⁶ Then Judah ^(A)took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was ^(B)Tamar. ⁷ But ^(C)Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, ^(D)and the Lord killed him. ⁸ And Judah said to Onan, “Go in to ^(E)your brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the heir would not be ^(F)his; and it came to pass, when he went in to his brother’s wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. ¹⁰ And the thing which he did ^[a]displeased the Lord; therefore He killed ^(G)him also.

¹¹ Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, ^(H)“Remain a widow in your father’s house till my son Shelah is grown.” For he said, “Lest he also die like his brothers.” And Tamar went and dwelt ^(I)in her father’s house.

⁵³ Then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of Egypt ended, ^54 (A)and the seven years of famine began to come, ^(B)as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. ⁵⁵ So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; ^(C)whatever he says to you, do.” ⁵⁶ The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened ^[a]all the storehouses and ^(D)sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt. ^57 (E)So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to ^(F)buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands.

¹² Now in the process of time the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died; and Judah ^(A)was comforted, and went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. ¹³ And it was told Tamar, saying, “Look, your father-in-law is going up ^(B)to Timnah to shear his sheep.” ¹⁴ So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and ^(C)sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she saw ^(D)that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. ¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face. 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, ^(E)“I will send a young goat from the flock.”

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

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

So she said, ^(G)“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 ^(H)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 ^(I)played the harlot; furthermore she is ^[b]with child by harlotry.”

So Judah said, “Bring her out ^(J)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, ^(K)“Please determine whose these are—the signet and cord, and staff.”

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

Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt

42 When ^(A)Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” ² And he said, “Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may ^(B)live and not die.”

³ So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. ⁴ But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, ^(C)“Lest some calamity befall him.” ⁵ And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was ^(D)in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Now Joseph was governor ^(E)over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and ^(F)bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. ⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as ^(G)a stranger to them and spoke ^[a]roughly to them. Then he said to them, “Where do you come from?”

And they said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”

⁸ So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. ⁹ Then Joseph ^(H)remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the ^[b]nakedness of the land!”

¹⁰ And they said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹ We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies.”

¹² But he said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”

¹³ And they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one ^(I)is no more.”

¹⁴ But Joseph said to them, “It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ ¹⁵ In this manner you shall be tested: ^(J)By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. ¹⁶ Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be ^[c]kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!” ¹⁷ So he ^[d]put them all together in prison ^(K)three days.

¹⁸ Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, ^(L)for I fear God: ¹⁹ If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses. ²⁰ And ^(M)bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”

And they did so. ²¹ Then they said to one another, ^(N)“We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; ^(O)therefore this distress has come upon us.”

²² And Reuben answered them, saying, ^(P)“Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now ^(Q)required of us.” ²³ But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. ²⁴ And he turned himself away from them and ^(R)wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took ^(S)Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

The Brothers Return to Canaan

²⁵ Then Joseph ^(T)gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to ^(U)restore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. ^(V)Thus he did for them. ²⁶ So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. ²⁷ But as ^(W)one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack. ²⁸ So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts ^[e]failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”

²⁹ Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying: ³⁰ “The man who is lord of the land ^(X)spoke ^[f]roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. ³¹ But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. ³² We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’ ³³ Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ^(Y)‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. ³⁴ And bring your ^(Z)youngest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may ^(AA)trade in the land.’ ”

³⁵ Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly ^(AB)each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. ³⁶ And Jacob their father said to them, “You have ^(AC)bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take ^(AD)Benjamin. All these things are against me.”

³⁷ Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”

³⁸ But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for ^(AE)his brother is dead, and he is left alone. ^(AF)If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would ^(AG)bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.”

²⁷ Now it came to pass, at the time for giving birth, that behold, twins were in her womb. ²⁸ And so it was, when she was giving birth, that the one put out his hand; and the midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ Then it happened, as he drew back his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly; and she said, “How did you break through? This breach be upon you!” Therefore his name was called ^(A)Perez.^{[a] 30} Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand. And his name was called ^(B)Zerah.