Then she had yet another son, whom she named Shelah. She gave birth to him in Kezib.

So she removed her widow's clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.)

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.

He turned aside to her along the road and said, "Come on! I want to have sex with you." (He did not realize it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, "What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?"

He replied, "I'll send you a young goat from the flock." She asked, "Will you give me a pledge until you send it?"

He said, "What pledge should I give you?" She replied, "Your seal, your cord, and the staff that's in your hand." So he gave them to her and had sex with her. She became pregnant by him.

She left immediately, removed her veil, and put on her widow's clothes.

After three months Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned!"

While they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: "I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong." Then she said, "Identify the one to whom the seal, cord, and staff belong."

Judah recognized them and said, "She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn't give her to Shelah my son." He did not have sexual relations with her again.

While she was giving birth, one child put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, "This one came out first."

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. She said, "How you have broken out of the womb!" So he was named Perez.

Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to have sex with her.

She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, "Have sex with me!" But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran outside.

When she saw that he had left his outer garment in her hand and had run outside,

she called for her household servants and said to them, "See, my husband brought in a Hebrew man to us to humiliate us. He tried to have sex with me, but I screamed loudly.

So she laid his outer garment beside her until his master came home.

This is what she said to him: "That Hebrew slave you brought to us tried to humiliate me,

These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, along with Dinah his daughter. His sons and daughters numbered thirty-three in all.

These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen in all.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.

"When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live."

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months.

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,

opened it, and saw the child -- a boy, crying! -- and she felt compassion for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get a nursing woman for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse the child for you?"

When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "Because I drew him from the water."

When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, "I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land."

So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, "A bridegroom of blood," referring to the circumcision.)

Amram married his father's sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram's life was 137 years.)

Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' households of Levi according to their clans.

If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

"If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.

If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her.

If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

"If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow, he will surely be punished.

Every woman who was skilled spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen,

"Tell the Israelites, 'When a woman produces offspring and bears a male child, she will be unclean seven days, as she is unclean during the days of her menstruation.

Then she will remain thirty-three days in blood purity. She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.

If she bears a female child, she will be impure fourteen days as during her menstrual flow, and she will remain sixty-six days in blood purity.

"'When the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she must bring a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering to the entrance of the Meeting Tent, to the priest.

The priest is to present it before the Lord and make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean from her flow of blood. This is the law of the one who bears a child, for the male or the female child.

If she cannot afford a sheep, then she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering, and the priest is to make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean.'"

"'When a woman has a discharge and her discharge is blood from her body, she is to be in her menstruation seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.

Anything she lies on during her menstruation will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean.

Anyone who touches any furniture she sits on must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

If there is something on the bed or on the furniture she sits on, when he touches it he will be unclean until evening,

"'When a woman's discharge of blood flows many days not at the time of her menstruation, or if it flows beyond the time of her menstruation, all the days of her discharge of impurity will be like the days of her menstruation -- she is unclean.

Any bed she lies on all the days of her discharge will be to her like the bed of her menstruation, any furniture she sits on will be unclean like the impurity of her menstruation,

"'If she becomes clean from her discharge, then she is to count off for herself seven days, and afterward she will be clean.

Then on the eighth day she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons and she must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent,

but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people.

You must not expose your father's nakedness by having sexual intercourse with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have intercourse with her.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your father's wife; she is your father's nakedness.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; you must not have sexual intercourse with either of them.

You must not have sexual intercourse with the daughter of your father's wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have intercourse with her.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your father's sister; she is your father's flesh.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's flesh.

You must not expose the nakedness of your father's brother; you must not approach his wife to have sexual intercourse with her. She is your aunt.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife. You must not have intercourse with her.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your brother's wife; she is your brother's nakedness.

You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual intercourse with her.

"'When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, although she is a slave woman designated for another man and she has not yet been ransomed, or freedom has not been granted to her, there will be an obligation to pay compensation. They must not be put to death, because she was not free.

"'If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has exposed his sister's nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity.

If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them must be cut off from the midst of their people.

If a daughter of a priest profanes herself by engaging in prostitution, she is profaning her father. She must be burned to death.

If a priest's daughter marries a lay person, she may not eat the holy contribution offerings,

but if a priest's daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in her father's house as in her youth, she may eat from her father's food, but no lay person may eat it.

and a man has sexual relations with her without her husband knowing it, and it is hidden that she has defiled herself, since there was no witness against her, nor was she caught --

and if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is defiled; or if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is not defiled --

When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness -- her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she will be free of ill effects and will be able to bear children.

When the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became leprous as snow. Then Aaron looked at Miriam, and she was leprous!

The Lord said to Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again."

And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself into the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he beat her again.

When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she crouched down under Balaam. Then Balaam was angry, and he beat his donkey with a staff.

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?"

The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her alive."

Now the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt. And to Amram she bore Aaron, Moses, and Miriam their sister.

and her father hears of her vow or the obligation to which she has pledged herself, and her father remains silent about her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation to which she has pledged herself will stand.

But if her father overrules her when he hears about it, then none of her vows or her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand. And the Lord will release her from it, because her father overruled her.

"And if she marries a husband while under a vow, or she uttered anything impulsively by which she has pledged herself,

and her husband hears about it, but remains silent about her when he hears about it, then her vows will stand and her obligations which she has pledged for herself will stand.

But if when her husband hears it he overrules her, then he will nullify the vow she has taken, and whatever she uttered impulsively which she has pledged for herself. And the Lord will release her from it.

"But every vow of a widow or of a divorced woman which she has pledged for herself will remain intact.

If she made the vow in her husband's house or put herself under obligation with an oath,

and her husband heard about it, but remained silent about her, and did not overrule her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation which she pledged for herself will stand.

But if her husband clearly nullifies them when he hears them, then whatever she says by way of vows or obligations will not stand. Her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her from them.

But if her husband remains completely silent about her from day to day, he thus confirms all her vows or all her obligations which she is under; he confirms them because he remained silent about when he heard them.

"You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty.

you may bring her back to your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails,

discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations with her and become her husband and she your wife.

If you are not pleased with her, then you must let her go where she pleases. You cannot in any case sell her; you must not take advantage of her, since you have already humiliated her.

accusing her of impropriety and defaming her reputation by saying, "I married this woman but when I had sexual relations with her I discovered she was not a virgin!"

They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman's father, for the man who made the accusation ruined the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father's house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father's house. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated his neighbor's fianc?e; in this way you will purge evil from among you.