Jo’s Place

Judah and Tamar (Part 2) “How much will you pay to have sex with me?” Tamar asked.  “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised.  “But what will you give me to guarantee that you will send the goat?” she asked.  “What kind of guarantee do you want?” he replied.  She answered, “Leave me your identification seal and its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.”  So Judah gave them to her.  Then he had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant.  Afterward she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.  Later Judah asked his friend Hirah the Adullamite to take the young goat to the woman and to pick up the things he had given her as his guarantee.  But Hirah couldn’t find her.  So he asked the men who lived there, “Where can I find the shrine prostitute who was sitting beside the road at the entrance to Enaim?”  “We’ve never had a shrine prostitute here,” they replied.  So Hi...

​ Judah and Tamar (Part 1) About this time, Judah left home and moved to Adullam, where he stayed with a man named Hirah.  There he saw a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, and he married her.  When he slept with her, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he named the boy Er. Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, and she named him Onan.  And when she gave birth to a third son, she named him Shelah.  At the time of Shelah’s birth, they were living at Kezib.  In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar.  But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life.  Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died.  You must produce an heir for your brother.”  But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his broth...