17. He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” “Very well,” she said, “provided you leave me a pledge until you send it.”
18. Judah asked, “What pledge should I leave you?” She answered, “Your seal and cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had intercourse with her, and she conceived by him.
19. After she got up and went away, she took off her shawl and put on her widow’s garments again.
20. Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman; but he did not find her.
21. So he asked the men of that place, “Where is the prostitute, the one by the roadside in Enaim?” But they answered, “No prostitute has been here.”
22. He went back to Judah and told him, “I did not find her; and besides, the men of the place said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’”
23. “Let her keep the things,” Judah replied; “otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you did not find her.”
24. About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has acted like a harlot and now she is pregnant from her harlotry.” Judah said, “Bring her out; let her be burned.”
25. But as she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It is by the man to whom these things belong that I am pregnant.” Then she said, “See whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
26. Judah recognized them and said, “She is in the right rather than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” He had no further sexual relations with her.
27. When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb.
28. While she was giving birth, one put out his hand; and the midwife took and tied a crimson thread on his hand, noting, “This one came out first.”
29. But as he withdrew his hand, his brother came out; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was called Perez.
30. Afterward his brother, who had the crimson thread on his hand, came out; he was called Zerah.