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Chapter 38
Judah and Tamar
1At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.
2There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her;
3she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.
4She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.
5She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
6Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
7But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.
8Then Judah said to Onan, “Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.”
9But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.
10What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.
11Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father's house.
12After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
13When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”
14she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
17“I'll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.
“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.
18He said, “What pledge should I give you?”
“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.
19After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.
20Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her.
21He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”
“There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.
22So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.’”
23Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her.”
24About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”
Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
25As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
26Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
27When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
28As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.”
29But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez.Perez means breaking out.
30Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.Zerah can mean scarlet or brightness.
Chapter 39
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
1Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
3When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did,
4Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
5From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.
6So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,
7and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”
8But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.
9No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”
10And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.
12She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,
14she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.
15When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
16She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.
17Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.
18But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.
20Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison,
21the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
22So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.
23The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Chapter 40
The Cupbearer and the Baker
1Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.
2Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
3and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.
4The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time,
5each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
6When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected.
7So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, “Why are your faces so sad today?”
8“We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
9So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me,
10and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes.
11Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand.”
12“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days.
13Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.
14But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.
15For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”
16When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread.Or three wicker baskets
17In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”
18“This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days.
19Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree.Or and impale you on a pole And the birds will eat away your flesh.”
20Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials:
21He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand,
22but he hangedOr impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.
23The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

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