Summary. Tamar (Genesis 38), widowed daughter-in-law of Judah, secured offspring from Judah himself by stratagem after being denied his third son. In DP her conception of the twins Perez and Zerah is read as the providential restoration of the disordered lineage of Jacob’s sons (echoing Cain-Abel and Jacob-Esau in the womb), and her bloodline through Perez ultimately leads to David and the Messiah (Matthew 1).