Genesis 38:18

Judah said, “All right, I will give you something to show that I made that promise. What do you want me to give you?” Tamar said, “Give me that necklace with your special stamp on it, and your walking stick.” (Judah used that special stamp like a signature.) So Judah gave those things to Tamar. Then he slept with Tamar, like a man sleeps with his wife, and a baby started to grow inside her.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

In Context

17Judah said, “After you sleep with me, I will send you one of my young goats.” Tamar said, “All right. But first, you have to give me something that belongs to you, to show that you promised to send me a young goat.”

19Then Tamar left that place, and she went home. She took off the scarf that was over her head, and she took off those pretty clothes, and she put on her widow’s clothes again.

Read all of Genesis 38

Cross References

Genesis 38:25So some people went to Tamar’s house, and they started to take her to the place to burn her. But she said to them, “Take this necklace with a special stamp on it, and this walking stick, and show them to Judah, my dead husband’s father. Say to him, ‘The man that owns these things, he is the one that slept with me and made this baby grow inside me. So please look at this necklace with the special stamp on it, and this walking stick, and say who they belong to.’”

Luke 15:22But his father said to his workers there, ‘Go and get some really good clothes and put them on him. And be quick. And get him a ring for his finger, and get some shoes for his feet.

Matthew Henry on Genesis 38:13-24

12 And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. 14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife. 15 When… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 38:18