Study Desk

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, "I will go down to the world of the dead still mourning for my son." So he continued to mourn for his son Joseph.

About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam.

For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar.

But Onan knew that the children would not belong to him, so when he had intercourse with his brother's widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, so that there would be no children for his brother.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Return to your father's house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up." He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.

After some time Judah's wife died. When he had finished the time of mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared.

Someone told Tamar that her father-in-law was going to Timnah to shear his sheep.

He went over to her at the side of the road and said, "All right, how much do you charge?" (He did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.) She said, "What will you give me?"

Judah sent his friend Hirah to take the goat and get back from the woman the articles he had pledged, but Hirah could not find her.

But he pulled his arm back, and his brother was born first. Then the midwife said, "So this is how you break your way out!" So he was named Perez.

Then his brother was born with the red thread on his arm, and he was named Zerah.

The Lord was with Joseph and made him successful. He lived in the house of his Egyptian master,

Potiphar was pleased with him and made him his personal servant; so he put him in charge of his house and everything he owned.

From then on, because of Joseph the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian and everything that he had in his house and in his fields.

and after a while his master's wife began to desire Joseph and asked him to go to bed with her.

But one day when Joseph went into the house to do his work, none of the house servants was there.

She caught him by his robe and said, "Come to bed with me." But he escaped and ran outside, leaving his robe in her hand.

When she saw that he had left his robe and had run out of the house,

When he heard me scream, he ran outside, leaving his robe beside me."

She kept his robe with her until Joseph's master came home.