18. “What do you want?” he asked in return.“The ring on that cord around your neck,” was her reply. “I also want the special walking stick you have with you.” He gave them to her, they slept together, and she became pregnant.
19. After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow's clothes again.
20. Judah sent his friend Hirah to take a goat to the woman, so he could get back the ring and walking stick, but she wasn't there.
21. Hirah asked the people of Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who sat along the road outside your town?”“There's never been one here,” they answered.
22. Hirah went back and told Judah, “I couldn't find the woman, and the people of Enaim said no prostitute had ever been there.”
23. “If you couldn't find her, we'll just let her keep the things I gave her,” Judah answered. “And we'd better forget about the goat, or else we'll look like fools.”
24. About three months later someone told Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has behaved like a prostitute, and now she's pregnant!”“Drag her out of town and burn her to death!” Judah shouted.
25. As Tamar was being dragged off, she sent someone to tell her father-in-law, “The man who gave me this ring, this cord, and this walking stick is the one who got me pregnant.”
26. “Those are mine!” Judah admitted. “She's a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah.” After this, Judah never slept with her again.
27-28. Tamar later gave birth to twins. But before either of them was born, one of them stuck a hand out of her womb. The woman who was helping tied a red thread around the baby's hand and explained, “This one came out first.”
29. Straight away his hand went back in, and the other child was born first. The woman then said, “What an opening you've made for yourself!” So they named the baby Perez.
30. When the brother with the red thread came out, they named him Zerah.