When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his brothers also pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead.

If you find your gods with anyone here, he will not live! Before our relatives, point out anything that is yours and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work, and He issued His verdict last night.”

He spent the night there and took part of what he had brought with him as a gift for his brother Esau:

He purchased a section of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 qesitahs.

Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.

Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident and were deeply grieved and angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.

But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

Jacob’s other sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled.

Jacob built an altar there and called the place God of Bethel because it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Then God withdrew from him at the place where He had spoken to him.

Jacob set up a marker at the place where He had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had 12 sons:

Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

Esau took his wives, sons, daughters, and all the people of his household, as well as his herds, all his livestock, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan; he went to a land away from his brother Jacob.

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

“Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me.”

He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Are your mother and brothers and I going to come and bow down to the ground before you?”

His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem.

They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.

When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the robe of many colors that he had on.

After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to the sheepshearers.

So she took off her widow’s clothes, veiled her face, covered herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get back the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her.

Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread tied to his hand, came out, and was named Zerah.

Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside,

and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

The Egyptian king’s cupbearer and baker, who were confined in the prison, each had a dream. Both had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning.

“We had dreams,” they said to him, “but there is no one to interpret them.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was positive, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream. Three baskets of white bread were on my head.

But Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had explained to them.

Two years later Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,

Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in the custody of the captain of the guard.

He and I had dreams on the same night; each dream had its own meaning.

Now a young Hebrew, a slave of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams for us, and each had its own interpretation.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.”

When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before. Then I woke up.

In my dream I had also seen seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, coming up on one stalk.

He had Joseph ride in his second chariot, and servants called out before him, “Abrek!” So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

Because the famine had spread across the whole country, Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

He turned away from them and wept. Then he turned back and spoke to them. He took Simeon from them and had him bound before their eyes.

When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them:

When they had used up the grain they had brought back from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us some food.”

“Why did you cause me so much trouble?” Israel asked. “Why did you tell the man that you had another brother?”

If we had not wasted time, we could have come back twice by now.”

The man did as Joseph had said and brought them to Joseph’s house.

Since the men had heard that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had carried into the house, and they bowed to the ground before him.

They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Get up. Pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

The sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them provisions for the journey.

But when they told Jacob all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

Israel set out with all that he had and came to Beer-sheba, and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

Jacob left Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their children and their wives.

They also took their cattle and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan. Then Jacob and all his children went with him to Egypt.

And Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt: two persons.
All those of Jacob’s household who had come to Egypt: 70 persons.

Now Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to prepare for his arrival at Goshen. When they came to the land of Goshen,

Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

The only land he didn’t acquire was the priests’ portion, for it was given to them by Pharaoh. They lived off the rations Pharaoh had given them; therefore they did not sell their land.

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.

When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and died. He was gathered to his people.

So Jacob’s sons did for him what he had commanded them.

They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.

After Joseph buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

A new king, who had not known Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

Then He said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” He put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, it had again become like the rest of his skin.

Now the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go and meet Moses in the wilderness.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and about all the signs He had commanded him to do.

Aaron repeated everything the Lord had said to Moses and performed the signs before the people.

The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had paid attention to them and that He had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”

So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent.

However, Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and his officials, he raised the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile was turned to blood.

But the magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their occult practices. So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

After Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord for help concerning the frogs that He had brought against Pharaoh.

The Lord did as Moses had said: the frogs in the houses, courtyards, and fields died.

But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The Lord did as Moses had said: He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, his officials, and his people; not one was left.

But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had told Moses.

The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

When Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his officials.

So Pharaoh’s heart hardened, and he did not let the Israelites go, as the Lord had said through Moses.

So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and through the night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts.

The locusts went up over the entire land of Egypt and settled on the whole territory of Egypt. Never before had there been such a large number of locusts, and there never will be again.

They covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or the plants in the field throughout the land of Egypt.