Genesis 38:16

Summary

Judah turns off the road toward Tamar (who he does not recognize, since she is veiled) and asks to have sexual relations with her, using the idiom "to come to" her. The narrator inserts a parenthetical note explaining that Judah did not know she was his daughter-in-law. Tamar responds by asking what payment she will receive.

Key words

• va.Yet ("he turned aside", H5186) — qal narrative form (vav + verb) that advances the story: Judah's physical movement off the road toward Tamar.
• 'aVo' ("let me go/come", H0935G) — qal imperfect, first person; combined with the imperative haVah ("give", H3051) and the particle na' ("please", H4994), it forms a polite request-command structure: "give, please, let me come to you."
• yaDa' ("he knew", H3045) — qal perfect, negated by lo' ("not", H3808); marks completed (non-)knowledge at the time of the encounter, framing the parenthetical explanation.
• khalaT-o ("his daughter-in-law", H3618H) — feminine singular noun in construct state with the suffix -o ("his", H9023), meaning literally "daughter-in-law of him"; identifies Tamar's relationship to Judah from the narrator's viewpoint.
• ti.ten ("will you give", H5414G) — qal imperfect, second masculine singular; Tamar's question uses future/ongoing aspect, framing her request as a condition tied to tavo' ("you will come", H0935G) later in the same verse.

What the text says

The verse is built from three narrative-vav clauses (va.Yet, va.Yomer, va.Tomer) that carry the plot forward in sequence: Judah turns aside, Judah speaks, Tamar speaks. Between the first two speech acts, the Hebrew inserts a causal clause introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588A) explaining lo' yada' ("he did not know") ki khalato hi' ("that she was his daughter-in-law"). This clause is placed after Judah's proposal within the verse, functioning as an aside from the narrator to the reader rather than as information available to Judah at the moment of speaking.

Judah's request uses the verb 'aVo' ("let me come", H0935G), an idiom for sexual approach rather than a direct sexual term. Tamar's reply mirrors this with tavo' ("you will come", H0935G), the same root, tying her negotiation directly to the verb Judah used.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew's parenthetical clause ("for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law") appears mid-verse, after Judah's request. The LXX and Vulgate preserve this clause in a similar mid-verse position, while the BSB translation moves it to the front of the sentence. The LXX renders the euphemistic 'aVo' eLaikh ("let me come to you") with the more explicit Greek phrase "let me enter to you" (εἰσελθεῖν πρὸς σέ), and the Vulgate renders it as "coëam tecum" ("let me lie with you") and later "fruaris concubitu meo" ("you enjoy intercourse with me"), making explicit what the Hebrew idiom leaves indirect.