1. About that time Judah went down from his brothers and he camped near an Adullamite man, whose name was Hirah.
2. There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man whose name was Shua, and he took her as wife and slept with her.
3. Then she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er.
4. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.
5. She gave birth to yet another son and she called him Shelah. He was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.
6. Then Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in Adonai’s eyes, so Adonai put him to death.
8. Then Judah said to Onan, go to your brother’s wife to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up a seed for your brother.
9. But Onan knew that the seed would not be his. So every time he went to his brother’s wife he would destroy it on the ground so as not to provide a seed for his brother.
10. What he did was evil in Adonai’s eyes, so He put him to death also.
11. Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Stay as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up,” because he thought, “Otherwise he too might die, like his brothers.” So Tamar went and stayed in her father’s house.
12. Now the days became many, and Shua’s daughter, Judah’s wife, died. After Judah consoled himself, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
13. Then Tamar was told, “Look! Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his flocks.”