Most Popular Bible Verses in Genesis
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Then God said: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. He created male and female.
The earth was without form and empty. Darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.
And I will put enmity (hostility) (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers. He will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) you in the head, and you will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) him in the heel. (Romans 16:20)
Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman: Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?
Then God said: Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them. It was so.
Jehovah God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living being.
Jehovah said to Abram: Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you.
Then God said: Let there be light! And there was light.
God blessed them and said to them: Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and dominate the birds of the air. Have dominion over every living creature that moves on the ground.
This is the reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. They will become one flesh.
Jehovah God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.
God saw all that he had made. It was very good. There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
He said to the woman: I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
I will bless those who bless you. I will curse whoever curses you. All the people on earth will be blessed through you.
Then God said: I give you every plant that bears seed on the face of the entire earth. I also give you every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
God called the expanse heaven. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Jehovah saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Jehovah God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
God tested Abraham. He said to him: Abraham! Abraham replied: Here I am.
The entire world had one language and common words.
Adam had sexual intercourse with his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said: With the help of Jehovah I have brought forth a man.
But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When you eat of it you will surely die.
This is the ACCOUNT OF NOAH. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. He walked with God.
The heavens and the earth and their immense arrangement were completed.
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. This is because he rested from all the work of creation he had done.
There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Abram was ninety-nine years old. Jehovah appeared to him and said: I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Jehovah God commanded the man: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.
The word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.
Then God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.
He said to Adam: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Jehovah said: The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.
Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.
The lights were to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. God saw that it was good.
He believed in Jehovah. Jehovah considered Abram's faith as his righteousness.
The royal scepter shall not depart from Judah. His descendants will always rule. Nations will bring him tribute and bow in obedience before him. This, until Shiloh comes and all will obey him.
The man and his wife heard the sound (voice) of Jehovah God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They hid from Jehovah, among the trees of the garden.
By the seventh day God had finished his work. He rested from all his work on the seventh day.
Jehovah appeared again to Abraham by the oak grove of Mamre. He was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.
You will eat your food by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground. You came from the ground. For dust you are and to dust you will return.
You will not die, the serpent said to the woman.
God blessed Noah and his sons. He said: Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High.
So Jehovah God said to the serpent: Because you have done this you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
God said: Let the waters be filled with many kinds of living beings, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.
That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting there as they arrived. When he saw them, he got up to greet them. Then he welcomed them and bowed low to the ground.
I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. You will be a blessing.
The NEPHILIM were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God had sexual intercourse with the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
God saw that the light was good. God separated the light from the darkness.
God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened. Then you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it. This was to keep many people alive, as he is doing now.
Now Jehovah God planted a garden in the east, in Eden. He put the man he had formed there.
Then God said: Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters. Let it separate the waters from the waters.
Jehovah God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
Jehovah said: My Spirit will not contend (judge) (plead) with man forever, for he is mortal and corrupt. Therefore his days will be a hundred and twenty years.
This is the written genealogy of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
God said: Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind. It was so.
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Then God said: Let the waters below the atmosphere be gathered into one place. Let the dry land appear. It was so.
I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household; and that they may remain in the righteous and just way of Jehovah. Jehovah will bring to Abraham what he told him.
God called the light day. He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.
On that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram. He said: To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Then Jehovah God formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to let him name them. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened. They realized they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The man said: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called 'Woman.' This is because she was taken out of Man.
But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Jehovah smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: Never again will I curse the ground because of man, for the intent of his heart is evil from childhood. I will never again destroy every living creature, as I have done.
Jehovah God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth.
God made the two great lights. The sun was to govern the day. The moon was to govern the night. He made the stars also.
The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They married any of them they chose.
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.
Enoch walked with God. Then he was no more, because God took (moved) him away.
There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
If you do what is right, will not your attitude improve? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.
Jehovah said: Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,
Let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth. It was so.
Jehovah God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then Jacob was by himself. A man was fighting with him till dawn.
Abraham said to God: If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!
The sun went down and it was dark. A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
Pharaoh's officials saw her. They praised her to Pharaoh. She was taken into his palace.
The dove, however, could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth. It returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and held the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These are the eight children Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
Why did you say: 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!
He divided his forces against them by night. He and his servants routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.
Jehovah inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.
He treated Abram well for her sake. Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.
Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham. They said: God is with you in all that you do.
There is plenty of straw and fodder at our house. There is also a place for you to stay.
There is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead. Do you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.
Swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity. Consider the kindness that I have shown to you. Please show it to me and to the land in which you have sojourned.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field.
After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters.
I will go down now and see whether they have done the bad things I have been told. Then I will know.
So Pharaoh summoned Abram. What have you done to me? he asked. Why did you not tell me she was your wife?
and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.
Then he brought back all the goods. He also brought back his nephew Lot and all the men and women.
As soon as the king of Sodom returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, he went out to meet Abram at the King's Valley of Shaveh.
male and female came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
After he became the father of Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.
God saw how corrupt the earth had become. All the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
His concubine, Reumah, also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.
May God give you of the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine.
Jehovah saw that Leah was loved less, so he made it possible for her to have children. But Rachel had none.
The angel said to him: All right, I will grant you this request too. I will not destroy the city you are talking about.
Go walk through the length and breadth of the land that I am giving to you.
This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high.
Jacob slept with Rachel too. He loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.
Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
I will remember my covenant with you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters flood to destroy all life.
The name of the first river is the Pishon. It winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.
The men left there and went toward Sodom. Abraham still stood before Jehovah.
When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
As for your gods, if anyone of us has them, let him be put to death. Make a search in front of us all for what is yours, and take it. Jacob had no knowledge that Rachel had taken them.
Noah's sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.
After he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.
After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years and had other sons and daughters.
Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
But I will establish my covenant with you. You will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
God said: This is the sign of the covenant I have established with all life on the earth.
The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the entire land of Cush.
May peoples serve you. And nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers. And may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you. Blessed be those who bless you.
This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
Concerning Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him. I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.
Isaac asked: Why have you now come to see me? You were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country.
The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the long lasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.
After he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.
But my covenant I will establish with Isaac. Sarah will bear him to you by this time next year.
Abraham again queried: Please do not be angry as I speak once more: Suppose ten should be found there? God said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.
To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.
Abraham spoke again: Suppose there should be forty found there? God replied: I will not do it for the sake of forty.
After he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters.
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great (oak) tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
He drank some of its wine. He became drunk and lay undressed inside his tent.
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.
These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust, your offspring could be counted.
So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent, and into the tents of the two servant-women, but they were not there. He left Leah's tent and went into Rachel's.
Abraham then said: Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to Jehovah: Suppose twenty should be found there? God replied: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.
Build a roof on it and finish the ark to within eighteen inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle, and upper decks.
He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
After he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters.
I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. Every creature that has the breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish.
He was about to enter Egypt. He said to his wife Sarai: I know what a beautiful woman you are.
By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
This is the genealogy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah's sons, who also had sons after the flood.
Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground. They will multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.
Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
Run there quickly! I cannot do anything until you get there. The city is named Zoar [Small].
Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,
Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,
Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba, because there the two of them took an oath.
They answered: Now we know that Jehovah is with you. We think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise
While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.
Laban asked: What should I give you? Jacob answered: Do not give me anything. Instead, do something for me. Then I will go back to taking care of and watching your flocks again.
and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
Jacob answered: First make a vow that you will give me your birthright. Esau made the vow and gave his rights as firstborn to Jacob.
When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer (vagabond) on the earth.
Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.
After he became the father of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters.
Rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
You are driving me from the land today. I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless (homeless) wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.
These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of copper and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.
Rebecca's brother was named Laban. He ran outside to go to the well where Abraham's servant was.
Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.
Then Abraham answered and said: Indeed now, I who am only dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to Jehovah:
He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set out for the land of Canaan and soon arrived there.
That is why it was called Babel (confusion) because Jehovah confused the language of the whole world. Jehovah scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth.
Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.
Two sons were born to Eber. One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided. His brother was named Joktan.
When the Egyptians see you, they will say: 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me, but will let you live.
From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent. Bethel was on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Jehovah and called on the name of Jehovah.
His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.
Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah the father of Eber.
Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth. Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.
He said: Praise Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham. He has faithfully kept his promise to my master. Jehovah has led me straight to my master's relatives.
Laban had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister's arms and had heard her say what the man told her. He went to Abraham's servant, who was standing by his camels at the well,
From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.
He created them male and female and blessed them. When they were created, he called them Mankind.
Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.
Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city. Would you also destroy the place and not spare it because the righteous people are there?
He said: You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a witness to me, that I dug this well.
They said to each other: Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
Jacob gave him some bread and some of the soup. He ate and drank and then got up and left. Esau did not care about his birthright.
Esau said: All right! I am about to die. What good are rights as firstborn to me?
Esau said: This is the second time that he has cheated me. No wonder his name is Jacob. He took my rights as the firstborn son. Now he has taken my blessing. Have you saved a blessing for me?
After that Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years and had other sons and daughters.
The flood came upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark high above the earth.
Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron. He built an altar to Jehovah there.
All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds, everything that moves on the earth came out of the ark, one kind after another.
She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said: Now at last my husband will become attached to me because I have given him three sons. She named him Levi.
The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.
Jehovah, the God of heaven, took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth. He spoke to me and swore to me. He said: I will give this land to your descendants. He will send his angel before you. You will take a wife for my son from there.
He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah. That is why it is said: Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Jehovah.
After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
Isaac preferred Esau. This is because he enjoyed eating the animals Esau killed. Rebecca preferred Jacob.
After he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim (Dodanim).
Altogether, Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and then he died.
Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.
Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous. Would you destroy the entire city for lack of five? So He (God) said: If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.
After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.
Take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.
After he became the father of Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
Every living thing that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
They made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised.
The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.
The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, just as God had commanded Noah. Then Jehovah shut him in.
Mahalalel lived a total of eight hundred and ninety-five years, and then he died.
He blessed him and said: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth.
and said: Come home with me. You are a man Jehovah has blessed. Why are you standing out here? I have a room ready for you in my house. There is a place for your camels.
They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.
Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside.
The waters continued to recede until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.
Jehovah scattered them from there over all the earth. They stopped building the city.
May God extend the territory of Japheth. And may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
Isaac began to tremble and shake all over. He asked: Who was it, then, who killed an animal and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came. I gave him my final blessing, and so it is his forever.
The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth. The ark floated on the surface of the water.
Who are you? his father Isaac asked him. I am your firstborn son, Esau, he answered.
If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.
Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand. He clothed him in garments of fine linen and put the gold necklace around his neck.
Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
Jacob said to his relatives: Gather some stones. They took stones, put them into a pile, and ate there by the pile of stones.
The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.
Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. Men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
Then the king of Sodom said to Abram: Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.
The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
After forty days Noah opened the window he constructed in the ark.
When Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech.
When Rebekah heard about Esau's plans to kill Jacob, she called her younger son, Jacob. She said: Your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you.
You should be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply (increase) on the earth.
Jehovah went his way as soon as he finished speaking with Abraham. Abraham returned to his place.
The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.
I solemnly promised my master I would do what he said. He told me: 'Do not choose a wife for my son from the women in this land of Canaan.
He named the second son Ephraim, because God made him fruitful in the land where he had suffered.
He also said: Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
He named him Noah. He said: He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground Jehovah has cursed.
Esau pleaded: Father, please! Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father! Esau broke down and wept.
Now that you have searched through all my belongings, what household article have you found that belongs to you? Put it out here where your men and mine can see it. Let them decide which one of us is right.
In his language, Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha (Witness Pile), but Jacob called it Galeed.
Water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down.
Then Laban answered Jacob: These are my daughters, my grandchildren, and my flocks. Everything you see is mine! Yet, what can I do today for my daughters or for their children?
You will live by your sword. You will serve your brother. Soon you will become restless and break his yoke from your neck.
Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.
make it be that the maiden who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, Please let me drink a little water from your jar,
The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the skies were closed. So the rain stopped falling from the sky.
On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.
Cain had intercourse with his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Later Cain built a city. He named it after his son Enoch.
I have been with you now for twenty years. Your sheep and your goats have not failed to reproduce. I have not even eaten any rams from your flocks.
I bowed low and worshiped Jehovah, and praised Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham. He guided me in the right way to take the daughter of my master's kinsman for his son.
Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.
Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
There was a famine in the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while, because the famine was severe.
No shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth. No plant of the field had yet sprung up, for Jehovah God had not sent rain on the earth. There was no man to work the ground.
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
He said to me: 'Jehovah, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you to make your journey successful. You will take a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father's house.
This is the genealogy of Abraham's son Isaac and his descendants. Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Stay with him until your brother's anger cools down.
God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves in the waters after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.
Noah, a man of the soil, planted a vineyard.
Jehovah was gracious to Sarah, as he had said. Jehovah did for Sarah what he had promised.
He gathered all the food of these seven years that occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities. He placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields.
He sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water dried up from the earth.
After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
Jehovah was grieved that he had made man on the earth. His heart was grieved with pain.
He said to Jacob: I am starving! Give me some of that red stuff. (That is why he was named Edom.)
His son Ishmael was thirteen.
The older daughter said to her sister: Our father is getting old. There are no men in the whole world to marry us so we can have children.
Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba. There he called on the name of Jehovah, the Everlasting God.
But Jehovah God called to the man: Where are you?
He brought him outside and said: Look toward heaven and count the stars. Are you able to count them? He continued: So shall your descendants be.
That same night Jacob got up, took his two wives, his two concubines, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok River.
that you will not harm us. We did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that Jehovah has blessed you.
But Abram said to the king of Sodom: I have sworn to Jehovah, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth:
Jehovah made burning sulfur and fire rain out of the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah.
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and coming down on it.
After Lot had parted from Abram, Jehovah said to Abram: Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.
BUILD AN ARK of cypress wood (a resinous tree). Make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Jehovah said to Noah: Go into the ark, you and your whole family. For I have found you righteous in this generation.
After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred eighty-two years and had other sons and daughters.
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.
Surely you would not do that! Would you slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.
Every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand! Abram gave him one tenth of everything.
Jehovah appeared to Abram and said: I will give this land to your offspring (seed). He built an altar there to Jehovah, who had appeared to him.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters.
Also take seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
After Noah was born, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years and had other sons and daughters.
The man said: Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel (He Struggles With God), because you have struggled with God and with men and you have won.
You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Then Jehovah made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man. He brought her to the man.
Abimelech said: I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, nor did I hear of it until today.
Jehovah said: If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare the entire place for their sakes.
Joseph had been taken to Egypt. Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's Egyptian officials and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
Noah lived a total of nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.
So Jehovah said: I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. All of them: men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air. I am sorry that I created them.
I will establish my covenant as a long lasting covenant between us. It will be for your descendants after you, for the generations to come. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Noah built an altar to Jehovah and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
Let me go through all of your flocks today and take every speckled and spotted sheep, every black lamb, and every spotted and speckled goat. They will be my wages.
Rachel had not borne Jacob any children. As a result, she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob: Give me children, or I will die.
The earth was corrupt in God's sight. It was full of violence.
So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But no suitable helper was found for Adam.
Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
He looked up and noticed three men coming toward him. He ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed to the ground.
Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and told him: Do not marry a Canaanite.
Then the men stood up from their meal and started in the direction of Sodom. Abraham went with them to send them on the way.
As time went by, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to Jehovah.
No sooner had Isaac finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob left his presence, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Jehovah asked Cain: Where is your brother Abel? I do not know, he replied. Am I my brother's keeper?
Pharaoh named Joseph, Zaphenath-paneah. He gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.
All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants. This is because you obeyed my command.'
Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.
Jehovah said to Abram: Know this for sure; your offspring will be strangers (aliens) in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years.
Lot looked up and saw that the district of the Jordan River was well watered, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. This was before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isaac was old and going blind. He called his older son Esau and said to him: Son! Esau answered: Here I am.
God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark. He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
Jacob answered: I will give it to you if you give me your birthright as the firstborn son.
He placed the lights in the sky to shine on the earth.
Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, because she said: Certainly, Jehovah has seen my misery. Now my husband will love me!
Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive. Abram led his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, in pursuit as far as Dan.
I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of their enemies' cities.
Early the next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said good-bye to them. They parted as friends.
This is the genealogy of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad.
I will take nothing. Not a thread or a sandal strap. You will not be able to say: 'I have made Abram rich.'
I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man.
Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a covenant.
The boys grew up. Esau became a skilled hunter, a man who loved the outdoors. Jacob was an upright man who stayed at home.
Jehovah said to Cain: Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?
These are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar. So he and his two daughters moved up into the hills and lived in a cave.
When Esau was forty he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
In the days of King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim,
Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Then God said to him: I AM JEHOVAH, who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.
Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. He was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. They were Abram's allies.
Jacob called for his sons. He said: Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the future.
He (Adam) answered: I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.
God made the wild animals according to their kinds. He made the livestock according to their kinds and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.
Abraham named that place Jehovah Will Provide. It is still said today: It will be provided on the mountain of Jehovah.
Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate.
God said to Jacob: Go to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.
He had him ride in his second chariot. They proclaimed before him: Bow the knee! Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt.
Jehovah said: What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood (life) cries out to me from the ground.
Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on (proclaim) the name of Jehovah.
At that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam.
Jehovah's angel also said: You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael (means: God hears). Jehovah has heard of your misery.
By now Abraham was old, and Jehovah had blessed him in every way.
God said to Noah: I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am going to destroy them with the earth.
They prepared to retire for the night when suddenly all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house.
You will no longer be called Abram (Exalted Father). Your name will be Abraham (means Father of Many). I have made you a father of many nations.
Two years later Pharaoh had a dream. He dreamed he was standing by the Nile River.
God replied: Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son! You will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as a long lasting covenant for his descendants after him.
Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you.
The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind. God saw that it was good.
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
Joseph could no longer control himself in front of those standing near him. He sent them out of the room and when he was alone with his brothers he made himself known to them. / Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his servants. He sent them out of the room. When he was alone with his brothers, he told them: I am Joseph!
Judah, your brothers will praise you. You hold your enemies by the neck. Your brothers will bow down before you.
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
God said to Abraham: Do not be upset about the boy and your slave. Listen to what Sarah says, because through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.
Jacob named that place Peniel (Face of God), because he said: I have seen God face to face, yet my life was saved.
Abraham married another woman. Her name was Keturah.
Cain went out from Jehovah's presence and lived in the land of Nod (Fugitiveness). Nod is east of Eden.
Then they said: Let us build ourselves a city, with a lofty tower that reaches into space, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
I give you my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world of mankind.
He did not look with favor on Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his face was downcast (he had a bad attitude).
Also every beast of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground; everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food. It was so.
And he said: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?
Adam said: The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.
I now appoint you governor over all Egypt.
After Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Abraham answered: God will provide one. And the two of them walked on together.
Rachel took the images. She put them in the camels' basket and was seated on them. Laban searched through the tent and did not find them.
God continued: Do not call your wife Sarai any longer. Her name will be Sarah.
Abraham fell to his face. He laughed and said to himself: Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?
Isaac prayed to Jehovah for his wife because she was childless. Jehovah answered his prayer. His wife Rebekah became pregnant.
The whole land of Canaan, where you are now a guest (alien) (foreigner) (stranger), I will give a long lasting possession to you and your descendants after you. I will be their God.
In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,
He said: Next year I will give you and Sarah a son. (Sarah was listening in the tent door behind him.)
Abraham will definitely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him.
When Esau heard this he cried out loudly and bitterly. He said: Give me your blessing also, Father!
Early the next morning Abraham came to the place where he had stood in front of Jehovah.
God said: This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:
Adam had intercourse with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. She said: God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.
Abraham moved from Mamre to the southern part of Canaan and lived between Kadesh and Shur. Later, while he was living in Gerar,
Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said: This time I will praise Jehovah. So she named him Judah (Praise). Then she stopped having children.
I establish my covenant with you: Never again will the waters of a flood destroy all life. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.
He also prepared a good-tasting meal and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father: Please, Father, eat some of the meat I have hunted for you so that you will bless me.
Early the next morning Abraham took bread and a container of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder. He also gave her the boy and sent her on her way. So she left and wandered around in the desert near Beer-sheba.
But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn (firstlings) of his flock. Jehovah looked with favor on Abel and his offering.
Jehovah said: Two nations are within you. You will give birth to two rival peoples. One will be stronger than the other. The older will serve the younger.
God blessed them and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
However, God did say: 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not touch it, or you will die.'
The next day the older daughter said to her sister: I slept with him last night. Let us get him drunk again tonight, and you sleep with him. Then each of us will have a child by our father.
So Abram left, just as Jehovah told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
She said to Abram: Jehovah has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my maidservant. Perhaps I can build a family through her. Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Is anything too hard for Jehovah? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life. Sarah shall have a son!
One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women.
Jehovah said: If they become one people speaking the same language, nothing will be impossible for them. They have begun to do this.
They shouted to Lot: Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them!
One day while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from hunting. He was hungry.
He (Ishmael) will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him. He will live in hostility toward all his brothers.
Jacob (Israel) loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph had been born in Israel's old age. So he made Joseph a special multicolored robe with long sleeves.
Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
Then Jehovah God said to the Eve: What is this you have done? The woman answered: The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself. She said to herself: After I have grown old, shall I have a baby? My lord is old also.
Remember, I am with you. I will watch over you wherever you go. I will also bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I do what I have promised you.
Jehovah replied to him: If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over. Then Jehovah put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.
Abimelech asked Abraham: What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?
The man went into the house. Laban unloaded the camels and gave them straw and fodder. Then he brought water for Abraham's servant and his men to wash their feet.
Do not hurt the boy or harm him in any way! The angel said. Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son.
Even though they had eaten the fat cows, no one could tell they had eaten them. They looked just as sick as before. Then I woke up.
Abraham came near and said: Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Abram said: O Jehovah God, what will you give me? I continue childless! The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
The child grew and was weaned. Abraham held a big feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
They shall come back here in the fourth generation. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised. This includes those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner, those who are not your offspring.
After Jacob died, Joseph's brothers said to each other: What if Joseph still hates us and wants to get even with us for all the cruel things we did to him?
Jacob woke up from his sleep and said: Truly, Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know it!
Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was laughing in mockery.
Some of the Midianite traders approached. The brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites. They took him to Egypt.
Jehovah was standing above the stairway. He proclaimed: I am Jehovah, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give the land on which you are lying to you and your descendants.
Abram fell on his face and God said to him:
Joseph is a fruitful tree, a fruitful tree by a spring, with branches climbing over a wall.
Jacob took green branches of poplar (storax), almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them.
The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in Shinar.
All the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air will be filled with fear and dread of you. Every creature that moves along the ground and all the fish of the sea are placed under your control.
Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.
The angel of Jehovah found Hagar near a spring in the desert. It was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
This is because Abraham did everything I told him to do.
Soon his master's wife began to desire Joseph and asked him to go to bed with her.
Jacob made a vow. He said: If God will be with me and will watch over me on my trip and give me food to eat and clothes to wear,
He said: I am taking an oath on my own name, declares Jehovah, that because you have done this and have not refused to give me your son, your only son,
As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt.
All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring (descendants) from generation to generation.
They came to the place God had told him about. Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood.
After Seth was born, Adam lived eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters.
The second one was born holding on tightly to the heel of Esau. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.
Come, let us get our father drunk. Then we can sleep with him and have children by him.
Laban said to Jacob: You should not work for me for nothing just because you are my relative. How much pay do you want?
While Israel lived in that region, Reuben went to bed with his father's concubine Bilhah. Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons.
Bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
Judah is like a lion, killing his victim and returning to his den. He is like a lion stretching out and lying down. No one dares disturb him.
And when Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, Hadar reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Pau. His wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.
Abram said to Lot: Let us not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.
She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said: Certainly, Jehovah has heard that I am unloved. He has also given me this son. She named him Simeon.
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land in the Plain. He saw smoke rising from the land like the thick smoke of a furnace.
When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons: Why are you doing nothing?
Then Judah said to Er's brother Onan: Go sleep with your brother's widow. Fulfill your obligation to her as her husband's brother. That way your brother may have descendants.
Later Joseph was told that his father was ill. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to see Jacob.
Any male not circumcised in the flesh will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.
Then Isaac dug the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham. The Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names his father had given them.
Then they said to him: Where is Sarah your wife? He responded: Here, in the tent.
Jehovah has greatly blessed my master and made him a rich man. He has given him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, silver, gold, male and female slaves, camels, and donkeys.
Jehovah's angel shouted from heaven: Abraham! Abraham! Here I am! he answered.
Abraham said to the senior servant of his household who was in charge of all that he owned: Take a solemn oath.
She called the name of Jehovah, who spoke to her: You are the God who sees me, for she said, 'I have not seen the one who sees me.'
He (God) said to him: Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.
he said that his wife Sarah was his sister. So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
After that they moved from Bethel. When there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. She had severe labor pains.
So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. Esau said to himself: The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.
One time Joseph had a dream. He told his brothers about it and they hated him even more.
God made the expanse. He separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. It was so.
God heard the lad crying. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her: What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear! God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.
The word of Jehovah came to him: This man shall not be your heir. No one but your very own issue shall be your heir.
Jacob (Israel) packed up everything he owned and left for Egypt. On the way he stopped near the town of Beer-sheba and offered sacrifices to the God his father Isaac had worshiped.
You will live there as a foreigner. I will be with you and bless you. I will keep my promise to your father Abraham by giving this land to you and your descendants.
Altogether, Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, and then he died.
The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father. They filled them with dirt.
Joseph had another dream and told his brothers: I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.
Jehovah was with Joseph. Joseph became a successful man. He worked in the house of his Egyptian master.
God called the dry land earth. The gathering of the waters He called seas. God saw that it was good.
I have two virgin daughters. Do with them as you wish, but leave these men alone, for they are under my protection.
When God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot was living, he kept Abraham in mind and allowed Lot to escape to safety.
As soon as the sun went down he stopped for the night. He took one of the stones from that place, put it under his head, and lay down there.
Run for your lives! The angels warned. Do not stop and do not look behind you! Escape to the mountains, or you will die.
The angel of Jehovah called to Abraham from heaven a second time.
Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
Your descendants will be like the dust on the earth. You will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. Every family on earth will be blessed through you and through your descendants.
Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said: Quick! Make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.
Isaac spoke up: Father! He answered: Yes, my son? Isaac asked: I see that you have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?
That night they gave him wine to drink. The older daughter had intercourse with him. But he was so drunk that he did not know it.
She said to Abraham: Get rid of that slave woman and her son.
They dug another well. And they quarreled over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah (Accusation).
He destroyed those cities, the whole Plain, all who lived in the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
these four kings made war with King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Zoar.
After Abram lived in Canaan ten years, Sarai, his wife, gave her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to her husband to be his wife.
This stone I placed as a marker will be the house of God. I will certainly give you a tenth of everything you give me.
Besides, she is my sister. She is my father's daughter, but not my mother's. She is also my wife.
Therefore Jehovah God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Jacob saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. Therefore he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two concubines.
This is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham.
Onan knew that the children would not belong to him. So when he had intercourse with his brother's widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, assuring that there would be no children for his brother.
God appeared to the king in a dream and said: You are going to die, because you have taken this woman. She is already married.
Abraham said: My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.
God also said: I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and an assembly of nations will come from you. Kings shall come forth from you.
Then God said to Abraham: As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.
She was going to have twins. Before they were born they struggled against each other in her womb. She said: Why should something like this happen to me? She asked Jehovah for an answer.
Joseph died in Egypt at the age of one hundred and ten. His body was embalmed and put in a coffin.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam
This is the story of Jacob and his descendants. Joseph was a seventeen-year-old young man. He took care of the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. Joseph told his father about the bad things his brothers were doing.
He said to the servants: Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship. Then we will come back to you.
Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had under his head. He set it up as a marker and poured oil on top of it.
I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all of this land. They will be a blessing to every nation on earth.
Almighty God will bless your marriage and give you many children. You will become the father of many nations!
At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. They said to Lot: Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out of here right now, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city.
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to cry because of her death.
I want you to swear by Jehovah God of heaven and earth that you will not get my son a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living.
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.
That day Isaac's servants told him about the well they dug. They said: We have found water.
His bow stayed steady! His arms remained limber because of the help of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,
Before the year of famine came, there were born to Joseph two sons, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.
I will establish my covenant between us. I will greatly increase your numbers.
I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
Jacob blessed Joseph. He said: May God, in whose presence my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac walked, may this God who has been my shepherd all my life to this very day,
Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey. He took two of his servants and his son Isaac with him. He had cut the wood for the burnt offering. Then he set out for the place that God had told him about.
They turned back and came to En-mishpat (Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
Jacob worked seven years for Laban. The time seemed like only a few days, because he loved Rachel so much.
Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph: Though I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
Rachel was dying! With her last breath she named her son Ben-oni (Son of My Sorrow), but his father named him Benjamin (Son of My Right Hand).
Please. Let a little water be brought. Wash your feet and rest under the tree.
Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying: Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. He has gained all his wealth from him.
When Laban went to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household idols.
Reuben, you are my firstborn; you are my strength and the first child of my manhood. You are the proudest and strongest of all my sons.
Jehovah appeared to Isaac and said: Isaac, stay away from Egypt! I will show you where I want you to go.
Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the country of Edom.
The servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and then set out with a variety of good things of his master's in his hand. He arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.
When Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.
The king's chief cupbearer and his chief baker made the king angry.
Judah went up to Joseph and said: Please, Sir, let me speak openly with you. Do not be angry with me, although you are equal to Pharaoh.
Abram also said: You have given me no offspring. So a slave born in my house is to be my heir.
During the wheat harvest Reuben went out into the fields. He found some mandrake plants. He brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah: Please, give me some of your son's mandrake plants.
Before Joseph died, he told his brothers: I will not live much longer. God will take care of you. He will lead you out of Egypt to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Three months later Judah was told: Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant. Judah said: Bring her out and have her burned to death!
I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.
Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, and sister of Laban the Aramean.
Food was brought. The man said: I will not eat until I have said what I have to say. Laban responded: Go ahead and speak.
Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
The older daughter had a son, whom she named Moab. He was the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.
Do you have any other relatives here in the city? The angels asked. Get them out of this place, sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else.
May the being who rescued me from all evil bless these boys! May they be called by my name and by the names of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac. May they have many children on the earth.
Isaac brought Rebecca into the tent that his mother Sarah had lived in. She became his wife. Isaac loved Rebecca. He was comforted for the loss of his mother.
and also Mizpah (Watchtower), because he said: May Jehovah watch between you and me when we are unable to see each other.
Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. It was at the very time God had promised him.
Rachel said to her father: Do not be angry, Father, but I cannot get up to greet you. I am having my period. So even though Laban had made a thorough search, he did not find the idols.
It appears that you are going because your heart's desire is for your father's house. But why have you taken my gods?
Give the man's wife back to him now. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not give her back, you and all who belong to you are doomed to die.
Dear brothers, do not be sad or angry with yourselves that you sold me. God sent me ahead of you to save lives.
He said to him: Let me go now, for the dawn is near. But Jacob said: I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing.
For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar.
Both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their own father.
Jacob lost his temper. What crime have I committed? he asked angrily. What law have I broken that gives you the right to hunt me down?
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre.
My lords, he said, come to my home to wash your feet, and be my guests for the night. You may get up in the morning as early as you like and be on your way again. Oh no, they said, We will spend the night out here in the city square.
Meanwhile, in Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of the king's officers, who was the captain of the palace guard.
So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
He took butter and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree as they ate.
After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi. (The Well of the Living One, My Beholder).
They said to one another: Look, here comes the hero of those dreams!
Jacob said to his family and those who were with him: Get rid of the foreign gods that you have. Wash yourselves until you are ritually clean. Change your clothes.
His descendants lived as nomads from the region of Havilah to Shur. This is near Egypt, in the direction of Assyria. He died in the presence of all his brothers.
Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
Rebekah said to Isaac: I cannot stand Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.
It happened on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday that he made a feast for all his servants. He lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.
Jacob sent Judah ahead to ask Joseph to meet them in Goshen. When they arrived,
Lot rushed out to tell his sons-in-law: Hurry! Get out of the city! Jehovah is going to destroy it. But the young men thought he was only joking.
My honesty will speak for itself whenever you come to check on my wages. Any goat I have that is not speckled or spotted or any lamb that is not black will be considered stolen.
All his sons and daughters came to comfort him. However, he refused to be comforted. He said: I will go down to the grave still mourning for my son. So he continued to mourn for his son Joseph.
This is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom, and his descendants.
She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
These joined forces in the Valley of Siddim at the Dead Sea.
Go to Mesopotamia instead, to the home of your grandfather Bethuel. Marry one of the young women there, one of your uncle Laban's daughters.
Potiphar turned over everything he had to the care of Joseph. He did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Joseph was well built and good-looking.
The man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob. He gave him a blow in the hollow part of his thigh, so that his leg was damaged.
Zebulun will live by the coast. He will have ships by the coast. His border will go as far as Sidon.
Please come closer to me, Joseph said to his brothers. They came closer. He said: I am Joseph, the brother you sold into slavery in Egypt!
Sarah said: God brought me laughter. Everyone who hears about this will laugh on account of me.
Later, Joseph told the servant in charge of his house: Fill the men's grain sacks with as much as they can hold and put their money in the sacks.
Your servant is in your hands, Abram said. Do with her whatever you think best. Then Sarai mistreated Hagar. So she ran away from her.
Now these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the children of Israel:
As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age.
The first one was reddish. His skin was like a hairy robe, so he was named Esau.
Then Jacob prayed: O God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, you said to me: 'Go back to your country and your family and I will be good to you.'
Jacob told his sons: Soon I will die. I want you to bury me in Machpelah Cave.
He was filled with reverence. He said: This is an awesome place! Certainly, this is the house of God and the gateway to the heavens!
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a fifth of an ounce and two gold bracelets weighing four ounces.
Then Sarai said to Abram: You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms; she knows she is pregnant and she despises me. May Jehovah judge between you and me.
Then he took his last breath and died at a very old age. After a long and full life, he joined his ancestors in death.
Abraham's brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons.
No one in this house is greater than I. He has kept nothing back from me except you. You are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?
because of the God of your father who helps you, because of the Almighty who blesses you from the heavens above, blessings from the deep springs below the ground, blessings from breasts and womb.
Their father Israel said: If that is the way it has to be, then take the man a gift. Put some of the best products of the land in your bags. Take a little balm, a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.
He bought the piece of land on which he pitched his tents. He bought it from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver.
The younger daughter also had a son, whom she named Ben-ammi. He was the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.
Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could have children.
God was with the lad, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
Jacob traveled safely from Paddan-aram to the city of Shechem in Canaan. He camped within sight of the city.
Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, until he was a hundred and forty-seven years old.
Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her. He grabbed her and raped (sexually defiled) her.
Abram replied: O Jehovah God, how will I know that I shall possess it?
Lot insisted, so at last they went home with him. He set a great feast before them, complete with fresh unleavened (unfermented) bread.
I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.
Now, let us make an agreement (covenant) and let it stand as a witness between you and me.
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, out of respect for Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed by now. God has seen my misery and hard work. Last night he made it right!
That night Jehovah appeared to Isaac. Jehovah said: I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you and increase the number of your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake.
You have been so kind to me and saved my life, and you have granted me such mercy. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die.
The famine was extremely bad in the land.
Esau selected his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;
Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.
God said to him: Your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob. Israel shall be your name. Thus He called him Israel.
Then I asked her: 'Whose daughter are you?' She said: 'The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.' I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists.
Uz was their firstborn. Buz was next. Then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram. Their other five sons were
So the king sent for Joseph. He was quickly brought out of jail. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to the king.
Before he finished praying, Rebekah came with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.
He named that place Bethel (House of God). Previously, the name of the city was Luz.
Leah had soft eyes and Rachel was shapely and very beautiful.
I will make the slave's son into a nation also, because he is your child.
Lot still hesitated. So the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for Jehovah was merciful.
He went out in the early evening to take a walk in the fields. He saw camels coming.
You are like a raging flood. But you will not be the most important, for you slept with my concubine. You dishonored your father's bed.
The time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to twin sons.
I am the God of Bethel. That is where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Arise and leave this land. Return to the land of your birth.'
The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.
Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice. Abraham carried a knife and live coals for starting the fire. As they walked along together,
He said: I am a stranger with no permanent home. Let me have some of your property for a tomb that I can bury my dead wife.
The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere. The people of Egypt and Canaan became weak with hunger.
When the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him: Place your hand under my thighs and make a solemn vow that you will not bury me in Egypt.
Jacob went on to say: Joseph, your two sons Ephraim and Manasseh were born in Egypt. But I accept them as my own, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.
Dan will be a snake on a road, a viper on a path that bites a horse's heels so that its rider falls backwards.
The Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen (tar) pits. As the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them. The rest fled to the hill country.
You must give one-fifth to the king at the time of harvest. You can use the rest for seed and for food for yourselves and your families.
Joseph had two sons who were born in Egypt. There were a total of seventy people in Jacob's household who went to Egypt.
Laban and Bethuel replied: The matter comes from Jehovah. We cannot speak to you bad or good.
and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the wilderness.
Jacob answered: My life of wandering has lasted a hundred and thirty years. Those years have been few and difficult, unlike the long years of my ancestors in their wanderings.
Many times I suffered from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. I was not able to sleep.
Quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
Sarah, my master's wife, did not have any children until she was very old. Then she had a son, and my master has given him everything.
He informed them to say: Your obedient servant, Jacob, reports to my master Esau that I have been staying with Laban and that I have delayed my return until now.
Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said: I will work seven years for you, if you will let me marry Rachel.
His father refused and said: I know, Son, I know! Manasseh, too, will become a nation. He, too, will be important. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be more important than he. His descendants will become many nations.
Joseph took five of his brothers and went to the king. He told him: My father and my brothers have come from Canaan with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own. They are now in the region of Goshen.
The girl was a very attractive virgin. No man had ever had sexual intercourse with her. She went to the spring and filled her jar, and came back.
Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh, because God helped him forget all his troubles and all about his father's family.
Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be a long lasting covenant.
Abraham said: I thought that because there are no people who reverence God in this place, I would be killed because of my wife.
Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard.
After some time Judah's wife died. When he finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared.
I always absorbed the loss when wild animals killed a sheep. I did not take it to you to show that it was not my fault. You demanded that I make good anything that was stolen during the day or during the night.
People came to Egypt from all over the world to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Zoar went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim.
Then God opened her eyes. She saw a well of water. She filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.
After he sent them across, he also sent across all that he owned.
Jacob said: Please tell me your name. The man answered: Why do you ask for my name? Then he blessed Jacob there.
Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre (Hebron), in the land of Canaan.
Isaac said: I am old. I do not know when I will die.
God said to him in a dream: Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. In fact, I kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
He will tie his donkey to a grapevine, his colt to the best vine. He will wash his clothes in wine, his garments in the blood of grapes.
But Israel crossed his hands and reached out. He put his right hand on Ephraim's head, although Ephraim was the younger son. He put his left hand on Manasseh's head, although Manasseh was older.
When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
These were the sons of Seir the Horite who inhabited the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau's son, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Adah, Esau's wife.
and threw Joseph in the same prison where the king's prisoners were kept. While Joseph was in prison,
He came close and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his garments. Then he blessed him and said: See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field Jehovah has blessed.
Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb.
He traveled from place to place from the Negev until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier.
They also captured Lot, son of Abram's brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
Deborah died. She was the servant who cared for Rebekah from childhood. She was buried near Bethel, under the holy tree. They named it Allon-bacuth (weeping tree).
and he said to them: We will never find a better man than Joseph. He is a man who has God's Spirit in him.
Abram brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other. He did not cut the birds in two.
Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt. He gave them property in the best of the land near the city of Rameses. This was as the king had commanded.
The sons of Leah were Jacob's firstborn Reuben, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
She said: Here is my maid Bilhah. Sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. This way I can become a mother through her.
Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years.
Before he arrived, they saw him coming and made plans to kill him.
I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve! Afterward they will come out with great possessions.
But the land could not support them while they stayed together. Their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.
They moved away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flocks.
They gave Rebecca their blessing in these words: May you, sister, become the mother of millions! May your descendants conquer the cities of their enemies!
These are the names of Israel's descendants (Jacob and his descendants) who arrived in Egypt. Reuben was Jacob's firstborn.
May the God of Abraham and Nahor the God of their father judge between us. So Jacob swore this oath out of respect for his father Isaac.
So everyone gave Jacob their idols and their earrings. He buried them under the oak (big) tree near Shechem.
We both had dreams, they answered him, but there is no one to tell us what they mean. Is it not God who can tell what dreams mean? Joseph asked them. Tell me all about them.
He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink.
Is not the whole land before you? Let us part company. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.
She realized that Shelah was now a grown man. She had not been allowed to marry him. So she decided to dress in something other than her widow's clothes and to cover her face with a veil. Then she sat outside the town of Enaim on the road to Timnah.
Esau ran to meet him. He threw his arms around him, and kissed him. They both cried.
She grabbed him by his coat and said: Come to bed with me! But he ran outside and left his coat in her hand.
That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi (Well of the Living One Who Sees Me). It is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
Jehovah helped him and was good to him. He even made the jailer like Joseph so much that
I am less than nothing in comparison with all your love and your faithfulness to me your servant. I only had a stick in my hand when I traveled across Jordan. Now I have become two armies.
You said, 'I will make sure that you are prosperous and that your descendants will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one will be able to count them because there are so many.'
Stand back! they shouted. Who do you think you are? We let you settle among us, and now you are trying to tell us what to do! We will treat you far worse than those other men! They pushed Lot and began breaking down the door.
Isaac answered: I have already made him master over you. I have made all his relatives his slaves. I have given him grain and wine. Now there is nothing that I can do for you, son!
Joseph said to Pharaoh: Pharaoh had the same dream twice. God has told Pharaoh what he is going to do.
But Laban said: If now it pleases you, stay with me. I have observed that Jehovah has blessed me on your account.
He said: O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today. Show loving-kindness to my master Abraham.
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have brought trouble on me by making me loathsome to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Per'izzites. My numbers are few. If they gather themselves against me and attack my household I will be destroyed.
This was where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of Jehovah.
We will destroy the city completely. The stench of the place has reached Jehovah. He has sent us to destroy it.
Ephron was sitting with the other Hittites at the meeting place at the city gate. He answered in the hearing of everyone there:
Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and could not speak to him in a friendly way.
Jacob said to Laban: Give me my wife for the time is completed. I want to marry Rachel now!
God sent me ahead of you to make sure that you would have descendants on the earth, and to save your lives in an amazing way.
Therefore, even today the people of Israel do not eat the muscle of the thigh (the sinew) attached to the hip socket. This is because God touched the socket of Jacob's thigh at the muscle.
I am giving you one more mountain ridge than your brothers. I took it from the Amorites with my own sword and bow.
That night, God spoke to him and said: Jacob! Jacob! Here I am, Jacob answered.
Then Abraham ran to the herd. He selected a fat calf and told a servant to butcher it and prepare it.
Jehovah said to Abraham: Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?'
I will bring a bite to eat to refresh you. Stay a while before you continue your journey. They responded: Very well, do as you have said.
Please, my brothers, he begged, do not do such a wicked thing.
The king was upset the next morning. So he called his magicians and wise men and told them what he had dreamed. None of them could tell him what the dreams meant.
Three days later the men who had been circumcised were still weak from pain. So Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers, attacked with their swords and killed every man in town.
He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time. This is the time when women go out to draw water.
Finish the week of wedding festivities with this daughter. Then we will give you the other one too. But you will have to work for me another seven years.
When God had me leave my father's home and travel around, I said to her: 'Do me a favor: Wherever we go, say that I am your brother.'
Jacob came home to his father Isaac, to Mamre's city, Kiriath-arba (Hebron). Abraham and Isaac had lived there for a while.
Jacob tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. He mourned for his son a long time.
Rachel and Leah asked: Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house?
Chief Magdiel, and Chief Iram. These were the sheiks of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. Esau was the father of the Edomites.
He moved on from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over this one. So he named it Rehoboth (Roomy). He said: Now Jehovah has made room for us. We will prosper in this land.
So Abimelech got up early in the morning. He called all his servants and told them everything. The men were very afraid.
Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels.
The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. (Er and Onan died in Canaan.) The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said: I cannot take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children.
Jacob went closer. His father touched him. He said: You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau's.
Jehovah had made it impossible for any woman in Abimelech's household to have children because of Abraham's wife Sarah.
Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
Judah asked his brothers: What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up his death?
He said: Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going? I am running away from my mistress Sarai, she answered.
Promise me that you will take my body with you when God leads you to that land.
The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the oldest mountains and the riches of the ancient hills. May these blessings rest on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the prince among his brothers.
The total number of Jacob's direct descendants who went with him to Egypt was sixty-six. This did not include the wives of Jacob's sons.
Your mother Rachel died in Canaan after we left northern Syria and before we reached Bethlehem. I had to bury her along the way.
So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom.
When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
When he saw them, Jacob said: This is God's camp! He named that place Mahanaim.
When Leah realized she could not have any more children, she let Jacob marry her servant Zilpah.
They said to one another: Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw his distress when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.
She sat across from him at a distance. She thought: I cannot watch the boy die. She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
So that night they got him drunk. The younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he did not know it.
Jehovah said to Jacob: Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your relatives. I will be with you.
It was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me like a father to Pharaoh. He made me lord over his entire household, and ruler of Egypt.
They mourned loudly for a long time at the threshing place at Atad east of the Jordan. Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for seven days.
Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle Laban, with his uncle Laban's sheep. He came forward and rolled the stone off the opening of the well and watered his uncle Laban's sheep.
Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar: Return to your father's house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up. He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.
Ishmael lived one hundred and thirty-seven years. Then he died and was gathered to his ancestors.
If you mistreat my daughters or marry other women behind my back, remember that God stands as a witness between you and me.
Joseph said to his brothers: I am Joseph! Is my father still alive? His brothers could not answer him because they were afraid of him.
In a dream that night God came to Laban. God said: Be careful not to threaten Jacob in any way.
The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
Isaac then sent Jacob to stay with Rebekah's brother Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:
Judah recognized them and said: She is more righteous than I, since I would not give her to my son Shelah. He did not sleep with her again.
Listen to us, my lord. You are a mighty leader among us. Bury your dead in one of our best tombs. Not one of us will withhold from you his tomb for burying your dead.
These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps: twelve leaders according to their tribes.
This was the field Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. Abraham and Sarah his wife were buried there.
Isaac built an altar there and worshiped Jehovah. Then he set up his camp. His servants dug another well.
Joseph then answered Pharaoh: I cannot do it myself, but God can give the meaning of your dreams.
Be sure to tell him that you have taken care of livestock all your lives, just as your ancestors did. In this way he will let you live in the region of Goshen. Joseph said this because Egyptians will have nothing to do with shepherds (consider shepherds loathsome).
When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded him.
While Abraham was still alive, he gave gifts to the sons of Hagar and Keturah. He also sent their sons to live in the east far from his son Isaac.
The king said to Joseph: God has shown you all this. Therefore it is obvious that you have greater wisdom and insight than anyone else.
Suddenly he came upon a well out in the fields. There were three flocks of sheep lying around it. The flocks were watered from this well. It had a large stone over the opening.
Rachel said: I have struggled hard with my sister, and I have won! So she named the boy Naphtali.
Jacob built an altar there and called it God of Bethel. That was the place where God appeared to him when he was running from Esau.
Judah met a young Canaanite woman there whose father was named Shua. He married her.
Abimelech took sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
Laban said: You are indeed my own flesh and blood. Jacob stayed there a whole month.
She added: Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.
Judah came along. He did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute,
Then Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right, facing Israel's left, and Manasseh on his left, facing Israel's right, and brought them close to him.
Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him. That way, I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.
The sons of Benjamin were Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.
Laban took out the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats (every one with white on it), and every black lamb. He had his sons take charge of them that same day.
Their father Jacob said to them: You are going to make me lose all my children! Joseph is no longer with us. Simeon is no longer with us. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!
We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat. My sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it.
Jacob moved on to Succoth. He built a house there for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is named Succoth.
Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea. He finally stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.
Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood.
Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him. They returned to Abraham's home in Beer-sheba.
Rebekah said to her son Jacob: I have just heard your father speak to your brother Esau.
Sarah denied saying: I did not laugh! She was afraid. He said: But you did laugh!
Jacob finished giving these instructions to his sons. He pulled his feet into his bed. He took his last breath and joined his ancestors in death.
Isaac moved to Gerar.
Then Israel saw Joseph's sons. He asked Joseph: Who are these boys? Joseph answered:
The Israelites lived in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They became rich and had many children.
She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder, and said, 'Drink, and I will water your camels also'; so I drank, and she watered the camels also.
Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his friend (companion), and Phicol, the commander of his army, to see Isaac.
Joseph lived long enough to see Ephraim's children and grandchildren. He also lived to see the children of Manasseh's son Machir. He welcomed them into his family.
Isaac had come into the wilderness of The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me. He was staying in the southern part of Canaan.
What he did displeased Jehovah. So Jehovah killed him also.
Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and had warned him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. He also learned that Jacob had been sent to find a wife in northern Syria.
His wife Rebekah was very beautiful. He was afraid that someone might kill him to get her. So he told everyone that Rebekah was his sister.
Instead, you will go to the land of my relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.
Abimelech had not come near her. He said: Lord, I am innocent! Would you destroy my people and me?
When he drew back his hand, his brother came out. She said: So this is how you have broken out! He was named Perez.
Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father's family. He was a hundred and ten years old when he died.
In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest from the city of On.
The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.
Prepare a good-tasting meal for me. Prepare it the way I like it. Bring it to me to eat so that I will bless you before I die.
The servant asked: What if the young woman will not leave home to come with me to this land? Shall I send your son back to the land you came from?
Jacob said: Make a vow that you will. Joseph made the vow. Jacob gave thanks there on his bed.
This upset Abraham because of his son Ishmael.
God said: I am God! I am the same God your father worshiped. Do not be afraid to go to Egypt. I will give you so many descendants that one day they will become a nation.
Oh no, my lords, please, Lot begged.
He also noticed that Laban did not appear as friendly to him as before.
I will not join in their secret talks. I will not take part in their meetings. They killed people in anger. They crippled bulls for sport.
I will put you in charge of my country. All my people will obey your orders. Your authority will be second only to mine.
Why did you deceive me and slip away without telling me? If you had told me, I would have sent you on your way with rejoicing and singing to the music of tambourines and harps.
These were the sheiks (chiefs) of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn son of Esau, were Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, Chief Kenaz,
These were the names of the sheiks (chiefs) of Esau, according to their families and their places, by their names: Chief Timnah, Chief Alvah, Chief Jetheth,
Jacob stayed there that night. Then he prepared a gift for his brother Esau from what he had brought with him:
Jacob replied: My son will not go with you. His brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If any harm comes to him on the trip you are taking, the grief would drive this gray-haired old man to his grave!
Joseph was served at a table by himself. His brothers were served at another. The Egyptians sat at yet another table. This is because Egyptians felt it was disgusting to eat with Hebrews.
Esau looked around and saw the women and the children. He asked: Who are these people with you? Jacob answered: These are the children whom God has been good enough to give me.
Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban's flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban's.
Once, when the flocks were mating, I dreamed that all the rams were either spotted or speckled.
Rachel named him Dan, because she said: God has answered my prayers. He has vindicated me and given me a son.
Potiphar was pleased with him and made him his personal servant. He put him in charge of his house and everything he owned.
Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.
I came to the spring today. I prayed to Jehovah: 'God of my master Abraham, if now you will make my journey successful,
They carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah east of Mamre. He was buried in the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.
Isaac took his last breath and died. He joined his ancestors in death at a very old age. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
The little that you had before I came has grown to a large amount. Jehovah has blessed you wherever I have been. When may I do something for my own family?
Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's nephew and that he was Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father.
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
These were the sons of Zibeon: both Aiah and Anah. This was the Anah who found the water in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of his father Zibeon.
Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.
The enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food provisions, and went their way.
You will be free from this oath if the woman is not willing to follow you. Only do not take my son back there.
He became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.
As governor of the country, Joseph was selling grain to everyone. So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed in front of him with their faces touching the ground.
to sell me Machpelah Cave. It is near the edge of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for its full price here in your presence. Then I can own it as a burial ground.
In three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you. He will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off you.
Please take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me.