Then God said, "I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. (Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.)

Then the Lord God commanded the man, "You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard,

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die."

Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Is it really true that God said, 'You must not eat from any tree of the orchard'?"

but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, 'You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, or else you will die.'"

When the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

And the Lord God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it."

But to Adam he said, "Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

And the Lord God said, "Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Eden angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it."

Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks.

Then they said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.)

Then they said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth."

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building.

When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah.

And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, while his father Terah was still alive.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

The lifetime of Terah was 205 years, and he died in Haran.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, but some survivors fled to the hills.

Let a little water be brought so that you may all wash your feet and rest under the tree.

Abraham then took some curds and milk, along with the calf that had been prepared, and placed the food before them. They ate while he was standing near them under a tree.

Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him.

"Out of our way!" they cried, and "This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge us! We'll do more harm to you than to them!" They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door.

So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.

Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door.

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

He made the camels kneel down by the well outside the city. It was evening, the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Here I am, standing by the spring, and the daughters of the people who live in the town are coming out to draw water.

When she had done so, she said, "I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have drunk as much as they want."

She quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw more water until she had drawn enough for all his camels.

Here I am, standing by the spring. When the young woman goes out to draw water, I'll say, "Give me a little water to drink from your jug."

Then she will reply to me, "Drink, and I'll draw water for your camels too." May that woman be the one whom the Lord has chosen for my master's son.'

"Before I finished praying in my heart, along came Rebekah with her water jug on her shoulder! She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.'

You will live by your sword but you will serve your brother. When you grow restless, you will tear off his yoke from your neck."

Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it! He tore his clothes,

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days.

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. She said, "How you have broken out of the womb!" So he was named Perez.

They all tore their clothes! Then each man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.