11
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up"—for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father's house.
12
In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died; when Judah's time of mourning was over, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13
When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,"
14
she put off her widow's garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.
15
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16
He went over to her at the roadside, 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, "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."