The Book Of Jubilees Chapter 41

The sons of Yacob took wives

1 And in the forty-fifth jubilee, in the second week, (and) in the second year, [2165 A.M.] Yahudah took for his first-born Er, a wife from the daughters of Aram, named Tamar.

2 But he hated, and did not lie with her, because his mother was of the daughters of Canaan, and he wished to take him a wife of the kinsfolk of his mother, but Yahudah, his father, would not permit him.

3 And this Er, the first-born of Yahudah, was wicked, and YAHWEH slew him.

4 And Yahudah said to Onan, his brother 'Go in unto your brother's wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and raise up seed unto your brother.'

5 And Onan knew that the seed would not be his, (but) his brother's only, and he went into the house of his brother's wife, and spilt the seed on the ground, and he was wicked in the eyes of YAHWEH, and He slew him.

6 And Yahudah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law: 'Remain in your father's house as a widow till Shelah my son be grown up, and I shall give you to him to wife.'

7 And he grew up; but Bedsu'el, the wife of Yahudah, did not permit her son Shelah to marry.

8 And Bedsu'el, the wife of Yahudah, died [2168 A.M.] in the fifth year of this week. And in the sixth year Yahudah went up to shear his sheep at Timnah. [2169 A.M.]

9 And they told Tamar: 'Behold your father-in-law goes up to Timnah to shear his sheep.' And she put off her widow's clothes, and put on a veil, and adorned herself, and sat in the gate adjoining the way to Timnah.

10 And as Yahudah was going along he found her, and thought her to be an harlot, and he said to her: 'Let me come in unto you'; and she said to him Come in,' and he went in.

11 And she said to him: 'Give me my hire'; and he said to her: 'I have nothing in my hand save my ring that is on my finger, and my necklace, and my staff which is in my hand.'

12 And she said to him 'Give them to me until you do send me my hire', and he said to her: 'I will send unto you a kid of the goats'; and he gave them to her, and she conceived by him.

13, And Yahudah went unto his sheep, and she went to her father's house.

14 And Yahudah sent a kid of the goats by the hand of his shepherd, an Adullamite, and he found her not; and he asked the people of the place, saying: 'Where is the harlot who was here?'

15 And they said to him; 'There is no harlot here with us.' And he returned and informed him, and said to him that he had not found her: 'I asked the people of the place, and they said to me: "There is no harlot here.'

16 And he said: 'Let her keep them lest we become a cause of derision.' And when she had completed three months, it was manifest that she was with child, and they told Yahudah, saying: 'Behold Tamar, your daughter-in-law, is with child by whoredom.'

17 And Yahudah went to the house of her father, and said to her father and her brothers: 'Bring her forth, and let them burn her, for she has wrought uncleanness in Yisrael.'

18 And it came to pass when they brought her forth to burn her that she sent to her father-in-law the ring and the necklace, and the staff, saying: 'Discern whose are these, for by him am I with child.'

19 And Yahudah acknowledged, and said: 'Tamar is more righteous than I am. And therefore let them burn her not.'

20 And for that reason she was not given to Shelah,

21 And he did not again approach her, And after that she bare two sons, Perez [2170 A.M.] and Zerah, in the seventh year of this second week.

22 And thereupon the seven years of fruitfulness were accomplished, of which Yoseph spoke to Pharaoh.

23 And Yahudah acknowledged that the deed which he had done was evil, for he had lain with his daughter-in-law, and he esteemed it hateful in his eyes, and he acknowledged that he had transgressed and gone astray, for he had uncovered the skirt of his son, and he began to lament and to supplicate before YAHWEH because of his transgression.

24 And we told him in a dream that it was forgiven him because he supplicated earnestly, and lamented, and did not again commit it.

25 And he received forgiveness because he turned from his sin and from his ignorance, for he transgressed greatly before YAHWEH our ALMIGHTY; and every one that acts thus, every one who lies with his mother-in-law, let them burn him with fire that he may burn therein, for there is uncleanness and pollution upon them, with fire let them burn them.

26 And do you command the children of Yisrael that there be no uncleanness amongst them, for every one who lies with his daughter-in-law or with his mother-in-law has wrought uncleanness; with fire let them burn the man who has lain with her, and likewise the woman, and He will turn away wrath and punishment from Yisrael.

27 And unto Yahudah we said that his two sons had not lain with her, and for this reason his seed was established for a second generation, and would not be rooted out.

28 For in singleness of eye he had gone and sought for punishment, namely, according to the judgment of Abraham, which he had commanded his sons, Yahudah had sought to burn her with fire.