Genesis 38:1-10

Lexham English Bible

Judah and Tamar

38 And it happened that at that time Judah went down from his brothers and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. ² And Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite there whose name was Shua. And he took her and went in to her. ³ And she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. ⁴ And she conceived again and bore a son, and he called his name Onan. ⁵ And once again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. And he^[a] was in Chezib when she bore him. ⁶ And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh killed him. ⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to the wife of your brother and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be for him, so whenever he went in to the wife of his brother he would waste it on the ground^[b] so as not to give offspring to his brother. ¹⁰ And what he did was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so he killed him also.