But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.

When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

Then Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away with his wife and all he had.

The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”

Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?

for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned.

Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’”

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly.

Abimelech replied, “I don’t know who did this thing. You didn’t report anything to me, so I hadn’t heard about it until today.”

“Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.

When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.

But her brother and mother said, “Let the girl stay with us for about 10 days. Then she can go.”

“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”

The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about;

When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.”

On that same day Isaac’s slaves came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!”

When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him, hugged him, and kissed him. Then he took him to his house, and Jacob told him all that had happened.

Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident and were deeply grieved and angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.

Live with us. The land is before you. Settle here, move about, and acquire property in it.”

“These men are peaceful toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and move about in it, for indeed, the region is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as our wives and give our daughters to them.

While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had 12 sons:

These are the family records of Jacob.

At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.

About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.”

“Bring her out!” Judah said. “Let her be burned to death!”

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.”

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams mean the same thing. God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do.

“It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.

Joseph remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies. You have come to see the weakness of the land.”

They answered, “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”

He asked if they were well, and he said, “How is your elderly father that you told me about? Is he still alive?”

When he looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother that you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son.”

Joseph hurried out because he was overcome with emotion for his brother, and he was about to weep. He went into an inner room to weep.

Tell my father about all my glory in Egypt and about all you have seen. And bring my father here quickly.”

Do not be concerned about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

Then Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

Then he commanded them: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

my father made me take an oath, saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings.

Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and about all the signs He had commanded him to do.

So Moses said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt,

The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 soldiers on foot, besides their families.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said: “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”

in the morning you will see the Lord’s glory because He has heard your complaints about Him. For who are we that you complain about us?”

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and His people Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

Instruct them about the statutes and laws, and teach them the way to live and what they must do.

I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony; I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.

Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from Your great anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for Your people.

So the Lord relented concerning the disaster He said He would bring on His people.

The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about 3,000 men fell dead that day among the people.

Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about; see, My angel will go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will hold them accountable for their sin.”

or someone informs him about the sin he has committed, he is to bring an unblemished male goat as his offering.

or if someone informs him about the sin he has committed, then he is to bring an unblemished female goat as his offering for the sin that he has committed.

“When someone sins in any of these ways:

If he has seen, heard, or known about something he has witnessed, and did not respond to a public call to testify, he is responsible for his sin.

or finds something lost and lies about it; or swears falsely about any of the sinful things a person may do—

or anything else about which he swore falsely. He must make full restitution for it and add a fifth of its value to it. He is to pay it to its owner on the day he acknowledges his guilt.

Later, Moses inquired about the male goat of the sin offering, but it had already been burned up. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s surviving sons, and asked,

You must not go about spreading slander among your people; you must not jeopardize your neighbor’s life; I am Yahweh.

Whenever the camp is about to move on, Aaron and his sons are to go in, take down the screening veil, and cover the ark of the testimony with it.

Now the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

A wind sent by the Lord came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them at the camp all around, three feet off the ground, about a day’s journey in every direction.

So they gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: “The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size.

All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

But Moses replied to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear about it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from them.

“How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about Me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against Me.

Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you 20 years old or more—because you have complained about Me.

So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land—

those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the Lord.

Therefore, it is you and all your followers who have conspired against the Lord! As for Aaron, who is he that you should complain about him?”

But if the Lord brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord.”

The next day the entire Israelite community complained about Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!”

The staff of the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid Myself of the Israelites’ complaints that they have been making about you.”

From there they went to Beer, the well the Lord told Moses about, “Gather the people so I may give them water.”

There is no magic curse against Jacob
and no divination against Israel.
It will now be said about Jacob and Israel,
“What great things God has done!”

and her father hears about her vow or the obligation she put herself under, and he says nothing to her, all her vows and every obligation she put herself under are binding.

But if her father prohibits her on the day he hears about it, none of her vows and none of the obligations she put herself under are binding. The Lord will absolve her because her father has prohibited her.

and her husband hears about it and says nothing to her when he finds out, her vows are binding, and the obligations she put herself under are binding.

But if her husband prohibits her when he hears about it, he will cancel her vow that is binding or the rash commitment she herself made, and the Lord will forgive her.

and her husband hears about it, says nothing to her, and does not prohibit her, all her vows are binding, and every obligation she put herself under is binding.

But if her husband cancels them on the day he hears about it, nothing that came from her lips, whether her vows or her obligation, is binding. Her husband has canceled them, and the Lord will absolve her.

If her husband says nothing at all to her from day to day, he confirms all her vows and obligations, which are binding. He has confirmed them because he said nothing to her when he heard about them.

But if he cancels them after he hears about them, he will be responsible for her commitment.”

So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the family leaders of the Israelite tribes.

At that time I commanded you about all the things you were to do.

“Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us, so that they may explore the land for us and bring us back a report about the route we should go up and the cities we will come to.’

Command the people: You are about to travel through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.

Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on the peoples everywhere under heaven. They will hear the report about you, tremble, and be in anguish because of you.’

“I commanded Joshua at that time: Your own eyes have seen everything the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

“But the Lord was angry with me on account of you and would not listen to me. The Lord said to me, ‘That’s enough! Do not speak to Me again about this matter.

Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’