Then he said, "{Isn't that why he is named Jacob}? He has deceived me these two times. He took my birthright and, look, now he has taken my blessing!" Then he said, "Have you not reserved a blessing for me?"

Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. And he instructed him and said to him, "You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-Aram, to take for himself a wife from there, and he blessed him and instructed him, saying, "You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,"

And he arrived at a [certain] place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. And he took [one] of the stones of the place and put [it] under his head and slept at that place.

Now behold, I [am] with you, and I will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you."

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely Yahweh {is indeed} in this place and I did not know!"

And he said, "Look, [it is] still {broad daylight}; it is not the time [for] the livestock to be gathered. Give water to the sheep and go, pasture them."

And they said, "We are not able, until all the flocks are gathered. Then the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well, and we water the sheep."

And it happened [that] in the morning, behold, it [was] Leah! And he said to Laban, "What [is] this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Now why did you deceive me?"

Then Laban said, "{It is not the custom} in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.

When Rachel saw that she could not bear children to Jacob, Rachel envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, "Give me children--if not, I will die!"

When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him. And she said, "Come in to me, for {I have hired} you with my son's mandrakes." And he slept with her that night.

And he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "Do not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flocks and keep [them].

And my righteousness will answer for me {later} when you come concerning my wages before you. Every [one] that [is] not speckled or spotted among the goats, or dark-colored among the sheep shall be stolen [if it is] with me."

And Jacob separated the lambs and turned the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark-colored in Laban's flocks. And he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with the flocks of Laban.

But with the more feeble of the flock he would not put [them there]. So the feebler were Laban's and the stronger [were] Jacob's.

Then Jacob saw the face of Laban and, behold, {it was not like it had been in the past}.

and he said to them, "Look, I see the face of your father, that {it is not like it has been toward me in the past}. But the God of my father is with me.

and your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God has not allowed him to harm me.

Are we not regarded [as] foreigners by him, because he has sold us and completely consumed our money?

And Jacob {tricked} Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he [intended to] flee.

And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "{Take care} that you not speak with Jacob, whether good or evil."

Why did you hide [your intention] to flee and {trick me}, and did not tell me so that I would have sent you away with joy and song and tambourine and lyre?

And [why] did you not give me opportunity to kiss my grandsons and my daughters [goodbye]? Now you have behaved foolishly [by] doing [this].

{It is in my power} to do harm to you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, '{Take care} from speaking with Jacob, whether good or evil.'

[But] with whomever you find your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of your kinsmen [now] identify what [is] with me [that is] yours and take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Then Laban went into Jacob's tent and Leah's tent and the tent of the two female servants and did not find [his gods]. And he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent.

Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the saddle bag of the camel and sat on them. And Jacob searched the whole tent thoroughly but did not find them.

And she said to her father, "Let there not be anger in the eyes of my lord, for I am not able to rise before you, for the way of women [is] with me. And he searched carefully and did not find the idols.

These twenty years I [was] with you; your ewes and your female goats did not miscarry, and the rams of your flocks I did not eat.

I brought no mangled carcass to you--I bore its loss. From my hand you sought it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

[There] I was, during the day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had not been with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."

This pile of stones [is] a witness, and the pillar [is] a witness, that I will not pass beyond this pile of stones to you, and that you will not pass beyond this pile of stones and this pillar to me intending harm.

And Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the hill, and he called his kinsmen to eat the meal. And they ate the meal and spent the night on the hill.

{I am not worthy} of all the loyal love and all the faithfulness that you have shown your servant, for with [only] my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

And he lodged there that night. Then he took {from what he had with him} a gift for Esau his brother:

So the gift passed on before him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.

That night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

And when he saw that he could not prevail against him, he struck his hip socket, so that Jacob's hip socket was sprained as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, "Let me go, for dawn is breaking." But he answered, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

Therefore the {Israelites} do not eat the sinew of the sciatic nerve that [is] upon the socket of the hip unto this day, because he struck the socket of the thigh of Jacob at the sinew of the sciatic nerve.

And Esau said, "Let me leave some of my people with you." But he said, "{What need is there}? Let me find favor in the eyes of my lord."

And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard [it]. And the men were distressed and very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations with the daughter of Jacob--{something that} should not be done.

But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our daughters and we will go."

And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for he wanted the daughter of Jacob. Now he [was] the most honored of his father's house.

Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals [be] ours? Only let us give consent to them so they will live among us."

Then they set out on their journey, and the terror of God was upon the cities that [were] all around them, so that they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

And {when her labor was the most difficult} the midwife said to her, "Do not be afraid {for you have another son}."

For their possessions were {too many to live together}, so that the land of their sojourning was not able to support them on account of their livestock.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and were not able to speak peaceably to him.

And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing in Shechem? Come, let me send you to them." And he said, "Here I [am]."

And Reuben heard [it] and delivered him from their hand and said, "We must not take his life."

And Reuben said to them, "You must not shed blood. Throw him into this pit that [is] in the desert, but do not lay a hand on him"--so that he might rescue him from their hand to return him to his father.

Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but our hand shall not be against him, for he [is] our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers agreed.

Then Reuben returned to the pit and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit. And he tore his clothes.

Then they sent the robe with long sleeves and they brought [it] to their father and said, "We found this; please examine [it]. [Is] it the robe of your son or not?"

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be for him, so whenever he went in to the wife of his brother he would waste [it] on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.

So she removed the clothes of her widowhood and covered [herself] with the veil and disguised herself. And she sat at the entrance to Eynayim, which [is] on the way to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah was grown but she had not been given to him as a wife.

And he turned aside to her at the roadside and said, "Please come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she [was] his daughter-in-law. And she said, "What will you give to me that you may come in to me?"

And Judah sent the kid from the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite to take [back] the pledge from the hand of the woman, but he could not find her.

Then he returned to Judah and said, "I could not find her. Morever, the men of the place said, 'There is no cult prostitute here.'"

And Judah said, "Let her take [them] for herself, lest we be {laughed at}. Behold, I sent this kid, but you could not find her."

Then Judah recognized [them] and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he did not know her again.

And he left all that he had in the hand of Joseph, and {he did not worry about anything} except the food that he ate. Now Joseph was {well built and handsome}.

But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, my master {does not worry about} what [is] in the house, and everything he owns he has put in my hand.

He has no greater [authority] in this house than me, and he has not withheld anything from me except you, since you [are] his wife. Now how could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

And it happened [that] as she spoke to Joseph {day after day}, he did not heed her to lie beside her or to be with her.

The chief of the prison {did not worry about} anything in his hand, since Yahweh [was] with him. And whatever he did Yahweh made [it] successful.

And they said to him, "We [each] dreamed a dream, but there is no one to interpret it." And Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell [them] to me."

But the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

And we dreamed a dream one night, I and he, {each with a dream that had a meaning}.

Then Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, "{It is not in my power}; God will answer [concerning] the well-being of Pharaoh."

But [when] they went into their bellies it could not be known that they went into their bellies, for their appearance [was] as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke.

Abundance in the land will not be known because of the famine {that follows}, for it will be very heavy.

Then the food shall be as a deposit for the land for the seven years of the famine that will be in the land of Egypt, that the land will not perish on account of the famine."

And Joseph piled up grain like the sand of the sea in great abundance until he stopped counting [it], for {it could not be counted}.

Then he said, "Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die."

But Jacob did not send Benjamin, the brother of Joseph, for {he feared harm would come to him}.

And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

We all are sons of one man. We [are] honest [men]. We, your servants, are not spies."

By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh you will not go out from here unless your youngest brother comes here.

Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, but you will be kept in prison so that your words might be tested [to see] if [there is] truth with you. And if not, by the life of Pharaoh surely you [are] spies."

You must bring your youngest brother to me, and then your words will be confirmed and you will not die." And they did so.

Then each said to his brother, "Surely we [are] guilty on account of our brother when we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded for mercy to us and we would not listen. Therefore this trouble has come to us."

Then Reuben answered them, saying, "Did I not say to you, do not sin against the boy? But you did not listen, and now, behold, his blood has been sought."

Now they did not know that Joseph understood, for the interpreter [was] between them.

But we said to him, 'We [are] honest; we are not spies.

And bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you [are] not spies but you [are] honest. And I will give your brother [back] to you, and you will trade in the land.'"

Then Reuben said to his father, "You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hand and I myself will return him to you."

But he said, "My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone remains. [If] harm meets him on the journey that you would take, you would bring down my gray head in sorrow to Sheol."

Then Judah said to him, "The man solemnly admonished us, saying, 'You shall not see my face unless your brother [is] with you.'

but {if you will not send} [him], we will not go down, for the man said to us, 'You shall not see my face unless your brother [is] with you.'"

Then Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the boy with me, and let us arise and go, so that we will live and not die--you, we, and our children.

I myself will be surety for him. You may seek him from my hand. If I do not bring him back to you and present him before you, then I will stand guilty before you forever.

Surely if we had not hesitated by this [time] we would have returned twice."

Now, other money we have brought down in our hand to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks."

And he said, "Peace to you; do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father must have given you a treasure in your sacks; your money came to me." And he brought Simeon out to them.

And they served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who were eating with him by themselves, for Egyptians {could not dine} with Hebrews, because that [was] a detestable thing to Egyptians.

They went out of the city, [and] had not gone far when Joseph said to [the one] who [was] over his house, "Arise! Pursue after the men and overtake them. Then you shall say to them, 'Why have you repaid evil for good?