Genesis 38:25

Summary

Tamar, while being brought out (presumably for punishment), sends a message to her father-in-law Judah, declaring that she is pregnant by the man who owns certain objects. She asks him to identify the owner of a seal, cord, and staff.

Key words

• mu.Tzet ("[was being] brought out", H3318H) — hophal passive participle, feminine singular: marks Tamar as the one undergoing an action done to her, not one she initiates.
• shal.Chah ("she sent", H7971G) — qal perfect: a completed act, contrasted with the ongoing passive participle mu.Tzet, showing she acts even while being led out.
• ha.Rah ("[am] pregnant", H2030A) — feminine singular adjective, functioning as a stative predicate with the pronoun 'a.no.Khi ("I", H0595): a description of her present condition rather than a verb of action.
• ha.ker ("investigate", H5234A) — hiphil imperative: a causative command, "cause [yourself] to recognize/examine," directed at the addressee (masculine singular, i.e., Judah).
• le.Mi ("to whom?", H4310 + H9005) — interrogative construction repeated twice in the verse (once implied in the message, once explicit), framing the identification of ownership as the central question.

What the text says

The verse opens with the pronoun hi' ("she", H1931) followed immediately by the passive participle mu.Tzet ("being brought out"), a construction that foregrounds Tamar as subject of an action being done to her. This is immediately followed by a second hi' clause with shal.Chah ("she sent"), a qal perfect verb indicating a discrete completed act — she sends word even in the midst of being led out. The message itself is introduced by the infinitive le.Mor ("saying/to say", H0559), a standard formula for reported speech.

Within the reported speech, the phrase 'a.no.Khi ha.Rah ("I [am] pregnant") uses the adjective ha.Rah (H2030A) rather than a finite verb, presenting her condition as a state rather than an ongoing or completed action. This is attached to a relative clause, 'ish 'a.sher 'el.leh lo ("a man to whom these [belong]"), where ownership of the objects is expressed through the preposition construction lo ("to him") rather than a possessive verb.

The second part of her speech shifts to direct address using the hiphil imperative ha.ker ("investigate/recognize", H5234A) with the particle na' ("please", H4994) softening the command. The interrogative le.mi ("to whom?", H4310) governs three coordinated nouns — cho.Te.met ("seal", H2858), pe.ti.Lim ("cord", H6616), and ma.Teh ("staff", H4294G) — each marked with the definite article, all collected under the closing demonstrative ha.'E.leh ("these", H0428).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the objects as ὁ δακτύλιος ("the ring") and ὁ ὁρμίσκος ("the necklace/chain") instead of the Hebrew cho.Te.met ("seal") and pe.ti.Lim ("cord"), showing a different identification of the specific items. The Vulgate uses annulus ("ring") and armilla ("bracelet") for the same two nouns, likewise diverging from the Hebrew terms for "seal" and "cord."