"Do you have anyone else here in the city?" the angels asked Lot. "A son-in-law? Sons? Daughters? Get them out of this place,

Lot then went out and told his sons-in-law (they had married his daughters), "Get out of here! The LORD is going to destroy this city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

As dawn was breaking, the angels pressured Lot. "Get going!" they told him. "Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be engulfed by the devastation that's coming to this city."

Hurry up and flee there, because I cannot do anything until you get to that town." Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.

And so it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out from the midst of the destruction when he overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

So they had their father drink wine that night, and the older one had sexual relations with her father, but he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

So they made their father drink wine that night as well, so he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

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!"

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.

So Abimelech got up early the next morning, summoned all his servants, and told them all these things. The men became terrified.

"I thought that there's no fear of God in this place," Abraham replied, "and that they would kill me because of my wife.

When God caused me to journey from my father's house, I asked her to do me this favor and say, "He's my brother.'"

Then Abraham interceded with God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants so they could bear children,

Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the very time that God had told him.

On the eighth day after his son Isaac had been born, Abraham circumcised him, just as God had commanded him.

Now Sarah had said, "God has caused me to laugh, and all who hear about it will laugh with me."

but God told Abraham, "Don't be troubled about the youth and your slave girl. Pay attention to Sarah in everything she tells you, because your offspring are to be named through Isaac.

So early the next morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a leather bottle of water, gave them to Hagar, and placed them on her shoulder. He then sent her away, along with the child. She went off and roamed in the Beer-sheba wilderness.

God heard the boy's voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. He asked her, "What's wrong with you, Hagar? Don't be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the youth where he is.

Get up! Pick up the youth and grab his hand, because I will make a great nation of his descendants."

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went, filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy as he grew up. He settled in the wilderness and became an expert archer.

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

Therefore swear an oath here by God that you won't deal falsely with me, my sons, or my descendants. Just as I've dealt graciously with you, won't you do so with me and with the land in which you live as a foreigner?"

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD God Everlasting.

Sometime later, God tested Abraham. He called out to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am!" he answered.

God said, "Please take your son, your unique son whom you love Isaac and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering there on one of the mountains that I will point out to you."

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his male servants with him, along with his son Isaac. He cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out to go to the place about which God had spoken to him.

Abraham answered, "God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."

The two of them went on together and came to the place about which God had spoken. Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, tied up his son Isaac, and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

"Don't lay your hand on the youth!" he said. "Don't do anything to him, because I've just demonstrated that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only unique one, from me."

Now since Ephron the Hittite had taken a seat there among the Hittites, he responded publicly to Abraham where the Hittites and everyone who was entering the gate of his city could hear him:

to Abraham in the presence of all the Hittites and everyone who was entering the city gate.

as a promise to the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, that you won't acquire a wife for my son from the Canaanite women among whom I'm living.

"The LORD God of heaven, who brought me from my father's house and from my family's land, who spoke to me and promised me "I will give this land to your descendants,' will send his angel ahead of you, and you are to acquire a wife for my son from there.

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.

"Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hasn't held back his gracious love and faithfulness from my master! The LORD has led me to the house of my master's relatives!"

"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,

"So I gave her a ring for her nose and bracelets for her wrists. I bowed down and worshipped the LORD, and I praised the LORD God of my master Abraham, who led me on the true way to request the daughter of my master's brother for his son.

He and the men with him ate and drank, and then they spent the night. When they got up the next morning, the servant requested, "Send me off to my master."

Then Rebekah and her young servant women got up, mounted their camels, and followed Abraham's servant, who took Rebekah and went on his way.

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

As the boys were growing up, Esau became skilled at hunting and was a man of the outdoors, but Jacob was the quiet type who tended to stay indoors.

Esau told Jacob, "Let me gobble down some of this red stuff, since I'm starving." (That's how Esau got his nickname "Edom".)

"Look! I'm about to die," Esau replied. "What good is this birthright to me?"

Then Jacob gave Esau some of his food, along with some boiled stew. So Esau ate, drank, got up, and left, after having belittled his own birthright.

where one night the LORD appeared to him. "I am the God of your father Abraham," he told him. "Don't be afraid, because I'm with you. I'm going to bless you and multiply your descendants on account of my servant Abraham."

by which you'll agree not to do us any harm, just as we haven't harmed you, since we've done nothing but good for you after we sent you away in peace. As a result, you've been tremendously blessed by the LORD."

"My son," she replied, "let any curse against you fall on me. Just listen to me, then go and get them for me."

So out he went, got them, and brought them to his mother, who then prepared some delicious food, just the way his father liked it.

She put some goat skins over his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

"How did you get it so quickly, my son?" Isaac asked. Jacob responded, ""because the LORD your God made me successful."

prepared some delicious food, brought it to his father, and told him, "Can you get up now, father, so you may eat some of your son's game and then bless me?"

Eventually, what Rebekah's older son Esau had been saying was reported to her, so she sent for her younger son Jacob and warned him, "Look! Your brother is planning to get even by killing you.

Son, you'd better do what I say! Get up, run off to my brother Laban in Haran,

Instead, get up, travel to Paddan-aram, and visit the household of Bethuel, your mother's father. Marry one of Laban's daughters, since he's your mother's brother.

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful so that your descendants become a whole group of people.

May he give you and your descendants the blessings that he gave Abraham. May you possess the land where you have lived that God gave to Abraham."

when he had a dream! He saw a raised highway that had been built with its ending point on earth and its beginning point in heaven. God's angels were ascending and descending on it.

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.

In mounting terror, he cried out, "How scary this place is! This is nothing less than God's house and the gateway to heaven!"

When Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the stone that he had used for his pillow, set it up as a pillar, drenched it with oil,

Then he made this solemn vow: "If God remains with me, watches over me throughout this journey that I'm taking, gives me food to eat and clothes to wear,

and returns me safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God,

this stone that I've erected in the form of a pillar will be God's house, and I'll give you a tenth of everything that you give to me."

That made Jacob angry with Rachel, so he asked her, "Can I take God's place, who has not allowed you to conceive?"

Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me! He has heard my voice and has given me a son." Therefore, she named him Dan.

and Leah exclaimed, "How fortunate!" So she named him Gad.

God heard what Leah had said, so she conceived and bore a fifth son for Jacob.

Then Leah said, "God has paid me for giving my servant to my husband as his wife." So she named him Issachar.

Then Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. This time my husband will exalt me, because I've borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,

so she conceived, bore a son, and remarked, "God has removed my shame."

Because she had been asking, "May God give me another son," she named him Joseph.

In the future, you'll be able to verify my honesty because, when you come to check what I've earned, if you find a goat that's not speckled or spotted or a sheep that's not black, then it will have been stolen by me."

Meanwhile, Jacob kept tending the rest of Laban's flock. Jacob took branches from white poplar trees, freshly cut almond trees, and some other trees, stripped off their bark to make white streaks, and uncovered the white part inside the branches.

and informed them, "I've noticed that the way your father has been looking at us hasn't been as nice as it was just two days ago. But my father's God has been with me.

Even so, your father has cheated me. He broke our wage agreement ten times. However, God didn't allow him to harm me.

"So God has taken away your father's livestock and has given them to me.

"Later, the angel of God spoke to me in a dream, "Jacob.' ""Here I am,' I replied

I am the God of Bethel, the place where you consecrated that stone and made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this territory, and return to your native land.'"

Furthermore, all of the wealth that God has stripped away from our father belongs to us now and to our children. So do everything that God tells you to do."

So Jacob got up, seated his children and wives on camels,

Jacob fled, taking everything that he owned. He got up, crossed the river, and headed to the hill country of Gilead.

That night, God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, "Be careful what you say to Jacob, whether it's one word good or bad."

It's actually in my power to do some serious evil to you, but last night the God of your father told me, "Be careful what you say to Jacob whether good or evil.'

Then Jacob got angry and started an argument with Laban. "What have I done?" he demanded. "What's my crime that would cause you to come pursue me so violently?

As it was, I was attacked by drought during the day and by cold at night. I never got any decent rest.

If the God of my father the God of Abraham, the God whom Isaac feared had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty handed. But God saw my misery and how hard I've worked with my own hands and he rebuked you last night."

If you mistreat my daughters or if you take other wives besides them, though no one is watching us, keep in mind that God stands as a witness between you and me."

May Abraham's God and Nahor's god judge between us."

As Jacob went on his way, angels from God met him.

As he was watching them, Jacob said, "This must be God's camp," so he named that place Mahanaim.

Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, O God of my father Isaac, O LORD, you who told me, "Return to your country and to your relatives and I'll cause things to go well for you.'

"Your name won't be Jacob anymore," the man replied, "but Israel, because you exerted yourself against both God and men, and you've emerged victorious."

Jacob would later call that place Peniel, because "I saw God face to face, but my life was spared."

"The children, whom God has graciously given your servant," he answered. Then the women servants approached, accompanied by their children, and bowed low.

"Please," Jacob implored him, "don't refuse. If I'm to receive favor from you, then receive this gift from me, because seeing your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have favorably accepted me.

So receive my blessing, which has been sent to you, since God has been gracious to me. Besides, I have enough." Because Jacob kept pressing him, Esau accepted the gifts.

Then Shechem told his father Hamor, "Get this young woman for me to be my wife."