“And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.”
He asked: what pledge should I give you? Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand, she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. The seal, cord, and staff are the personal identification items of the ancient Near East — equivalent to a modern signature. Tamar receives the most unambiguous proof of Judah's identity. The application: Tamar requests exactly what will prove paternity beyond dispute. Her request is the precision of someone who knows what the evidence will need to be.
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