Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 17

A prayer of David.

Tamar’s place in Judah’s family

38 At that time, Judah moved away from his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah. ² There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her. After he slept with her, ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom she^[a] named Er. ⁴ She became pregnant again, gave birth to a son, and named him Onan. ⁵ Then she gave birth to one more son and named him Shelah. She was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.

⁶ Judah married his oldest son Er to a woman named Tamar. ⁷ But the Lord considered Judah’s oldest son Er immoral, and the Lord put him to death. ⁸ Judah said to Onan, “Go to your brother’s wife, do your duty as her brother-in-law, and provide children for your brother.” ⁹ Onan knew the children wouldn’t be his so when he slept with his brother’s wife, he wasted his semen on the ground, so he wouldn’t give his brother children. ¹⁰ The Lord considered what he did as wrong and put him to death too. ¹¹ Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Stay as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” He thought Shelah would die like his brothers had. So Tamar went and lived in her father’s household.

¹² After a long time, Judah’s wife the daughter of Shua died. Then, after a period of mourning, he and his neighbor Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah, to those who were shearing his sheep. ¹³ Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is now on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” ¹⁴ So Tamar took off the clothing she wore as a widow, covered herself with a veil, put on makeup,^[b] and sat down at the entrance to Enaim on the road to Timnah, since she realized that although Shelah had already grown up, she hadn’t been given to him as a wife.

¹⁵ Judah saw her and thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. ¹⁶ He turned to her beside the road and said, “Let me sleep with you,” because he didn’t know she was his daughter-in-law.

She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with you?”

¹⁷ He said, “I will give you a kid goat from my flock.”

She said, “Only if you give me some deposit, as security to guarantee that you will send it.”

¹⁸ He said, “What kind of deposit should I give you?”

And she said, “Your seal, its cord, and the staff in your hand.” He gave these to her, slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

¹⁹ Then she got up, left, and took off her veil, dressing once again in the clothing she wore as a widow. ²⁰ Judah sent the kid goat with his neighbor Hirah the Adullamite so he could take back the deposits from the woman, but he couldn’t find her. ²¹ He asked the locals of that place, “Where’s the consecrated worker^[c] who was at Enaim on the road?”

But they said, “There’s no consecrated worker here.”

²² So he went back to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. The locals even said, ‘There’s no holy woman here.’”

²³ Judah said, “Let her keep everything so we aren’t laughed at. I did send this kid goat, but you couldn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has become a prostitute and is now pregnant because of it.”

And Judah said, “Bring her out so that she may be burned.”

²⁵ When she was brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law, “I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things. See if you recognize whose seal, cord, and staff these are.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She’s more righteous than I am, because I didn’t allow her to marry my son Shelah.” Judah never knew her intimately again.

¹⁰ The governor nodded at Paul, giving him permission to speak.

He responded, “I know that you have been judge over this nation for many years, so I gladly offer my own defense. ¹¹ You can verify that I went up to worship in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago. ¹² They didn’t find me arguing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd, whether in the synagogue or anywhere else in the city. ¹³ Nor can they prove to you the allegations they are now bringing against me. ¹⁴ I do admit this to you, that I am a follower of the Way, which they call a faction. Accordingly, I worship the God of our ancestors and believe everything set out in the Law and written in the Prophets. ¹⁵ The hope I have in God I also share with my accusers, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁶ On account of this, I have committed myself to maintaining a clear conscience before God and with all people. ¹⁷ After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring gifts for the poor of my nation and to offer sacrifices. ¹⁸ When they found me in the temple, I was ritually pure. There was no crowd and no disturbance. ¹⁹ But there were some Jews from the province of Asia. They should be here making their accusations, if indeed they have something against me. ²⁰ In their absence, have these people who are here declare what crime they found when I stood before the Jerusalem Council. ²¹ Perhaps it concerns this one statement that I blurted out when I was with them: ‘I am on trial before you today because of the resurrection of the dead.’”

²² Felix, who had an accurate understanding of the Way, adjourned the meeting. He said, “When Lysias the commander arrives from Jerusalem, I will decide this case.” ²³ He arranged for a centurion to guard Paul. He was to give Paul some freedom, and his friends were not to be hindered in their efforts to provide for him.