Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.

Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.

The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.

The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth.

I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

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

So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.

Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.

to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.

So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.

Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”

Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.

Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord.

Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

He spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.”

Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.”

Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.”

now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved.”

Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.

Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.

Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar.

Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them took an oath.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.

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

Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.”

Then Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there!

The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.

But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this my oath; only do not take my son back there.”

and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to lodge in your father’s house?”

the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife.

When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.

And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.

But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water,

He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

Then he went up from there to Beersheba.

So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

They said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,

Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves.

until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.

He looked, and saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for from that well they watered the flocks. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large.

When all the flocks were gathered there, they would then roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.

let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted sheep and every black one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau:

Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there.

Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”

Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother.

Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor.

He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?”

Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her.

He asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the temple prostitute who was by the road at Enaim?” But they said, “There has been no temple prostitute here.”

So he returned to Judah, and said, “I did not find her; and furthermore, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no temple prostitute here.’”

It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb.

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there.

So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”

Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside.

So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.

The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.

Then they said to him, “We have had a dream and there is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.”

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me;

When the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph, “I also saw in my dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head;

and in the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

And lo, from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and fat; and they grazed in the marsh grass.