Genesis 38:6-22

⁶Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

⁷Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD killed him.

⁸Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”

⁹Onan knew that the offspring wouldn’t be his; and when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.

¹⁰The thing which he did was evil in the LORD’s sight, and he killed him also.

¹¹Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

¹²After many days, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite.

¹³Tamar was told, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

¹⁴She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

¹⁶He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”

¹⁷He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”

¹⁸He said, “What pledge will I give you?” She said, “Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.

¹⁹She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

²⁰Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, but he didn’t find her.

²¹Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?” They said, “There has been no prostitute here.”

²²He returned to Judah, and said, “I haven’t found her; and also the men of the place said, ‘There has been no prostitute here.’”