And Jacob settled in Canaan, where his father had lived.
At about that time Judah parted from his brothers and headed south, and he camped near a certain Adullamite named Hirah. And there he met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; and he took her as his wife and slept with her. And she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Er. And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. And again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Shelah; she was at Chezib when she gave birth to him.
And Judah found a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord made him die. And Judah said to Onan, “Go and fulfill your obligation as a brother-in-law: sleep with your brother’s widow, and produce a child for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not count as his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s widow, he spilled his seed, in order not to produce a child for his brother. And what he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and he made him die too.
Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” (He was afraid that Shelah too would die, like his brothers.) So Tamar went back to her father’s house.
Many years later, Judah’s wife Bat-shua died. And after the period of mourning was over, Judah went up to Timnah for the sheep-shearing, together with his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And someone said to Tamar, “Your father-in-law is coming to Timnah for the sheepshearing.” Now Tamar knew that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him as a wife; so she took off her widows clothes, wrapped herself up, covered her face with a veil, and sat down at the entrance gate to Enayim, which is on the road to Timnah.
And when Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, since her face was veiled. And he went over to her at the roadside and said, “Let me sleep with you,” not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law.
And she said, “What will you pay me?”
And he said, “I will send you a kid from my flock.”
And she said, “All right, but leave me a pledge until you send it.”
And he said,” What kind of pledge?”
And she said, “Your seal and the staff you are holding.”
So he gave them to her, and slept with her, and she became pregnant. Then she left and went home, and she took off her veil and put on her widows clothes.
And Judah sent his friend the Adullamite with the kid, to get back the pledge from the woman; but he couldn’t find her. And he asked the people of that place, “Where is the temple-prostitute, the one who was sitting by the roadside at Enayim?”
And they said, “There wasn’t any temple-prostitute here.”
So he returned to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her; furthermore, the people said there wasn’t any temple-prostitute there.”
And Judah said, “Let her keep the pledge; if I go on looking for her, I will make myself a laughingstock. I sent the kid, as I promised; I can’t help it if you didn’t find her.”
About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is a whore, and she has gotten herself pregnant from her whoring.”
And Judah said, “Bring her out to be burned.”
And as she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law: “The man who got me pregnant is the owner of this seal and this staff; see if you recognize whose they are.”
And Judah recognized them and said, “She is in the right and I am in the wrong, because I didn’t give her to my son Shelah.” But he never slept with her again.
And when it was time for her to give birth, it turned out that there were twins in her womb. And while she was giving birth, one of them put out a hand, and the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread around the wrist and said, “This one came out first.” But just then he pulled back his hand, and his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So she named him Perez, Breach. And then his brother came out, with the scarlet thread on his wrist; and she named him Zerah, Bright One.