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Tamar's story
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1 AROUND that time
Yehuda moved away from his brothers
and built his house
next door to an Adulamite called Hira
2 Yehuda met there
the daughter of a Canaanite named Shuah
they got married
and slept together
3 she got pregnant and gave birth to a son
and called him Er
4 she got pregnant again and gave birth to another son
and she named him Onan
5 she conceived yet again and gave birth to a son
and named him Shela
he was in Keziv
when he was born
6 Yehuda married his oldest son
to a woman called Tamar
7 Our Lord was not happy with Yehuda's oldest son
and Our Lord killed him
8 Yehuda told Onan to marry
his older brother's wife
to keep going as was proper
the seed of his brother
9 Onan knew that the child wouldn't be his
so whenever he slept with his sister-in-law
he cast his seed on the floor
not to give his brother children
10 Our Lord was not happy with what he did
and also killed him
11 and Yehuda told the daughter-in-law Tamar
to return to her father's house
until his son Shela was grown up
because he thought: I don't want him dying like his brothers
and off went Tamar
back to her father's house
12 after many days came the death
of Shuah's daughter, Yehuda's wife
when Yehuda had finished mourning
he went to the sheep-shearers
13 when Tamar was told that her father-in-law
was on his way to Timnat to shear the flock
14 she took off her widow's clothes
and put on a veil not to be recognised
she stationed herself in the square called Two Wells
that is along the road to Timnat
because she reckoned that Shela was already grown up
and still hadn't married her
15 Yehuda saw her and thought she was a hooker
because her face was covered
16 he turned to her on the road and said:
I want to sleep with you
because he didn't know
that she was his daughter-in-law
she said: What will you give me
to sleep with me?
17 he said: I will give you
a kid from the flock of goats
she said: Only if you leave something that's yours with me
until you give it to me
18 he said: What can I leave with you?
she said: Your seal and the staff you are holding
he left them with her and slept with her
and she got pregnant with him
19 she got up and left
she took off her veil
and put back on
her widow's clothes
20 Yehuda sent the baby goat
through his Adulamite neighbour
to retrieve what he had left with her
but he was unable to find her!
21 he asked the local inhabitants::
where is the prostitute on the Two Wells Road?
they told him: there has never been
such a prostitute as that
22 he went back to Yehuda and said:
I couldn't find such a one
and I was even told by the local people
that that prostitute of yours never existed
23 Yehuda said: So be it then
because otherwise I will be made fun of
here I sent her a kid
and you couldn't find her
24 about three months later Yehuda was told:
Your daughter-in-law Tamar prostituted herself
and she got pregnant when she prostituted herself
Yehuda said: Bring her out here and let her be burnt!
25 she was brought out and she sent her father-in-law this message:
I got pregnant with a man to whom this belongs
look and see if you know whose
this seal and this staff of yours are!
26 Yehuda recognised them and said:
This woman is more in the right than I!
Because I didn't marry her
to my son Shela
he didn't sleep with her again
27 and when the time came for her to give birth
twin babies
were in her tummy
28 when she was about to give birth
one of them put out its hand
the midwife took it
and tied a red thread
she said: this one is the first-born
29 when he put his hand back in
out came his brother and the midwife said:
How you have burst your way out!
and so he named him Peretz
30 afterwards out came his brother
with the red thing on his hand
and he named him Zerah.
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