Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Has God really said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'"

The LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..."

Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

From now on, when you till the ground, it won't yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth."

Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go out from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

It happened, when he had come near to enter Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at.

Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way."

Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against the LORD.

The LORD said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, "Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,

Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the hills.

One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew. Now he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were allies of Abram.

The LORD brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be."

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my handmaid. It may be that I will obtain children by her." Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

and said, "My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not go away from your servant.

Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant." They said, "Very well, do as you have said."

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know."

Abraham answered, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.

He said, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake."

and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

They said, "Stand back." They said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them." They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.

See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

Now therefore, restore the man's wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you do not restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours."

Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner."

He said, "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of."

He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."

Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

I came this day to the spring, and said, 'The LORD, the God of my master Abraham, if now you do prosper my way which I go?

Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left."

Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bore to Abraham.

Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.

Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.

He left that place, and dug another well. They did not argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

They said, "We saw plainly that the LORD was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of the LORD."

He said, "See now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.

Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.

Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good kids of the goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.

His father Isaac said to him, "Come near now, and kiss me, my son."

He said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing." He said, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,"

Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, "Because the LORD has looked at my affliction. For now my husband will love me."

She conceived again, and bore a son. Said, "Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore was his name called Levi.

Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun.

Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that the LORD has blessed me for your sake."

For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. The LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

He said, 'Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'"

For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do."

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father's house, but why have you stolen my gods?"

Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but did not find them.

Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."

Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."

He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.

I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.

Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me." He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.

When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, "Do not be afraid, for now you will have another son."

It happened, while Israel lived in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

Now this is the history of the generations of Esau (that is, Edom).

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors.

He said to him, "Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again." So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

Come now therefore, and let's kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, 'An evil animal has devoured him.' We will see what will become of his dreams."

They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, "We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son's coat or not."

"Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.

Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?"

for if we hadn't delayed, surely we would have returned a second time by now."

He said, "Now also let it be according to your words: he with whom it is found will be my bondservant; and you will be blameless."

Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the boy's life;

Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

Now do not be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

that you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."

They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to live as foreigners in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

The time drew near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt,

Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine.

Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"

'You shall tell Joseph, "Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you."' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Now therefore do not be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.