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1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brothers, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her, and went in unto her.

3 And she conceived, and bore a son; and he called his name Er.

4 And she conceived again, and bore a son; and she called his name Onan.

5 And she yet again bore a son, and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.

6 And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, and her name was Tamar.

7 And Er, Judah’s first-born, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.

8 And Judah said to Onan, “Go in unto your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother unto her, and raise up seed for your brother.”

9 And Onan knew that the seed would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, so that he would not give seed to his brother.

10 And the thing which he did was evil in the sight of the LORD; and he slew him also.

11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son be grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.

12 And in the process of time Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheep-shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

13 And it was told Tamar, saying, “Behold, your father-in-law goes up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

14 And she took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife.

15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; for she had covered her face.

16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, “Come, I pray you, let me come in unto thee;” for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, “What will give you me, that you may come in unto me?”

17 And he said, “I will send you a kid of the goats from the flock.” And she said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”

18 And he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” And she said, “Your signet ring and your belt, and the staff that is in your hand.” And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

19 And she arose, and went away, took off her veil, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

20 And Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand; but he could not find her.

21 Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute[a], that was at Enaim by the wayside?” And they said, “There has been no prostitute here.”

22 And he returned to Judah, and said, “I have not found her; and also the men of the place said, There has been no prostitute here.”

23 And Judah said, “Let her take it to her, or we will be put to shame; for I sent this kid, and you have not found her.”

24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, ‘Tamar thy daughter-in-law has played the harlot; and moreover, behold, she is with child by whoredom.’ And Judah said, “Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.”

25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “By the man, whose these are, am I with child;” and she said, “Discern, I pray you, whose are these, the signet, and the cords, and the staff.”

26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, forasmuch as I did not give her to Shelah my son.” And he knew her again no more.

27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.

28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, “This came out first.”

29 And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out; and she said, “Wherefore[b] have you made a breach for thyself?” therefore his name was called Perez[c].

30 And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand; and his name was called Zerah.

[21] Hebrew kedeshah, that is, a woman dedicated to impure heathen worship. See Dt. 23:17; Hos. 4:14.

[29] Or, How hast thou made a breach! a breach be upon thee!

[29] That is, A breach.

Selected commentary.

h.ויהי בעת ההוא AND IT CAME TO PASS AT THAT TIME — Why is this section placed here thus interrupting the section dealing with the history of Joseph? To teach that his brothers degraded him from his high position. When they saw their father’s grief they said, “You told us to sell him: if you had told us to send him back to his father we would also have obeyed you” (Genesis Rabbah 85:2).

h.ויט AND HE TURNED away from his brothers.

h.עד איש עדלמי UNTO A CERTAIN ADULLAMITE — he entered into a business-partnership with him.

h.כנעני means A MERCHANT — (cf. Pesachim 50a and Zachariah 14:21).

h.והיה בכזיב AND HE WAS AT CHEZIB — the name of a place. I am of opinion that it was called Chezib because there she ceased bearing. This meaning of the word occurs in (Jeremiah 15:18) “wilt thou indeed be unto me as an (אכזב) a deceiver (one who ceases to keep faith)”, and (Isaiah 58:11) “whose waters do not (יכזבו) fail (cease)“. For if this be not so (that it was called Chezib for the reason stated) what is it intended to tell us (what reason is there for telling us where he was at that time)? In Genesis Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah 55:4) I found the following ‘ותקרא את שמו שלה וגו AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME SHELAH [AND HE WAS AT CHEZIB] etc. — פסקת “ceasing”.

h.רע בעיני ה' WAS WICKED IN THE EYES OF THE LORD — like the wickedness of Onan, and committing the same sin. This must have been the case because of Onan it is said, (v. [10]) “And the Lord slew him also — Onan’s death was for a similar reason as Er’s death. Why did Er commit this sin? So that she should not bear children and her beauty thereby become impaired (Yevamot 34b).

h.והקם זרע AND RAISE SEED — The son will be called by the name of him who is dead.

h.‘כי אמר וגו FOR HE SAID etc. — that is to say, he pushed her off with a straw (i.e., he put her off with a lame excuse) because he never intended to give her to him in marriage

h.כי אמר פן ימות FOR HE SAID LEST PERADVENTURE HE DIE — She is a woman of whom it may be presumed that the men she marries will always die young (Genesis Rabbah 85:5).

h.ויעל על גזזי צאנו AND HE WENT UP UNTO HIS SHEEP-SHEARERS — it means: and he went up to Timnah to stand by his sheep-shearers.

h.עלה תמנתה HE GOETH UP TO TIMNAH — In the case of Samson it is said (Judges 14:1) “And Samson went down to Timnah”. But it lay on the slope of a mountain: from one direction one had to go up to it, from the other one went down to it (Sotah [10]a).

h.ותתעלף AND SHE WRAPPED HERSELF — she veiled her face that he should not recognise her.

h.ותשב בפתח עינים AND SHE SAT AT THE ENTRANCE OF ENAYIM (literally, at the opening of the eyes) — at the place where the eyes become opened:) at the cross-road which is on the way leading to Timnah. Our Rabbis explain (Sotah [10]b) that it means at the door (פתח) of our father Abraham’s residence to which all eyes עינים)) looked forward to pay a visit.

h.כי ראתה כי גדל שלה FOR SHE SAW THAT SHELAH WAS GROWN etc. — This was the reason why she offered herself to Judah, for she was anxious to have children from him (as an ancestor in some way or other) (Horayot [10]b).

h.ויחשבה לזונה AND HE THOUGHT HER TO BE AN HARLOT, because she was sitting at the cross-roads.

h.כי כסתה פניה FOR SHE HAD COVERED HER FACE — so that he could not see her face and thus recognize her. A Midrashic explanation of our Rabbis is that כי כסתה פניה means BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS COVERED HER FACE: when she had stayed in her father-in-law’s house she had shown herself a modest woman, and therefore he did not suspect her (of being the woman who was sitting there for that evil purpose) (Sotah [10]b).

h.ויט אליה אל הדרך AND HE TURNED UNTO HER BY THE WAY — from the road he was following he turned to the road where she was. In old French détourner; English to turn aside.

h.הבה נא COME, I PRAY THEE — Prepare yourself and your mind for this. Wherever הבה occurs it signifies “preparing oneself”, except in any passage where it must necessarily be translated by “giving”. And, indeed, those signifying “preparation” have almost the meaning of “giving”. (ערבון (17— means a PLEDGE.

h.ערבון means a PLEDGE.

h.חתמך ופתילך THY SIGNET AND THY STRING — The Targum renders it by “Thy signet and thy cloak” — the ring which you use as a seal and the cloak with which you cover yourself

h.ותהר לו AND SHE CONCEIVED BY HIM (לו, to him) — she conceived men who were strong, similar to himself, and men who were righteous, similar to himself (Genesis Rabbah 85:9).

h.הקדשה— means a woman who is devoted to, (מקדשת) and who is ever ready for illicit intercourse.

h.תקח לה Let that remain hers which she has in her possession (i.e. LET HER KEEP IT).

h.פן נהיה לבוז LEST WE BECOME A SCORN — if you seek her further the matter will become public and disgrace will follow, for what more can I do to redeem my promise? (for I have sent this kid etc and I can do no more).

h.הנה שלחתי את הגדי הזה BEHOLD, I SENT THIS KID — Because Judah had deceived his father through a kid of the goats — for he had dipped Joseph’s coat in its blood — therefore he, too, was deceived through a kid of the goats (Genesis Rabbah 85:9).

h.כמשלש חדשים ABOUT THREE MONTHS AFTER — the greater part of the first, the greater part of the third and the entire middle (second) one (Genesis Rabbah 85:10). The expression כמשלש חדשים signifies “when the months repeated themselves three times”. The word משלש is similar in form to (Ester 9:19) “and sending (ומשלח) portions”; (Isaiah 11:14), “sending (משלח) forth their hand”. Onkelos renders it similarly כתלתות ירחיא (where תלתות is the infinitive of תַּלַּת “when the months become three”).

h.הרה לזנונים SHE IS WITH CHILD BY HARLOTRY — The word הרה is an adjective, meaning pregnant, like (Exodus 21:22) “a pregnant (הרה) woman” (where הרה can be only an adjective) and as (Song. 7:10) “Clear (ברה) as the sun” (where ברה is an adjective; Rashi perhaps quotes this example to prove also that הרה is from root הרר just as ברה is from ברר)

h.ותשרף AND LET HER BE BURNT — Ephraim the Disputant said in the name of Rabbi Meir: She was the daughter of Shem who was a priest (see Rashi on Genesis 14:18) on this account they sentenced her to be burnt (cf. Leviticus 21:9) (Genesis Rabbah 85:10).

h.הוא מוצאת WHEN SHE WAS BROUGHT FORTH to be burnt.

h.והיא שלחה אל חמיה SHE SENT TO HER FATHER-IN-LAW — she did not wish to put him to shame in public by saying “It is by thee that I am with child”, but she said only “By the man whose these are”. She thought: “if he is to acknowledge it, let him acknowledge it voluntarily, and if not, let them burn me and let me not put him to shame in public”. From this passage our Rabbis derived the teaching: Far better that a man should let himself be cast into a fiery furnace (even as Tamar was ready to be burnt to death) and let him not publicly put his fellow to shame (Sotah 10b).

h.הכר נא RECOGNISE, I PRAY THEE — The word נא is used as an expression of entreaty: Acknowledge (הכר) I beg of you, your Creator and do not destroy three lives (Genesis Rabbah 85:11).

h.צדקה SHE IS RIGHTEOUS (right) in what she has said

h.ממני FROM ME is she with child. Our Rabbis, of blessed memory, explained this to mean that a Bath-kol came forth and said the word ממני — from Me and by My agency have these things happened: because she proved herself a modest woman whilst in her father-in-law’s house I have ordained that kings shall be descended from her, and I have already ordained that I would raise up kings in Israel from the tribe of Judah (Genesis Rabbah 85:11) (therefore I have brought it about that these two persons who are to be the ancestors of kings should unite to become so).

h.כי על כן לא נתתיה BECAUSE THAT I GAVE HER NOT — For (כי) she has acted rightly, because (על כן) I did not give her to Shelah, my son.

h.ולא יסף עוד AND HE KNEW HER AGAIN NO MORE — Some explain that ולא יסף means he did not continue to know her (Sifrei Bamidbar 88): others explain that it means he did not cease to know her (Sotah [10]b). An exactly similar instance occurs in reference to Eldad and Medad (Numbers 11:25), where ולא יספו which some translate “and they did not continue to prophesy” is translated in the Targum by “and they did not cease to prophesy”.

h.בעת לדתה AT THE TIME OF HER BEARING — But in the case of Rebecca Scripture says (25:24) “And when her days to give birth were fulfilled” — in the latter case the months of pregnancy were complete, here, however, they were short of the full term (Genesis Rabbah 85:13).

h.והנה תאומים AND BEHOLD TWINS — Here the word is written plene (with א and י whilst there (in the case of Rebecca) it is written defective (תומם without these letters) because one (viz., Esau) was wicked, but here both were righteous (Genesis Rabbah 85:13).

h.ויתן יד THE ONE PUT OUT HIS HAND — one stretched forth his hand outside, and after she had bound the scarlet thread upon his hand he drew it back.

h.פרצת THOU HAST BURST FORTH — What a strong effort hast thou made!

h.אשר על ידו השני THAT HAD THE SHINING RED THREAD UPON HIS HAND — The word יד is written here four times corresponding to the four acts of sacrilege which Achan, who was a descendant of Perez, committed with his hand. Others say these correspond to the four things which he took with his hand of the spoil of Jericho: a Babylon garment, two hundred shekels, and a wedge of gold (Genesis Rabbah 85:14).

h.ויקרא שמו זרח AND HIS NAME WAS CALLED ZARAH — (bright, shining), because of the bright colour of the scarlet thread.