1About that time Judah left his kinsmen, and settled near a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
2Judah saw there a daughter of a Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her. He lay with her,
3and she conceived, and bore a son, and he named him Er.
4Then she conceived again, and bore a son and named him Onan.
5She bore still another son, and named him Shelah: and it was at Chezib that she bore him.
6Now Judah found a wife for Er his eldest son, and her name was Tamar.
7But Er, Judah’s eldest son, was wicked in the sight of the Lord , and the Lord took his life.
8Then Judah said to Onan, “Go and lie with your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
9But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, in order not to raise up offspring for his brother.
10What he did was evil in the sight of the Lord : therefore he took his life also.
11Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah my son is grown up”; for he said to himself, “I will not let him marry her, he must not die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
12After many days had passed, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he went up to see about his sheep-shearers at Timnah, with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13Someone told Tamar, saying, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil. She sat, veiled, in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up without her being given to him as wife.
15When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute; because she had veiled her face.
16So he turned aside to her by the roadside, and said, “Permit me, I pray you, to lie with you.” For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, “What will you give me to lie with me?”
17He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”
18He said, “What pledge should I give you?” And she said, “Your seal-ring and your chain and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her, and lay with her, and she became pregnant.
19And she got up, and went away, and took off her veil, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
20Now when Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, he could not find her.
21He asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the sacred prostitute, who was at Enaim by the wayside?” They replied, “There has been no sacred prostitute here.”
22So he returned to Judah, and said, “I have not found her; and the men of the place said, ‘There has been no sacred prostitute here.’”
23Judah said, “Let her keep the pledge, otherwise we will be put to shame. I have sent this goat, and you have not found her.”
24Now after about three months, Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been acting like a prostitute and is pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her forth and let her be burnt.”
25But when she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “By the man to whom these things belong, I am with child.” She also said, “Look at them and see if you know whose these are, the seal-ring and the chain and the staff.”
26When Judah recognized them, he said, “She is more in the right than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.” But he did not lie with her again.
27When her time came to give birth, it was found that twins were in her womb.
28While she was in labor, one put out a hand and the midwife took and bound on his hand a bright red thread, saying, “This one came out first.”
29But he drew back his hand, and his brother came out, and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore he was named Perez.
30Afterward his brother came out, who had the bright red thread on his hand; therefore he was named Zerah.