8. Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and produce offspring for your brother.”
9. But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he released his semen on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.
10. What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so He put him to death also.
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 thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
12. After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to the sheepshearers.
13. Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14. So she took off her widow’s clothes, veiled her face, covered herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.
15. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16. He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with me? ”
17. “I will send you a young goat from my flock,” he replied.But she said, “Only if you leave something with me until you send it.”
18. “What should I give you? ” he asked.She answered, “Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she got pregnant by him.
19. She got up and left, then removed her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on.