Sealed by S. G. Ricketts (ap literature book list .txt) 📕

with wine. “Let me sleep with you.”

I batted lashes at him and laughed coyly. “And what will you give me to sleep with you, my lord?”

He looked confused for a moment, and then he brightened. “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.

Even within my charade of prostitute, I was stunned. Such a rich price! I held the bitterness at bay. He could afford a young goat for a whore, but he couldn’t spare a son for the daughter-in-law his honor bound him to? I tugged him towards Enaim, towards the room I had rented. “Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” My voice sounded forced. I swallowed, trying to regain my air of indifference. “While I’m sure you are an honorable man, I need reassurance that I will be paid.”

He was too drunk to hear the hollowness in my words. Instead, he nodded once and stepped into the shadow of the room. “What pledge should I give you?”

I stepped behind him and shut the door. “Hmm…” I tapped my chin, pretending to think. He waited impatiently, the desire clearly warring with the liquor. I walked behind him and slid my hands under the neck of his robes. He stiffened as I slid them off, pretending to admire him. For a man of his age, Judah was more than attractive. He had the physique of Er but the gentleness in his face that his son never had. His body was leaner than Er’s or Onan’s, but still robust. I let my fingers trail down his arms, enjoying the power I had over him. Power unlike I’d ever had. Power like he and his sons had had over me. “Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand.”

“They are yours.” He slid the little clay cylinder over his head and laid it and his staff on the table next to the bed. “Now then, you have been paid.”

I dipped low before him. “So I have been, my lord. Let us begin.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I told Jairus the moment I was sure. It didn’t take long. Compared to my other pregnancies, this one was many times worse. Of everyone, I knew this imp of a brother would be the only one to understand. Now, he and Adin stood by my side, the petite woman holding my hair back as I vomited yet again into the pot. “You can’t hide this much longer, Tamar. You know we can only do so much,” Jairus said, his dark eyes worried.

Adin hushed him. “We will do as much as we can for her, Jairus, or so help me.” I glanced up from the pot to see her green eyes flash at my brother and hid a smile. The pair was well-matched. Mama had chosen the perfect wife for him. Adin’s tiny hand rubbed at the base of my back slowly, but her eyes never left her husband’s face. “You can’t understand what drove her to this, but I can. Leave her be. If you can’t help her, at least pretend not to know. Everyone in town knows that you and Tamar are thick as thieves: if you don’t know something, it doesn’t exist.”

Jairus harrumphed. “Still, isn’t she a little too sick? You weren’t like this, Adin.”

I could feel his worried gaze. Sitting up, I wiped my face and rolled my eyes at him. “Every pregnancy is different, Jair.”

Beside me, Adin frowned. Jairus blanched beneath his tan, stammering, “I-I didn’t mean-”

I cut him off. “I know.” I softened the words with a weak smile. “Now go. A week or so more, and I’ll let word of it be known.”

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside. Jairus started, curls flying as he stuck his head outside. Adin tensed, her free hand circling her massive stomach. I bit my lip, hoping against hope that the cries weren’t what I thought they were. My hopes disappeared like smoke as Father burst into the tent. His eyes blazed as he looked from Jairus to Adin to me. “You- You knew about this?”

“Father--” Jairus began.

Father backhanded him, splitting his lip. I stood, horrified. Father had never lifted a hand to any of us children in such a way before. “Father, it isn’t his fault-”

“Hush,” he snarled, grabbing me by my arm. “I’m doing everything I can to keep you from being stoned right now. Judah is on his way to pronounce judgment upon you.”

My feet slid across the carpets and I tried to shove him off. “Father! Will you listen to me?”

He didn’t turn around, merely shoved me outside. Everyone in town cheered as I covered my eyes. “Whore! Harlot! Prostitute!” they chanted. “Stone her! Stone her!”

Desperate, I turned back to the tent. “Adin, send what we discussed. And hurry!” I caught a glimpse of the hem of her skirt vanishing back into the darkness and prayed she heard me. If not, I was dead, as was my child within me.

My father hid me in his tent, tied wrist and ankle. Guards stood at my door and one sat just opposite of me, his eyes never leaving my face. I hated the look in them. Prostitute, they called me. I cringed as another rotten vegetable hit the side of the tent. The guard obviously thought I was worth it. Only Father’s wrath held him back, I could see it in his eyes. The bile rose in the back of my throat at the thought, and I keeled over the pot just in time. The guard’s nose wrinkled at the smell, but the desire faded from his eyes. I lay panting over my own vomit. No one helped. No one cared.

Dawn rose on the second day. Those at our camp cheered, and I knew Judah was here. Had Adin not taken my message? Judah threw open the flap and glared down at me. I stayed where I was, my mouth crusted with sickness and my limbs devoid of energy. “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

A sob escaped. The guard stood and dragged me to my feet. Sunlight burned against eyes too long used to the dark. The people cheered. I squinted through the light, just making out the stake and the pile of wood surrounding it. No…No, this can’t be how it ends.

Another sob escaped, ragged and worn.

“Wait!” Judah paused as Jairus shoved through the crowd. They jeered at him, sheep dung and rotted figs hitting him from all sides. “Wait!” he said again, determined to reach us. Judah held out a hand, and the people stilled. Defiant, Jairus held out a staff and a little clay seal. I fell to my knees in relief. Judah stared in growing horror. He turned to me. “What is the meaning of this?”

I smiled up at my brother. How clever were he and Adin, to humiliate Judah before everyone. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” I said. My voice carried in the sudden stillness. I pushed myself shakily to my feet, meeting his eyes with a fury all of my own. “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

The moments crawled by. Judah stared at me. I glared at him. Finally, he took them from Jairus’s hands. “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” The crowd gasped, their weapons falling in shock. Judah turned to my father and knelt before him in shame. “Your daughter bears the child of my body, and now my debt to her and to your house has been paid. From this day forth, the child is heir to everything I own. She will live with you and your household, and when I die it shall come to her. So says the servant of Yahweh.” He stood and tore his clothes. Then he left.

I didn’t see Judah or his household again until many, many years later.


The time came for the children to be born. Early in the pregnancy, I had discovered that Judah had gifted me with twins. Adin stood at my right, and my mother at my left, as the midwife instructed me to push. I screamed, the pain ripping through my thighs and up through my womb. “There, child! Push!” the lady crooned. “I see… I see an arm!” She tied a scarlet thread around the little wrist. “This one came out first.” My mother squeezed my hand, but a wrenching filled my stomach. I screamed again, rocking forward on my heels. Something pushed, shoved against me, and then there was the release of pressure. “A son!” the midwife crowed, holding up a squalling purple mess. She gave him to Adin, then frowned. “But he bears no scarlet thread. So this is how you come out.”

“Name him Perez,” I grunted. Adin nodded and took him aside to clean him. I grunted and pushed, nearing the end of my strength.

“One more! One more, my dear. He’s almost here.”

And with a gush of fluid, my second son was born. “Name him Zerah, for he has arisen to free me from my pain.”


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1500 years in the future

“Yeshua, James, sit still!” The older boy sat up and folded his hands in his lap, big brown eyes watching his mother. The younger glanced at his brother, made a face, and threw a block at his head.

“Ouch! James, we need to obey Mama!”

“Yeshua’s being a goody-goody again!”

Mary closed her eyes in a silent plea for patience. “Boys! Sit still, or I’ll get your father.” The boys immediately sat straighter, though James cast a glower at his brother. “Now then, this is the genealogy of our family: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of-”

“Mama,” James interrupted. “Why are there women listed in our genealogy? Everyone knows women are nothing.” He smirked at Yeshua, waiting for his brother to take the bait.

Instead, his mother flicked his ear. The little boy yelped. “Tamar and the other women in our genealogy are there because they are examples of what God can do with terrible situations. Have I never told you the story of Tamar?

Yeshua shook his head and scooted closer, little face bright with excitement. “No, Mama. Will you tell it to us now?”

She smiled down at him and ran her fingers through the soft waves of his hair. “It was a time long ago, before the tribes were known as tribes. Judah, one of Isaac’s twelve sons, left his father’s protection in search of a wife…”

Genesis 38

At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth