God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.

“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.

So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.

He said to the woman:

I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children in anguish.
Your desire will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.

And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent?

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

Lamech said to his wives:

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words.
For I killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.

Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before Me in this generation.

When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Then God said to Noah and his sons with him,

God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed between Me and every creature on earth.”

They said to each other, “Come, let us make oven-fired bricks.” They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.

The Lord said to Abram:

Go out from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.

When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

Then Abram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives.

After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west,

Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, but take the possessions for yourself.”

But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand in an oath to Yahweh, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”

He also said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years.

Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”

Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “You must go back to your mistress and submit to her mistreatment.”

The Angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.”

Then the Angel of the Lord said to her:

You have conceived and will have a son.
You will name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction.

God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep My covenant.

God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai, for Sarah will be her name.

So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to You!”

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, just as God had said to him.

So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.”

Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place,

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords—please.

And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned.

Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land.

The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against Me. Therefore I have not let you touch her.

Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.”

Abimelech also said to Abraham, “What did you intend when you did this thing?”

So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’”

So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!”

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is.

At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “Why have you separated these seven ewe lambs?”

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”

Then He said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me.”

He said to them, “If you are willing for me to bury my dead, listen to me and ask Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf

and said to Ephron in the presence of the people of the land, “Please listen to me. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”

Ephron answered Abraham and said to him,

Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh,

The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Should I have your son go back to the land you came from?”

She also said to him, “We have plenty of straw and feed and a place to spend the night.”

But I said to my master, ‘Suppose the woman will not come back with me?’

He said to me, ‘The Lord before whom I have walked will send His angel with you and make your journey a success, and you will take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s household.

“Before I had finished praying silently, there was Rebekah coming with her jug on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her: Please let me have a drink.

They called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”

She replied, “I will go.”

And the Lord said to her:

Two nations are in your womb;
two people will come from you and be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.

He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, because I’m exhausted.” That is why he was also named Edom.

Then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau; he ate, drank, got up, and went away. So Esau despised his birthright.

The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about;

And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.”

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac said to his son Esau. So while Esau went to the field to hunt some game to bring in,

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Listen! I heard your father talking with your brother Esau. He said,

His mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey me and go get them for me.”

But Isaac said to his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?”

He replied, “Because the Lord your God worked it out for me.”

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau or not?”

Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me, my son.”

He had also made some delicious food and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat some of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

But his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

He answered, “I am Esau your firstborn son.”

When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

Esau said to his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.

When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Listen, your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you.

So Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of them, what good is my life?”

Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my own flesh and blood.”

After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

Laban said to him, “Just because you’re my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is completed. I want to sleep with her.”

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?”

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland.

But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”

So Jacob said to him, “You know what I have done for you and your herds.

Then the Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”

He said to them, “I can see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not the same, but the God of my father has been with me.

In that dream the Angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

In fact, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has said to you.”

Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war!

I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me: ‘Watch yourself. Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’