16
He went over to her at the road side, and said, "Come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"
17
He answered, "I will send you a kid from the flock." And she said, "Will you give me a pledge, till you send it?"
18
He said, "What pledge shall I give you?" She replied, "Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand." So he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
19
Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.
20
When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hand, he could not find her.
21
And he asked the men of the place, "Where is the harlot who was at Enaim by the wayside?" And they said, "No harlot has been here."
22
So he returned to Judah, and said, "I have not found her; and also the men of the place said, 'No harlot has been here.'"
23
And Judah replied, "Let her keep the things as her own, lest we be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her."
24
About three months later Judah was told, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the harlot; and moreover she is with child by harlotry." And Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned."
25
As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "By the man to whom these belong, I am with child." And she said, "Mark, I pray you, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff."
26
Then Judah acknowledged them and said, "She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not lie with her again.