By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.

So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?”

And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.”

Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

Then He said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground!

Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down,

When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down.

When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the men were building.

Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine in the land was severe.

So Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled his 318 trained men, born in his household, and they went in pursuit as far as Dan.

So he brought all these to Him, split them down the middle, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut up the birds.

Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt.

Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”

I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.”

He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers.

Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”

“Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as a foreigner, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door.

At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”

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

He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace.

So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.”

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.

God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is.

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.”

and said, “By Myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son,

Then Abraham rose and bowed down to the Hittites, the people of the land.

Abraham bowed down to the people of the land

Abraham answered him, “Make sure that you don’t take my son back there.

If the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are free from this oath to me, but don’t let my son go back there.”

The servant took 10 of his master’s camels and departed with all kinds of his master’s goods in hand. Then he set out for Nahor’s town Aram-naharaim.

He made the camels kneel beside a well of water outside the town at evening. This was the time when the women went out to draw water.

I am standing here at the spring where the daughters of the men of the town are coming out to draw water.

Now the girl was very beautiful, a young woman who had not known a man intimately. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up.

Then the man bowed down, worshiped the Lord,

“Before I had finished praying silently, there was Rebekah coming with her jug on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her: Please let me have a drink.

Then I bowed down, worshiped the Lord, and praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who guided me on the right way to take the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son.

They blessed Rebekah, saying to her:

Our sister, may you become
thousands upon ten thousands.
May your offspring possess
the gates of their enemies.

Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from her camel

Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.

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

When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

Then Abimelech said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

You will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have only done what was good to you, sending you away in peace. You are now blessed by the Lord.”

Jacob replied to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may bless me.”

May peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brothers;
may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
Those who curse you will be cursed,
and those who bless you will be blessed.

until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him: “Don’t take a wife from the Canaanite women.

He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place.

And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.

Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”

Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, He has heard me and given me a son,” and she named him Dan.

Later, Leah bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

So Jacob said to him, “You know what I have done for you and your herds.

Laban asked, “What should I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock.

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night. “Watch yourself!” God warned him. “Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war!

I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me: ‘Watch yourself. Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

She said to her father, “Sir, don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

That is why, to this day, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because He struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.

Then the female slaves and their children approached him and bowed down.

Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.

He became infatuated with Dinah, daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her.

Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.

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.

Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I’ll give you whatever you say.

But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and killed every male.

They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away.

During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”

The sons of Rachel’s slave Bilhah
were Dan and Naphtali.

There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me.”

He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him. “What kind of dream is this that you have had?” he said. “Are your mother and brothers and I going to come and bow down to the ground before you?”

Reuben also said to them, “Don’t shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him”—intending to rescue him from their hands and return him to his father.

Then they sat down to eat a meal. They looked up, and there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and resin, going down to Egypt.

All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.

The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there.

“We had dreams,” they said to him, “but there is no one to interpret them.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon.”

Listen,” he went on, “I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die.”

So 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

Joseph was in charge of the country; he sold grain to all its people. His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

He said to his brothers, “My money has been returned! It’s here in my bag.” Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

Then Reuben said to his father, “You can kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”

But Jacob answered, “My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If anything happens to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.”

If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you.

Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and take them down to the man as a gift—some balsam and some honey, aromatic gum and resin, pistachios and almonds.

The men took this gift, double the amount of money, and Benjamin. They made their way down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

They said, “Sir, we really did come down here the first time only to buy food.