World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 38
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At that time, Judah went down from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. There, Judah saw the daughter of a certain man named Shua. He took her, and went in to her. She conceived, and bore a son; and he named him . She conceived again, and bore a son; and she named him . She yet again bore a son, and named him . He was at Chezib when she bore him. Judah took a wife for , his , and her name was . , Judah's , was in sight. So killed him. Judah said to , "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and raise up for your brother." knew that the wouldn't be his; and when he went in to his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give to his brother. The thing which he did was evil in sight, and he killed him also. Then Judah said to , his daughter-in-law, " a in your house, until , my son, is grown up;" for he said, "Lest he also , like his brothers." went and lived in her house. After many days, Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, . Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to , he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite. 13 was told, "Behold, your -in-law is going up to to shear his sheep." She took off the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her , and wrapped herself, and sat in the of Enaim, which is on to ; for she saw that was grown up, and she wasn't given to him as a wife. 15When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a , for she had covered her . He turned to her by , and said, "Please come, let me come in to you," for he didn't know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?" He said, "I will send you a young goat from the flock." She said, "Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?" He said, "What pledge will I give you?" She said, "Your signet and your cord, and your that is in your hand." He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him. She arose, and went away, and put off her from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hand, but he didn't find her. 21Then he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where is the , that was at Enaim by the road?" They said, "There has been no here." 22He returned to Judah, and said, "I haven't found her; and also the men of the place said, 'There has been no here.'" Judah said, "Let her keep it, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this young goat, and you haven't found her." About three months later, Judah was told, ", your daughter-in-law, has . Moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution." Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned." When she was brought out, she sent to her -in-law, saying, "I am with child by the man who owns these." She also said, "Please discern whose these are—the signet, and the cords, and the ." Judah acknowledged them, and said, "She is more than I, because I didn't give her to , my son." He knew her again no more. In the time of her travail, behold, twins were in her . 28When she travailed, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, "This came out first." As he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out, and she said, "Why have you made a breach for yourself?" Therefore his name was called . Afterward his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called .
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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.
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