The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest time of the day.

Let a little water be brought so that you may all wash your feet and rest under the tree.

Abraham then took some curds and milk, along with the calf that had been prepared, and placed the food before them. They ate while he was standing near them under a tree.

One of them said, "I will surely return to you when the season comes round again, and your wife Sarah will have a son!" (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him.

Then Sarah lied, saying, "I did not laugh," because she was afraid. But the Lord said, "No! You did laugh."

When the men got up to leave, they looked out over Sodom. (Now Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.)

The two men turned and headed toward Sodom, but Abraham was still standing before the Lord.

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while Lot was sitting in the city's gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.

He said, "Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant's house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning." "No," they replied, "we'll spend the night in the town square."

Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. He said, "Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them.

Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.)

Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord.

But Lot's wife looked back longingly and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Lot went up from Zoar with his two daughters and settled in the mountains because he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.

So that night they made their father drunk with wine, and the older daughter came and had sexual relations with her father. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.

So they made their father drunk that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up.

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do.

(Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.)

The child grew and was weaned. Abraham prepared a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Sarah's demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son.

When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved the child under one of the shrubs.

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

After these things Abraham was told, "Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor --

His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore him children -- Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

(Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth -- before all who entered the gate of his city --

So Abraham secured Ephron's field in Machpelah, next to Mamre, including the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field and all around its border,

So Abraham secured the field and the cave that was in it as a burial site from the sons of Heth.

Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in everything.

Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his household who was in charge of everything he had, "Put your hand under my thigh

He made the camels kneel down by the well outside the city. It was evening, the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah (Milcah was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor).

Now the young woman was very beautiful. She was a virgin; no man had ever had sexual relations with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came back up.

When he saw the bracelets on his sister's wrists and the nose ring and heard his sister Rebekah say, "This is what the man said to me," he went out to meet the man. There he was, standing by the camels near the spring.

So Abraham's servant went to the house and unloaded the camels. Straw and feed were given to the camels, and water was provided so that he and the men who were with him could wash their feet.

When food was served, he said, "I will not eat until I have said what I want to say." "Tell us," Laban said.

My master's wife Sarah bore a son to him when she was old, and my master has given him everything he owns.

Now Isaac came from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev.

Then Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah's tent. He took her as his wife and loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off to the east, away from his son Isaac.

This was the field Abraham had purchased from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.

When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

When his brother came out with his hand clutching Esau's heel, they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter, a man of the open fields, but Jacob was an even-tempered man, living in tents.

Now Jacob cooked some stew, and when Esau came in from the open fields, he was famished.

So Esau said to Jacob, "Feed me some of the red stuff -- yes, this red stuff -- because I'm starving!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)

There was a famine in the land, subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "She is my wife," for he thought to himself, "The men of this place will kill me to get Rebekah because she is very beautiful."

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, as well as Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son!" "Here I am!" Esau replied.

He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!"

He called that place Bethel, although the former name of the town was Luz.

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was tending them.

When Jacob explained to Rachel that he was a relative of her father and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father.

When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister's son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban how he was related to him.

(Now Laban had two daughters; the older one was named Leah, and the younger one Rachel.

So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. But they seemed like only a few days to him because his love for her was so great.

In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, "What in the world have you done to me! Didn't I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?"

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to become pregnant while Rachel remained childless.

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, "Because the Lord heard that I was unloved, he gave me this one too." So she named him Simeon.

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, "Now this time my husband will show me affection, because I have given birth to three sons for him." That is why he was named Levi.

But Leah replied, "Wasn't it enough that you've taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes too?" "All right," Rachel said, "he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes."

Then he separated them from Jacob by a three-day journey, while Jacob was taking care of the rest of Laban's flocks.

Jacob also deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving.

"I left secretly because I was afraid!" Jacob replied to Laban. "I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force.

Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself. You always made me pay for every missing animal, whether it was taken by day or at night.

I was consumed by scorching heat during the day and by piercing cold at night, and I went without sleep.

This was my lot for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave for you -- fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times!

If the God of my father -- the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears -- had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night."

Laban said, "This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement today." That is why it was called Galeed.

It was also called Mizpah because he said, "May the Lord watch between us when we are out of sight of one another.

Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.

So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob's hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

The sun rose over him as he crossed over Penuel, but he was limping because of his hip.

Jacob looked up and saw that Esau was coming along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need." When Jacob urged him, he took it.

But Jacob traveled to Succoth where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called Succoth.

The young man did not delay in doing what they asked because he wanted Jacob's daughter Dinah badly. (Now he was more important than anyone in his father's household.)

All the men who assembled at the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate was circumcised.

He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

(Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named Oak of Weeping.)

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."

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

because they had too many possessions to be able to stay together and the land where they had settled was not able to support them because of their livestock.

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

Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah.

When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab, reigned in his place; the name of his city was Avith.

When Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor died, Hadad reigned in his place; the name of his city was Pau. His wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.

chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they possessed. This was Esau, the father of the Edomites.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, was taking care of the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him.

Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.)

Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it! He tore his clothes,

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

But Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord killed him.

What he did was evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord killed him too.

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.