Atlas Biblica

    Genesis · 30 verses

    Genesis 38

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    A hand appears, is tied up for first place, withdraws, and loses the race: the brother who emerges first is named Perez, “You have broken out first!”

    Judah’s household becomes remarkably complicatedvv. 1–14

    Judah leaves his brothers and settles near Hirah the Adullamite. He marries the daughter of Shua, and their three sons arrive in order: Er, Onan, and Shelah, with Shelah born at Chezib. Er is put to death for wickedness, and Onan follows after refusing the duty Judah gives him. Tamar, twice widowed and still waiting for Shelah, is sent back to her father’s house. After Judah’s wife dies, Judah and Hirah go up to Timnah; Tamar, seeing that Shelah has grown up without being given to her, exchanges widow’s clothes for a veil and sits at Enaim.

    The pledge that speaksvv. 15–26

    Judah sees Tamar and mistakes the veil for the calling card of a prostitute. He offers a young goat; she asks for his seal, cord, and staff as pledge, and then becomes pregnant by him. Judah sends Hirah with the goat, but the woman has vanished so completely that the men of Enaim deny she was ever there. Three months later, Judah is eager to burn his daughter-in-law for prostitution—until Tamar produces the very objects he left behind. Judah recognizes them and concedes that she is more righteous than he is.

    The wrist and the breakoutvv. 27–30

    Tamar gives birth to twins. One puts out a hand, receives a scarlet thread, and is announced as first; then the hand retreats, his brother breaks out ahead of him, and the thread-bearer arrives second. The names are supplied by the birth-room commentary: Perez for the brother who broke out first, and Zerah for the one still wearing the scarlet thread.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Gen 38:1About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite.

    2. Gen 38:2There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.

    3. Gen 38:3So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er.

    4. Gen 38:4Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.

    5. Gen 38:5Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.

    6. Gen 38:6Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

    7. Gen 38:7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death.

    8. Gen 38:8Then 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.”

    9. Gen 38:9But 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.

    10. Gen 38:10What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well.

    11. Gen 38:11Then 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.

    12. Gen 38:12After 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.

    13. Gen 38:13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

    14. Gen 38:14she 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.

    15. Gen 38:15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

    16. Gen 38:16Not 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. Gen 38:17“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.”

    18. Gen 38:18“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.

    19. Gen 38:19Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.

    20. Gen 38:20Now 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.

    21. Gen 38:21He 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.

    22. Gen 38:22So 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. Gen 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.”

    24. Gen 38:24About 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!”

    25. Gen 38:25As 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?”

    26. Gen 38:26Judah 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.

    27. Gen 38:27When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

    28. Gen 38:28And 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.

    29. Gen 38:29But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.

    30. Gen 38:30Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 179 passages were voted onto 25 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 71 Chronicles 2:3The 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 the LORD. So the LORD put him to death.
    • 8Deuteronomy 25:5–10When 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.
    • 7Genesis 46:12The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.
    • 8Matthew 22:23–27That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him.
    • 24Leviticus 21:9If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.
    • 261 Samuel 24:17and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, though I have rewarded you with evil.
    • 3Numbers 26:19The sons of Judah were Er and Onan, but they died in the land of Canaan.
    • 11Leviticus 22:13But if a priest’s daughter with no children becomes widowed or divorced and returns to her father’s house, she may share her father’s food as in her youth. But no outsider may share it.
    • 291 Chronicles 2:4Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, bore to him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.
    • 29Matthew 1:3Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.
    • 29Numbers 26:20These were the descendants of Judah by their clans: The Shelanite clan from Shelah, the Perezite clan from Perez, and the Zerahite clan from Zerah.
    • 301 Chronicles 9:6From the Zerahites: Jeuel and 690 relatives.
    • 12 Kings 4:8One day Elisha went to Shunem, and a prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to have a meal. So whenever he would pass by, he would stop there to eat.
    • 11 Samuel 22:1So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.
    • 2Genesis 24:3and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,
    • 8Ruth 4:5–11Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”

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