Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord, will you put to death an upright nation?

So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house.

And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me.

But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name.

And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed.

Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation.

Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living.

And Abraham said, I will give you my oath.

And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will give you knowledge.

Then he said to his young men, Keep here with the ass; and I and the boy will go on and give worship and come back again to you.

And Abraham said, God himself will give the lamb for the burned offering: so they went on together.

That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them;

And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.

My lord, truly you are a great chief among us; take the best of our resting-places for your dead; not one of us will keep back from you a place where you may put your dead to rest.

And he said to them, If you will let me put my dead to rest here, make a request for me to Ephron, the son of Zohar,

That he will give me the hollow in the rock named Machpelah, which is his property at the end of his field; let him give it to me for its full price as a resting-place for my dead among you.

No, my lord, I will give you the field with the hollow in the rock; before all the children of my people will I give it to you for a resting-place for your dead.

And Abraham said to Ephron, in the hearing of the people of the land, If only you will give ear to me, I will give you the price of the field; take it, and let me put my dead to rest there.

And take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living;

But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac.

And the servant said, If by chance the woman will not come with me into this land, am I to take your son back again to the land from which you came?

The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land.

And if the woman will not come with you, then you are free from this oath; only do not take my son back there.

And having done so, she said, I will get water for your camels till they have had enough.

And meat was put before him, but he said, I will not take food till I have made my business clear to you. And they said, Do so.

And I said to my master, What if the woman will not come with me?

And he said, The Lord, whom I have ever kept before me, will send his angel with you, who will make it possible for you to get a wife for my son from my relations and my father's house;

And you will be free from your oath to me when you come to my people; and if they will not give her to you, you will be free from your oath.

Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels; let her be the woman marked out by the Lord for my master's son.

And straight away she took down her vessel from her arm, and said, Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels.

And now, say if you will do what is good and right for my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I have to do.

And they said, We will send for the girl, and let her make the decision.

And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body, and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of the younger.

And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge:

Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham;

I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth;

Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land.

That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham.

That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you.

Go to the flock and get me two fat young goats; and I will make of them a meal to your father's taste:

And you will take it to him, so that he may have a good meal and give you his blessing before his death.

If by chance my father puts his hand on me, it will seem to him that I am tricking him, and he will put a curse on me in place of a blessing.

And he said, Put it before me and I will take of my son's meat, so that I may give you a blessing. And he put it before him and he took it; and he gave him wine, and he had a drink.

And in great fear Isaac said, Who then is he who got meat and put it before me, and I took it all before you came, and gave him a blessing, and his it will be?

Then Isaac his father made answer and said to him, Far from the fertile places of the earth, and far from the dew of heaven on high will your living-place be:

By your sword will you get your living and you will be your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his yoke will be broken from off your neck.

So Esau was full of hate for Jacob because of his father's blessing; and he said in his heart, The days of weeping for my father are near; then I will put my brother Jacob to death.

Till the memory of what you have done to him is past and he is no longer angry: then I will send word for you to come back; are the two of you to be taken from me in one day?

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, My life is a weariness to me because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, such as these, the women of this land, of what use will my life be to me?

And he saw the Lord by his side, saying, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: I will give to you and to your seed this land on which you are sleeping.

Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you.

Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on,

So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I will take the Lord to be my God,

And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be God's house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part to you.

And they said, We are not able to do so till all the flocks have come together and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the water-hole; then we will get water for the sheep.

And Jacob was in love with Rachel; and he said, I will be your servant seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.

Let the week of the bride-feast come to its end and then we will give you the other in addition, if you will be my servant for another seven years.

And Leah was with child, and gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name Reuben: for she said, The Lord has seen my sorrow; now my husband will have love for me.

And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Now at last my husband will be united to me, because I have given him three sons: so he was named Levi.

And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son: and she said, This time I will give praise to the Lord: so he was named Judah; after this she had no more children for a time.

Now Rachel, because she had no children, was full of envy of her sister; and she said to Jacob, If you do not give me children I will not go on living.

And Leah said, Happy am I! and all women will give witness to my joy: and she gave him the name Asher.

And she said, God has given me a good bride-price; now at last will I have my husband living with me, for I have given him six sons: and she gave him the name Zebulun.

And Laban said, If you will let me say so, do not go away; for I have seen by the signs that the Lord has been good to me because of you.

Say then what your payment is to be and I will give it.

And Laban said, What am I to give you? And Jacob said, Do not give me anything; but I will again take up the care of your flock if you will only do this for me:

Let me go through all your flock today, taking out from among them all the sheep which are marked or coloured or black, and all the marked or coloured goats: these will be my payment.

And so you will be able to put my honour to the test in time to come; if you see among my flocks any goats which are not marked or coloured, or any sheep which is not black, you may take me for a thief.

Then the Lord said to Jacob, Go back to the land of your fathers, and to your relations, and I will be with you.

If you are cruel to my daughters, or if you take other wives in addition to my daughters, then though no man is there to see, God will be the witness between us.

They will be witness that I will not go over these stones to you, and you will not go over these stones or this pillar to me, for any evil purpose.

And said, If Esau, meeting one group, makes an attack on them, the others will get away safely.

Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, Go back to your country and your family and I will be good to you:

Be my saviour from the hand of Esau, my brother: for my fear is that he will make an attack on me, putting to death mother and child.

And you said, Truly, I will be good to you, and make your seed like the sand of the sea which may not be numbered.

And you are to say further, Jacob, your servant, is coming after us. For he said to himself, I will take away his wrath by the offering which I have sent on, and then I will come before him: it may be that I will have grace in his eyes.

And he said to him, Let me go now, for the dawn is near. But Jacob said, I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing.

And he said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel: for in your fight with God and with men you have overcome.

And he said, Let us go on our journey together, and I will go in front.

But Jacob said, My lord may see that the children are only small, and there are young ones in my flocks and herds: one day's over-driving will be the destruction of all the flock.

Do you, my lord, go on before your servant; I will come on slowly, at the rate at which the cattle and the children are able to go, till I come to my lord at Seir.

But Hamor said to them, Shechem, my son, is full of desire for your daughter: will you then give her to him for a wife?

Go on living with us, and the country will be open to you; do trade and get property there.

And Shechem said to her father and her brothers, If you will give ear to my request, whatever you say I will give to you.

However great you make the bride-price and payment, I will give it; only let me have the girl for my wife.

But on this condition only will we come to an agreement with you: if every male among you becomes like us and undergoes circumcision;

Then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to us and go on living with you as one people.

But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go.

But these men will make an agreement with us to go on living with us and to become one people, only on the condition that every male among us undergoes circumcision as they have done.

Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so that they may go on living with us.

And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have made trouble for me and given me a bad name among the people of this country, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and because we are small in number they will come together against me and make war on me; and it will be the end of me and all my people.

And let us go up to Beth-el: and there I will make an altar to God, who gave me an answer in the day of my trouble, and was with me wherever I went.

Jacob is your name, but it will be so no longer; from now your name will be Israel; so he was named Israel.

And God said to him, I am God, the Ruler of all: be fertile, and have increase; a nation, truly a group of nations, will come from you, and kings will be your offspring;

And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you; and to your seed after you I will give the land.

And when her pain was very great, the woman who was helping her said, Have no fear; for now you will have another son.

And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his words, their hate for him became greater than ever.

And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers with the flock in Shechem? come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here am I.

Let us now put him to death and put his body into one of these holes, and we will say, An evil beast has put him to death: then we will see what becomes of his dreams.