Matthew 1:3

Ιούδας δε εγέννησεν τον Φάρες και τον Ζάρα εκ της Θαμάρ

Literally, this reads

Judah and/_ fathered the Perez and the Zerah out of the Tamar

Once again, the 'δε' is post-positive, so should be moved to the beginning of the phrase. But the new element here is the final part of the phrase:

εκ της Θαμάρ

Tamar is a woman. We know this because the definite article ('the') preceding her name is in the female, genitive form: 'της' instead of 'του' for a male. The word 'Θαμάρ' would be in the genitive, too, but in this particular case (as for many proper names) the special genitive case ending is not apparent.

But why the genitive case in the first place? The word 'εκ', immediately preceding, is the reason. This small word is a preposition (in English, words like 'in', 'on', 'from', etc.) and the rules of koine Greek grammar say that the noun that follows this particular preposition must be in the genitive case.

What does 'εκ' mean? Generally speaking, it means 'out of'. So 'εκ της Θαμάρ' means, word-for-word, 'out of the Tamar'. 'Out of' is a rather old-fashioned way of saying that Tamar was the mother of these two sons (Perez and Zerah) of Judah. Judah fathered them 'out of' Tamar.


Continuing on, we have

Φάρες δε εγέννησεν τον Εσρώμ,
Εσρώμ δε εγέννησεν τον Αράμ.

Perez and/_ fathered the Hezron
Hezron and/_ fathered the Aram.

This part of the verse presents no new difficulties, outside of the unusual (for us) names. By now you should be able to move the 'δε' to the beginning of the phrase, and remove 'the' before proper names.

And Perez fathered Hezron
and Hezron fathered Aram.

Note that I have used standard English transliterations for proper names, some of which don't make exact sense according to the sound of the letters. Although mostly standardized, you will find some variations in different English translations: 'Ram' instead of 'Aram', for example.