The Book of Genesis 30 Verses

Genesis 38

Judah and Tamar (1 Chronicles 2:3–4)

Chapter 38 Overview · 30 Verses

1About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. 2There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. 3So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er. 4Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. 5Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah (it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him).

Genesis 38:1–5 Commentary

Cutting to Judah at Joseph’s Cruelest Moment:

Right after the brothers dip Joseph’s coat in goat’s blood and lie to their father’s face, the narrative refuses to follow the young slave down into Egypt — turning the camera instead directly on Judah.

Judah Marries Outside the Covenant:

Judah walks away from his brothers, strikes a partnership with a Canaanite named Hirah, and takes a Canaanite wife, the daughter of Shua. This is the recurring disaster that haunted the patriarchs: Ishmael’s pagan marriages, Esau’s bitter Hittite wives, and now Judah strolling headfirst into the exact spiritual compromise Abraham and Isaac moved heaven and earth to prevent. The biblical ban on Canaanite intermarriage was never about ethnic snobbery — it was an urgent firebreak against soul-destroying pagan idolatry.

6Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH; so YAHWEH put him to death.

Genesis 38:6–7 Commentary

Tamar — A Woman Who Outlasts Every Wrongdoer:

Judah takes a wife for his firstborn, Er, a woman named Tamar. In Hebrew, tamar means date palm — a tree prized in the ancient Near East for being tall, fruitful, and resilient in arid ground. That resilience will be proven immediately, as Tamar outlasts every man who deals faithlessly with her.

Tradition Guesses at Er’s Sin; Scripture Doesn’t:

Er’s wickedness is never spelled out. Moses simply records, “he was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH; so YAHWEH put him to death” (Genesis 38:7)⁠, and that is all Scripture reveals. Jewish tradition suggests Er’s sin mirrored his brother’s — refusing to impregnate Tamar so as not to spoil her beauty — but that is rabbinic Midrash, not inspired Scripture. The biblical text is content to leave the wicked man in his grave without an obituary.

8Then 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.”

9But 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.

Genesis 38:8–9 Commentary

Judah’s Command to Onan Seeds Levirate Law:

Judah commands Onan to perform the brother-in-law’s duty for Tamar, anticipating what Moses would formally codify over four centuries later on the plains of Moab in Deuteronomy 25:5–10 — requiring a surviving brother to marry his deceased brother’s childless widow so the family name and inheritance do not vanish from Israel. Boaz plays out that same law over seven centuries later during the period of the judges in Ruth 3–4, redeeming Ruth precisely so Elimelech’s line would not disappear, and the Sadducees are still arguing about the mechanics of it nearly two millennia down the road in the Gospels (Matthew 22:23–33)⁠, trying to use levirate marriage to make the resurrection sound absurd.

What a Son Through Tamar Would Cost Onan:

Onan understood the legal and financial stakes with cold precision. Under the brother-in-law customs of the ancient world, when a firstborn died childless, any son his brother fathered with the widow was legally registered under the deceased brother's name (Er). This legal custom ensured Er's family name and lineage survived in the tribal records. More critically, as Er's legal heir, that child would inherit the firstborn's coveted double portion of Judah's vast estate. If Tamar remained childless, Er's line was permanently extinguished, leaving Onan as the eldest surviving son to seize the premier family inheritance for himself. But fathering a son meant Onan would be demoted to a secondary share while raising an heir who legally belonged to his dead brother. Driven by calculated greed, Onan gladly used Tamar for sexual gratification while deliberately preventing conception — refusing to build up Er's house because it would shrink his own pocketbook.

Onan’s Sin Was Greed, Not Contraception:

This passage has been dragged into arguments about contraception for centuries, and that argument misses the entire point of the text. Onan’s sin was not the mechanics of what he did in bed. His sin was greed wearing intimacy’s clothes.

10What he did was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH, so He put Onan to death as well.

11Then 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.

Genesis 38:10–11 Commentary

Judah Banishes Tamar Under an Empty Promise:

YAHWEH puts Onan to death just as He did Er, and Judah, now down two sons because of their own wickedness, does the one thing a patriarch should never do to a widow under his household’s care: he abandons her to perpetual mourning. He tells Tamar to live as a widow in her father’s house until Shelah matures, lying to her face the moment he speaks. Judah has decided, without saying so out loud, that Tamar is a curse on his sons rather than a woman wronged by two of them. Years pass, and Tamar is still sitting in her father’s house, still childless, still waiting on a promise Judah buried the day he made it.

12After 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. 13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14she 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.)

Genesis 38:12–14 Commentary

Tamar Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands:

Shelah was now fully grown, yet no wedding had been arranged, and Tamar realized Judah would never honor his pledge. So she takes off her widow’s garments, veils herself the way a prostitute would have concealed her identity in that culture, and positions herself along the road Judah is traveling. Judah broke his word to her. That does not make what Tamar does next righteous — Scripture will let both truths stand side by side without flinching from either one.

15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. 16(Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law), he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.

17“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”

Genesis 38:15–17 Commentary

Blinded by Lust, Judah Stumbles Into Incest:

Tamar deliberately veiled her face to conceal her identity (Genesis 38:14–15)⁠, and Judah was so consumed by immediate appetite that he never even probed who sat beside the road. He walked headlong into the very relationship the Law would later explicitly outlaw: “You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law” (Leviticus 18:15)⁠. That statute was formally codified at Sinai over four centuries later, but the incestuous act was already an abomination before Sinai’s ink dried. Sinai didn’t invent morality; it codified God’s eternal, unchanging character into written law. Judah promises a young goat as payment — a common commodity of exchange in the ancient Near East, appearing again over seven centuries later during the period of the judges when Samson brings a young goat to visit his wife (Judges 15:1)⁠.

18“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. 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. 19Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.

Genesis 38:18–19 Commentary

Tamar Secures Judah’s Identity as Ironclad Collateral:

Until the promised goat arrives, Tamar demands immediate pledge items: Judah’s signet, cord, and staff. These were not ornamental trinkets; they were the unique instruments that authenticated a patriarch’s legal authority, official business, and paternity — as unmistakable in that culture as a handwritten signature and government ID today. Judah recklessly surrenders his personal seal without hesitation for an hour of illicit indulgence, handing Tamar the very proof that will expose him three months later. Tamar takes the pledge, slips away, removes her veil, and resumes her widow’s garments.

20Now 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. 21He 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.

22So 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.’”

23“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

Genesis 38:20–23 Commentary

Judah Cuts His Losses to Avoid Humiliation:

Judah sends the young goat through his friend Hirah, anxious to recover his personal seal before word leaks that a patriarch left his identity with a roadside prostitute. When Hirah inquires of the men of Enaim, he asks after a kedeshah (a cult prostitute dedicated to pagan fertility shrines) rather than a zonah (a common prostitute, as used in verse 15 (Genesis 38:15)⁠) — attempting to elevate the transaction. But the locals report that no shrine prostitute was ever there. Terrified of public humiliation, Judah cuts his losses: “Let her keep the items, otherwise we will become a laughingstock” (Genesis 38:23)⁠. He drops the matter, convinced his secret is safely buried.

24About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

Genesis 38:24 Commentary

Judah Condemns Tamar Instantly for His Own Sin:

Word reaches Judah that his daughter-in-law is pregnant through prostitution, and he instantly demands, “Bring her out and let her be burned to death!” (Genesis 38:24)⁠. He condemns her without trial for the very sin he committed himself three months earlier. Double standards regarding sexual sin are not a modern invention; patriarchal societies have routinely executed women for the exact behavior they indulge in men, and Judah is Exhibit A. Scripture never grades sexual immorality on a curve by gender, no matter how many corrupt legal codes have tried to enforce that double standard.

25As 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?”

26Judah 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.

The Birth of Perez and Zerah

27When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb. 28And 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. 29But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.

Genesis 38:25–26 Commentary

Judah Recognizes His Seal and Admits the Verdict:

Tamar sends Judah’s own signet, cord, and staff ahead of her with a direct challenge: identify whose these are. Judah recognizes his personal seal instantly — there is no evasion possible — and confesses in Genesis 38:26⁠: "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." This painful public confession marks the beginning of Judah's moral transformation.

Yeshua Exposes This Same Hypocrisy in John 8:

That is not Judah declaring Tamar’s deception righteous. It is Judah admitting, in front of witnesses, that his own failure to keep his word was the greater sin. Nearly two millennia down the line in the temple courts, Yeshua would confront this exact double standard in John 8:3–11⁠, exposing accusers eager to stone a woman for adultery while utterly blinded to their own guilt. Judah was that kind of man before the concept even had a name.

Judah’s Turning Point Pays Off in Genesis 44:

“She is more righteous than I” isn’t a throwaway line. It is the first real sign that Judah can change. This is the very same Judah who, just one chapter earlier in Genesis 37:26–27⁠, cold-bloodedly suggested selling his teenage brother Joseph for silver, then abandoned his family to chase a Canaanite wife and repeatedly lied to a grieving widow. Watch what he does when he faces a similar test. Looking ahead six chapters to Genesis 44:18–34⁠, when Joseph’s cup is found in Benjamin’s sack and the Egyptian governor decrees the boy will stay as a slave, Judah will step forward and offer himself as a substitute so that his father won’t lose another favored son. The man who once sold a brother for twenty pieces of silver will offer his own freedom to keep a brother from slavery. That reversal begins at the moment he admits he was wrong.

30Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.

Genesis 38:27–30 Commentary

The Birthright Reversed — Perez Breaks Out Ahead:

Tamar bears twins, and the delivery itself becomes a small parable. Zerah’s hand emerges first and the midwife ties a scarlet thread around it, but the hand withdraws and Perez — meaning breach, or breaking through — pushes out ahead of him. Natural expectations are overturned by divine arrangement, repeating the very pattern that favored Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau.

Perez — Ancestor of King David and the Messiah:

Looking ahead across generations of biblical history, the royal Davidic dynasty will spring directly from this unexpected breach: as the book of Ruth will document over seven centuries later during the period of the judges, Ruth 4:18–22 traces the lineage from Perez straight to King David, and nearly two millennia down the road Matthew 1:3 will place Perez in the official genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah Himself. Judah — the patriarch who sold his own brother into slavery and failed his daughter-in-law — becomes the father of the tribe through which David, Solomon, and ultimately the Messiah will descend.

Genesis 38 Footnotes

Genesis 38 · Footnote 891 (1 Chronicles 2:3–4): 1 Chronicles 2:3–4 — 3The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH. So YAHWEH put him to death. 4 Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, bore to him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 892 (Genesis 38:7): Genesis 38:7 — But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH; so YAHWEH put him to death.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 893 (Deuteronomy 25:5–10): Deuteronomy 25:5–10 — 5When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her. 6 The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.” 8 Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,” 9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.” 10 And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 894 (Matthew 22:23–33): Matthew 22:23–33 — 23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Yeshua and questioned Him. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh. 27 And last of all, the woman also died. 28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For all of them were married to her.” 29 Yeshua answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels of God in heaven. 31 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 895 (Genesis 38:14–15): Genesis 38:14–15 — 14she 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.) 15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 896 (Leviticus 18:15): Leviticus 18:15 — You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 897 (Judges 15:1): Judges 15:1 — Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 898 (Genesis 38:23): Genesis 38:23 — “Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 899 (Genesis 38:24): Genesis 38:24 — About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 900 (Genesis 38:26): Genesis 38:26 — 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.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 901 (John 8:3–11): John 8:3–11 — 3The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before them 4 and to test Him they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?” 6 They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Yeshua bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger, not taking notice. 7 When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.” 8 And again He bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard this and were convicted by their consciences, they began to go away one by one, beginning with the older ones, until only Yeshua was left, with the woman standing there. 10 Then Yeshua straightened up and saw no one but the woman. And He asked her, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Yeshua declared. “Go and sin no more.”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 902 (Genesis 37:26–27): Genesis 37:26–27 — 26Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27Come, all of you, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 903 (Genesis 44:18–34): Genesis 44:18–34 — 18Then Judah approached Joseph and said, “Sir, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19My lord asked his servants, ‘Do all of you have a father or a brother?’ 20And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’” 21“Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, all of you, so that I can see him for myself.’ 22So we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he were to leave, his father would die.’ 23But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your younger brother comes down with all of you, you will not see my face again.’ 24Now when we returned to your servant my father, we relayed your words to him. 25Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy us some food.’ 26But we answered, ‘We cannot go down there unless our younger brother goes with us. So if our younger brother is not with us, we cannot see the man.’ 27And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28When one of them was gone, I said: “Surely he has been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29Now if all of you also take this one from me and harm comes to him, you all will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’” 30“So if the boy is not with us when I return to your servant, and if my father, whose life is wrapped up in the boy’s life, 31sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. 32Indeed, your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will bear the guilt before you, my father, all my life.’ 33Now please let your servant stay here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy. Let him return with his brothers. 34For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm him.”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 904 (Ruth 4:18–22): Ruth 4:18–22 — 18Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, 19 Hezron was the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, 20 Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, Nahshon was the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed, 22 Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 905 (Matthew 1:3): Matthew 1:3 — Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1254 (Genesis 38:15): Genesis 38:15 — When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1494 (Genesis 38:1–5): Genesis 38:1–5 — 1About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. 2There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. 3So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er. 4Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. 5Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah (it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him).

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1495 (Genesis 38:6–7): Genesis 38:6–7 — 6Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH; so YAHWEH put him to death.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1496 (Genesis 38:8–9): Genesis 38:8–9 — 8Then 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.” 9But 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.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1497 (Genesis 38:10–11): Genesis 38:10–11 — 10What he did was wicked in the sight of YAHWEH, so He put Onan to death as well. 11Then 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.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1498 (Genesis 38:12–14): Genesis 38:12–14 — 12After 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. 13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14she 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.)

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1499 (Genesis 38:15–17): Genesis 38:15–17 — 15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. 16(Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law), he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired. 17“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1500 (Genesis 38:18–19): Genesis 38:18–19 — 18“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. 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. 19Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1501 (Genesis 38:20–23): Genesis 38:20–23 — 20Now 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. 21He 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. 22So 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.’” 23“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1502 (Genesis 38:24): Genesis 38:24 — About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1503 (Genesis 38:25–26): Genesis 38:25–26 — 25As 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?” 26Judah 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.

Genesis 38 · Footnote 1504 (Genesis 38:27–30): Genesis 38:27–30 — 27When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb. 28And 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. 29But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez. 30Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.