NLT One Year Bible - Flipbook - Page 69
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ranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry
a young woman named Tamar. 7 But Er
was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so
the Lord took his life. 8Then 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.”
9 But Onan was not willing to have a
child who would not be his own heir. So
whenever he had intercourse with his
brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on
the ground. This prevented her from
having a child who would belong to his
brother. 10But the Lord considered it
evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead
brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life,
too.
11 Then Judah said to Tamar, his
daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until
my son Shelah is old enough to marry
you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to
do this because he was afraid Shelah
would also die, like his two brothers.) So
Tamar went back to live in her father’s
home.
12 Some years later Judah’s wife died.
After the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite
went up to Timnah to supervise the
shearing of his sheep. 13 Someone told
Tamar, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14Tamar was aware that Shelah had
grown up, but no arrangements had
been made for her to come and marry
him. So she changed out of her widow’s
clothing and covered herself with a veil
to disguise herself. Then she sat beside
the road at the entrance to the village of
Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.
15 Judah noticed her and thought she was
a prostitute, since she had covered her
face. 16So he stopped and propositioned
her. “Let me have sex with you,” he said,
not realizing that she was his own
daughter-in-law.
“How much will you pay to have sex
with me?” Tamar asked.
17“I’ll send you a young goat from my
flock,” Judah promised.
J A N U A R Y
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“But what will you give me to guarantee that you will send the goat?” she
asked.
18“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. 19Afterward she went back home,
took off her veil, and put on her widow’s
clothing as usual.
20Later 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. 21So 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.
22 So Hirah returned to Judah and told
him, “I couldn’t find her anywhere, and
the men of the village claim they’ve
never had a shrine prostitute there.”
23“Then let her keep the things I gave
her,” Judah said. “I sent the young goat
as we agreed, but you couldn’t find her.
We’d be the laughingstock of the village
if we went back again to look for her.”
24About three months later, Judah
was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law,
has acted like a prostitute. And now, because of this, she’s pregnant.”
“Bring her out, and let her be burned!”
Judah demanded.
25 But as they were taking her out to
kill her, she sent this message to her
father-in-law: “The man who owns these
things made me pregnant. Look closely.
Whose seal and cord and walking stick
are these?”
26 Judah recognized them immediately and said, “She is more righteous
than I am, because I didn’t arrange for
her to marry my son Shelah.” And Judah
never slept with Tamar again.
27 When the time came for Tamar to
give birth, it was discovered that she
