Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.
They had the long robe with sleeves[137 (#ulink_849a6028-47b2-5c9f-b661-f9cba139ff39)] taken to their father, and they said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.”
He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father bewailed him.
Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
38 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and settled near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.
There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; he married her and went in to her.
She conceived and bore a son; and he named him Er.
Again she conceived and bore a son whom she named Onan.
Yet again she bore a son, and she named him Shelah. She[138 (#ulink_6542eb1f-26dc-5d19-b6f2-ef75ab0a64e7)] was in Chezib when she bore him.
Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar.
But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.”
But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother.
What he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
12 In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died; when Judah’s time of mourning was over,[139 (#ulink_ccc7edb7-e86f-5f2a-b17e-bf953f990ba1)] he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”
she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
He went over to her at the roadside, and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
He answered, “I will send you a kid from the flock.” And she said, “Only if you give me a pledge, until you send it.”
He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord, and the staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him.
Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.
20 When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her.
He asked the townspeople, “Where is the temple prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?” But they said, “No prostitute has been here.”
So he returned to Judah, and said, “I have not found her; moreover the townspeople said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’”
Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, otherwise we will be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her.”
24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of whoredom.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It was the owner of these who made me pregnant.” And she said, “Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.”
Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again.
27 When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb.
While she was in labor, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, “This one came out first.”
But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore he was named Perez. [140 (#ulink_50961f8a-d6ae-578c-84a8-9606554db6f4)]
Afterward his brother came out with the crimson thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah. [141 (#ulink_54e3c6a9-60ec-523e-a0d9-5988dd22e8c8)]
39 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master.
His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hands.
So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.
From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field.
So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.
For reflection: Genesis 39:1–6
Obedience is the key to all doors: feelings come (or don’t come) and go as God pleases. We can’t produce them at will and mustn’t try.
—from a letter to Mary Van Deusen, December 7, 1950
Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking.
And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”
But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand.
He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her.
