Chapter 38
Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures Westminster Leningrad Codex. The written consonants are printed. A Masoretic reading is footnoted when it differs. No Dead Sea reading was substituted unless it was read from a fragment. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions are witnesses, not the default.
1At that time Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to an Adullamite man named Hirah.
2Judah saw there the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her and went in to her.
3She conceived and bore a son, and he named him Er.
4She conceived again and bore a son, and she named him Onan.
5She bore yet another son and named him Shelah. He was at Chezib when she bore him.
6Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh put him to death.
8Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and do the duty of a brother-in-law for her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
9Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he spilled the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.
10What he did was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and he put him to death also.
11Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up,” for he thought, “He too might die, like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
12Many days passed, and the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13Tamar was told, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14She took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil, wrapped herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah had grown up and she had not been given to him as a wife.
15Judah saw her and took her for a prostitute, because she had covered her face.
16He turned aside to her by the road and said, “Come, please, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
17He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Only if you give a pledge until you send it.”
18He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She said, “Your seal, your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” He gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
19She got up and went away, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothes.
20Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to take back the pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her.
21He asked the men of her place, “Where is the consecrated woman who was at Enaim by the road?” They said, “There has been no consecrated woman here.”
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Judah thought she was a zonah, a prostitute, in verse 15. His friend asks for a qedesha, a consecrated woman. The two words are printed as two words. They are not treated as the same title.
22He returned to Judah and said, “I did not find her, and the men of the place also said, ‘There has been no consecrated woman here.’”
23Judah said, “Let her keep them, or we will be despised. Look, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.”
24About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has prostituted herself, and what is more, she is pregnant by prostitution.” Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Text
The open transcription divides one written word as “about” plus “three.” The phrase is “about three months.” No other wording is written in the codex, and none is added.
25As she was being brought out she sent to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong I am pregnant.” And she said, “Recognize, please, whose these are, the seal, the cord, and the staff.”
26Judah recognized them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to Shelah my son.” And he did not know her again.
27When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
28While she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”
29Then he drew his hand back, and his brother came out, and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself.” So he was named Perez.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Perez is explained by the breach, the breaking out.
30Afterward his brother came out, the one with the scarlet thread on his hand, and he was named Zerah.
Notes (1)Hide notes
- Translation
Zerah is the shining of the scarlet. The codex does not spell the pun out. The name is printed as written.