King James Version · The patriarchs
Genesis 38
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And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain , whose name was ; and he took her, and went in unto her. And she conceived, and a son; and he called his name . And she conceived again, and a son; and she called his name . And she yet again conceived, and a son; and called his name : and he was at Chezib, when she him. And Judah took a wife for his , whose name was . And , Judah’s , was in the sight of ; and slew him. And Judah said unto , Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up to thy brother. And knew that the should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased : wherefore he slew him also. Then said Judah to his daughter in law, a at thy ’s house, till my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he also, as his brethren did. And went and dwelt in her ’s house. And in process of time the daughter of Judah’s wife ; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13And it was told , saying, Behold thy in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her ’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by to Timnath; for she saw that was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife. 15When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an ; because she had covered her . And he turned unto her by , and said, Go to, I thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand: but he found her not. 21Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the , that was openly by side? And they said, There was no in this place. 22And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no in this place. And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, thy daughter in law hath played the ; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and . And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more than I; because that I gave her not to my son. And he knew her again no more. And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her . 28And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis