Genesis 38:23-30

23 Judah said, "Let her keep the things. We don't want people to laugh at us. I did try to pay her, but you couldn't find her."

24 About three months later someone told Judah, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a whore, and now she is pregnant." Judah ordered, "Take her out and burn her to death."

25 As she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law: "I am pregnant by the man who owns these things. Look at them and see whose they are - this seal with its cord and this walking stick."

26 Judah recognized them and said, "She is in the right. I have failed in my obligation to her - I should have given her to my son Shelah in marriage." And Judah never had intercourse with her again.

27 When the time came for her to give birth, it was discovered that she was going to have twins.

28 While she was in labor, one of them put out an arm; the midwife caught it, tied a red thread around it, and said, "This one was born first."

29 But he pulled his arm back, and his brother was born first. Then the midwife said, "So this is how you break your way out!" So he was named Perez.

30 Then his brother was born with the red thread on his arm, and he was named Zerah.

Genesis 38:23-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 38

This chapter is wholly taken up with matters relating to Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, from whom the Jews have their name, and from whom Christ sprung: it treats of his marriage with a Canaanitess, his children by her, their character and end, Ge 38:1-11; of his incest with his daughter-in-law, though unknown by him, Ge 38:12-23; of his resentment against her, when he heard she was with child, and his confusion when he found it was by himself, Ge 38:24-26; and of the birth of twins by her, named Pharez and Zarah, Ge 38:27-30.

Footnotes

• [a]. perez: [This name in Hebrew means "breaking out."]
• [b]. zerah: [This name sounds like a Hebrew word for the red brightness of dawn.]