1. At that time Judah left his brothers and stayed with an Adullamite man named Hirah.
2. There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. Judah acquired her as a wife and had marital relations with her.
3. She became pregnant and had a son. Judah named him Er.
4. She became pregnant again and had another son, whom she named Onan.
5. Then she had yet another son, whom she named Shelah. She gave birth to him in Kezib.
6. Judah acquired a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar.
7. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him.
8. Then Judah said to Onan, “Have sexual relations with your brother’s wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise up a descendant for your brother.”
9. But Onan knew that the child would not be considered his. So whenever he had sexual relations with his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely so as not to give his brother a descendant.
10. What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him too.
11. Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
12. After some time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah was consoled, he left for Timnah to visit his sheepshearers, along with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13. Tamar was told, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14. So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.)
15. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.