12
After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
13
When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”
14
she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
15
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
17
“I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said. “Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.
18
He said, “What pledge should I give you?” “Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.
19
After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.