12And in process of time the daughter of Shua, Judah's wife, died; and Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheepshearers to Timnah, he and his friend, Hirah the Adullamite. 13And it was told Tamar, “Behold your father-in-law goes up to Timnah to shear his sheep”. 14And she took her widow's garments off from her, and covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as his wife. 15When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; because she had covered her face. 16And he went over to her by the roadside, and said, “Come, now, let me sleep with you” (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law). And she said, “What will you give me to sleep with you?” 17And he said, “I will send you a kid from the flock”. And she said, “Will you give me a pledge, till you send it?” 18And he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” And she said, “Your signet, and your bracelets, and your staff in your hand”. And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

19And she arose, and went away, and set aside her veil, and put on the garments of her widowhood. 20And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not. 21Then he asked the men of that place, “Where is the harlot, that was openly by the road side?” And they said, “There was no harlot in this place.” 22And he returned to Judah, and said, “I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place”. 23And Judah said, “Let her keep them, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and you have not found her”.

24And about three months after, it was told Judah, “Tamar, your daughter in law, has played the harlot; and, she is also with child by harlotry”. And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned”. 25When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “It is by the man whose these are, that I am with child”: and she said, “Discern, I pray you, whose these are - the signet, bracelets, and staff”. 26And Judah acknowledged them, and said, “She has been more righteous than I; because I did not give her to Shelah, my son”. And he knew her again no more.

27And in the time of her travail, twins were in her womb. 28And when she travailed, the one put out his hand: and the midwife bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, “This came out first”. 29And, as he drew back his hand, his brother came out: and she said, “How have you broken forth? This breach be upon you”: therefore, his name was called Perez. 30And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zerah.