Then she said to Abraham’s worker, “I can see a man walking towards us. Who is he?” The worker said, “He is my boss Isaac.” Rebekah didn’t want Isaac to see her face, so she got a scarf and put it over her head. You see, in that culture, that is what a woman did when she met the man that she was going to marry.
Genesis 38:14Plain English VersionTamar thought about Judah’s son Shelah. She knew that he was grown up now, but Judah still didn’t let her marry him. So Tamar thought, “I will trick Judah and get him to sleep with me, like a man sleeps with his wife, so that I can have kids. Then those kids will belong to my dead husband Er.” At that time, Tamar was wearing the sort of clothes that widows wear. But then, Tamar changed those clothes, and she put on some pretty clothes, and she put a scarf over her head, to cover her face. Then she went and sat outside the town called Enayim. That town is on the road that goes to Timnah. See the chapter |
9 Cross References
Later, Judah walked along that road, and he saw Tamar sitting there. She had that scarf over her head, and Judah couldn’t see her face. So Judah didn’t know that she was Tamar, his dead son’s wife. He thought she was a woman that sleeps with men for pay. So Judah went to her, and he said, “I want to sleep with you, like a man sleeps with his wife.” Tamar said, “If I sleep with you, then you have to give me something to pay me. What will you give me?”
So they took those things to Judah, and they told him what Tamar said. And Judah looked at those things, and he knew that they belonged to him. Then Judah knew that Tamar tricked him, and he felt shame. He said, “You know, I did the wrong thing. I didn’t let Tamar marry my son Shelah. But Tamar is better than me. She wanted to have kids that will belong to her dead husband, just like our culture says. That’s the reason why she got me to sleep with her.” So Judah didn’t punish Tamar, and he never slept with her again.
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