Why did you secretly flee from me, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and lyres,

I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me: ‘Watch yourself. Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

If you find your gods with anyone here, he will not live! Before our relatives, point out anything that is yours and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

She said to her father, “Sir, don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

I’ve been with you these 20 years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams from your flock.

I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or by night.

There I was—the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work, and He issued His verdict last night.”

This mound is a witness and the marker is a witness that I will not pass beyond this mound to you, and you will not pass beyond this mound and this marker to do me harm.

Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. So they ate a meal and spent the night on the mountain.

He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau:

So the gift was sent on ahead of him while he remained in the camp that night.

During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female slaves, and his 11 sons, and crossed the ford of Jabbok.

When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip.

Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”

Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything I need.” So Jacob urged him until he accepted.

Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident and were deeply grieved and angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.

But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”

The young man did not delay doing this, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most important in all his father’s house.

When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

For their possessions were too many for them to live together, and because of their herds, the land where they stayed could not support them.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.

When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let’s not take his life.”

Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh,” and they agreed.

When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?”

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he released his semen on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.

So she took off her widow’s clothes, veiled her face, covered herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.

He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with me?”

When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get back the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her.

Judah recognized them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her intimately again.

He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.

But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority.

The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.

The Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker, who were confined in the prison, each had a dream. Both had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning.

Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

He and I had dreams on the same night; each dream had its own meaning.

“I am not able to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before. Then I woke up.

The abundance in the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows it, for the famine will be very severe.

The food will be a reserve for the land during the seven years of famine that will take place in the land of Egypt. Then the country will not be wiped out by the famine.”

Listen,” he went on, “I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.”

But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he thought, “Something might happen to him.”

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

“We are all sons of one man. We are honest; your servants are not spies.”

This is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Send one from among you to get your brother. The rest of you will be imprisoned so that your words can be tested to see if they are true. If they are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

Then they said to each other, “Obviously, we are being punished for what we did to our brother. We saw his deep distress when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this trouble has come to us.”

But Reuben replied: “Didn’t I tell you not to harm the boy? But you wouldn’t listen. Now we must account for his blood!”

They did not realize that Joseph understood them, since there was an interpreter between them.

At the place where they lodged for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his money there at the top of the bag.

But we told him: We are honest and not spies.

Bring back your youngest brother to me, and I will know that you are not spies but honest men. I will then give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the country.’”

But Jacob answered, “My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If anything happens to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.”

But Judah said to him, “The man specifically warned us: ‘You will not see me again unless your brother is with you.’

But if you will not send him, we will not go, for the man said to us, ‘You will not see me again unless your brother is with you.’”

Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me. We will be on our way so that we may live and not die—neither we, nor you, nor our children.

I will be responsible for him. You can hold me personally accountable! If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I will be guilty before you forever.

If we had not wasted time, we could have come back twice by now.”

When we came to the place where we lodged for the night and opened our bags of grain, each one’s money was at the top of his bag! It was the full amount of our money, and we have brought it back with us.

They served him by himself, his brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, since that is abhorrent to them.

They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

They said to him, “Why does my lord say these things? Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”

But Judah approached him and said, “Sir, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.

Then you said to your servants, ‘If your younger brother does not come down with you, you will not see me again.’

“So if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—his life is wrapped up with the boy’s life—

when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Then your servants will have brought the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.

Your servant became accountable to my father for the boy, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will always bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.’

For how can I go back to my father without the boy? I could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm my father.”

Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

They said, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: “Jacob, Jacob!” He said.

And Jacob replied, “Here I am.”

God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

The total number of persons belonging to Jacob—his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons—who came to Egypt: 66.

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not surpassed the years of my fathers during their pilgrimages.”

Why should we die here in front of you—both us and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. Then we with our land will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed so that we can live and not die, and so that the land won’t become desolate.”

The only land he didn’t acquire was the priests’ portion, for it was given to them by Pharaoh. They lived off the rations Pharaoh had given them; therefore they did not sell their land.

So Joseph made it a law, still in effect today in the land of Egypt, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land does not belong to Pharaoh.

When the time drew near for him to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise me that you will deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt.

Joseph said to his father, “Not that way, my father! This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

The scepter will not depart from Judah
or the staff from between his feet
until He whose right it is comes
and the obedience of the peoples belongs to Him.