1. About that time Judah went down, away from his brothers, and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah.
2. There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; he married her, and had intercourse with her.
3. She conceived and bore a son, whom she named Er.
4. Again she conceived and bore a son, whom she named Onan.
5. Then she bore still another son, whom she named Shelah. She was in Chezib when she bore him.
6. Judah got a wife named Tamar for his firstborn, Er.
7. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, greatly offended the Lord; so the Lord took his life.
8. Then Judah said to Onan, “Have intercourse with your brother’s wife, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother’s line.”
9. Onan, however, knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid giving offspring to his brother.
10. What he did greatly offended the Lord, and the Lord took his life too.
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 Shelah also might die like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
12. Time passed, and the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died. After Judah completed the period of mourning, he went up to Timnah, to those who were shearing his sheep, in company with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13. Then Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14. So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a shawl, and having wrapped herself sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she was aware that, although Shelah was now grown up, she had not been given to him in marriage.
15. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, since she had covered her face.
16. So he went over to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me have intercourse with you,” for he did not realize that she was his daughter-in-law. She replied, “What will you pay me for letting you have intercourse with me?”