You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you're buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You're made from dust and you'll return to dust."

Now you're more cursed than the ground, which has opened to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

"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."

So the LORD said, "My Spirit won't remain with human beings forever, because they're truly mortal. Their lifespan will be 120 years."

When Peleg had lived 30 years, he fathered Reu.

After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

When Reu had lived 32 years, he fathered Serug.

After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

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

After Lot had separated from Abram, the LORD told Abram, "Look off to the north, south, east, and west from where you're living,

So Abraham responded to God, "If only Ishmael would live in constant awareness that you're always with him!"

Look here, I have two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish, only don't do anything to these men, because they're here under my protection."

But they replied, "Get out of the way! This man came here as a foreigner, and now he's acting like a judge! So we're going to deal more harshly with you than with them." Then they pushed hard against the man (that is, against Lot), intending to break down the door.

because we're going to destroy it. Their outcry has come to the attention of the LORD, so he sent us here to destroy it!"

But God came to Abimelech in a dream during the night and spoke to him, "Pay attention! You're about to die, because the woman you have taken is a man's wife!"

About that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, told Abraham, "God is with you in everything that you're doing.

Later on, as Isaac was returning one evening from Beer-lahai-roi (he had been living in the Negev),

After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who continued to live near Beer-lahai-roi.

Isaac re-excavated some wells that his father had first dug during his lifetime, because the Philistines had filled them with sand after Abraham's death. Isaac renamed those wells with the same names that his father had called them.

"We've seen that the LORD is with you," they responded, "so we're proposing an agreement between us between us and you. Allow us to make a treaty with you

So Isaac told Jacob, "Come here, my son, so I can feel you and know for sure whether or not you're my son Esau."

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.

Jacob asked them, "My brothers, where are you from?" "We're from Haran," they answered.

Later, Laban asked Jacob, "Should you serve me for free, just because you're my nephew? Let's talk about what your wages should be."

When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went to meet him and told him, "You're having sex with me tonight. I traded my son's mandrakes for you!" So he slept with her that night.

Give me my wives and children for whom I've served you. Then I'll leave, since you're aware of my service to you."

then you are to reply, "We're from your servant Jacob. The herds are a gift. He's sending them to my master, Esau. Look! There he is, coming along behind us.'"

"Sir, you know that the children are frail," Jacob suggested, "and the ewes and cows with me are still nursing their young. If they're driven even for a day, the entire flock will die.

But if you won't listen to us, then we're going to take our daughter and leave."

Then Jacob told Simeon and Levi, "You have certainly stirred up trouble for me! You've made me despised by the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in this territory. Because I have only a few men with me, they're going to gather themselves together and attack me until I am totally destroyed, along with my entire household!"

While she was suffering due to her difficult labor, the midwife told her, "Don't fear! You're going to have another son."

At this, his brothers replied, "Do you really think you're going to rule us or lord it over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his interpretations of them.

No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that's because you're his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?"

As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he knew who they were, but he remained disguised and asked them gruffly, "Where are you from?" "From the land of Canaan," they replied. "We're here to buy food."

Furthermore, Joseph remembered the dreams that he had about them. So he accused them, "You're spies! You've come here to spy on our undefended territories!"

We're all sons of a common father. We're honest men, your majesty. We're not spies!"

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

So here's how we'll test you. You can bet the life of Pharaoh that you're not leaving here until your youngest brother comes here!

One of you is to be sent back so he can get your brother while the rest of you remain in custody. That way, we'll test whether or not you're telling the truth. If you're not, as surely as the Pharaoh lives, you're spies!"

If you're honest men, leave one of your brothers here in custody, then the rest of you can leave and take some grain with you to alleviate the famine that's affecting your households.

"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!"

But we told him, "No! We're honest men! We're not spies!

But bring your youngest brother back to me so I can be sure that you're honest men, and not spies. Then I'll return your brother to you, and you'll be allowed to trade anywhere in the land.'"

Their father Jacob told them, "You're causing me to lose my children! Joseph is gone. Now Simeon is gone, and you're planning to take Benjamin, too. Everything's going against me!"

But if you don't send him, we're not going, because the man told us, "You'll never see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

Don't you have the cup that my master uses to drink from and also uses to practice divination? You're wrong to have done this.'"

"Now let me die," Israel told Joseph, "since I've seen your face and confirmed that you're still alive!"

As the time approached for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and addressed him. "Please," he asked, "if you're happy with me, make a solemn promise that you'll treat me fairly and kindly by not burying me in Egypt.

"Reuben, you're my firstborn, my strength, and the first fruit of my vitality. You excel in rank and excel in power.

But you're as undisciplined as a roaring river, so eventually you won't succeed, because you got in your father's bed, defiled it, and then approached my couch."

At the conclusion of the mourning period, Joseph addressed Pharaoh's household. "If you're satisfied with me, would you please take this message to Pharaoh for me? Tell him,

Joseph wept when they talked to him. So Joseph's brothers went to visit him, fell prostrate in front of him, and declared, "Look! We're your servants."

As far as you're concerned, you were planning evil against me, but God intended it for good, planning to bring about the present result so that many people would be preserved alive.

"Hebrew women aren't like Egyptian women," the midwives replied to Pharaoh. "They're so healthy that they give birth before the midwives arrive to help them."

Meanwhile, Pharaoh continued commanding all of his people, "You're to throw every Hebrew son who is born into the Nile River, but you're to allow every Hebrew daughter to live."

You're to speak to him and tell him what to say. I'll help both you and him with your speech, and I'll teach both of you what you are to do.

Moses left and returned to his father-in-law Jethro. Moses told him, "Please let me go and return to my own people in Egypt so I can see whether they're still alive." Jethro told Moses, "Go in peace."

"You're no longer to give the people straw for making bricks, as in the past. They must gather straw for themselves.

But you're to impose the previous quota of bricks that they're making. You're not to reduce it! It is because they're lazy that they're crying out, "Let's go offer sacrifices to our God.'

No straw is being given to us, yet they're saying to us, "Make bricks!' Look, we are being beaten. It's wrong how you are treating your people!"

Then Pharaoh said, "You are lazy, lazy! That's why you're saying, "Let's go offer sacrifices to the LORD.'

The LORD told Moses, "Now you're about to see what I'll do to Pharaoh. Indeed, he'll send them out under compulsion and he'll drive them out of his land violently."

Tell the entire congregation of Israel, "On the tenth of this month they're each to take a lamb for themselves, according to their ancestors' households, one lamb for each household.

They're to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat the lamb.

That very night they're to eat the meat, roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Don't eat any of it raw or boiled in water. Instead, roast it over the fire, with its head, legs, and internal organs.

Also, on the first day you're to hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day you're to hold a holy assembly. No work is to be done during those days, except for preparing what is to be eaten by each person.

Pharaoh will say about the Israelis, "They're wandering aimlessly in the land, and the desert has closed in on them.'

Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid! Stand still and watch how the LORD will deliver you today, because you will never again see the Egyptians whom you're looking at today.

You are to teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they're to go and the things they're to do.

You are to mount on it a setting for four rows of stones. The first row is to contain carnelian, topaz, and emerald;

the second row ruby, sapphire, and crystal;

the third row jacinth, agate, and amethyst;

the fourth row beryl, onyx, and jasper, and they are to be set in gold filigree.

"When you take a census of the Israelis to register them, each is to give a ransom for himself to the LORD when they're registered so there won't be a plague among them when they're registered.

Then the LORD told Moses, "I've seen these people and indeed they're obstinate.

Aaron said, "Sir, don't be angry. You know the people that they're intent on evil.

They mounted on it four rows of stones. The first row was a row of carnelian, topaz, and emerald;

the second row ruby, sapphire, and crystal;

the third row jacinth, agate, and amethyst;

and the fourth row beryl, onyx, and jasper. They were set in gold filigree when they were mounted.

Whoever carries their carcass is to wash their clothes, because they've become unclean until evening. They're unclean for you.

These are unclean for you among the swarming creatures, so anyone who touches them when they're dead becomes unclean until evening.

Furthermore, anything on which they fall when they're dead becomes unclean, whether on an article of wood, clothing, skin, or a sack. And any vessel used for any work is to be washed in water, because it has become unclean until evening.

and anything into which their carcass falls becomes unclean. An oven or stove is to be broken in pieces. They're unclean and therefore unclean for you.

You are not to eat anything that crawls on its belly, anything that walks on four legs, anything that has many legs, or any of the swarming creatures that swarm the land, because they're detestable.

The priest is to examine the infected flesh and declare him unclean. The raw flesh is unclean; it's an infectious skin disease.

If the raw flesh recurs and turns white, then he is to go to the priest.

"If the contagion returns and spreads throughout the house after the stones have been removed, after the house has been scraped out, and after it has been re-coated,

"You are not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter. "You are not to have sexual relations with her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter. They're near blood relatives. It's wickedness.

They are to be holy to their God. They are not to defile the name of their God, because they're the ones who bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire the food of their God so they are to be holy.

A resident alien is not to offer as food to your God any of these items, because they are afflicted with ritual corruption due to their defects. They're not acceptable for you."

Arrange them in two rows six in each row on a ceremonially pure table in the LORD's presence.

Put pure frankincense on each row for a memorial offering. It will serve as an offering made by fire to the LORD.

"The land is not to be sold with any finality, because the land belongs to me. You're sojourners and travelers with me.

Since they're my servants whom I've brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

because the Israelis are my servants. They're my servants, since I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

Yet, despite all of these things, when they're in the land of their enemies, I won't reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the LORD their God.

so he asked the LORD, "Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven't I found favor in your eyes? After all, you're putting the burden of this entire people on me!

Where am I going to get meat to give this people? After all, they're crying in front of me, "Give us meat to eat!'