Genesis 38:23

Summary

Judah responds to his friend Hiram's report that the woman (Tamar, disguised as a prostitute) could not be found, telling him to let her keep the pledged items rather than risk public shame. He affirms that he did send the promised kid goat, but it was Hiram who could not locate her.

Key words

• tikkach ("let her take/keep", H3947G) — qal imperfect, third person feminine, expressing a jussive-like permission ("let her take it for herself") rather than a simple future.
• pen ("lest", H6435) — a subordinating particle introducing a negative purpose clause, showing Judah's motive is to avoid a specific outcome.
• nihyeh ("we should become", H1961) — qal imperfect, first person plural, linking Judah and Hiram together as the subjects who might "become" an object of scorn.
• labbuz ("into contempt", H0937) — noun preceded by preposition le ("to/for"), indicating the result state they wish to avoid: becoming an object of buz ("contempt").
• matzata ("you found", H4672) — qal perfect, second person masculine singular, with the pronominal suffix -ah ("her") attached, marking Hiram as the one who failed to find her.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yomer ("and he said", H0559) followed by the subject Yehudah ("Judah", H3063G), a standard construction introducing direct speech. Judah's first statement, tikkach-lah ("let her take for herself", H3947G + H9005/H9034), uses the imperfect form in a permissive sense — an instruction rather than a prediction — telling Hiram to let the pledge items go rather than pursue the matter further.

The clause introduced by pen ("lest", H6435) explains Judah's reasoning: nihyeh labuz ("we should become into contempt", H1961 + H0937). The verb is first-person plural, grammatically uniting Judah and Hiram as those who risk shame if they continue searching publicly. The noun buz ("contempt") is preceded by the preposition le, marking the result they wish to avoid.

The second half begins with hinneh ("there!", H2009), an interjection drawing attention to the following statement. Judah asserts shalachti ("I sent", H7971G), a qal perfect (completed action), referring to the kid goat (ha-gedi ha-zeh, "this kid", H1423 + H2088) he had promised. The contrast is marked by ve-attah ("and you", H9002 + H0859A) followed by the negation lo ("not", H3808) and matzata ("you found", H4672), a qal perfect with the pronominal suffix -ah ("her", H9034) attached, placing the failure to locate her specifically on Hiram, not Judah.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders nihyeh labuz ("we should become into contempt") as καταγελασθῶμεν ("we might be laughed at" / ridiculed), a single verb form rather than a verb-plus-noun construction. The Vulgate diverges further, rendering the pen-clause as "certe mendacii arguere nos non potest" ("surely he cannot accuse us of lying"), introducing the concept of a lying-accusation not present in the Hebrew buz ("contempt") or the LXX's "ridicule." The Vulgate also adds "quem promiseram" ("which I had promised"), an explanatory phrase absent in the Hebrew text of this verse.