How did people know that Tamar had engaged in prostitution?

Question

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:

1. Tamar has engaged in prostitution.
2. 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.

Answer 1

The Sforno on that verse explains (Sefaria-translation):

וגם הנה הרה, she did not even bother to hide her condition which reflects negatively on you. This is similar to a statement by our sages in Yevamot 35 “when a woman had illicit sex she engages in all kinds of bodily convulsions to avoid becoming pregnant and thereby revealing her shame and that of her husband or lover.”

See also the Sforno here.

It can be asked why Yehudah would believe all the accusations. To this, the Rashbam explains:

זנתה תמר כלתך, if you were to ask why Yehudah would believe such accusations which would be hard to prove, the informant added that the signs of her pregnancy spoke for themselves as proof of the accusation being justified.

The Midrashic explanation is that Tamar would go to bathouse, enter it, and would say "Go away from me because I am bearing kings." So, she would tell people about her pregnancy by herself.

Answer 2

Tamar returned to Judah’s house after he had lain with her and impregnated her. There she resumed wearing her widow’s clothes. After Judah’s friend Hirah the Adullamite went searching in vain for the woman Judah had lain with, Judah was informed that the widow Tamar was pregnant.

How would her pregnancy be known so early after conception? It is unlikely there would be obvious physical signs during the first trimester. As an unmarried woman, a widow, Tamar’s condition would be known to the other women of Judah’s household because her menses would have ceased. Such monthly events are to be expected when a woman is not having any sexual relations with a man. Purification rituals have to be observed. When Tamar ceased menstruating, the other women would notice and so word would spread. Judah was informed:

Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution,, and as a result she is now pregnant (Genesis 38:24).

The conclusion reached by the anonymous reporters that Tamar, Judah’s widowed daughter-in-law, must be guilty of prostitution because she was pregnant is easily understood given no man should have had sexual relations with her. The fact that Judah had failed to give Tamar in marriage to his youngest son Shelah would have been common knowledge in Judah’s household.

Yes, Judah’s friend Hirah the Adullamite went with Judah to Timnah and was also sent back to hand over the promised goat in return for Judah’s seal, cord and staff. Although he might have suspected Judah lay with a woman who dressed like a shrine prostitute (verse 21), he would have had no idea that this woman was Tamar. Her face was covered by a veil (verse 14). As a loyal friend, he would have kept the incident with the shrine prostitute secret.

There is no evidence to suggest the reporters knew for a fact that Tamar was a prostitute. It was the only conclusion they could draw given Tamar was an unmarried widow living in Judah’s household.

Answer 3

The key here is the word zanta. The questioner is reading it as "she engaged in prostitution", but the word simply means "strayed." Even if she'd had a five-star wedding with a saintly wonderful fellow who was committed to her for all the right reasons, by their system she was supposed to wait for the younger brother. Thus, as she hadn't been with Shelah, and she was pregnant, she must have strayed from her quasi-fiance, which was a crime -- no matter what that relationship looked like! (That crime was probably punishable by branding, not execution, but that's a different story ...)

Same thing comes up with a kohen who can't marry a Zonah, by the way. If she was married to Joe, separated from him without obtaining a Gett, and then had a beautiful civil wedding to a lovely fellow named Bob, from a halachic perspective she strayed by having relations with someone other than her halachic husband, and now can't marry a kohen (even after she is widowed from Joe.) On the other hand, if a woman was an escort but ensured that all of her numerous clients were Jewish and not related to her, she is allowed to marry a kohen!

Answer 4

The following is a guess as to how the reporters learned half of the truth.

The reporters saw Tamar's sexual misconduct from a vantage point where they could identify her but not Judah. Thus they could tell Judah זנתה תמר כלתך but they could not tell him who her partner in crime was. They added וגם הנה הרה לזנונים as a deduction based on matching of the timing of her misdeed and the stage of pregnancy at the time of the report. That her sexual misconduct had coincided with the beginning of her pregnancy proved that she had gone beyond foreplay with her unidentified customers. When Judah sent payment later, these witnesses were no longer there to confirm that a prostitute had been there. This means they were likely visitors who did not stick around. The reason they did not report Tamar's misdeed immediately may be because they were unsure whether she had actually consummated with her customer so they waited to see if a pregnancy developed.

Answer 5

English translations such as "played the harlot" or "by prostitution" should not be understood as eyewitness accounts of her supposed act. As @Shalom points out, what the reporters knew for certain is that she was pregnant, and this was not acceptable under the circumstance.

I would add that although when Judah has sex with her she's called a zonah (simple prostitute), when his friend returned to the Timnah to pay her, he asked for a qᵊḏēšâ (sacred harlot). She was probably disguised not only by a veil but also with other clothing. So we can discount the possibility that she was recognized by Judah's people at the time.

The basic answer to the OP's query is that the reporters knew she was pregnant, but not that she had engaged in prostitution, either common or in association with a local fertility rite.