Genesis Bible Study Ch. 37 & 38

CHAPTER 37: Joseph had a dream and then reveals it to his brothers.
VERSE 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.

Joseph's brother hated him even more after he told them about his dream and then he had another dream with a similar implications as the first. Joseph's brothers plotted to kill him but one brother objected so they threw him into a pit. Then they decided to sell him as a slave to the Ishmaelites.

CHAPTER 38: Judah, Joseph's brother wanted to try to accumulate wealth by marrying a Canaanite woman. Judah's firstborn was married and then he died, so it was customary for the brother to then sleep with his brother's wife to continue the family line. So Onan was the brother who was told to sleep with his brother's wife. He did this and then he died. So Judah told his daughter-in-law to go back to her father's house until his last son would be old enough for her. ( Judah was being deceitful because he never intended to give his youngest son to Tamar.

Tamar was told that Judah was coming to shear his sheep she changed out of her morning clothes and covered her face with a veil then she waited. When Judah saw her he thought she was a prostitute....and Judah asked for her to come sleep with him. He said he would give her a goat for sleeping with him. She also asked for something to have until the sheep was provided. He gave her his seal and its cord. Later when Judah servants tried to deliver the sheep to "a prostitute" the towns people said there was no such woman here. When people discovered Tamar was pregnant with no husband they said she was a prostitute, Judah said bring her and she will be burned to death. VERSE 25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her Father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."
She was not killed and gave birth to two sons.