18. “What shall I give you as a pledge?” he asked.She answered, “Your seal with its cord and the stick you are carrying.” He gave them to her. Then they had intercourse, and she became pregnant.
19. Tamar went home, took off her veil, and put her widow's clothes back on.
20. Judah sent his friend Hirah to take the goat and get back from the woman the articles he had pledged, but Hirah could not find her.
21. He asked some men at Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who was here by the road?”“There has never been a prostitute here,” they answered.
22. He returned to Judah and said, “I couldn't find her. The men of the place said that there had never been a prostitute there.”
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 said to 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 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 labour, one of them put out an arm; the midwife caught it, tied a red thread round 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.