Study Desk

He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

His father recognized it. “It is my son’s robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!”

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.

At that time Judah left his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah.

Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he released his semen on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.

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 thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers.

Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get back the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her.

As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand, and the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread around it, announcing, “This one came out first.”

But then he pulled his hand back, out came his brother, and she said, “What a breakout you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez.

Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread tied to his hand, came out, and was named Zerah.

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful,

Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority.

From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields.

After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”