17
He answered, "I will send you a kid from the flock." And she said, "Only if you give me a pledge, until you send it."
18
He said, "What pledge shall I give you?" She replied, "Your signet and your cord, and the 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 got up 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 recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her.
21
He asked the townspeople, "Where is the temple prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?" But they said, "No prostitute has been here."
22
So he returned to Judah, and said, "I have not found her; moreover the townspeople said, "No prostitute has been here.' "
23
Judah replied, "Let her keep the things as her own, otherwise we will be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her."
24
About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of whoredom." 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, "It was the owner of these who made me pregnant." And she said, "Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff."
26
Then Judah acknowledged them and said, "She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not lie with her again.
27
When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb.