Genesis 38:1-14

Now at that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to [stay with] a certain Adullamite named Hirah. There Judah saw a daughter of Shua, a Canaanite, and he took her [as his wife] and lived with her. So she conceived and gave birth to a son and Judah named him Er. Then she conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. Again she conceived and gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Chezib that she gave birth to him. Now Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him [in judgment]. Then Judah told Onan, “Go in to your brother’s widow, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law [under the levirate marriage custom]; [be her husband and] raise children for [the name of] your brother.” [Deut 25:5-10] Onan knew that the child (heir) would not be his [but his dead brother’s]; so whenever he lay with his brother’s widow, he spilled his seed on the ground [to prevent conception], so that he would not give a child to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; therefore He killed him also [in judgment]. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow at your father’s house until Shelah my [youngest] son is grown”; [but he was deceiving her] for he thought that [if Shelah should marry her] he too might die like his brothers did. So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house. But quite a while later, Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died; and when the time of mourning was ended, he went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah with his friend Hirah the Adullamite. Tamar was told, “Listen, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself up [in disguise], and sat in the gateway of 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 [as Judah had promised].

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