While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father.

(Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel's saddle and sat on them.) Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them.

Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord. I cannot stand up in your presence because I am having my period." So he searched thoroughly, but did not find the idols.

When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? Set it here before my relatives and yours, and let them settle the dispute between the two of us!

"Here is this pile of stones and this pillar I have set up between me and you," Laban said to Jacob.

He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them.

Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area, saw her, he grabbed her, forced himself on her, and sexually assaulted her.

Then he became very attached to Dinah, Jacob's daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her.

But Hamor made this appeal to them: "My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor -- and her labor was hard.

When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you are having another son."

With her dying breath, she named him Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead.

Jacob set up a marker over her grave; it is the Marker of Rachel's Grave to this day.

The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Lotan's sister was Timna.

They said to one another, "Here comes this master of dreams!

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.)

At that time Judah left his brothers and stayed with an Adullamite man named Hirah.

There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. Judah acquired her as a wife and had marital relations with her.

Judah acquired a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar.

Then Judah said to Onan, "Have sexual relations with your brother's wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise up a descendant for your brother."

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up." For he thought, "I don't want him to die like his brothers." So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

After some time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah was consoled, he left for Timnah to visit his sheepshearers, along with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

So she removed her widow's clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.)

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

He turned aside to her along the road and said, "Come on! I want to have sex with you." (He did not realize it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, "What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?"

He said, "What pledge should I give you?" She replied, "Your seal, your cord, and the staff that's in your hand." So he gave them to her and had sex with her. She became pregnant by him.

She left immediately, removed her veil, and put on her widow's clothes.

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.

He asked the men who were there, "Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim by the road?" But they replied, "There has been no cult prostitute here."

So he returned to Judah and said, "I couldn't find her. Moreover, the men of the place said, 'There has been no cult prostitute here.'"

Judah said, "Let her keep the things for herself. Otherwise we will appear to be dishonest. I did indeed send this young goat, but you couldn't find her."

After three months Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned!"

While they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: "I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong." Then she said, "Identify the one to whom the seal, cord, and staff belong."

Judah recognized them and said, "She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn't give her to Shelah my son." He did not have sexual relations with her again.

When it was time for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

But he refused, saying to his master's wife, "Look, my master does not give any thought to his household with me here, and everything that he owns he has put into my care.

Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to have sex with her.

She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, "Have sex with me!" But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran outside.

When she saw that he had left his outer garment in her hand and had run outside,

she called for her household servants and said to them, "See, my husband brought in a Hebrew man to us to humiliate us. He tried to have sex with me, but I screamed loudly.

So she laid his outer garment beside her until his master came home.

for I really was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon."

"See here," Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I place you in authority over all the land of Egypt."

He then said, "Look, I hear that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us so that we may live and not die."

You will be tested in this way: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

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.

He said to his brothers, "My money was returned! Here it is in my sack!" They were dismayed; they turned trembling one to another and said, "What in the world has God done to us?"

But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave."

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.

If you take this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair in tragedy to the grave.'

When he sees the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.

Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life!

So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

So tell my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!"

God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob!" He replied, "Here I am!"

Joseph said to the people, "Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate the land.

But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died -- to my sorrow -- in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).

Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, "Here we are; we are your slaves."

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes, do so." So the young girl went and got the child's mother.

Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "Because I drew him from the water."

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."

Every woman will ask her neighbor and the one who happens to be staying in her house for items of silver and gold and for clothing. You will put these articles on your sons and daughters -- thus you will plunder Egypt!"

But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses' feet, and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."

Instruct the people that each man and each woman is to request from his or her neighbor items of silver and gold."

and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will seize the inhabitants of Philistia.

Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand-drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand-drums and with dances.

So Joshua fought against Amalek just as Moses had instructed him;and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

When the hands of Moses became heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other, and so his hands were steady until the sun went down.

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

and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (for Moses had said, "I have been a foreigner in a foreign land"),

He said to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, along with your wife and her two sons with her."

The Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you." And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her.

If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters.

If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one's food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

"If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman's husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides.

If its owner was with it, he will not have to pay; if it was hired, what was paid for the hire covers it.

"If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged and has sexual relations with her, he must surely endow her to be his wife.

If her father refuses to give her to him, he must pay money for the bride price of virgins.

If you afflict them in any way and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry,

for it is his only covering -- it is his garment for his body. What else can he sleep in? And when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

No woman will miscarry her young or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

He told the elders, "Wait for us in this place until we return to you. Here are Aaron and Hur with you. Whoever has any matters of dispute can approach them."

blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goat's hair,

"You are to make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle; you are to make eleven curtains.

"See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

Moses said, "It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, but the sound of singing I hear."

The Lord said to Moses, "Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.'

And Moses said to him, "If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up from here.

The Lord said, "Here is a place by me; you will station yourself on a rock.

blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, goat's hair,

Everyone who had blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, fine linen, goats' hair, ram skins dyed red, or fine leather brought them.

Every woman who was skilled spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen,

and all the women whose heart stirred them to action and who were skilled spun goats' hair.