Genesis 38:1-26

It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and
settled near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.  There Judah saw
the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; he married her
and went in to her.  She conceived and bore a son; and he named him Er.
Again she conceived and bore a son whom she named Onan.  Yet again she
bore a son, and she named him Shelah.  She was in Chezib when she bore
him.  Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar.  But Er,
Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put
him to death.  Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife and
perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your
brother."  But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he
spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother's wife,
so that he would not give offspring to his brother.  What he did was
displeasing in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.  Then
Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Remain a widow in your father's
house until my son Shelah grows up" — for he feared that he too would die,
like his brothers.  So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died; when Judah's
time of mourning was over, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he
and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.  When Tamar was told, "Your
father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep," she put off her
widow's garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the
entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.  She saw that Shelah
was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.  When Judah
saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
He went over to her at the roadside, and said, "Come, let me come in to
you," for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.  She said,
"What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"  He answered, "I will
send you a kid from the flock."  And she said, "Only if you give me a
pledge, until you send it."  He said, "What pledge shall I give you?"  She
replied, "Your signet and your cord, and the staff that is in your hand."
So he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the
garments of her widowhood.

When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to recover the
pledge from the woman, he could not find her.  He asked the townspeople,
"Where is the temple prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?"  But
they said, "No prostitute has been here."  So he returned to Judah, and
said, "I have not found her; moreover the townspeople said, 'No prostitute
has been here.'"  Judah replied, "Let her keep the things as her own,
otherwise we will be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could
not find her."

About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has
played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of whoredom."  And
Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned."  As she was being
brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, "It was the owner of
these who made me pregnant."  And she said, "Take note, please, whose
these are, the signet and the cord and the staff."  Then Judah
acknowledged them and said, "She is more in the right than I, since I did
not give her to my son Shelah."  And he did not lie with her again.