Whether Judah thought her to be a prostitute or a cultic priestess, Tamar was vindicated soon after their encounter when Judah learned of Tamar's pregnancy. Thinking her guilty of fornication, he ordered his tribesmen to bring her out to be burned. When Judah demanded to know who had fathered her child, Tamar produced Judah's signet, belt and staff, announcing: "It was the owner of these who made me pregnant. Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff."
Caught out, Judah acknowledged that by the levirate custom, Tamar had been right to seek pregnancy through her father-in-law in order to continue the line of her husband Er. Tamar was forgiven and returned to her father-in-law's family, where she gave birth to twin sons, Perez and Zerah.