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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://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 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></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="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</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"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/genesis/38.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Judah and Tamar</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s sight; so the <span class="name">Lord</span> put him to death.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>What he did was wicked in the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s sight; so the <span class="name">Lord</span> put him to death also.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”</p><p class="reg">“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>“I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.</p><p class="reg">“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>He said, “What pledge should I give you?”</p><p class="reg">“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”</p><p class="reg">“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”</p><p class="reg">Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Perez means breaking out.">a</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/genesis/38-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah. <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Zerah can mean scarlet or brightness.">b</a></sup></span> </p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">29</span> <span class="footnotebot"><i>Perez</i> means <i>breaking out.</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">30</span> <span class="footnotebot"><i>Zerah</i> can mean <i>scarlet</i> or <i>brightness.</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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