whom he assumed to be a prostitute could not be located, he realized that he could fall into contempt, that is, for claiming to have had relations with a temple prostitute, when no such prostitute was known to be thereabouts.​—Gen. 38:20-26.

As for Tamar, her course was not an adulterous one. Her twin sons were not considered to be the dishonorable sons of sin, sons of fornication. For, when Boaz of Bethlehem took the Moabitess Ruth in brother-in-law marriage, the elders of Bethlehem said to Boaz: “May your house become like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, from the offspring that Jehovah will give you out of this young woman.” (Ruth 4:11, 12) And so Perez is listed among the respectable ancestors of Jesus Christ. (Matt. 1:1-3; Luke 3:23-33) Perez’ mother, Tamar, was like Ruth in not going sexually after a young man.​—Ruth 3:10.

As far as Judah was concerned, he thought he was having relations with a prostitute. In this he was not acting right, for it was God’s original purpose for a man to have relations with his wife and not for the earth to be filled with prostitutes. Still, Judah did not sin in the sense of transgressing a specific command of God’s law, for the Mosaic law was not given until much later.​—Gen. 2:24; compare Leviticus 19:29.

The account about Judah and Tamar is not in the Bible to entertain. Rather, it forms an essential part of the historical narrative showing how the human line of descent leading to the promised Christ or Messiah, Jesus, was preserved.

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