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G ENESIS 38
page 37
“Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe. A wild animal
must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been
torn to pieces!” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes and
dressed himself in burlap. He mourned deeply
for his son for a long time. 35 His family all tried
to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
“I will go to my grave* mourning for my son,” he
would say, and then he would weep.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianite traders* arrived
in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an
officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar
was captain of the palace guard.
Judah and Tamar
About this time, Judah left home and
moved to Adullam, where he stayed
with a man named Hirah. 2 There he saw a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, and he
married her. When he slept with her, 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he
named the boy Er. 4 Then she became pregnant
again and gave birth to another son, and she
named him Onan. 5 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.
6 In the course of time, Judah arranged 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. 8 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.”
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. 10 But 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-inlaw, “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.”
14 Tamar 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
38
37:35 Hebrew go down to Sheol. 37:36 Hebrew the Medanites.
The relationship between the Midianites and Medanites is
unclear; compare 37:28. See also 25:2.
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. 16 So 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.
“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. 19 Afterward she went back home, took off
her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as
usual.
20 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. 21 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.
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.”
24 About three months later, Judah was told,
• Presence of God
G E N E S I S 37:28
When a loved one or someone important
to us abandons us, we need not feel
totally alone or be stripped of our selfworth. When Joseph’s brothers sold him,
abandoning him to a seemingly certain
death, God was with him. When others
seem to forsake you, turn to God as
the ultimate caregiver, the one who will
always be with you. “Even if my father
and mother abandon me, the LORD will
hold me close” (Psalm 27:10).