Genesis 38:16-26

New King James Version

¹⁶ Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”

¹⁷ And he said, ^(A)“I will send a young goat from the flock.”

So she said, ^(B)“Will you give me a pledge till you send it?”

¹⁸ Then he said, “What pledge shall I give you?”

So she said, ^(C)“Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” Then he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him. ¹⁹ So she arose and went away, and ^(D)laid aside her veil and put on the garments of her widowhood.

²⁰ And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her. ²¹ Then he asked the men of that place, saying, “Where is the harlot who was ^[a]openly by the roadside?”

And they said, “There was no harlot in this place.”

²² So he returned to Judah and said, “I cannot find her. Also, the men of the place said there was no harlot in this place.”

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her take them for herself, lest we be shamed; for I sent this young goat and you have not found her.”

²⁴ And it came to pass, about three months after, that Judah was told, saying, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has ^(E)played the harlot; furthermore she is ^[b]with child by harlotry.”

So Judah said, “Bring her out ^(F)and let her be burned!”

²⁵ When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “By the man to whom these belong, I am with child.” And she said, ^(G)“Please determine whose these are—the signet and cord, and staff.”

²⁶ So Judah ^(H)acknowledged them and said, ^(I)“She has been more righteous than I, because ^(J)I did not give her to Shelah my son.” And he ^(K)never knew her again.