ויהי כמשלש חדשים ויגד ליהודה לאמר זנתה תמר כלתך וגם הנה הרה לזנונים
About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot; in fact, she is with child by harlotry.” (Gen 38.24)
A superficial reading of this verse sees it as a report of how Judah came to learn that Tamar was pregnant. The wording does not permit this reading however. The anonymous reporters do not tell Judah that Tamar was pregnant. Instead, they tell him two things:
- Tamar has engaged in prostitution.
- Tamar is pregnant through prostitution.
That a pregnant woman is pregnant is eventually obvious to all, but where did these reporters learn the truth about what Tamar had done? Judah did not recognize Tamar when he hired her and none of the people in the area remembered her when Judah tried to send payment. Additionally, the fact that the reporters are telling this to Judah as if it was news to him suggests that they did not know who Tamar had committed prostitution with or they would have surely included this information as well if they realized Judah was in the dark or they would have said nothing at all if they thought Judah knew who he had hired. All this leaves the reader wondering how the reporters knew what Tamar had done but did not know what Judah had done.