Genesis 38:12-26
New Catholic Bible
12 Quite some time later the daughter of Shua, the wife of Judah, died. When Judah had finished his time of mourning, he went to Timnah to the sheep shearers. Hirah, the Adullamite, went with him.
13 Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah, to the sheep shearers of his flock.” 14 Tamar took off her clothes of mourning, put on a veil, and completely covered herself. Then she went and sat at the gate to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She realized that Shelah had already grown up, but she had not yet been given to him in marriage.[a]
15 [b]Judah saw her and thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He headed over to her and said, “Let me sleep with you.” He did not know that this was his daughter-in-law.
She said, “What will you give me to sleep with me?”
17 He said, “I will send a goat from the flock.”
She said, “Will you give me a pledge to hold until you will have sent it?”
18 “What pledge shall I give you?” he asked.
“Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff in your hand.”
He gave them to her and slept with her, and she conceived. 19 Then she got up and left. She took off her veil and put her clothes of mourning back on.
20 Judah sent his friend the Adullamite with the goat to claim the pledge from the woman, but he could not find her. 21 He asked the men of that place, “Where is the temple prostitute who was in Enaim alongside the road?”
They answered, “There has never been a temple prostitute there.”
22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I did not find her. Even the men of that place said, ‘There has never been a temple prostitute there.’ ”
23 Judah said, “Let her keep them. Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I sent her the goat, but you could not find her.”
24 About three months later, Judah was brought the following news: “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, played the harlot and she is also pregnant from her harlotry.” Judah said, “Let her be brought out and burned!”
25 She had already been brought out when she sent this message to her father-in-law: “The man to whom these objects belong is the father of the child.” She continued, “Do you know to whom this signet ring, cord, and staff belong?”
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is innocent and I am guilty, for I did not give her my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Genesis 38:14 Tamar wants her right to children respected, no matter what the cost; Judah was preventing her from exercising this right (see v. 26).
- Genesis 38:15 We might question why Judah was so open about his relations with a prostitute yet ready to put his daughter-in-law to death for being one. The answer lies in the place of women in that time and place. The most important task of women was to bear children to perpetuate the family line. In order to ensure that the children really belonged to the husband, the bride was expected to be a virgin and to refrain from having relations with anyone but her husband. If a wife became an adulteress, she risked the penalty of death. There were, however, some women who did not belong to any man. They could be temple prostitutes supported by offerings or common harlots supported by the men who sought them out. The children of such women were nobody’s heirs, and the men who used their services did not adulterate anyone’s bloodlines. In opposition to such a secular outlook Scripture enhances the status of women (Gen 1:27f; 2:23) and strongly condemns prostitution (Lev 19:29).
