Bible Strands
Genesis 38:15
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Judah approaches Tamar at the entrance to Enaim, mistaking her veiled figure for a prostitute rather than recognizing his widowed daughter-in-law.
The words — וַ/יַּחְשְׁבֶ֖הָ (va/i.yach.she.Ve./ha) means "and he considered her," directly linked to לְ/זוֹנָ֑ה (le./zo.Nah), "to a prostitute," recording his immediate visual misjudgment.
The thread — The verse advances the concealed-identity motif established in Genesis 38:14 and resolved in Genesis 38:16, where deliberate disguise triggers a chain of events that bypasses human failure to secure lineage.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to note how physical concealment operates within the narrative to drive covenant fulfillment, demanding attention to how divine purposes proceed through human misperception.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.