So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two female slaves, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.

Leah’s sons were Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn),
Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar, and Zebulun.

Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

When Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son,

Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.

The sons of Leah’s slave Zilpah
were Gad and Asher.

These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

These were Leah’s sons born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, as well as his daughter Dinah. The total number of persons: 33.

But Leah replied to her, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?”

“Well,” Rachel said, “you can sleep with him tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Reuben went out during the wheat harvest and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel asked, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So Jacob slept with her that night.

Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we have any portion or inheritance in our father’s household?

The elders and all the people who were at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem.

Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried there, Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried there, and I buried Leah there.

Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

Leah had ordinary eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

That evening, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.

And Laban gave his slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”

Jacob slept with Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive.

Leah conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has seen my affliction; surely my husband will love me now.”

And she conceived again, gave birth to a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” and she named him Gad.

Leah said, “I am happy that the women call me happy,” so she named him Asher.

God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband,” and she named him Issachar.

Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

“God has given me a good gift,” Leah said. “This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him,” and she named him Zebulun.

Later, Leah bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were.

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female slaves.

He put the female slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

These were the sons of Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—that she bore to Jacob: 16 persons.

The gatekeepers’ descendants included:

Shallum’s descendants, Ater’s descendants, Talmon’s descendants, Akkub’s descendants, Hatita’s descendants, Shobai’s descendants, in all 139

The gatekeepers included:

Shallum’s descendants, Ater’s descendants, Talmon’s descendants, Akkub’s descendants, Hatita’s descendants, Shobai’s descendants 138.

The inheritance of Simeon’s descendants was within the territory of Judah’s descendants, because the share for Judah’s descendants was too large for them. So Simeon’s descendants received an inheritance within Judah’s portion.

Since more leaders were found among Eleazar’s descendants than Ithamar’s, they were divided accordingly: 16 heads of ancestral houses were from Eleazar’s descendants, and eight heads of ancestral houses were from Ithamar’s.

Like a servant’s eyes on his master’s hand,
like a servant girl’s eyes on her mistress’s hand,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
until He shows us favor.

The descendants of Solomon’s servants included:

Sotai’s descendants, Hassophereth’s descendants, Peruda’s descendants,

Shephatiah’s descendants, Hattil’s descendants, Pochereth-hazzebaim’s descendants, and Ami’s descendants.

Abishua’s son, Phinehas’s son,
Eleazar’s son, Aaron the chief priest’s son

The descendants of Solomon’s servants included:

Sotai’s descendants, Sophereth’s descendants,
Perida’s descendants,

Shephatiah’s descendants, Hattil’s descendants,
Pochereth-hazzebaim’s descendants, Amon’s descendants.

At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, “Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; or maybe he’s on the road. Perhaps he’s sleeping and will wake up!”

When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

As for the rest of Levi’s sons:
from Amram’s sons: Shubael;
from Shubael’s sons: Jehdeiah.

All these men were under their own fathers’ authority for the music in the Lord’s temple, with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the king’s authority.

“Yet the Lord God of Israel chose me out of all my father’s household to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah as leader, and from the house of Judah, my father’s household, and from my father’s sons, He was pleased to make me king over all Israel.

They ate and drank with great joy in the Lord’s presence that day.

Then, for a second time, they made David’s son Solomon king; they anointed him as the Lord’s ruler, and Zadok as the priest.

So Solomon finished the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. Everything that had entered Solomon’s heart to do for the Lord’s temple and for his own palace succeeded.

All of Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation was laid for the Lord’s temple until it was finished. So the Lord’s temple was completed.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for it is exposing one’s own blood relative; both people will bear their punishment.

But if the priest’s daughter becomes widowed or divorced, has no children, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may share her father’s food. But no outsider may share it.

Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning.
Let’s feast on each other’s love!

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to deny access to anyone—going or coming—to Judah’s King Asa.

Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from the king’s sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. Now Jehoshabeath was the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of Jehoiada the priest. Since she was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid Joash from Athaliah so that she did not kill him.

Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s temple. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! He must reign, just as the Lord promised concerning David’s sons.

Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king’s secretary and the high priest’s deputy came and emptied the chest, picked it up, and returned it to its place. They did this daily and gathered the money in abundance.

Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord’s temple.

When they finished, they presented the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, who made articles for the Lord’s temple with it—articles for ministry and for making burnt offerings, and ladles and articles of gold and silver. They regularly offered burnt offerings in the Lord’s temple throughout Jehoiada’s life.

They camped at the Lord’s command, and they set out at the Lord’s command. They carried out the Lord’s requirement according to His command through Moses.

The priests went to the entrance of the Lord’s temple to cleanse it. They took all the unclean things they found in the Lord’s sanctuary to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. Then the Levites received them and took them outside to the Kidron Valley.

“What Zelophehad’s daughters say is correct. You are to give them hereditary property among their father’s brothers and transfer their father’s inheritance to them.

Pahath-moab’s descendants: Jeshua’s and Joab’s descendants 2,812

Kiriatharim’s, Chephirah’s, and Beeroth’s people743

Lod’s, Hadid’s, and Ono’s people725

The Levites included:

Jeshua’s and Kadmiel’s descendants from Hodaviah’s descendants 74

The temple servants included:

Ziha’s descendants, Hasupha’s descendants,
Tabbaoth’s descendants,

Keros’s descendants,
Siaha’s descendants, Padon’s descendants,

Lebanah’s descendants, Hagabah’s descendants,
Akkub’s descendants,

Hagab’s descendants,
Shalmai’s descendants, Hanan’s descendants,

Giddel’s descendants, Gahar’s descendants,
Reaiah’s descendants,

Rezin’s descendants,
Nekoda’s descendants, Gazzam’s descendants,

Uzza’s descendants, Paseah’s descendants,
Besai’s descendants,

Asnah’s descendants,
Meunim’s descendants, Nephusim’s descendants,

Bakbuk’s descendants, Hakupha’s descendants,
Harhur’s descendants,

Bazluth’s descendants,
Mehida’s descendants, Harsha’s descendants,

Barkos’s descendants, Sisera’s descendants,
Temah’s descendants,

Jaalah’s descendants, Darkon’s descendants, Giddel’s descendants,

Delaiah’s descendants, Tobiah’s descendants, Nekoda’s descendants 652

After these events, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra—

Seraiah’s son, Azariah’s son,
Hilkiah’s son,

Shallum’s son,
Zadok’s son, Ahitub’s son,

Amariah’s son, Azariah’s son,
Meraioth’s son,

Zerahiah’s son,
Uzzi’s son, Bukki’s son,

Gershom, from Phinehas’s descendants;
Daniel, from Ithamar’s descendants;
Hattush, from David’s descendants,

I am going to make the sun’s shadow that goes down on Ahaz’s stairway go back by 10 steps.” So the sun’s shadow went back the 10 steps it had descended.

Pahath-moab’s descendants: Jeshua’s and Joab’s descendants 2,818

Kiriath-jearim’s, Chephirah’s, and Beeroth’s men743

Lod’s, Hadid’s, and Ono’s people721

The temple servants included:

Ziha’s descendants, Hasupha’s descendants,
Tabbaoth’s descendants,

Keros’s descendants,
Sia’s descendants, Padon’s descendants,

Lebanah’s descendants, Hagabah’s descendants,
Shalmai’s descendants,

Hanan’s descendants,
Giddel’s descendants, Gahar’s descendants,

Reaiah’s descendants, Rezin’s descendants,
Nekoda’s descendants,

Gazzam’s descendants,
Uzza’s descendants, Paseah’s descendants,

Besai’s descendants, Meunim’s descendants,
Nephishesim’s descendants,

Bakbuk’s descendants,
Hakupha’s descendants, Harhur’s descendants,

Bazlith’s descendants, Mehida’s descendants,
Harsha’s descendants,