One Year Pray for the Persecuted Bible - Flipbook - Page 75
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toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite
traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.
26 Ju
dah said to his brothers, “What will
we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to
cover up the crime.* 27 Instead of hurting him,
let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After
all, he is our b
rother—our own flesh and
blood!” And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the
Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came
by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces*
of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.
29 Some time later, Reuben returned to get
Joseph out of the cistern. When he discovered
that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes
in grief. 30 Then he went back to his brothers
and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will I do
now?”
31 Then the brothers killed a young goat and
dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. 32 They sent
the beautiful robe to their father with this
message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this
robe belong to your son?”
33 Their father recognized it immediately.
“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 Mid
ianite traders* arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Poti
phar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
Potip
har was captain of the palace guard.
38:1 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 Ju
dah 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.”
January 18
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
Ju
d ah said to Ta
m ar, 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 Ju
dah 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 A
dullamite 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 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 Ju
dah 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 Ju
dah 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?”
