Judah Acknowledged Her and Did Not Know Her Again

Judah has unknowingly slept with Tamar, his daughter-in-law, and gotten her pregnant. When he's told about it, instead of condemning her, he admits: 'She is more righteous than I.'

Tamar had been widowed twice and left without a male heir - her only way to have children and security. She set up an elaborate plan to get justice. Judah's willing admission that she was right is remarkable.

I study how women got justice in patriarchal systems - mostly through trickery and sexual leverage, because they had no legitimate channels. Tamar used what she had. And Judah's acknowledgment suggests that integrity sometimes looks like a woman deceiving a man into giving her what she was owed.

We usually tell this story to shame women or to celebrate Judah's humility. But I read it as Tamar's victory. She took her life into her hands, and the system acknowledged her right to do so.