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Genesis 38:18
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16 Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
17 And he said, a“I will send a young goat from the flock.” So she said, b“Will you give me a pledge till you send it?”  
18 Then he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” So she said, a“Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” Then he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him.  
19 So she arose and went away, and alaid aside her veil and put on the garments of her widowhood.  
20 And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her.
21 Then he asked the men of that place, saying, “Where is the harlot who was1 openly by the roadside?” And they said, “There was no harlot in this place.”  
22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I cannot find her. Also, the men of the place said there was no harlot in this place.”
23 Then Judah said, “Let her take them for herself, lest we be shamed; for I sent this young goat and you have not found her.”
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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Genesis 38:18:

Genesis 38:18-21

Why did she ask for the walking stick? Well, usually, the staff was where you placed your signet and your cord. You hung the signet from the cord that you placed on your staff. So, all three kind of go together. All three of them, then, would identify Judah. Not just any one, but all three of them would really say, "You're the man."

I do need to explain something. It says there, in verse 15, that Judah thought that she was a harlot. That word is the normal word for prostitute, for harlot. But when you get down to verse 21, the word that Hirah the Adullamite uses is not "harlot." It's "ritual prostitute"—a different word. (Qedeshah.) It means "holy prostitute" or "set apart prostitute."

She did was not pose as a mere prostitute. She posed as a priestess of Ashtoreth and part of the ritual of that religion was that a woman could become a ritual prostitute in Ashtoreth's temple, as part of her service to the goddess.

Excerpted from Christ's Female Ancestors



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