Then Jacob took young branches of trees, cutting off the skin so that the white wood was seen in bands.

So Jacob's wealth was greatly increased; he had great flocks and women-servants and men-servants and camels and asses.

And Jacob saw that Laban's feeling for him was no longer what it had been before.

And he said to them, It is clear to me that your father's feeling is no longer what it was to me; but the God of my father has been with me

You did not even let me give a kiss to my sons and my daughters. This was a foolish thing to do.

And Jacob, in answer, said to Laban, My fear was that you might take your daughters from me by force.

Now Rachel had taken the images, and had put them in the camels' basket, and was seated on them. And Laban, searching through all the tent, did not come across them.

Then Jacob was angry with Laban, and said, What crime or sin have I done that you have come after me with such passion?

Anything which was wounded by beasts I did not take to you, but myself made up for the loss of it; you made me responsible for whatever was taken by thieves, by day or by night.

This was my condition, wasted by heat in the day and by the bitter cold at night; and sleep went from my eyes.

These twenty years I have been in your house; I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters, and for six years I kept your flock, and ten times was my payment changed.

And the name Laban gave it was Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob gave it the name of Galeed.

And Laban said, These stones are a witness between you and me today. For this reason its name was Galeed,

Then Jacob was in great fear and trouble of mind: and he put all the people and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two groups;

Then Jacob was by himself; and a man was fighting with him till dawn.

But when the man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob, he gave him a blow in the hollow part of his leg, so that his leg was damaged.

And while he was going past Peniel, the sun came up. And he went with unequal steps because of his damaged leg.

For this reason the children of Israel, even today, never take that muscle in the hollow of the leg as food, because the hollow of Jacob's leg was touched.

And Jacob went on to Succoth, where he made a house for himself and put up tents for his cattle: for this reason the place was named Succoth.

And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had connection with her.

And without loss of time the young man did as they said, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the noblest of his father's house.

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.

So they went on their journey: and the fear of God was on the towns round about, so that they made no attack on the sons of Jacob.

And there he made an altar, naming the place El-beth-el: because it was there he had the vision of God when he was in flight from his brother.

And Deborah, the servant who had taken care of Rebekah from her birth, came to her end, and was put to rest near Beth-el, under the holy tree: and they gave it the name of Allon-bacuth.

Now when Jacob was on his way from Paddan-aram, God came to him again and, blessing him, said,

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

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

So Rachel came to her end and was put to rest on the road to Ephrath (which is Beth-lehem).

And Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old.

Then Isaac came to his end and was put to rest with his father's people, an old man after a long life: and Jacob and Esau, his sons, put him in his last resting-place.

Adah had a son Eliphaz; and Basemath was the mother of Reuel;

Oholibamah was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the sons of Esau, whose birth took place in the land of Canaan.

For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle.

And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan's sister was Timna.

And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his father Zibeon.

And these are the kings who were ruling in the land of Edom before there was any king over the children of Israel.

Bela, son of Beor, was king in Edom, and the name of his chief town was Dinhabah.

And at the death of Husham, Hadad, son of Bedad, who overcame the Midianites in the field of Moab, became king; his chief town was named Avith.

And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadar became king in his place; his chief town was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

Now Jacob was living in the land where his father had made a place for himself, in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them.

Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater than his love for all his other children, because he got him when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for him.

And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him.

But they saw him when he was a long way off, and before he came near them they made a secret design against him to put him to death;

Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief,

And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has come to a cruel end.

And all his sons and all his daughters came to give him comfort, but he would not be comforted, saying with weeping, I will go down to the underworld to my son. So great was his father's sorrow for him.

Then she had another son, to whom she gave the name Shelah; she was at Chezib when the birth took place.

And Judah took a wife for his first son Er, and her name was Tamar.

And what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death, like his brother.

And after a time, Bath-shua, Judah's wife, came to her end; and after Judah was comforted for her loss, he went to Timnah, where they were cutting the wool of his sheep, and his friend Hirah of Adullam went with him.

And when Tamar had news that her father-in-law was going up to Timnah to the wool-cutting,

She took off her widow's clothing, and covering herself with her veil, she took her seat near Enaim on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was now a man, but she had not been made his wife.

When Judah saw her he took her to be a loose woman of the town, because her face was covered.

And turning to her by the roadside, he said to her, Let me come in to you; for he had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, What will you give me as my price?

Then Judah sent his friend Hirah with the young goat, to get back the things which he had given as a sign to the woman: but she was not there.

And he put questions to the men of the place, saying, Where is the loose woman who was in Enaim by the wayside? And they said, There was no such woman there.

Now about three months after this, word came to Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had been acting like a loose woman and was with child. And Judah said, Take her out and let her be burned.

And while she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law, saying, The man whose property these things are, is the father of my child: say then, whose are this ring and this cord and this stick?

And when the time came for her to give birth, it was clear that there were two children in her body.

And while she was in the act of giving birth, one of them put out his hand; and the woman who was with her put a red thread round his hand, saying, This one came out first.

But then he took his hand back again, and his brother came first to birth: and the woman said, What an opening you have made for yourself! So he was named Perez.

And then his brother came out, with the red thread round his hand, and he was named Zerah.

Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar the Egyptian, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house, got him for a price from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

And the Lord was with Joseph, and he did well; and he was living in the house of his master the Egyptian.

And his master saw that the Lord was with him, making everything he did go well.

And from the time when he made him overseer and gave him control of all his property, the blessing of the Lord was with the Egyptian, because of Joseph; the blessing of the Lord was on all he had, in the house and in the field.

And he gave Joseph control of all his property, keeping no account of anything, but only the food which was put before him. Now Joseph was very beautiful in form and face.

Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and not one of the men of the house was inside.

And Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, in the place where the king's prisoners were kept in chains, and he was there in the prison-house.

But the Lord was with Joseph, and was good to him, and made the keeper of the prison his friend.

And the keeper of the prison put all the prisoners under Joseph's control, and he was responsible for whatever was done there.

And the keeper of the prison gave no attention to anything which was under his care, because the Lord was with him; and the Lord made everything he did go well.

And Pharaoh was angry with his two servants, with the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker;

And he put them in prison under the care of the captain of the army, in the same prison where Joseph himself was shut up.

And the captain put them in Joseph's care, and he did what was needed for them; and they were kept in prison for some time.

Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream?

And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and crushing them into Pharaoh's cup, gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

For truly I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put in prison.

Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his servants; and he gave honour to the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker among the others.

But the chief bread-maker was put to death by hanging, as Joseph had said.

Now after two years had gone by, Pharaoh had a dream; and in his dream he was by the side of the Nile;

And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and fat, and their food was the river-grass.

And the seven thin heads made a meal of the good heads. And when Pharaoh was awake he saw it was a dream.

And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the sense of it.

And there was with us a young Hebrew, the captain's servant, and when we put our dreams before him, he gave us the sense of them.

And it came about as he said: I was put back in my place, and the bread-maker was put to death by hanging.

Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the Nile:

And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-looking, and their food was the river-grass;

And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one of them was able to give me the sense of it.

Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years, and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the fields round every town was stored up in the town.

Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but in the land of Egypt there was bread.

And when all the land of Egypt was in need of food, the people came crying to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to the people, Go to Joseph, and whatever he says to you, do it.

And everywhere on the earth they were short of food; then Joseph, opening all his store-houses, gave the people of Egypt grain for money; so great was the need of food in the land of Egypt.

And all lands sent to Egypt, to Joseph, to get grain, for the need was great over all the earth.

Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another?

Now Joseph was ruler over all the land, and it was he who gave out the grain to all the people of the land; and Joseph's brothers came before him and went down on their faces to the earth.