In response, Leah asked her, "Wasn't it enough that you've taken away my husband? Now you also want to take my son's mandrakes!" But Rachel replied, "Okay, let's let Jacob sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes."

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.

After that, Leah conceived, bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

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

What you had previously was only a few head, but the herd has now multiplied, because the LORD has blessed you through my efforts. But now, when am I going to be able to provide for my own household?"

Jacob kept the lambs separate, facing the striped and entirely black ones that belonged to Laban's flock. He set his own herd by itself and would not let them be with Laban's flock.

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

Meanwhile, Laban had been out shearing his sheep. While he was away, Rachel stole her father's personal idols.

Meanwhile, Rachel had taken the idols, placed them inside the saddle of her camel, and sat on them. Laban searched through the whole tent, but found nothing.

Then Rachel told her father, "Sir, please don't be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence. It's that time of the month." So Laban searched for the idols, but never did find them.

Now that you've searched all my belongings, what did you find that belongs to your house? Set it here in front of our relatives and we'll let them judge between us!

"Look!" Laban added, "Here is the stack of stones and here is the pillar that I've set up between you and me.

He entrusted them into the care of his servants, one herd at a time. Then he told his servants, "Go in front of me, making sure there's plenty of space between herds."

Then he positioned the women servants and their children first, then Leah and her children next, and then Rachel and Joseph after them.

Leah also approached, and she and her children bowed low. After this, Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed low.

When Hamor the Hivite's son Shechem, the regional leader, saw her, he grabbed her and raped her, humiliating her.

He was attached to Dinah, Jacob's daughter, since he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

But Hamor said this: "My son is deeply attracted to your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

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

Just before she died, Rachel called her son's name Ben-oni, but his father Jacob named him Benjamin.

Jacob erected a pillar over her grave, and that pillar stands over Rachel's grave to this day.

And Israel instructed Joseph, "Your brothers are tending the flock in Shechem. Come here, because I'm going to send you to them." "Here I am!" he responded.

"Look!" they said. "Here comes the Dream Master!

Reuben told them. "And no blood shedding, either. Instead, let's toss him into this cistern that's way out here in the wilderness. But don't lay a hand on him." (Reuben intended to free Joseph and return him to his father.)

There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her, had sexual relations with her,

Judah found a wife for his oldest son Er. Her name was Tamar.

So Judah instructed Onan, "You are to have sexual relations with your dead brother's wife, performing the duty of a brother-in-law with her, and have offspring for your brother."

After this, Judah told his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Go live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." But he was really thinking, ""otherwise, Shelah might die like his brothers." So Tamar left and lived in her father's house.

So she took off her mourning apparel, covered herself with a shawl, and concealed her outward appearance. Then she went out and sat at the entrance of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah, because she knew that even though Shelah had grown up, she wasn't being given to him as his wife.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, since she had concealed her face.

So on the way, he turned aside, approached her, and said, "Come on! Let's have some sex!" But he didn't realize that he was talking to his own daughter-in-law. "What will you give me," she asked, "in order to have sex with me?"

"Your signet ring, cord, and the staff in your hand," she suggested. So he gave them to her, had sex with her, and she became pregnant by him. Then she got up and left. Later, she took off her shawl and put on her mourning clothes.

Later on, Judah sent his Adullamite friend to take her a young goat, intending to retrieve what he had put up as security from the woman, but he could not find her.

He asked the men who lived in that area, "Where's that temple prostitute who was sitting alongside the road at Enaim?" But they replied, "There's been no temple prostitute here."

So he returned to Judah and said, "I haven't found her. Also, the men who are from there said, "There's been no prostitute here.'"

Then Judah said, "Let her have those things. Otherwise, we'll become contemptible. I sent this young goat, but you didn't find her."

Three months later, it was reported to Judah, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution! And look! She's pregnant because of it!" "Bring her out," Judah responded. "Let's burn her to death!"

While they were bringing her out, she sent this message to her father-in-law: "I am pregnant by the man to whom these things belong. Furthermore," she added, "tell me to whom this signet ring, cord, and staff belongs."

When Judah recognized them, he admitted, "She is more upright than I, because I never did give her my son Shelah." And he never had sex with her again.

Later, when it was time for Tamar to give birth, she was carrying twins in her womb!

She kept on talking to him like this day after day, but he wouldn't listen to her. Not only would he refuse to have sex with her, he refused even to stay around her.

Instead, Joseph ran outside, leaving his outer garment still in her hand. When she realized that he had left his outer garment right there in her hand, she ran outside

and yelled for her household servants. "Look!" she cried out. "My husband brought in a Hebrew man to humiliate us. He came in here to have sex with me, but I screamed out loud!

She kept his outer garment by her side until Joseph's master came home,

and then this is what she told him: "That Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in here to rape me.

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!"

"No, your majesty," they replied. "Your servants have come here to buy food.

But Joseph kept insisting, "It's just as I've said you've come here to spy on our unguarded territories!"

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!

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.

He reported to his brothers, "My money has been returned! It's right here in my sack!" Trembling with mounting consternation, each of them asked one another, "What is God doing to us?"

"Your Excellency," they said, "The first time we came here to buy food,

"But then you ordered your servants, "Bring him here to me so I can see him for myself.'

"I'm your brother Joseph, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt!" he told them. "But don't be distressed or angry at yourselves because you sold me here, because God sent me ahead of you all in order to deliver us.

As a result, it wasn't you who sent me here, but God himself! He established me as a father-figure to Pharaoh himself! I'm in charge of his entire palace and ruler over the entire land of Egypt.

So go tell my father about all of my splendor in Egypt. Tell him about everything that you've seen. Be quick about it, and bring my father down here!"

God spoke to Israel through night visions, addressing him, "Jacob! Jacob!" "Here I am!" Jacob replied.

Here's a list of the names of Israel's sons, that is, of Jacob and his sons who moved to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn;

After this, Joseph went to inform Pharaoh. "My father and brothers have come here from Canaan," he said, "and they've come with their flocks, herds, and everything else they have. I settled them in the Goshen territory!"

"Now as for me, Rachel died after I arrived in Canaan from Paddan, much to my sorrow. While I was on my journey to Ephrathah (also known as Bethlehem), I buried her there."

"These are my sons," Joseph replied. "God gave them to me here in Egypt." "Please bring them close to me," Jacob said, "so I can bless them."

So Joseph made all of Israel's other children make this promise: "Because God is certainly going to take care of you, you are to carry my bones up from here."

"When you help the Hebrew women give birth," he said, "watch them as they deliver. If it's a son, kill him; but if it's a daughter, let her live."

ThenPharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile River to bathe while her maids walked along the river bank. She saw the container among the reeds and sent a servant girl to get it.

Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Go," so the young girl went and called the child's mother.

Pharaoh's daughter instructed her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I'll pay you a salary." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

After the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, "I drew him out of the water."

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from the center of the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."

Each woman is to ask her neighbor or any foreign woman in her house for articles of gold and for clothing, and use them to clothe your sons and daughters. You will plunder the Egyptians."

Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, saying while doing so, ""because you are a bridegroom of blood to me."

So Moses returned to the LORD and asked him, "LORD, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why have you sent me here?

Then the LORD told Moses, "I'll bring one more plague on Pharaoh and Egypt. After that he'll let you leave from here, and when he lets you go, he will certainly drive you out from here.

Tellthe people that each man is to ask his neighbor and each woman her neighbor for articles of silver and gold."

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had made the Israelis take this solemn oath: "God will certainly take notice of you, and then you must carry my bones up with you from here."

Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand and went out with all the women behind her with tambourines and dancing.

along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom, because he uwould say, "I was an alien in a foreign land,"

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

If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and children belong to her master, and he is to go out by himself.

If she's displeasing to her master who selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He does not have the right to sell her to foreign people, because he has dealt unfairly with her.

If he has selected her for his son, he is to treat her according to the ordinance for daughters.

If he takes another woman for himself, he may not withhold from the first her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

If he does not do these three things for her, she may go out without paying anything at all."

"If two men are fighting and they strike a pregnant woman and her children are born prematurely, but there is no harm, he is certainly to be fined as the husband of the woman demands of him, and he will pay as the court decides.

"When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and has sexual relations with her, he must pay her bride price, and she is to become his wife.

If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he is to pay an amount equal to the bride price for virgins.

He told the elders, "Wait here for us until we return to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you, and whoever has a dispute, let him come to them."

When the people saw that Moses took a long time to come down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and told him, "Come here and make us a god who will go before us, because, as for this fellow Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

The LORD told Moses, "Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought out of Egypt, to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saying, "I'll give it to your descendants.'

Then Moses told the LORD, "If your presence does not go with us, don't bring us up from here.

Every skilled woman spun with her hands, and brought what she had spun: blue, purple, and scarlet material, and fine linen.

Here is a summary of materials for the Tent of Meeting that was compiled at Moses' direction, the work of the descendants of Levi under the direction of Aaron the priest's son Ithamar.

if his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to bring a male without any defect. He is to present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. At the appointed time, it is to be presented in the presence of the LORD so that he may be accepted.

Then Moses called on Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, Aaron's uncle, and said, "Come here and carry your brothers away from the sanctuary, outside the camp."

"Tell the Israelis that a woman who conceives and bears a son is unclean for seven days. Just like the days of her menstruation, she is unclean.

For 33 days after this, she is to remain in purification due to her blood loss. She is not to touch any sacred thing or enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification have been completed.

"If she gives birth to a female, then she is to remain unclean for two weeks, just like her menstruation. She is to remain in purification for 66 days due to her blood loss.

When the days of her purification have been completed, whether for her son or daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a one year old lamb for a whole burnt offering or a young dove for a sin offering.

He is to offer it in the LORD's presence and make atonement for her so that she becomes clean from her blood loss. This is the law concerning the bearing of a male or female child.

If she cannot afford a goat, then two turtledoves or two young doves one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering will serve for him to make atonement for her, so that she becomes clean."