³⁵ She conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the Lord,” therefore she named him Judah;^[a] then she ceased bearing.^(A)

² Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,^(A)

² though Judah became prominent among his brothers and a ruler came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph.)^(A)

⁷ And this he said of Judah,

¹² The children of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan), and the children of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.^(A)

Judah Pleads for Benjamin’s Release

¹⁸ Then Judah stepped up to him and said, “O my lord, let your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.^{(A) 19} My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead; he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’^{(B) 21} Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’^{(C) 24} When we went back to your servant my father we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And when our father said, ‘Go again; buy us a little food,’ ²⁶ we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother goes with us will we go down, for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; ²⁸ one left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.^{(D) 29} If you take this one also from me and harm comes to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in sorrow to Sheol.’^{(E) 30} Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, ³¹ when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³² For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame in the sight of my father all my life.’^{(F) 33} Now therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord in place of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father.”

⁸ Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me, and let us be on our way, so that we may live and not die—you and we and also our little ones. ⁹ I myself will be surety for him; you can hold me accountable for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.^(A)

Judah and Tamar

38 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and settled near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. ² There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; he married her and went in to her. ³ She conceived and bore a son, and he named him Er.^{(A) 4} Again she conceived and bore a son whom she named Onan. ⁵ Yet again she bore a son, and she named him Shelah. She^[a] was in Chezib when she bore him. ⁶ Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.^{(B) 8} Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.”^{(C) 9} But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother.^{(D) 10} What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. ¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up,” for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.^(E)

¹² In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died; when Judah’s time of mourning was over,^[b] he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.^{(F) 13} When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” ¹⁴ she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.^{(G) 15} When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face. ¹⁶ He went over to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” ¹⁷ He answered, “I will send you a kid from the flock.” And she said, “Only if you give me a pledge until you send it.”^{(H) 18} He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and the staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.^{(I) 19} Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.^(J)

²⁰ When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her. ²¹ He asked the townspeople, “Where is the prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?” But they said, “No prostitute has been here.” ²² So he returned to Judah and said, “I have not found her; moreover, the townspeople said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’ ” ²³ Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, otherwise we will be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her.”

²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself; moreover, she is pregnant as a result of prostitution.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”^{(K) 25} As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It was the owner of these who made me pregnant.” And she said, “Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.”^{(L) 26} Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again.^(M)

²⁷ When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. ²⁸ While she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But just then he drew back his hand and out came his brother, and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore he was named Perez.^{[c](N) 30} Afterward his brother came out with the crimson thread on his hand, and he was named Zerah.^[d]