Now the Shining One was more clever than any animal of the field that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, "Did God actually say, "You are not to eat from any tree of the garden'?"

"Who told you that you are naked?" Godasked. "Did you eat fruit from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?"

Then the LORD God asked the woman, "What did you do?" "The Shining One misled me," the woman answered, "so I ate."

And she did it again, giving birth to his brother Abel. Abel shepherded flocks and Cain became a farmer.

but he did not look favorably upon Cain and his offering.

"What did you do?" God asked. "Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

Noah did all of this, precisely as God had commanded.

Noah did everything that the LORD commanded.

He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but it did not return to him anymore.

Then Shem and Japheth took their father's cloak, laid it across both their shoulders, and walking backwards, they both covered their father's genitals. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's genitals.

Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, "What have you done to me! Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

Why did you say, "She is my sister,' so that I took her as a wife for myself? Now, here is your wife! Take her and get out!"

So Abram brought him all these animals and cut each of them in half, down the middle, placing the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half.

The LORD asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and think, "Am I really going to bear a child, since I'm so old?'

But Sarah denied it. "I didn't laugh," she claimed, because she was afraid. The LORD replied, "No! You did laugh!"

Didn't he say to me, "She's my sister'? And she also said, "He's my brother.' I did this with pure intentions and clean hands."

Then God replied to him in the dream, "I know that you did this with pure intentions, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore, I didn't allow you to touch her.

Abimelech also asked Abraham, "What could you have been thinking when you did this?"

The LORD came to Sarah, just as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.

"I don't know who did this thing," Abimelech replied. "You didn't report this to me, and I didn't hear about it until today."

I'm going to do this because Abraham did what I told him to do. He kept my instructions, commands, statutes, and laws."

So Abimelech called Isaac and confronted him. "She is definitely your wife!" he accused him, "So why did you claim, "She's my sister?'" Isaac responded, "Because I had thought ""otherwise, I'll die on account of her.'"

Then he left that area and dug still another well. Because they did not quarrel over that one, Isaac named it Rehoboth, because he used to say, "The LORD has enlarged the territory for us. We will prosper in the land."

"How did you get it so quickly, my son?" Isaac asked. Jacob responded, ""because the LORD your God made me successful."

He didn't recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau, so Isaac blessed him.

Esau realized that Canaan women didn't please his father Isaac,

The next morning, Jacob realized that it was Leah! "What have you done to me?" he demanded of Laban. "Didn't I serve you for seven years in order to marry Rachel? Why did you deceive me?"

But he didn't put the branches in front of any of the feeble members of the flock. As a result, the feeble ones belonged to Laban, but the stronger ones belonged to Jacob.

Even so, your father has cheated me. He broke our wage agreement ten times. However, God didn't allow him to harm me.

Then Laban asked Jacob, "What did you do? You deceived me, carried off my daughters like you would war captives,

As it is, you didn't even allow me to kiss my grandchildren and daughters goodbye! You've acted foolishly.

Now, you can go if you must go, because you certainly are longing to go to your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"

Now as to your gods, if you find someone has them in their possession, he's a dead man. Take our relatives as witnesses, search through our belongings, and take whatever belongs to you that's in my possession." But Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

So Laban entered Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tents of the two maid servants, but he didn't find them. Then he left Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent.

Then Rachel told her father, "Sir, please don't be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence. It's that time of the month." So Laban searched for the idols, but never did find them.

Now that you've searched all my belongings, what did you find that belongs to your house? Set it here in front of our relatives and we'll let them judge between us!

so the young man did not delay the matter any further, since he was delighted with Jacob's daughter.

As they set out on their journey, because the people who lived in the cities around them feared God, they did not pursue Jacob's sons.

So on the way, he turned aside, approached her, and said, "Come on! Let's have some sex!" But he didn't realize that he was talking to his own daughter-in-law. "What will you give me," she asked, "in order to have sex with me?"

Then Judah said, "Let her have those things. Otherwise, we'll become contemptible. I sent this young goat, but you didn't find her."

When Judah recognized them, he admitted, "She is more upright than I, because I never did give her my son Shelah." And he never had sex with her again.

who could see that the LORD was with Joseph, because the LORD made everything prosper that Joseph did.

So the prison warden entrusted into Joseph's care all the prisoners who were confined in prison. Whatever they did, Joseph was in charge of the work detail.

The prison warden did not have to worry about anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with him. That's why Joseph prospered in everything he did.

Within three days, Pharaoh will encourage you and return you to your responsibilities. You'll attend to Pharaoh's personal wine cup, just as you did when you were his senior security advisor.

Despite all of this, the senior security advisor not only didn't remember Joseph, he deliberately forgot him.

"We're all guilty because of what we did to our brother!" they told each other. "We kept on watching his suffering while he pleaded with us! We're in this mess because we wouldn't listen!"

"Didn't I tell you!" Reuben replied. ""Don't wrong the kid!' I said, but would you listen? No! Now it's payback time!"

Israel replied, "Why did you make all this trouble by telling the man that you have another brother?"

So the man did what Joseph had ordered, and brought the men to Joseph's palace.

Joseph himself brought portions to them from his own table, except that he provided to Benjamin five times as much as he did for each of the others. So they feasted together and drank freely with Joseph.

Then place my cup the silver one in the top of the sack belonging to the youngest one, along with the money he brought to buy grain." So the manager did precisely what Joseph told him to do.

They had not traveled far from the city when Joseph ordered his palace manager, "Get up, follow those men, and when you've caught up with them, ask them, "Why did you repay evil for good?

and Joseph asked them, "Why did you do this? Don't you know that I'm an expert at divination?"

Joseph implored his brothers, "Please come close to me." So they did.

So Israel's sons did what they were asked to do, and Joseph provided wagons for them, as Pharaoh had commanded. He also gave them provisions for the journey.

where they informed their father, "Joseph is still alive! As a matter of fact, he's ruling the entire land of Egypt." But Jacob didn't believe them, because he had become cynical.

"I'm 130 years old," Jacob replied. "My years have turned out to be few and unpleasant, but I haven't yet reached the age my ancestors did during their travels on earth."

However, he did not purchase land belonging to the priests, because the priests held an allotment, previously provided to them by Pharaoh, from which they lived. That's why they did not sell their land.

And so Israel's sons did what he had instructed them to do:

Later, after Joseph's brothers faced the reality of their father's death, they asked themselves, "What happens if Joseph decides to hold a grudge against us? What if he pays us back in full for all the wrong things we did to him?"