Now the man had marital relations with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, "I have created a man just as the Lord did!"

Then she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground.

At the designated time Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground for an offering to the Lord.

but with Cain and his offering he was not pleased. So Cain became very angry, and his expression was downcast.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why is your expression downcast?

Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" And he replied, "I don't know! Am I my brother's guardian?"

Then Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is too great to endure!

But the Lord said to him, "All right then, if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much." Then the Lord put a special mark on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down.

So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Cain had marital relations with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named the city after his son Enoch.

Now Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who heated metal and shaped all kinds of tools made of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

If Cain is to be avenged seven times as much, then Lamech seventy-seven times!"

And Adam had marital relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth, saying, "God has given me another child in place of Abel because Cain killed him."

Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive.

The waters kept receding steadily from the earth, so that they had gone down by the end of the 150 days.

And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted.

that I will take nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, 'It is I who made Abram rich.'

But Abram said, "O sovereign Lord, by what can I know that I am to possess it?"

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts.

So Sarai said to Abram, "Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her." Abram did what Sarai told him.

Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed as he said to himself, "Can a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

He said, "Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant's house. Stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning." "No," they replied, "we'll spend the night in the town square."

They shouted to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!"

Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please. Only don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."

Come, let's make our father drunk with wine so we can have sexual relations with him and preserve our family line through our father."

So in the morning the older daughter said to the younger, "Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let's make him drunk again tonight. Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father."

Now Abimelech had not gone near her. He said, "Lord, would you really slaughter an innocent nation?

When God made me wander from my father's house, I told her, 'This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: Every place we go, say about me, "He is my brother."'"

When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved the child under one of the shrubs.

After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Let me leave now so I can return to my master."

But Rebekah's brother and her mother replied, "Let the girl stay with us a few more days, perhaps ten. Then she can go."

Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau, your firstborn. I've done as you told me. Now sit up and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me."

Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come closer so I can touch you, my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau."

He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau said to him, "My father, get up and eat some of your son's wild game. Then you can bless me."

Isaac replied to Esau, "Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?"

He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then he fell asleep in that place

"We can't," they said, "until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep."

She replied, "Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with her so that she can bear children for me and I can have a family through her."

After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my way so that I can go home to my own country.

There he said to them, "I can tell that your father's attitude toward me has changed, but the God of my father has been with me.

While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father.

Now I understand that you have gone away because you longed desperately for your father's house. Yet why did you steal my gods?"

Laban replied to Jacob, "These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today or the children to whom they have given birth?

You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, and I'll give whatever you ask of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!"

When his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem,

returned to his brothers, and said, "The boy isn't there! And I, where can I go?"

Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard about you, that you can interpret dreams."

So Pharaoh asked his officials, "Can we find a man like Joseph, one in whom the Spirit of God is present?"

Their father Jacob said to them, "You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. Simeon is gone. And now you want to take Benjamin! Everything is against me."

He instructed the servant who was over his household, "Fill the sacks of the men with as much food as they can carry and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.

They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to the servant who was over his household, "Pursue the men at once! When you overtake them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid good with evil?

Joseph said to them, "What did you think you were doing? Don't you know that a man like me can find out things like this by divination?"

Judah replied, "What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? God has exposed the sin of your servants! We are now my lord's slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found."

"Then you told your servants, 'Bring him down to me so I can see him.'

For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't bear to see my father's pain."

You and my brother Benjamin can certainly see with your own eyes that I really am the one who speaks to you.

The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

Then Joseph said, "If your money is gone, bring your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock."

Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather together so I can tell you what will happen to you in the future.

You are a lion's cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness -- who will rouse him?

As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.

Then the Lord became angry with Moses, and he said, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

You go get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.'"

The Lord said to Moses, "Extend your hand toward heaven so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt."

If any household is too small for a lamb, the man and his next-door neighbor are to take a lamb according to the number of people -- you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat.

I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will chase after them. I will gain honor because of Pharaoh and because of all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." So this is what they did.

Isn't this what we told you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, because it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!'"

The Lord will fight for you, and you can be still."

So the people murmured against Moses, saying, "What can we drink?"

"This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Each person is to gather from it what he can eat, an omer per person according to the number of your people; each one will pick it up for whoever lives in his tent.'"

for it is his only covering -- it is his garment for his body. What else can he sleep in? And when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

He told the elders, "Wait for us in this place until we return to you. Here are Aaron and Hur with you. Whoever has any matters of dispute can approach them."

It is to have two shoulder pieces attached to two of its corners, so it can be joined together.

"Take choice spices: twelve and a half pounds of free-flowing myrrh, half that -- about six and a quarter pounds -- of sweet-smelling cinnamon, six and a quarter pounds of sweet-smelling cane,

So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation."

The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a very serious sin, but now I will go up to the Lord -- perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin."

But he added, "You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live."

"'No grain offering which you present to the Lord can be made with yeast, for you must not offer up in smoke any yeast or honey as a gift to the Lord.

You can present them to the Lord as an offering of first fruit, but they must not go up to the altar for a soothing aroma.

or when he touches human uncleanness with regard to anything by which he can become unclean, even if he did not realize it, but he himself has later come to know it and is guilty;

"'These you can eat from all creatures that are in the water: Any creatures in the water that have both fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the streams, you may eat.

The priest must then examine it on the seventh day, and if, as far as he can see, the infection has stayed the same and has not spread on the skin, then the priest is to quarantine the person for another seven days.

If, however, the disease breaks out on the skin so that the disease covers all the skin of the person with the infection from his head to his feet, as far as the priest can see,

If, as far as the priest can see, the scall has stayed the same and black hair has sprouted in it, the scall has been healed; the person is clean. So the priest is to pronounce him clean.

If he is too poor to pay the conversion value, he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value; according to what the man who made the vow can afford, the priest will establish his conversion value.

You and Aaron are to number all in Israel who can serve in the army, those who are twenty years old or older, by their divisions.

But if the individual has no close relative to whom reparation can be made for the wrong, the reparation for the wrong must be paid to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him.

Then the priest will put the woman under oath and say to the her, "If no other man has had sexual relations with you, and if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband's authority, may you be free from this bitter water that brings a curse.

But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had sexual relations with you."

"This is the law of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord his offering according to his separation, as well as whatever else he can provide. Thus he must fulfill his vow that he makes, according to the law of his separation."

But two men remained in the camp; one's name was Eldad, and the other's name was Medad. And the spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp.

The Lord said to Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again."

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!"

Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully -- I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants will possess it.

Moreover, you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you think you can blind these men? We will not come up."

"Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!" But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground.

Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord -- the plague has begun!"

You must give it to Eleazar the priest so that he can take it outside the camp, and it must be slaughtered before him.

How can I curse one whom God has not cursed, or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?