Genesis 38:1-13 ▼

1 And it comes to pass, at that time, that Judah goes down from his brothers, and turns aside to a man, an Adullamite, whose name [is] Hirah;

2 and Judah sees there the daughter of a man, a Canaanite, whose name [is] Shuah, and takes her, and goes in to her.

3 And she conceives, and bears a son, and he calls his name Er;

4 and she conceives again, and bears a son, and calls his name Onan;

5 and she adds again, and bears a son, and calls his name Shelah; and he was in Chezib in her bearing him.

6 And Judah takes a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name [is] Tamar;

7 and Er, Judah’s firstborn, is evil in the eyes of YHWH, and YHWH puts him to death.

8 And Judah says to Onan, “Go in to the wife of your brother, and marry her, and raise up seed to your brother”;

9 and Onan knows that the seed is not [reckoned] his; and it has come to pass, if he has gone in to his brother’s wife, that he has destroyed [it] to the earth, so as not to give seed to his brother;

10 and that which he has done is evil in the eyes of YHWH, and He puts him also to death.

11 And Judah says to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Abide [as] a widow at your father’s house, until my son Shelah grows up”; for he said, “Lest he die—even he—like his brothers”; and Tamar goes and dwells at her father’s house.

12 And the days are multiplied, and the daughter of Shuah, Judah’s wife, dies; and Judah is comforted, and goes up to his sheep-shearers, he and Hirah his friend the Adullamite, to Timnath.

13 And it is declared to Tamar, saying, “Behold, your husband’s father is going up to Timnath to shear his flock”;