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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Genesis 38 GNT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/genesis/38.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/genesis/38-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">GNT</a> > Genesis 38</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../genesis/37.htm" title="Genesis 37">◄</a> Genesis 38 <a href="../genesis/39.htm" title="Genesis 39">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Good News Translation</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s">Judah and Tamar</h3><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_1"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.1" class="v0_38_1">1</span>About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam. </span><span class="v0_38_2"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.2" class="v0_38_2">2</span>There Judah met a young Canaanite woman whose father was named Shua. He married her, </span><span class="v0_38_3"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.3" class="v0_38_3">3</span>and she bore him a son, whom he named Er. </span><span class="v0_38_4"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.4" class="v0_38_4">4</span>She became pregnant again and bore another son and named him Onan. </span><span class="v0_38_5"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.5" class="v0_38_5">5</span>Again she had a son and named him Shelah. Judah was at Achzib when the boy was born.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_6"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.6" class="v0_38_6">6</span>For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar. </span><span class="v0_38_7"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.7" class="v0_38_7">7</span>Er's conduct was evil, and it displeased the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, so the <span class="nd">Lord</span> killed him. </span><span class="v0_38_8"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.8" class="v0_38_8">8</span>Then Judah said to Er's brother Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother's widow. Fulfill your obligation to her as her husband's brother, so that your brother may have descendants.” </span><span class="v0_38_9"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.9" class="v0_38_9">9</span>But Onan knew that the children would not belong to him, so when he had intercourse with his brother's widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, so that there would be no children for his brother. </span><span class="v0_38_10"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.10" class="v0_38_10">10</span>What he did displeased the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, and the <span class="nd">Lord</span> killed him also. </span><span class="v0_38_11"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.11" class="v0_38_11">11</span>Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Return to your father's house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up.” He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_12"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.12" class="v0_38_12">12</span>After some time Judah's wife died. When he had finished the time of mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared. </span><span class="v0_38_13"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.13" class="v0_38_13">13</span>Someone told Tamar that her father-in-law was going to Timnah to shear his sheep. </span><span class="v0_38_14"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.14" class="v0_38_14">14</span>So she changed from the widow's clothes she had been wearing, covered her face with a veil, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, a town on the road to Timnah. As she well knew, Judah's youngest son Shelah was now grown up, and yet she had not been given to him in marriage.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_15"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.15" class="v0_38_15">15</span>When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, because she had her face covered. </span><span class="v0_38_16"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.16" class="v0_38_16">16</span>He went over to her at the side of the road and said, “All right, how much do you charge?” (He did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.)</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_16">She said, “What will you give me?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_17"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.17" class="v0_38_17">17</span>He answered, “I will send you a young goat from my flock.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_17">She said, “All right, if you will give me something to keep as a pledge until you send the goat.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_18"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.18" class="v0_38_18">18</span>“What shall I give you as a pledge?” he asked.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_18">She answered, “Your seal with its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.” He gave them to her. Then they had intercourse, and she became pregnant. </span><span class="v0_38_19"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.19" class="v0_38_19">19</span>Tamar went home, took off her veil, and put her widow's clothes back on.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_20"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.20" class="v0_38_20">20</span>Judah sent his friend Hirah to take the goat and get back from the woman the articles he had pledged, but Hirah could not find her. </span><span class="v0_38_21"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.21" class="v0_38_21">21</span>He asked some men at Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who was here by the road?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_21">“There has never been a prostitute here,” they answered.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_22"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.22" class="v0_38_22">22</span>He returned to Judah and said, “I couldn't find her. The men of the place said that there had never been a prostitute there.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_23"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.23" class="v0_38_23">23</span>Judah said, “Let her keep the things. We don't want people to laugh at us. I did try to pay her, but you couldn't find her.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_24"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.24" class="v0_38_24">24</span>About three months later someone told Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a whore, and now she is pregnant.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_24">Judah ordered, “Take her out and burn her to death.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_25"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.25" class="v0_38_25">25</span>As she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man who owns these things. Look at them and see whose they are—this seal with its cord and this walking stick.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_26"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.26" class="v0_38_26">26</span>Judah recognized them and said, “She is in the right. I have failed in my obligation to her—I should have given her to my son Shelah in marriage.” And Judah never had intercourse with her again.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_27"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.27" class="v0_38_27">27</span>When the time came for her to give birth, it was discovered that she was going to have twins. </span><span class="v0_38_28"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.28" class="v0_38_28">28</span>While she was in labor, one of them put out an arm; the midwife caught it, tied a red thread around it, and said, “This one was born first.” </span><span class="v0_38_29"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.29" class="v0_38_29">29</span>But he pulled his arm back, and his brother was born first. Then the midwife said, “So this is how you break your way out!” So he was named Perez.<a href="#fn" id="link_Gen.38.29!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span><span class="v0_38_30"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.30" class="v0_38_30">30</span>Then his brother was born with the red thread on his arm, and he was named Zerah.<a href="#fn" id="link_Gen.38.30!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.29: </char><char style="fk" closed="false">Perez: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">This name in Hebrew means “breaking out.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.30: </char><char style="fk" closed="false">Zerah: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">This name sounds like a Hebrew word for the red brightness of dawn.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 1992 American Bible Society. 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