The LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden in order to have him work it and guard it.

Later, the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make the woman to be an authority corresponding to him."

The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds that fly, and to each of earth's animals, but there was not found a strength corresponding to him,

So the LORD God called out to the man, asking him, "Where are you?"

"I'll place hostility between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He'll strike you on the head, and you'll strike him on the heel."

Instead, Cain told his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the wilderness." When they were outside in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

The LORD told him, "This won't happen, because whoever kills you will suffer seven times the vengeance." Then the LORD placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him.

Later on, after Adam had sexual relations with his wife, she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, because "God granted me another offspring to replace Abel, since Cain murdered him."

After Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son just like him, that is, according to his own likeness, and named him Seth.

communing with God and then he was there no longer, because God had taken him.

Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives entered the ark with him before the flood waters arrived.

All existing creatures that had lived on the surface of the ground were annihilated, from humans to livestock, from crawling creatures to birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah remained, along with those who were with him in the ark.

God kept Noah in mind, along with all the wildlife and livestock that were with him in the ark. God's Spirit moved throughout the earth, causing the flood waters to subside.

but the dove could not yet find a place to rest, so it returned to Noah on the ark, since water still covered the land. Noah reached out his hand and took the dove back into the ark with him.

The dove returned to him in the evening, but in its beak there was an olive leaf that it had plucked! So Noah knew that the flood waters had decreased on the land.

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

When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

May God make room for Japheth; may God live in Shem's tents, and may Canaan serve him."

So Abram left there, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot accompanied him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran.

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I'll give this land to your descendants." So Abram built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

So Pharaoh assigned men to Abram, and they escorted him, his wife, and all that he had out of the country.

In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

After Abram's return from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with them, the king of Sodom went out to meet with him in the Shaveh Valley (that is, the King's Valley).

and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your control." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

A message came from the LORD to him again: "This one will not be your heir. Instead, the child who will be born to you will be your heir."

Then the LORD took him outside. "Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can!" he said. "Your descendants will be that numerous."

Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

The LORD spoke to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance."

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.

As the sun began to set, Abram was overcome with deep sleep, and suddenly a frightening and terrifying darkness descended on him.

Now Abram's wife Sarai had not borne a child for him. She had an Egyptian servant girl whose name was Hagar.

"Look, you are pregnant and will give birth to a son," the angel of the LORD continued to say to her. "You will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your cry of misery.

He'll be a wild donkey of a man. He'll be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live in conflict with all of his relatives."

Then Abram fell to the ground as God continued speaking to him.

So Abraham responded to God, "If only Ishmael would live in constant awareness that you're always with him!"

But God replied, "No, but your wife Sarah will give birth to your son, and you are to name him Isaac. I'll confirm my covenant with him as an eternal covenant for his descendants.

And as for Ishmael, I've heard you. I'll bless him, and he'll have many descendants. I will multiply him greatly, he'll father twelve tribal leaders, and I'll cause his descendants to become a great nation.

Now as to Isaac, I'll confirm my covenant with him, to whom Sarah will give birth as your son at this time next year."

With that, God finished talking to Abraham, and ascended, leaving him.

Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the servants born in his house or purchased with his money every male among the men of his household and circumcised them that very day, just as God had spoken to him.

Every man born in his household as well as those who had been purchased with money from a foreigner was circumcised with him.

he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground.

The men asked him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" "There, in the tent," he replied.

Now Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old really old and Sarah was beyond the age of childbearing.

"since Abraham's descendants will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?

Indeed, I've made myself known to him in order that he may encourage his sons and his household that is born after him to keep the way of the LORD, and to do what is right and just, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised."

Abraham continued to speak to him, asking, "What if 40 are found there?" The LORD replied, "I won't do it for the sake of those 40."

Lot went outside to them, shut the door behind him,

As dawn was breaking, the angels pressured Lot. "Get going!" they told him. "Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be engulfed by the devastation that's coming to this city."

But Lot kept lingering in the city, so the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters (because of the LORD's compassion for him!), brought them out of the city, and left them outside.

But Lot's wife looked back as she lingered behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Come on! Let's make our father drink wine, and then we'll have sex with him so we can preserve our father's lineage."

The next day the firstborn told the younger one, "Look! I had sex with my father last night. Let's make him drink wine tonight again as well. Then you have sex with him, too. That way we'll preserve our father's lineage."

The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab, and he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day.

The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-ammi, and he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night and spoke to him, "Pay attention! You're about to die, because the woman you have taken is a man's wife!"

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.

Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great sin against me and my kingdom? You've done things to me that ought not to have been done."

So Abimelech took some sheep and oxen, and some male and female servants, gave them to Abraham, returned his wife Sarah to him,

Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the very time that God had told him.

Abraham named his son who was born to him Isaac the very one whom Sarah bore for him!

On the eighth day after his son Isaac had been born, Abraham circumcised him, just as God had commanded him.

Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Later he settled in the desert area of Paran, and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Sometime later, God tested Abraham. He called out to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am!" he answered.

God said, "Please take your son, your unique son whom you love Isaac and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering there on one of the mountains that I will point out to you."

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his male servants with him, along with his son Isaac. He cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out to go to the place about which God had spoken to him.

The two of them went on together and came to the place about which God had spoken. Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, tied up his son Isaac, and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

Just then, an angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven and said, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he answered.

"Don't lay your hand on the youth!" he said. "Don't do anything to him, because I've just demonstrated that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only unique one, from me."

Then Abraham looked up and behind him to see a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went over, grabbed the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

Give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him, at the end of his field. He should sell it to me in your presence at full price for a burial site."

Now since Ephron the Hittite had taken a seat there among the Hittites, he responded publicly to Abraham where the Hittites and everyone who was entering the gate of his city could hear him:

and then addressed Ephron so all the people of the land could hear him: "Please listen to me! I'm willing to pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, so I may bury my dead there."

"Drink, sir!" she replied as she quickly lowered her jug on her arm to offer him a drink.

When she had finished giving him a drink, she also said, "I'll also draw water for your camels until they've had enough to drink."

Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, who ran out to the man and met him at the spring.

So the servant went to the house and unbridled the camels. They provided straw and feed for the camels and water for washing his feet and those of the men with him.

But when they had prepared a meal and set it in front of him, he said, "I'm not eating until I've spoken." "Speak up!" Laban exclaimed.

"The LORD has greatly blessed my master, so that he has become wealthy. He has provided him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, camels and donkeys.

My master's wife Sarah gave birth to my master's son in her old age, and Abraham has given him everything that belongs to him.

"That's when I asked, "Whose daughter are you?' "She replied, "I'm the daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore for him.'

He and the men with him ate and drank, and then they spent the night. When they got up the next morning, the servant requested, "Send me off to my master."

She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field that used to belong to Zohar the Hittite's son Ephron.

Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, since she was unable to conceive children, and the LORD responded to him his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

The first son came out reddish his entire body was covered with hair so they named him Esau.

After that, his brother came out with his hand clutching Esau's heel, so they named him Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.

But Jacob insisted, "Swear it by an oath right now." So he swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

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.'"

Isaac received a 100-fold return on what he planted that year in the land he received, because the LORD blessed him.

He owned so many sheep, cattle, and servants that the Philistines eventually became envious of him.

But the herdsmen who lived in Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen. "The water is ours," they said. As a result, Isaac named the well Esek, for they had fiercely disputed with him about it.

where one night the LORD appeared to him. "I am the God of your father Abraham," he told him. "Don't be afraid, because I'm with you. I'm going to bless you and multiply your descendants on account of my servant Abraham."

That very same day, Isaac's servants arrived and reported to him about a well that they had just completed digging. "We've found water!" they said.

Eventually, Isaac grew so old that he could not see. One day, he called his eldest son Esau. "My son," he called out to him.

Rebekah gave these instructions to her son Jacob: "Quick! Pay attention!" she said. "I heard your father talking to your brother Esau. He told him,

My father might touch me and he'll realize that I'm deceiving him. Then, I'll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing."

So Jacob approached his father, who felt him and said, "It's Jacob's voice, but Esau's hands."