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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 CEV</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="../">CEV</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">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">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 in the hill country and went to live near his friend Hirah in the town of Adullam. </span><span class="v0_38_2"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.2" class="v0_38_2">2</span>While there he met the daughter of Shua, a Canaanite man. Judah married her, </span><span class="v0_38_3"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.3" class="v0_38_3">3</span>and they had three sons. He named the first one Er; </span><span class="v0_38_4"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.4" class="v0_38_4">4</span>she named the next one Onan. </span><span class="v0_38_5"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.5" class="v0_38_5">5</span>The third one was born when Judah was in Chezib, and she named him Shelah.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_6"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.6" class="v0_38_6">6</span>Later, Judah chose Tamar as a wife for Er, his oldest son. </span><span class="v0_38_7"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.7" class="v0_38_7">7</span>But Er was very evil, and the <span class="nd">Lord</span> took his life. </span><span class="v0_38_8"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.8" class="v0_38_8">8</span>So Judah told Onan, “It's your duty to marry Tamar and have a child for your brother.”<a href="#fn" id="link_Gen.38.8!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_9"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.9" class="v0_38_9">9</span>Onan knew the child would not be his,<a href="#fn" id="link_Gen.38.9!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and when he had sex with Tamar, he made sure that she would not get pregnant. </span><span class="v0_38_10"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.10" class="v0_38_10">10</span>The <span class="nd">Lord</span> wasn't pleased with Onan and took his life too.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_11"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.11" class="v0_38_11">11</span>Judah did not want the same thing to happen to his son Shelah, and he told Tamar, “Go home to your father and live there as a widow until my son Shelah is grown.” So Tamar went to live with her father.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_12"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.12" class="v0_38_12">12</span>Some years later Judah's wife died, and he mourned for her. He then went with his friend Hirah to the town of 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>Tamar found out that her father-in-law Judah 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>She also realized that Shelah was now a grown man, but she had not been allowed to marry him. So she decided to dress in something other than her widow's clothes and to cover her face with a veil. After this, she sat outside the town of Enaim on the road to Timnah.</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 came along, he did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute </span><span class="v0_38_16"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.16" class="v0_38_16">16</span>and asked her to sleep with him. She asked, “What will you give me if I do?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_17"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.17" class="v0_38_17">17</span>“One of my young goats,” he answered.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_17">“What will you give me to keep until you send the goat?” she asked.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_18"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.18" class="v0_38_18">18</span>“What do you want?” he asked in return.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_18">“The ring on that cord around your neck,” was her reply. “I also want the special walking stick<a href="#fn" id="link_Gen.38.18!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> you have with you.” He gave them to her, they slept together, and she became pregnant.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_19"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.19" class="v0_38_19">19</span>After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow's clothes again.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_20"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.20" class="v0_38_20">20</span>Judah asked his friend Hirah take a goat to the woman, so he could get back the ring and walking stick, but she wasn't there. </span><span class="v0_38_21"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.21" class="v0_38_21">21</span>Hirah asked the people of Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who sat along the road outside your town?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_21">“There's never been one 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>Hirah went back and told Judah, “I couldn't find the woman, and the people of Enaim said no prostitute had ever been there.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_23"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.23" class="v0_38_23">23</span>“If you couldn't find her, we'll just let her keep the things I gave her,” Judah answered. “And we'd better forget about the goat, or else we'll look like fools.”</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 behaved like a prostitute, and now she's pregnant!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_24">“Drag her out of town and burn her to death!” Judah shouted.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_25"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.25" class="v0_38_25">25</span>As Tamar was being dragged off, she sent someone to tell her father-in-law, “The man who gave me this ring, this cord, and this walking stick is the one who got me pregnant.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_26"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.26" class="v0_38_26">26</span>“Those are mine!” Judah admitted. “She's a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah.” After this, Judah never slept with her again.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_27"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.27-Gen.38.28" class="v0_38_27">27-28</span>Tamar later gave birth to twins. But before either of them was born, one of them stuck a hand out of her womb. The woman who was helping tied a red thread around the baby's hand and explained, “This one came out first.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v0_38_29"><span class="reftext" id="Gen.38.29" class="v0_38_29">29</span>At once his hand went back in, and the other child was born first. The woman then said, “What an opening you've made for yourself!” So they named the baby 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>When the brother with the red thread was born, they named him 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">38.8 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">It's your duty … child … brother: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">If a man died without having children, his brother was to marry the dead man's wife and have a child, who was to be considered the child of the dead brother (see Deuteronomy 25.5,6).</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.9 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">the child … not be his: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">When Judah died, Onan would get his dead brother's share of the inheritance, but if his dead brother had a son, the inheritance would go to him instead.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.18 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">ring … walking stick: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The ring was shaped like a cylinder and could be rolled over soft clay as a way of sealing special documents. The walking stick was probably a symbol of power and the sign of leadership in the tribe, though it may have been a shepherd's rod.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.29 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Perez: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">In Hebrew “Perez” sounds like “opening.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.30 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Zerah: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">In Hebrew “Zerah” means “bright,” probably referring to the red thread.</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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