and sent out a raven; it kept flying back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.

The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back into the ark.

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

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.)

He retrieved all the stolen property. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, as well as the women and the rest of the people.

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

But Lot's wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.

But now give back the man's wife. Indeed he is a prophet and he will pray for you; thus you will live. But if you don't give her back, know that you will surely die along with all who belong to you."

So Abimelech gave sheep, cattle, and male and female servants to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.

The servant asked him, "What if the woman is not willing to come back with me to this land? Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?"

"Be careful never to take my son back there!" Abraham told him.

But if the woman is not willing to come back with you, you will be free from this oath of mine. But you must not take my son back there!"

Now the young woman was very beautiful. She was a virgin; no man had ever had sexual relations with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came back up.

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.

After the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels and gave them to her.

So the Philistines took dirt and filled up all the wells that his father's servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham.

Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham died. Isaac gave these wells the same names his father had given them.

Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back,

Esau exclaimed, "'Jacob' is the right name for him! He has tripped me up two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!" Then he asked, "Have you not kept back a blessing for me?"

Stay there until your brother's anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I'll send someone to bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"

I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!"

Then this stone that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely give you back a tenth of everything you give me."

When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well's mouth.

So that same day Esau made his way back to Seir.

So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, was taking care of the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.

Reuben continued, "Don't shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him." (Reuben said this so he could rescue Joseph from them and take him back to his father.)

Then Judah had his friend Hirah the Adullamite take a young goat to get back from the woman the items he had given in pledge, but Hirah could not find her.

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.

If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison while the rest of you go and take grain back for your hungry families.

But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know that you are honest men and not spies. Then I will give your brother back to you and you may move about freely in the land.'"

When they were emptying their sacks, there was each man's bag of money in his sack! When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were afraid.

Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care and I will bring him back to you."

I myself pledge security for him; you may hold me liable. If I do not bring him back to you and place him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.

But if we had not delayed, we could have traveled there and back twice by now!"

Take double the money with you; you must take back the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks -- perhaps it was an oversight.

Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?

So Judah and his brothers came back to Joseph's house. He was still there, and they threw themselves to the ground before him.

But Joseph said, "Far be it from me to do this! The man in whose hand the cup was found will become my slave, but the rest of you may go back to your father in peace."

"Then our father said, 'Go back and buy us a little food.'

Indeed, your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.'

"So now, please let your servant remain as my lord's slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers.

For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't bear to see my father's pain."

I will go down with you to Egypt and I myself will certainly bring you back from there. Joseph will close your eyes."

Then Israel said to Joseph, "I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

He said, "Put your hand back into your robe." So he put his hand back into his robe, and when he brought it out from his robe -- there it was, restored like the rest of his skin!

So Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, "Let me go, so that I may return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

The Lord said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, because all the men who were seeking your life are dead."

Then Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey and headed back to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

The Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders I have put under your control. But I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

So now, get back to work! You will not be given straw, but you must still produce your quota of bricks!"

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve the Lord your God. Exactly who is going with you?"

The Lord said to Moses, "Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow back on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!"

For the horses of Pharaoh came with his chariots and his footmen into the sea, and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea on them, but the Israelites walked on dry land in the middle of the sea."

"This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Each person is to gather from it what he can eat, an omer per person according to the number of your people; each one will pick it up for whoever lives in his tent.'"

He said to them, "This is what the Lord has said: 'Tomorrow is a time of cessation from work, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Whatever you want to bake, bake today; whatever you want to boil, boil today; whatever is left put aside for yourselves to be kept until morning.'"

The Lord said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in Joshua's hearing; for I will surely wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Moses' wife Zipporah after he had sent her back,

and all the people answered together, "All that the Lord has commanded we will do!" So Moses brought the words of the people back to the Lord.

"If a man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep.

If the stolen item should in fact be found alive in his possession, whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double.

"Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, "We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken."

Now the part that remains of the curtains of the tent -- the half curtain that remains will hang over at the back of the tabernacle.

And for the back of the tabernacle on the west you will make six frames.

You are to make two frames for the corners of the tabernacle on the back.

and five bars for the frames on the second side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames on the back of the tabernacle on the west.

and you are to kill the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, and then splash the blood all around on the altar.

Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides -- they were written on the front and on the back.

and he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.'"

But now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, wipe me out from your book that you have written."

The Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me -- that person I will wipe out of my book.

Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen."

But Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke to them.

And for the back of the tabernacle on the west he made six frames.

He made two frames for the corners of the tabernacle on the back.

and five bars for the frames on the second side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle for the back side on the west.

one beka per person, that is, a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, for everyone who crossed over to those numbered, from twenty years old or older, 603,550 in all.

and he slaughtered it. Moses then took some of its blood and put it on Aaron's right earlobe, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

Next he brought Aaron's sons forward, and Moses put some of the blood on their right earlobes, on their right thumbs, and on the big toes of their right feet, and Moses splashed the rest of the blood against the altar's sides.

The pig is unclean to you because its hoof is divided (the hoof is completely split in two), even though it does not chew the cud.

"When a man's head is bare so that he is balding in back, he is clean.

But if there is a reddish white infection in the back or front bald area, it is a disease breaking out in his back or front bald area.

The priest is to examine it, and if the swelling of the infection is reddish white in the back or front bald area like the appearance of a disease on the skin of the body,

The priest must then examine it after the infection has been washed out, and if the infection has not changed its appearance even though the infection has not spread, it is unclean. You must burn it up in the fire. It is a fungus, whether on the back side or front side of the article.

Then the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

The priest will then put some of the rest of the olive oil that is in his hand on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the guilt offering,

Then he is to slaughter the male lamb of the guilt offering, and the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

Then the priest is to put some of the olive oil that is in his hand on the right earlobe of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the guilt offering,

You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

"You must take choice wheat flour and bake twelve loaves; there must be two tenths of an ephah of flour in each loaf,

You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned vines; the land must have a year of complete rest.

That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines.

When I break off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.

And those men said to him, "We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?"

The Lord said to Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again."

So Miriam was shut outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not journey on until Miriam was brought back in.

and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether or not there are forests in it. And be brave, and bring back some of the fruit of the land." Now it was the time of year for the first ripe grapes.

They came back to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They reported to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land.

"Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire at a distance.