Genesis 38:21

Summary

Judah sends someone to ask the men of the place where the qedeshah ("cult prostitute", H6948) is who had been at Enaim, beside the road — this is where Judah had encountered the veiled Tamar. The men answer that no such qedeshah had been there.

Key words

• yishal ("he asked", H7592) — qal narrative form, continuing the story sequence with the standard vav-consecutive pattern.
• qedeshah ("cult prostitute", H6948) — feminine singular adjective/noun, repeated in v.21 (once with the article ha-qedeshah, once without, qedeshah), built on the root associated with "set apart/holy," designating a specific type of prostitute distinct from a common one.
• Enaim (H5879G) — proper place name, marked with the preposition ba- ("at/in the"), locating the encounter geographically.
• derekh ("road", H1870K) — common gender singular noun with the article, specifying the roadside setting.
• hayetah ("she was", H1961) — qal perfect, third feminine singular, expressing a completed state in the men's denial ("she was not").

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav on yishal, continuing the sequence of Judah's search. The object of the question is introduced by le'mor ("saying," H0559 infinitive), a standard formula preceding direct speech. The question itself uses the interrogative ayyeh ("where?", H0346) followed by the definite noun ha-qedeshah hi' ("the qedeshah, she"), with the independent pronoun hi' (H1931) placed after the noun for emphasis, a common Hebrew construction highlighting the subject before locating her: "the qedeshah — she who was at Enaim, on the road."

The men's answer repeats the term qedeshah but without the article and without the emphatic pronoun, simply stating lo'-hayetah bazeh qedeshah ("there was not in this [place] a qedeshah"). The shift from the definite, emphasized form in the question to the indefinite form in the answer reflects a shift from a specific referent (the woman Judah is looking for) to a general denial of any such figure being present at that location.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew qedeshah (H6948), linked to a root meaning "set apart" or "sacred," is rendered in the LXX as porne ("harlot") and in the Vulgate as meretrix ("prostitute"), both generic terms lacking the cultic association carried by the Hebrew term. The place name Enaim (H5879G) appears in the LXX as Ainan, but the Vulgate omits the toponym entirely, replacing it with a description, quae sedebat in bivio ("who was sitting at the crossroads"), adding the verb "was sitting," which has no direct counterpart in the Hebrew text supplied.