In that dream the Angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

And He said, ‘Look up and see: all the males that are mating with the flocks are streaked, spotted, and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

In fact, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has said to you.”

And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, Take care thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war!

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.’

And Jacob will answer and say to Laban, Because I was afraid; for I said, Lest thou wilt tear away my daughters from me;

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.

Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me?

And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the flock is my flock, and all that thou seest is mine; but as for my daughters, what can I do this day to them, or to their sons whom they have brought forth?

Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a mound, then ate there by the mound.

Then Laban said, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore the place was called Galeed

and also Mizpah, for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.

Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this mound and the marker I have set up between you and me.

When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s camp.” So he called that place Mahanaim.

And he will command them, saying, Thus shall ye say to my lord to Esau, Thus thy servant Jacob said, With Laban I sojourned and lingered till now.

When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you—and he has 400 men with him.”

And he said, If Esau come to the one troop and smite it, then the other troop which is left shall escape.

Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’

You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”

He entrusted them to his slaves as separate herds and said to them, “Go on ahead of me, and leave some distance between the herds.”

To the first group he said, "When you meet my brother Esau, if he asks, "To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And to whom do these herds belong?'

then thou hast said, Thy servant Jacob's: it is a present sent to my lord, to Esau; and lo, he also is behind us.'

And ye said, Also behold thy servant Jacob behind us. For he said, I will appease his face with the gift going before me, and after this I will see his face; perhaps he will receive my face.

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.”

And he said to him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

And Jacob asked and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, How is it that thou askest after my name? And he blessed him there.

Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “and I have been delivered.”

And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with thee? And he said, The children that God has graciously given thy servant.

So Esau said, “What do you mean by this whole procession I met?”

“To find favor with you, my lord,” he answered.

And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; let what thou hast be thine.

But Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor with you, take this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me.

Then Esau said, “Let’s move on, and I’ll go ahead of you.”

And he said to him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the suckling sheep and kine are with me; and if they should overdrive them only one day, all the flock would die.

Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.”

But he replied, “Why do that? Please indulge me, my lord.”

Then his heart went out in love to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he said comforting words to her.

So Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”

And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; but his sons were with his cattle in the fields, and Jacob said nothing until they came.

Now the sons of Jacob came in from the fields when they had news of it, and they were wounded and very angry because of the shame he had done in Israel by having connection with Jacob's daughter; and they said, Such a thing is not to be done.

Hamor said to Jacob’s sons, “My son Shechem is strongly attracted to your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I’ll give you whatever you say.

And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister:

“We cannot do this thing,” they said to them. “Giving our sister to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.

What they said pleased Hamor and his son Shechem,

And without loss of time the young man did as they said, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the noblest of his father's house.

Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-place of their town, and said to the men of the town,

“These men are peaceful toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and move about in it, for indeed, the region is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as our wives and give our daughters to them.

And every [Canaanite] man who went out of the city gate listened and considered what Hamor and Shechem said; and every male who was a resident of that city was circumcised.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

And they said, Should people deal with our sister as with a harlot?

God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

Now when Jacob was on his way from Paddan-aram, God came to him again and, blessing him, said,

God said to him:

Your name is Jacob;
you will no longer be named Jacob,
but your name will be Israel.

So He named him Israel.

God also said to him:

I am God Almighty.
Be fruitful and multiply.
A nation, indeed an assembly of nations,
will come from you,
and kings will descend from you.

During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”

He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

“Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me.”

He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Are your mother and brothers and I going to come and bow down to the ground before you?”

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what Joseph said.

Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I’m sending you to them.”

“I’m ready,” Joseph replied.

Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.

And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?

“I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

“They’ve moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer!

and now, come, and we slay him, and cast him into one of the pits, and have said, An evil beast hath devoured him; and we see what his dreams are.'

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

Reuben also said to them, “Don’t shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him”—intending to rescue him from their hands and return him to his father.

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

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?”

His father recognized it. “It is my son’s robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!”

All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.

Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and produce offspring for your brother.”

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

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?”

“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” he replied.

But she said, “Only if you leave something with me until you send it.”

And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy lace, and thy staff which is in thy hand. And he gave it her, and went in to her; and she conceived by him.

And he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the prostitute that was at Enaim, by the way-side? And they said, There was no prostitute here.

So the Adullamite returned to Judah, saying, “I couldn’t find her, and furthermore, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.’”

Then Judah said, Let her take it for herself, lest we be put to shame. Behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.

About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.”

“Bring her out!” Judah said. “Let her be burned to death!”

When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man to whom these belong am I with child; and she said, Acknowledge, I pray thee, whose are this signet, and this lace, and this staff.

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.

But then he pulled his hand back, and his brother came out. Then she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.

After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

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.

She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

she called the household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could.

This is what she said to him: "That Hebrew slave you brought to us tried to humiliate me,

And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

“We had dreams,” they said to him, “but there is no one to interpret them.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

Then the chief of the cup-bearers told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;

“This is its interpretation,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days.

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was positive, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream. Three baskets of white bread were on my head.

And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation of it: the three baskets are three days.