife,
the daughter
of Shua,
died.
When Judah
had finished mourning,
he
and his friend
Hirah
the Adullamite
went up
to
his sheepshearers
at Timnah.
she removed
her widow’s
garments,
covered her face
with a veil
to disguise herself,
and sat
at the entrance
to Enaim,
which
is on
the way
to Timnah.
For
she saw
that
although Shelah
had grown up,
she
had not
been given
to him
as a wife.
Not
realizing
that
she
was his daughter-in-law,
he went over
to
her and said,
“Come
now,
let me sleep with
you.”
“What
will you give
me for
sleeping with
you?”
she asked.
“I
will send you
a young goat
from
my flock,”
Judah answered.
But she replied,
“Only if
you leave me
something as a pledge
until
you send it.”
“What
pledge
should I give you?”
he asked.
She answered,
“Your seal
and your cord,
and the staff
in your hand.”
So he gave
them to her
and slept with
her,
and she became pregnant
by him.
Now when Judah
sent
his friend Hirah
the Adullamite
with
the young goat
to collect
the items he had left with
the woman,
he could not
find her.
He asked
the men
of that place,
“Where
is the temple prostitute
who
was beside
the road
at Enaim?”
“No
temple prostitute
has been
here,”
they answered.
So Hirah returned
to
Judah
and said,
“I could not
find her,
and furthermore,
the men
of that place
said,
‘No
temple prostitute
has been
here.’”
“Let her
keep the items,”
Judah
replied.
“Otherwise
we will become
a laughingstock.
After all,
I did send her
this
young goat,
but you
could not
find her.”
About
three
months later,
Judah
was told,
“Your daughter-in-law
Tamar
has prostituted herself,
and
now
she is pregnant.”
“Bring her out!”
Judah
replied.
“Let her be burned to death!”
As she
was being brought out,
she
sent
a message
to her
father-in-law:
“I am
pregnant
by the man to whom
these items
belong.”
And she added,
“Please
examine them.
Whose
seal
and cord
and staff
are these?”
Judah
recognized the items
and said,
“She is more righteous
than I,
since
I did not
give
her to my son
Shelah.”
And he did not
have relations with her
again.
And
as she was giving birth,
one of them put out
his hand;
so the midwife
took
a scarlet thread
and tied it
around
his wrist.
“This
one came out
first,”
she announced.
But when he pulled his hand
back
and his brother
came out,
she said,
“You have broken out first!”
So he was named
Perez.