Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, "Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them.

At dawn the angels hurried Lot along, saying, "Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!"

Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham's request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.

So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.

So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.

But God appeared to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else's wife."

Then in the dream God replied to him, "Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. That is why I have kept you from sinning against me and why I did not allow you to touch her.

Abraham replied, "Because I thought, 'Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.'

When God made me wander from my father's house, I told her, 'This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: Every place we go, say about me, "He is my brother."'"

Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children.

So Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do.

Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."

But God said to Abraham, "Do not be upset about the boy or your slave wife. Do all that Sarah is telling you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted.

But God heard the boy's voice. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Don't be afraid, for God has heard the boy's voice right where he is crying.

Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."

Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.

At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do.

Now swear to me right here in God's name that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. Show me, and the land where you are staying, the same loyalty that I have shown you."

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer Sheba. There he worshiped the Lord, the eternal God.

Some time after these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am!" Abraham replied.

God said, "Take your son -- your only son, whom you love, Isaac -- and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you."

Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had spoken to him about.

"God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son," Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together.

When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

"Do not harm the boy!" the angel said. "Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me."

Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Then Abraham got up from mourning his dead wife and said to the sons of Heth,

Abraham got up and bowed down to the local people, the sons of Heth.

(Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth -- before all who entered the gate of his city --

as his property in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who entered the gate of Ephron's city.

so that I may make you solemnly promise by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living.

"The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and the land of my relatives, promised me with a solemn oath, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' He will send his angel before you so that you may find a wife for my son from there.

He prayed, "O Lord, God of my master Abraham, guide me today. Be faithful to my master Abraham.

saying "Praised be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his faithful love for my master! The Lord has led me to the house of my master's relatives!"

When I came to the spring today, I prayed, 'O Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you have decided to make my journey successful, may events unfold as follows:

Then I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right path to find the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.

After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Let me leave now so I can return to my master."

Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel

Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man who had lived a full life. He joined his ancestors.

After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. So Esau despised his birthright.

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "She is my wife," for he thought to himself, "The men of this place will kill me to get Rebekah because she is very beautiful."

So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She is really your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac replied, "Because I thought someone might kill me to get her."

The Lord appeared to him that night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."

Early in the morning the men made a treaty with each other. Isaac sent them off; they separated on good terms.

Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I'll prepare them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them.

So his mother told him, "Any curse against you will fall on me, my son! Just obey me! Go and get them for me!"

So he went and got the goats and brought them to his mother. She prepared some tasty food, just the way his father loved it.

But Isaac asked his son, "How in the world did you find it so quickly, my son?" "Because the Lord your God brought it to me," he replied.

May God give you the dew of the sky and the richness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau said to him, "My father, get up and eat some of your son's wild game. Then you can bless me."

When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, she quickly summoned her younger son Jacob and told him, "Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you.

May the sovereign God bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! Then you will become a large nation.

May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham so that you may possess the land God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident."

and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it

and the Lord stood at its top. He said, "I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on.

He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!"

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food to eat and clothing to wear,

and I return safely to my father's home, then the Lord will become my God.

Then this stone that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely give you back a tenth of everything you give me."

Jacob became furious with Rachel and exclaimed, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"

Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer and given me a son." That is why she named him Dan.

Leah said, "How fortunate!" So she named him Gad.

God paid attention to Leah; she became pregnant and gave Jacob a son for the fifth time.

Then Leah said, "God has granted me a reward because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife." So she named him Issachar.

Then Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will honor me because I have given him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

Then God took note of Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant.

She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then she said, "God has taken away my shame."

My integrity will testify for me later on. When you come to verify that I've taken only the wages we agreed on, if I have in my possession any goat that is not speckled or spotted or any sheep that is not dark-colored, it will be considered stolen."

But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible.

There he said to them, "I can tell that your father's attitude toward me has changed, but the God of my father has been with me.

but your father has humiliated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm.

In this way God has snatched away your father's livestock and given them to me.

In the dream the angel of God said to me, 'Jacob!' 'Here I am!' I replied.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the sacred stone and made a vow to me. Now leave this land immediately and return to your native land.'"

Surely all the wealth that God snatched away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now do everything God has told you."

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, "Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob."

You didn't even allow me to kiss my daughters and my grandchildren good-bye. You have acted foolishly!

I have the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, 'Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.'

If the God of my father -- the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears -- had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night."

If you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one else is with us, realize that God is witness to your actions."

May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, the gods of their father, judge between us." Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared.

So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.

When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.

Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said to me, 'Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.'

"No longer will your name be Jacob," the man told him, "but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed."

So Jacob named the place Peniel, explaining, "Certainly I have seen God face to face and have survived."

When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he asked, "Who are these people with you?" Jacob replied, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

"No, please take them," Jacob said. "If I have found favor in your sight, accept my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, it is as if I have seen the face of God.

Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need." When Jacob urged him, he took it.

There he set up an altar and called it "The God of Israel is God."

So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city,

All the men who assembled at the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate was circumcised.

Then God said to Jacob, "Go up at once to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."

So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

Let us go up at once to Bethel. Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went."

and they started on their journey. The surrounding cities were afraid of God, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.