Genesis 38:26

Summary

Judah recognizes the pledge items (identified only via the preceding narrative, not named in this verse) and acknowledges that Tamar acted more righteously than he did, since he had withheld her from his son Shelah. The verse closes by stating that he did not have further sexual relations with her.

Key words

• yaKer ("he recognized", H5234A) — hiphil (causative) form of the root for "know/discern," meaning he identified something as familiar; the object of recognition is not stated within this verse.
• tzadeKah ("she is righteous", H6663) — qal perfect, a completed stative action; combined with mimenni ("more than me", H4480A + H9030) it forms a comparative statement.
• netaTi ("I gave", H5414G) — qal perfect, first person; negated by lo (H3808), it explains the reason (ki 'al ken, "because/since," H3588C + H5921B + H3651B) for Judah's admission.
• yaSaf ("he repeated/added", H3254G) — qal perfect, negated, forming an idiom with the following infinitive.
• lada'at ("to know", H3045) — qal infinitive, here used with the pronominal suffix "her" (H9034); paired with yaSaf ("he did not add again to know her"), it is the standard idiom for not resuming sexual relations.

What the text says

The verse opens with two narrative-vav clauses in sequence: va-yaKer ("and he recognized") and va-yomer ("and he said"), the typical wayyiqtol chain that moves the story forward. Judah's recognition (yaKer) has no stated grammatical object in the Hebrew of this verse — the text assumes the reader knows what was recognized from the surrounding narrative. His speech begins with the qal perfect tzadeKah, "she is righteous," followed by the comparative preposition mimenni, "more than me." This is a stative verb form describing a settled condition rather than an action.

Judah's explanation uses the compound particle ki 'al ken, "for/since it is so," introducing his admission that lo netaTiha le-Shelah beni, "I did not give her to Shelah my son" — a qal perfect negated by lo, marking completed non-action. The final clause, ve-lo yasaf od lada'ta, uses the qal perfect yaSaf ("he added/repeated") negated and paired with the infinitive lada'at ("to know") plus the pronominal suffix "her." This infinitive construction with yasaf is the grammatical vehicle for expressing that an action was not resumed; the verb da'at ("to know") here functions as the idiom for sexual relations, without any separate explicit term for intercourse in the Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Judah's statement as Dedikaiotai Thamar ē egō, "Thamar has been shown righteous, or I" — a passive perfect construction, and it explicitly names "Thamar," whereas the Hebrew comparative clause tzadeKah mimenni contains no proper name, only the implied subject. The Vulgate adds agnitis muneribus ("the gifts having been recognized"), specifying the object of yaKer ("he recognized") as gifts/pledges, information not present in the Hebrew wording of this verse itself.