Through My Bible Year 03 – April 18

Genesis 38-39

Judah and Tamar

genesis 38

¹ About that time Judah left his brothers and went to meet a man named Hirah of Adullam. ² There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He took her as his wife and went to her. ³ She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and she named him Er. ⁴ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, and she named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to another son and named him Shelah. She gave birth to Shela in Kazib itself.

⁶ Judah took a wife for his firstborn son Er. Her name was Tamar. ⁷ It turned out that Er, Judah’s firstborn son, was wicked in his eyes GodThis much God Killed him.

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, Go to your brother’s wife, do your duty as a brother to her dead husband, and have children. ⁽¹⁾ For your brother.” ⁹ Onan knew that the child would not be his, so whenever he went near his brother’s wife, he wasted his semen on the ground, so that she would not be able to give birth to a child for his brother. ¹⁰ But what he did was evil in the eyes of the people GodThis much God Killed him too.

¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Stay a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” In fact, he said to himself, “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

¹² After some time, Shua’s daughter, Judah’s wife, died. When Judah finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went to Timnah to shear their sheep. ¹³ Tamar was told, “Look, your father-in-law is going to Timnah to shear his sheep.” ¹⁴ And she took off her clothes, that he might know that she was a widow, and covered her face with a veil, and disguised herself, and sat down at the gate of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah: for she saw that Shelah had grown up, but she would not be given to him as a wife.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, because she had her face covered. ¹⁶ He turned to her on the side of the road and said, “Please, let me come to you,” because he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

He said, “What will you give me to come to me?”

¹⁷ He said, “I will send you a kid from the flock.”

He said, “Will you give me anything as security until I send the goat?”

¹⁸ He said, “What should I give you as a deposit?”

He said, “It has your seal on its rope and your staff which is in your hand.”

And he gave it to her and went to her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ Then she got up and left. Later she took off her veil and wore the widow’s clothes again.

²⁰ Judah sent the kid to his friend Adullami to get his inheritance money back from the woman, but he could not find it. ²¹ Then he asked the men of that place, “Where is the holy prostitute who lived by the roadside in Enaim?”

He said, “There is no holy prostitute here.”

²² Then he returned to Judah and said, I could not find her, and the people of that place said, There is no holy prostitute here.

²³ Judah said, “Let him keep it, so that we will not be disgraced. Look, I sent this kid, but you couldn’t find it.”

²⁴ About three months later, news came to Judah that your daughter-in-law, Tamar, had committed adultery, and what was worse, she had become pregnant from prostitution.

Judah said, “Bring him out and burn him.”

²⁵ When she was brought, she sent a message to her father-in-law, saying, I am pregnant by the man to whom these things belong. She also said, “Please help me identify whose these belong to – its string and the stamped seal on the staff.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “He is more righteous than I, because I did not give him to my son Shelah.” But he did not become intimate with her again.

²⁷ When the time for her labor came, it was revealed that she was carrying twins. ²⁸ When she was in labor, one of the twins extended her hand, and the midwife took a red thread and tied it on her hand, and said, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But then when he pulled his hand back, his brother came out first, so he said, “What a success you have achieved for yourself!” That’s why he was named Perez. ^{(2) 30} After this his brother came out, holding the red thread in his hand, so he was named Zerah. ⁽³⁾

Joseph in Egypt

genesis 39

¹ When Joseph was brought to Egypt, Potiphar the Egyptian, an official ⁽⁴⁾ Pharaoh and the chief of the guard bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites, who brought him to Egypt. ² God Was with Joseph, and he succeeded. He served in the house of his master the Egyptian. ³ His master saw that God was with him, and he God Whatever he touched he made successful. ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes. Joseph served him, and he made Joseph the manager of his household. He put Joseph in charge of everything.

⁵ From the time that Potiphar made him manager of his household and in charge of all that he had God blessed the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph, and blessed God He rested on whatever he had, both at home and in the fields. ⁶ So he left Joseph in charge of whatever he had. He was not worried about anything except the food he ate.

Joseph was well built and handsome. ⁷ Some time after all this, his master’s wife looked at Joseph, and she said, “Come, sleep with me.”

⁸ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, my master does not care about anything that has been entrusted to me in the house. He has made me the owner of everything he owns. ⁹ He has no one greater than me in this house, and he has not hidden anything from me except you, because you are his wife. Then how could I commit such a great evil and sin against God?”

¹⁰ She kept talking to Joseph every day, but he did not listen to her. He won’t lie down near her or even be with her. ¹¹ But one day when he went into the house to do his work, there was no one inside the house. ¹² He grabbed her clothes and said, “Come, sleep with me!” He left his cloth in her hand and ran out.

¹³ When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and ran out, ¹⁴ She called the people in her house and said, “Look, my husband has brought in a Hebrew man to shame us. He came to sleep with me, but I started screaming loudly. ¹⁵ When he heard my scream, he left his clothes with me and ran outside.”

¹⁶ He kept his clothes with him until his master came home. ¹⁷ He said to him, ‘The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us, came to me to shame me and said to me, ‘Let me lie down with you.’ ^{(5) 18} And look, when I kept screaming and shouting, he left his clothes with me and ran outside.”

¹⁹ As soon as his master heard the words that his wife said to him, “Your servant has done this to me,” he became very angry. ²⁰ Joseph’s master took him and put him in the prison where the king’s prisoners were kept, so Joseph was kept in the same prison.

²¹ But God Was with Joseph. He took pity on him, and found favor in the eyes of the prison warden. ²² The prison warden made Yusuf responsible for all the prisoners living in the prison. Joseph was responsible for everything they did there. ²³ The prison warden did not pay attention to anything that came under his jurisdiction, because God was with Joseph, and God Whatever he did he made successful.