Put off her widow’s garments: the exact kind of clothing a widow wore is not known.

Put on a veil: veil is a cloth that covers the face and may cover the head as well. There are two purposes for Tamar’s covering her face. The first and more obvious is to hide her identity from Judah. As to the second, we must remember that Tamar, who is a Canaanite woman and lives in a Canaanite culture, could be playing the part of a religious prostitute who would wear a veil. Judah could easily consider her a temple prostitute rather than an ordinary prostitute or harlot. Notice that in verses 21 and 22 Tamar will be referred to by Judah’s Canaanite friend Hirah by a term meaning “cult prostitute.” Whether Tamar is acting as a common prostitute or as a temple prostitute, she would put on a veil to keep her identity secret.

Wrapping herself up may apply to covering herself with a veil, or to additional clothing she put on to help disguise herself. Whether we take “disguise herself” to be the direct meaning of the Hebrew here or not, in some languages it will be helpful to include these words as giving the meaning of putting on a veil in this context.

Sat at the entrance to Enaim: this may refer to the entrance to the village of Enaim near Timnah, or to a road junction leading to where Judah had to pass on his way to Timnah. According to verse 16 she is sitting by the roadside. She has managed to get there ahead of Judah.

For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage: from the amount of time that has passed since Judah told her to wait for Shelah in verse 11, Tamar could reasonably assume he had matured for marriage.

She had not been given to him in marriage: in languages in which this sentence must be expressed as active, we may say, for example, “Judah had not given her to Shelah as his wife” or “Judah had not married her to Shelah.” In some languages it will be necessary to place these last two clauses at the beginning of verse 14.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .