Judah and Tamar
(1 Chronicles 2:3–4)
About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. 1Sa 22:12Ki 4:8Gen 19:2-3Jos 15:35Mic 1:15Pro 13:202Sa 23:13Jdg 4:18 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. 1Ch 2:3Gen 24:32Co 6:142Sa 11:2Gen 3:6Gen 34:2Gen 46:12Gen 6:2 So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er. Gen 46:12Num 26:19 Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. Gen 46:12Num 26:19 Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him. Num 26:201Ch 4:21Gen 38:11Gen 38:26Gen 46:12
Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. Gen 21:21Gen 24:3Mat 1:3 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death. 1Ch 2:3Gen 46:12Num 26:19Gen 13:13Gen 19:13Psa 55:232Ch 33:6Gen 6:8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.” Deu 25:5-10Mat 22:23-27Rut 1:11Rut 4:5-11Lev 18:16Num 36:8-9
But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother. Deu 25:6Jas 3:16Jas 4:5Tit 3:3Jas 3:14Job 5:2Pro 27:4Rut 4:10 What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well. Gen 46:12Num 11:11Ch 21:7Num 26:19Pro 14:322Sa 11:27Hag 1:13Jer 44:4
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house. Lev 22:13Rut 1:11-13
After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah. Jos 15:102Sa 13:39Gen 24:67Jdg 14:11Sa 25:361Sa 25:4-82Sa 13:23-29Gen 31:19 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife. Gen 38:26Gen 24:65Gen 38:11-13Jer 3:2Pro 7:12Ezk 16:25
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” 1Ti 6:102Sa 13:11Mat 26:15Deu 23:18Ezk 16:33
“What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.
“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. Ezk 16:33Gen 38:20Gen 38:24-25Luk 16:8Pro 20:16
But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”
“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. Gen 38:25-26Hos 4:11Jer 22:24Luk 15:22
She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again. Gen 38:142Sa 14:22Sa 14:5
Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. 2Sa 13:3Gen 20:9Jdg 14:20Lev 19:17Luk 23:12 He asked the men of that place, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”
“No shrine prostitute has been here,” they answered.
So Hirah returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her, and furthermore, the men of that place said, ‘No shrine prostitute has been here.’”
“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. 1 After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.” 2Co 4:22Sa 12:9Eph 5:12Pro 6:33Rev 16:15Rom 6:21
About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” Lev 21:9Ezk 23:19Ezk 23:44Ezk 23:5Hos 2:5Jdg 19:22Sa 12:52Sa 12:7
“Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”
As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?” Gen 37:32Gen 38:18Psa 50:211Co 4:5Jer 2:26Rev 20:12Rom 2:16
Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again. 1Sa 24:171Pe 4:2-3Jhn 8:9Tit 2:11-122Sa 16:222Sa 20:32Sa 24:17Ezk 16:52
The Birth of Perez and Zerah
When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb. Gen 25:24 And as she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it around his wrist. “This one came out first,” she announced. But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez. 2 1Ch 2:4Gen 46:12Mat 1:3Num 26:20Neh 11:6Rut 4:121Ch 9:4Luk 3:33 Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah. 3 1Ch 9:61Ch 2:4Mat 1:3