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.

"You're driving me from the soil today. I'll be hidden from you, and I'll wander throughout the earth as a fugitive. In the future, whoever finds me will kill me."

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.

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."

Then Abraham stood up from beside his dead wife and addressed the Hittites. He said,

"I am an alien and an outsider among you. Give me a cemetery among you where I can bury my dead away from my presence."

"Listen to us, sir. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial tombs. None of us would refuse you his tomb for burying your dead."

and addressed them, "If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, listen to me and make a request of Zohar's son Ephron on my behalf.

"No, sir. Listen to me! I'll give you the field, and I'll give you the cave that's in it. I give it to you publicly, in the sight of my people. Bury your dead."

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."

"Sir, listen to me! The land is worth 400 shekels of silver, but what's that between us? You may bury your dead."

That's when he prayed, "LORD God of my master Abraham, help me to succeed today. Please show your gracious love to my master Abraham.

"So today I arrived at the spring and prayed, "LORD God of my master Abraham, if you wish to make the journey that I have traveled successful,

Sure enough, when her due date arrived, she delivered twin sons.

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."

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?"

Jacob responded, "You don't have to give me anything. Just do this for me: Let me tend your flock again and watch over it. Let me walk among your flocks today and remove every speckled or spotted sheep, along with every black lamb, and let me do the same with the speckled and spotted goats. These will be my wages.

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

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.

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!

But Laban answered Jacob, "These women are my daughters. These children are my children. The flocks are mine. In fact, everything that you see belongs to me. But what would I do today to my daughters and the children they have borne?

Then Laban said, "This stack will serve as a witness between you and me today." That's how the place came to be named Galeed.

Just then Jacob's sons arrived from the field. When they heard what had happened, they were distraught with grief and livid with anger toward Shechem, because he had committed a disgraceful deed in Israel by forcing Jacob's daughter to have sex, an act that never should have happened.

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 Judah instructed Onan, "You are to have sexual relations with your dead brother's wife, performing the duty of a brother-in-law with her, and have offspring for your brother."

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.

So he asked Pharaoh's officers, who were with him in prison in his master's house, "Why are you so sad today?"

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.

"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!"

Our father has twelve sons, but one of us isn't alive anymore, and our youngest brother is with our father today back home in Canaan.'

But Jacob replied, "My son isn't going back with you, since his brother is dead and he's the only one left. If something should harm him as you travel, then it'll be death for me and my sad, gray hair!"

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?"

and we answered Your Excellency, "We have an aged father and a younger child who was born when he was old. His brother is now dead, so he's the only surviving son of his mother. His father loves him.'

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.

"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.

After this, Joseph addressed the people. "Pay attention," he said. "I've bought you and your land for Pharaoh today, in exchange for seed for you. Now go sow the land.

Then Israel blessed Joseph by saying: "May the God in whose presence my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has continued shepherding me my whole life even until today,

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?"