Genesis · Berean Standard Bible
Genesis 38 Berean Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite.
1 At that time, Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
2 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.
2 There, Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite man named Shua. He took her, and went in to her.
3 So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er.
3 She conceived, and bore a son; and he named him Er.
4 Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.
4 She conceived again, and bore a son; and she named him Onan.
5 Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.
5 She yet again bore a son, and named him Shelah. He was at Chezib when she bore him.
6 Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
6 Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death.
7 Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in Yahweh’s sight. So Yahweh killed him.
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.”
8 Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
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.
9 Onan knew that the offspring wouldn’t be his; and when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.
10 What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well.
10 The thing which he did was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and he killed him also.
11 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.
11 Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
12 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.
12 After many days, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite.
13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”
13 Tamar was told, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14 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.
14 She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for 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.
16 He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
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.”
17 He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”
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.
18 He said, “What pledge will I give you?” She said, “Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.
19 Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.
19 She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
20 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.
20 Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, but he didn’t find her.
21 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.
21 Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?” They said, “There has been no prostitute here.”
22 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.’”
22 He returned to Judah, and said, “I haven’t found her; and also the men of the place said, ‘There has been no prostitute 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.”
23 Judah said, “Let her keep it, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this young goat, and you haven’t found her.”
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!”
24 About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute. Moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution.” Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
25 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?”
25 When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “I am with child by the man who owns these.” She also said, “Please discern whose these are—the signet, and the cords, and the staff.”
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.
26 Judah acknowledged them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, because I didn’t give her to Shelah, my son.” He knew her again no more.
27 When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
27 In the time of her travail, behold, twins were in her womb.
28 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.
28 When she travailed, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This came out first.”
29 But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.
29 As he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out, and she said, “Why have you made a breach for yourself?” Therefore his name was called Perez.
30 Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.
30 Afterward his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Er
Judah's firstborn, who was wicked in the LORD's sight and died young; first husband of Tamar.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38:3-7
Hirah
Judah's friend, an Adullamite near whom Judah settled, who went with Judah to the sheepshearing at Timnah and later took the young goat to Enaim but could not find the woman.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38:1; Genesis 38:12; Genesis 38:20
Judah
The lion of the tribes, from whom kings and the Messiah would come.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 29:35; 38; 49:8–12
Onan
Judah's second son, who died for refusing to raise up offspring for his late brother.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38:4-10
Perez
Born of Judah and Tamar, he became the head of the leading clan of Judah.
Cited in the guide: Gen. 38; Ruth 4:18; 1 Chron. 2:4-5; Matt. 1:3
Shelah
Judah's third son, withheld from Tamar until she took matters into her own hands.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38:5, 11; Numbers 26:20
Shua
A Canaanite man whose daughter Judah married; she bore Er, Onan and Shelah.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38:2; Genesis 38:12
Tamar
Judah's daughter-in-law who, denied justice, became the mother of Perez.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38; Matthew 1:3
Zerah
The twin brother of Perez, born to Judah and Tamar, whose hand first reached out at birth.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 38:29-30; 1 Chronicles 2:4
Cross references (25)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Kings 4:8; 1 Samuel 22:1; Proverbs 13:20; Micah 1:15; Genesis 19:2–3
- 2 1 Chronicles 2:3; Genesis 24:3; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Judges 16:1; Genesis 3:6
- 3 Numbers 26:19; Genesis 46:12
- 4 Genesis 46:12; Numbers 26:19
- 5 Numbers 26:20; Genesis 46:12; Genesis 38:26; Genesis 38:11; 1 Chronicles 4:21
- 6 Genesis 21:21; Genesis 24:3; Matthew 1:3
- 7 1 Chronicles 2:3; Genesis 46:12; Numbers 26:19; Genesis 13:13; Genesis 19:13
- 8 Deuteronomy 25:5–10; Matthew 22:23–27; Ruth 4:5–11; Ruth 1:11; Leviticus 18:16
- 9 James 4:5; Deuteronomy 25:6; James 3:16; Titus 3:3; Job 5:2
- 10 Numbers 11:1; Genesis 46:12; Proverbs 14:32; 1 Chronicles 21:7; Numbers 26:19
- 11 Leviticus 22:13; Ruth 1:11–13
- 12 Joshua 15:10; 2 Samuel 13:39; Judges 14:1; Genesis 24:67; Genesis 31:19
- 14 Genesis 38:26; Genesis 38:11–13; Proverbs 7:12; Jeremiah 3:2; Genesis 24:65
- 16 1 Timothy 6:10; Matthew 26:15; 2 Samuel 13:11; Ezekiel 16:33; Deuteronomy 23:18
- 17 Genesis 38:20; Ezekiel 16:33; Luke 16:8; Proverbs 20:16; Genesis 38:24–25
- 18 Genesis 38:25–26; Luke 15:22; Jeremiah 22:24; Hosea 4:11
- 19 Genesis 38:14; 2 Samuel 14:2; 2 Samuel 14:5
- 20 Genesis 20:9; 2 Samuel 13:3; Luke 23:12; Leviticus 19:17; Judges 14:20
- 23 Ephesians 5:12; 2 Samuel 12:9; Proverbs 6:33; Romans 6:21; 2 Corinthians 4:2
- 24 Leviticus 21:9; Judges 19:2; Ezekiel 23:44; Hosea 2:5; Ezekiel 23:19
- 25 Genesis 37:32; Genesis 38:18; Psalm 50:21; Jeremiah 2:26; Revelation 20:12
- 26 1 Samuel 24:17; 1 Peter 4:2–3; John 8:9; Titus 2:11–12; 2 Samuel 24:17
- 27 Genesis 25:24
- 29 Genesis 46:12; Matthew 1:3; 1 Chronicles 2:4; Numbers 26:20; Nehemiah 11:6
- 30 1 Chronicles 9:6; 1 Chronicles 2:4; Matthew 1:3
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
This fact is indeed set forth by many other [occurrences], but typically by [the history of] Thamar, Judah's daughter-in-law. For when she had conceived twins, one of them put forth his hand first; and as the midwife supposed that he was the first-born, she bound a scarlet token on his hand.