Genesis 38

About that time Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man from Adullam called Hirah.

There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man called Shua. He married her and slept with her.

She fell pregnant and had a son, and he called him Er.

She fell pregnant again and had a son, and she called him Onan.

She had another son as well and called him Shelah. Judah was at Kezib when she had him.

And Judah got a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight, and the Lord put him to death.

And Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother's wife. Do your duty to her as a brother-in-law, and raise up offspring for your brother.”

But Onan knew the offspring wouldn't be his, so whenever he slept with his brother's wife he spilled his seed on the ground, so as not to give his brother offspring.

What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight, so He put him to death as well.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Go back to your father's house and live as a widow until my son Shelah grows up.” Because he thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had got over it, he went up to Timnah, to the men shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

And Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

So she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to hide who she was, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, on the road to Timnah. Because she could see that Shelah had grown up, and she hadn't been given to him as a wife.

When Judah saw her he took her for a prostitute, because she'd covered her face.

So he turned aside to her by the road and said, “Come on, let me sleep with you” — not knowing she was his daughter-in-law. “What will you give me for it?” she said.

“I'll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said. “Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she said.

“What pledge should I give you?” he said. “Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she said. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she fell pregnant by him.

Then she got up and went, took off her veil and put her widow's clothes back on.

And Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite, to get his pledge back from the woman. But he couldn't find her.

He asked the men of the place, “Where's the shrine prostitute who was by the road at Enaim?” “There's been no shrine prostitute here,” they said.

So he went back to Judah and said, “I couldn't find her. And the men of the place said there'd been no shrine prostitute there.”

And Judah said, “Let her keep what she's got, or we'll be a laughing stock. I did send this young goat, and you couldn't find her.”

About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a prostitute, and what's more she's pregnant by it.” And Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death.”

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

Judah recognised them and said, “She's more in the right than I am, because I didn't give her to my son Shelah.” And he didn't sleep with her again.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

As she was in labour, one of them put out a hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.”

But he pulled his hand back, and his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you've broken out.” So he was called Perez.

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