Now pay attention! I'm here with you, and I'm going to be watching over you wherever you go. I'm going to bring you back to this land, because I won't ever leave you until I've accomplished what I've promised about you."

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."

And there was the LORD, standing above it and telling Jacob, "I am the LORD God of your grandfather Abraham. I'm Isaac's God, too. I'm giving you and your descendants the ground on which you're sleeping.

Deliver me from my brother Esau's control, because I'm terrified of him, and I'm afraid that he's coming to attack me, the mothers, and their children.

Now, you promised me that "I'm certainly going to cause things to go well with you, and I'm going to make your offspring as numerous as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"

Now as for the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I'm giving it to you and to your descendants who come after you. I'm giving the land to you!"

"I'm God, your father's God. Don't be afraid to move down to Egypt, because I'm going to turn you into a mighty nation there.

I'm going down with you to Egypt, and I'm certainly going to bring you back again. And Joseph himself will be with you when you die."

He told me, "Pay attention! I'm going to make you fruitful and numerous. I'm going to build you into a vast nation of people and then I'll give this land to your descendants for an eternal possession.'

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.

Lamech told his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to what I have to say: You wives of Lamech, hear what I'm announcing! I've killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me.

So the LORD said, "I will annihilate these human beings whom I've created from the earth, including people, animals, crawling things, and flying creatures, because I'm grieving that I made them."

So God announced to Noah, "I've decided to destroy every living thing on earth, because it has become filled with violence due to them. Look! I'm about to annihilate them, along with the earth.

"For my part, I'm about to flood the earth with water and destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die.

She said to her father, "Don't let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before you; for I'm having my period." He searched, but didn't find the teraphim.

"Pay attention! I'm establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants after you,

God also said, "Here's the symbol that represents the covenant that I'm making between me and you and every living being with you, for all future generations:

The LORD told Abram, "You are to leave your land, your relatives, and your father's house and go to the land that I'm going to show you.

When he was about to enter Egypt, he told his wife Sarai, "Look, I'm aware that you're a beautiful woman.

because I'm going to give you and your descendants all of the land that you see forever!

Get up! Walk throughout the length and breadth of the land, because I'm going to give it to you."

That very day the LORD made this covenant with Abram: "I'm giving this land to your descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River

When Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and announced, "I am God Almighty. Live in constant awareness that I'm always with you, and be blameless.

I'm going to cause you to have many descendants, and I'll bring nations from you. Kings will come from you.

I'm establishing my covenant between me and you, and with your descendants who come after you, generation after generation, as an eternal covenant, to be your God and your descendants' God after you.

That's why Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, "After I'm so old and my husband is old, too, am I going to have sex?"

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

"Should I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do," the LORD asked,

I'm going down to see whether they've acted according to the protests that have reached me. If not, I wish to know."

"Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I'm afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.

Isaac addressed his father Abraham: "My father!" "I'm here, my son," Abraham replied. Isaac asked, "The fire and the wood are here, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering?"

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."

as a promise to the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, that you won't acquire a wife for my son from the Canaanite women among whom I'm living.

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.

"I'm Abraham's servant," he said.

"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.'

Esau told Jacob, "Let me gobble down some of this red stuff, since I'm starving." (That's how Esau got his nickname "Edom".)

"Look! I'm about to die," Esau replied. "What good is this birthright to me?"

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

So now, my son, listen to what I have to say and pay attention to what I'm about to tell you.

"But look!" Jacob pointed out to his mother Rebekah, "My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I'm smooth skinned.

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."

"I'm Esau, your firstborn!" Jacob told his father. "I've done what you asked, so please sit up and eat what I caught, so you can bless me."

But his father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I'm Esau, your firstborn son," he answered.

So Esau harbored animosity toward Jacob because of the way his father had blessed him. Esau kept saying to himself, "The time to mourn for my father is very near. That's when I'm going to kill my brother Jacob."

Then he made this solemn vow: "If God remains with me, watches over me throughout this journey that I'm taking, gives me food to eat and clothes to wear,

Later, she conceived again, bore a son, and declared, "Because the LORD heard that I'm neglected, he gave me this one, too." So she named him Simeon.

Rachel noticed that she was not bearing children for Jacob, so because she envied her sister Leah, she told Jacob, "If you don't give me sons, I'm going to die!"

I now have cattle, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants. I'm sending this message to you, sir, so that you'll show favor to me."'"

I'm unworthy of all your gracious love, your faithfulness, and everything that you've done for your servant. When I first crossed over this river, I had only my staff. But now I've become two groups.

"Please," Jacob implored him, "don't refuse. If I'm to receive favor from you, then receive this gift from me, because seeing your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have favorably accepted me.

"I'm searching for my brothers," he responded. "Tell me, where are they tending the flock?"

Pharaoh also told Joseph, "I'm still Pharaoh, but without your permission nobody in all of the land of Egypt will so much as lift up their hands or take a step!"

Jacob would not send Joseph's brother Benjamin to accompany them, because he was saying, "I'm afraid that he'll come to some kind of harm."

"I'm right!" Joseph insisted. "Just as I said, you're spies!

But the man who was in charge of the land responded, "I'm going to test your honesty. Leave one of your brothers with me, take some grain for the famine that's afflicting your households, and leave.

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

One of them left me, so I concluded "I'm certain that he has been torn to pieces," and I haven't seen him since then.

After all, how can I go back to my father if the young man doesn't accompany me? I'm afraid of what might happen to my father."

Joseph blurted out, "I'm Joseph! Is my father really alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, because they had become terrified to be in his presence.

"I'm your brother Joseph, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt!" he told them. "But don't be distressed or angry at yourselves because you sold me here, because God sent me ahead of you all in order to deliver us.

As a result, it wasn't you who sent me here, but God himself! He established me as a father-figure to Pharaoh himself! I'm in charge of his entire palace and ruler over the entire land of Egypt.

"It's enough," Israel replied. "My son Joseph is still alive. I'm going to go see him before I die!"

"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."

By doing this, he placed Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel told Joseph, "Pay attention! I'm about to die, but God will be with you. He'll bring you back to the land that belongs to your ancestors.

I'm assigning you one portion more than your brothers from the land that I confiscated from the control of the Amorites in battle."

"LORD, I'm waiting for your salvation."

In his last words, Jacob issued this set of instructions to them all: "I'm about to join our ancestors. Bury me alongside my ancestors in the cave in the field that used to belong to Ephron the Hittite.

"My father told me, "Look! I'm about to die. Bury me in my grave that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." So please let me travel to bury my father. I'll be right back.'"

Later, Joseph told his brothers, "I'm going to die soon, but God will certainly provide for you and bring you up from this land to the land that he promised with an oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”

So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them, what good is my life?”

But the children struggled inside her, and she said, "If it is going to be like this, I'm not so sure I want to be pregnant!" So she asked the Lord,