But Esau said, I have enough; keep what is yours, my brother, for yourself.

And Jacob said, Not so; but if I have grace in your eyes, take them as a sign of my love, for I have seen your face as one may see the face of God, and you have been pleased with me.

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.

And Esau said, Then keep some of my men with you. And he said, What need is there for that, if my lord is pleased with me?

Then his heart went out in love to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he said comforting words to her.

And Shechem said to Hamor, his father, Get me this girl for my wife.

Now Jacob had word of what Shechem had done to his daughter; but his sons were in the fields with the cattle, and Jacob said nothing till they came.

Now the sons of Jacob came in from the fields when they had news of it, and they were wounded and very angry because of the shame he had done in Israel by having connection with Jacob's daughter; and they said, Such a thing is not to be done.

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?

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.

And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause of shame to us:

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.

Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-place of their town, and said to the men of the town,

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.

But they said, Were we to let him make use of our sister as a loose woman?

And God said to Jacob, Go up now to Beth-el and make your living-place there: and put up an altar there to the God who came to you when you were in flight from your brother Esau.

Then Jacob said to all his people, Put away the strange gods which are among you, and make yourselves clean, and put on a change of clothing:

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

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

And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my dream.

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 he gave word of it to his father and his brothers; but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this? am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our faces to the earth before you?

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.

And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?

And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give me word of where they are keeping their flock.

And the man said, They have gone away from here, for they said in my hearing, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after them and came up with them at Dothan.

Do not put him to a violent death, but let him be placed in one of the holes; this he said to keep him safe from their hands, with the purpose of taking him back to his father again.

And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?

He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do?

And they took the coat to their father, and said, We came across this; is it your son's coat or not?

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.

Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife and do what it is right for a husband's brother to do; make her your wife and get offspring for your brother.

Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Go back to your father's house and keep yourself as a widow till my son Shelah becomes a man: for he had in his mind the thought that death might come to him as it had come to his brothers. So Tamar went back to her father's house.

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?

And he said, I will give you a young goat from the flock. And she said, What will you give me as a sign till you send it?

And he said, What would you have? And she said, Your ring and its cord and the stick in your hand. So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she became with child by him.

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.

So he went back to Judah, and said, I have not seen her, and the men of the place say that there is no such woman there.

And Judah said, Let her keep the things, so that we may not be shamed; I sent the young goat, but you did not see the woman.

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.

Then Judah said openly that they were his, and said, She is more upright than I am, for I did not give her to Shelah my son. And he had no more connection with her.

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 after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover.

But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his property in my control;

And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but slipping out of his coat, he went running away.

She sent for the men of her house and said to them, See, he has let a Hebrew come here and make sport of us; he came to my bed, and I gave a loud cry;

And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

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?

Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me;

Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three branches are three days;

Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream; and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on my head;

Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three baskets are three days;

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

Then the chief wine-servant said to Pharaoh, The memory of my sin comes back to me now;

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

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is put before you.

Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer of peace for Pharaoh.

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

Then Joseph said, These two dreams have the same sense: God has made clear to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

As I said to Pharaoh before, God has made clear to him what he is about to do.

Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom and good sense as you:

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt.

And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said, God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and of my father's house.

And to the second he gave the name Ephraim, for he said, God has given me fruit in the land of my sorrow.

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.

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

And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt: go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death may be ours.

But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with them, for fear, as he said, that some evil might come to him.

And when Joseph saw his brothers, it was clear to him who they were, but he made himself strange to them, and talking roughly to them, said, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to get food.

Then the memory of his dreams about them came back to Joseph, and he said to them, You have come secretly to see how poor the land is.

And they said to him, Not so, my lord: your servants have come with money to get food.

And he said to them, No, but you have come to see how poor the land is.

Then they said, We your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest of us is now with our father, and one is dead.

And Joseph said, It is as I said; you have come with some secret purpose;

And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, if you would keep your lives: for I am a god-fearing man:

And they said to one another, Truly, we did wrong to our brother, for we saw his grief of mind, and we did not give ear to his prayers; that is why this trouble has come on us.

And Reuben said to them, Did I not say to you, Do the child no wrong? but you gave no attention; so now, punishment has come on us for his blood.

And he said to his brothers, My money has been given back: it is in my bag; then their hearts became full of fear, and turning to one another they said, What is this which God has done to us?

And we said to him, We are true men, we have no evil designs;

And the ruler of the land said, In this way I may be certain that you are true men; let one of you be kept here with me, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;

And Jacob their father said to them, You have taken my children from me: Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone, and now you would take Benjamin away; all these things have come on me.

And Reuben said, Put my two sons to death if I do not come back to you with him; let him be in my care and I will give him safely back to you.

And he said, I will not let my son go down with you; for his brother is dead and he is all I have: if evil overtakes him on the journey, then through you will my grey head go down to the underworld in sorrow.

And when the grain which they had got in Egypt was all used up, their father said to them, Go again and get us a little food.

And Judah said to him, The man said to us with an oath, You are not to come before me again without your brother.

But if you will not send him, we will not go down: for the man said to us, You are not to come before me if your brother is not with you.

And Israel said, Why were you so cruel to me as to say to him that you had a brother?

And they said, The man put a number of questions to us about ourselves and our family, saying, Is your father still living? have you another brother? And we had to give him answers; how were we to have any idea that he would say, Come back with your brother?

Then Judah said to Israel, his father, Send the boy with me, and let us be up and going, so that we and you and our little ones may not come to destruction.

Then their father Israel said to them, If it has to be so, then do this: take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels to give the man, perfumes and honey and spices and nuts:

So they took what their father said for the man, and twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph.

And when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said to his chief servant, Take these men into my house, and make ready a meal, for they will take food with me in the middle of the day.

And the servant did as Joseph said, and took the men into Joseph's house.

Now the men were full of fear because they had been taken into Joseph's house and they said, It is because of the money which was put back in our bags the first time; he is looking for something against us, so that he may come down on us and take us and our asses for his use.