but a stream [would] rise from the earth and water the whole face of the ground--

And out of the ground Yahweh God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and he brought [each] to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called that living creature [was] its name.

Then Yahweh said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain will be avenged sevenfold." Then Yahweh put a sign on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.

I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth which, if anyone were able to count the dust of the earth, your descendants would be [so] counted.

{that neither a thread nor} a thong of a sandal would I take from all that [belongs] to you, that you might not say, 'I made Abram rich.'

Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to kill [the] righteous with [the] wicked, that the righteous would be as the wicked! Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do justice?"

And she said, "Who would announce to Abraham [that] Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son [to Abraham] in his old age."

Then today I came to the spring, and I said, 'O Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, {if you would please make my journey successful}, upon which I am going.

And Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Surely she [is] your wife. Now why did you say 'She [is] my sister'?" And Isaac said to him, "Because I thought I would die on account of her."

And Abimelech said, "What [is] this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife! Then you would have brought guilt upon us!"

But with the more feeble of the flock he would not put [them there]. So the feebler were Laban's and the stronger [were] Jacob's.

Why did you hide [your intention] to flee and {trick me}, and did not tell me so that I would have sent you away with joy and song and tambourine and lyre?

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had not been with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."

But he said to him, "My lord knows that the children [are] frail, and the flocks and the cattle [which are] nursing [are a concern] to me. Now [if] they drove them hard for a day all the flocks would die.

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be for him, so whenever he went in to the wife of his brother he would waste [it] on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.

Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Stay a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up," for {he feared he would also die} like his brother. So Tamar went and stayed in the house of her father.

But Jacob did not send Benjamin, the brother of Joseph, for {he feared harm would come to him}.

Then each said to his brother, "Surely we [are] guilty on account of our brother when we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded for mercy to us and we would not listen. Therefore this trouble has come to us."

And Jacob their father said to them, "You have bereaved me--Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and Benjamin you would take! All of this [is] against me!

But he said, "My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone remains. [If] harm meets him on the journey that you would take, you would bring down my gray head in sorrow to Sheol."

And they said, "The man asked explicitly about us and about our family, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?' And we answered him according to these words. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring down your brother'?"

Surely if we had not hesitated by this [time] we would have returned twice."

Behold, the money that we found in the mouth of our sacks we returned to you from the land of Canaan. Now why would we steal silver or gold from the house of my lord?

Then we said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; if he should leave his father, then he would die.'

And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

For now I could have stretched out my hand, and I could have struck you and your people with the plague, and you would have perished from the earth.

And when Moses raised his hand, Israel would prevail, but when he rested his hand, Amalek would prevail.

And they judged the people all the time; the difficult issues they would bring to Moses, and every minor issue they would judge themselves.

And the sound of the ram's horn became {louder and louder}, and Moses would speak, and God would answer him with a voice.

And Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to the {Israelites}, 'You [are] a stiff-necked people; [if] one moment I were to go up among you, I would destroy you. And now take down your ornaments from on you, and I will {decide} what I will do to you."

And Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp far from the camp, and he called it the tent of assembly, {and} all seeking Yahweh would go out to the tent of assembly, which [was] outside the camp.

{And} at the going out of Moses to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at the opening of his tent, and gaze after Moses until his entering the tent.

{And} at the entering of Moses [into] the tent the column of cloud would descend and stand [at] the opening of the tent, and he would speak with Moses.

And all the people would see the column of cloud standing [at] the opening of the tent, and all the people would rise and bow in worship, each [at] the opening of his tent.

And Yahweh would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his neighbor. And he would return to the camp, and his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the middle of the tent.

And when Moses came before Yahweh to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he went out, and he would go out and would speak to the {Israelites} what he had been commanded.

And the {Israelites} would see the face of Moses, that the skin of the face of Moses shone, and Moses would put back the veil on his face until his coming to speak with him.

And they tied the breast piece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord [so that] the breast piece [would] be on the waistband of the ephod and not come loose from the ephod, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

And the opening of the robe in the middle of it was like the opening of a sturdy garment, [with] an edge for its opening all around so that it would not be torn.

So Aaron said to Moses, "Look, today they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering {before} Yahweh, and [things] such as these have happened to me, and [if] I were to eat a sin offering today, would it have been good in Yahweh's eyes?"

And when Moses came to the tent of assembly to speak with him, he would hear the voice speaking to him from the atonement cover, which [is] on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim, and he would speak to him.

So it was continually; the cloud would cover it and the appearance of fire [by] night.

[Whenever] the cloud lifted up from on the tent, after that the {Israelites} would set out, and in the place where the cloud dwelled, there the {Israelites} camped.

On the {command of Yahweh} the {Israelites} would set out, and on the {command of Yahweh} they encamped; all the days that the cloud dwelled on the tabernacle they encamped.

When the cloud {remained} from evening until morning, and the cloud lifted up in the morning, they would set out, or [if it remained] in the daytime and [at] night, [when] the cloud lifted up they set out.

And whenever the ark was setting out Moses would say, "Rise up, Yahweh! May your enemies be scattered; may the ones that hate you flee from your presence."

And when it rested he would say, "Return, Yahweh, to the countless thousands of Israel."

But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that he give all Yahweh's people prophets, that Yahweh put his spirit on them!"

But Yahweh said to Moses, "[If] her father had surely spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be confined for seven days to an outside place of the camp, and afterward she may be gathered."

Why did Yahweh bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little children will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return [to] Egypt?"

But your little children, whom you said would be plunder, I will bring them, and they will know the land that you rejected.

Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you made a mockery of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now!"

The donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times. If she had not turned aside from my face, then I would have killed you and kept her alive."

{Flee} to your place now. I said I would richly honor you, but look, Yahweh has withheld honor from you."

If you turn from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you would have destroyed all these people."

But if they become wives to one of the sons from [another] tribe of the {Israelites}, their inheritance will disappear from the inheritance of our ancestors, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; the lot of our inheritance would disappear.

But Yahweh was very angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me, and Yahweh said, '{Enough of that from you}! You shall not speak to me [any] longer about this matter!

"And Yahweh was angry with me {because of you}, and he swore {that I would not cross the Jordan} and {that I would not go to the good land} that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance.

for Yahweh your God [is] a jealous god in your midst, {so that the anger of Yahweh your God would be kindled}, and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.

For their sons and daughters will cause your son to turn away {from following me}, and [so] they will serve other gods, and {the anger of Yahweh would be kindled} against you, and he would quickly destroy you.

And you shall remember all [of] the way that Yahweh your God led you [during] these forty years in the desert in order to humble you and to test you to know what [is] in your heart, whether you would [diligently] keep his commandments or not.

As [with] the nations that Yahweh [is] destroying {before you}, so you shall perish because you would not obey the voice of Yahweh your God.

"But {whenever you desire} you may slaughter, and you may eat meat according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given to you in all [of] your {towns}; the unclean and the clean may eat it [just] as [they would] the gazelle and as the deer.

You must not do so toward Yahweh your God, because of every detestable thing they have done for their gods Yahweh hates, for even their sons and their daughters they would burn in the fire to their gods.

{Take care} so that there will not be {a thought of wickedness} in your heart, {saying}, 'The seventh year, the year of the remission of debt is near,' {and you view your needy neighbor with hostility}, and [so] you [do] not give to him, and he might cry [out] against you to Yahweh, and {you would incur guilt against yourself}.

And he must not {acquire many} wives for himself, so that his heart [would] turn aside; and {he must not accumulate silver and gold for himself excessively}.

[Do this] so that innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance and [thereby] bloodguilt would be on you.

He may beat him [with] forty lashes, and he shall not do more [than these], so that he [will] not beat more in addition to these many blows, and your countryman would be degraded before your eyes.

If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern {for themselves their end}.

For forty years the {Israelites} traveled in the wilderness until all the nation, the warriors that left Egypt, perished, because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. To them Yahweh swore that they would not see the land that he swore to their ancestors to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

For it was Yahweh that {hardened their hearts}, to meet Israel in war in order to utterly destroy them without mercy, that they would destroy them just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

And the people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we would forsake Yahweh to serve other gods,

And [as for] you, do not {make a covenant} with the inhabitants of this land; break down their altars.' But you did not listen to my voice. {Why would you do such a thing}?

But when the leader died they relapsed and acted corruptly, more than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them, and bowing down to them. They would not give up their deeds or their stubborn ways.

in order to test Israel whether or not they would observe the way of Yahweh, to walk in it just as their ancestors did."

in order that the generations of Israel would know war, to teach those {who had not experienced it} before):

They were [left] for testing Israel, to know [whether] they would keep the commands of Yahweh that he commanded their ancestors through the hand of Moses.

And whenever Israel sowed seed, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of [the] east would come up against them.

They would camp against them and destroy the produce of the land {as far as} Gaza; they left no produce in Israel, or sheep, ox, or donkey.

For they, their livestock, and their tents would come up like a great number of locusts; they and their camels could not be counted; they came into the land and devoured it.

He said, "They [were] my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh lives, if you had kept them alive I would not kill you."

so that the violence done to the seventy brothers of Abimelech would be avenged and their blood be placed on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the lords of Shechem, {who helped} to kill his brothers.

If only this people {were in my command}! Then I would remove Abimelech, and I would have said, 'Increase your army and come out!'"

And he had thirty sons who would ride on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns that [are] in the land of Gilead that they called Havvoth Jair until this day.

Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Please let us cross through your land," but the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent [messengers] to the king of Moab, but he was not willing. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.

I saw that you would not deliver [us]; {I risked my own life}, and I crossed [over] to the {Ammonites}, and Yahweh gave them into my hand. Why have you come up to me this day to fight against me?"

But his wife said to him, "If Yahweh wanted to kill us he would not have taken from our hand the burnt offering and the grain offering, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us things such as these."

The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went [down], "What [is] sweeter than honey? What [is] stronger than a lion?" And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."

After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a {young goat}. He said, "I want to go to my wife's private room." But her father would not allow him to enter.

Then the congregation sent and spoke all [this] to the descendants of Benjamin who [were] at the rock of Rimmon, and {they assured them they would not be hurt}.

And if their fathers or their brothers complain to us, we will say to them, 'Allow us to have them, because we did not capture a wife for each man in the battle, and because you did not give [them] to them, {or else} you would have been guilty.'"

would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore {refrain from marrying}? No, my daughters, for it is far more bitter to me than [to] you. For the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me."

And I thought {I would tell you} and say, '{Buy it in the presence of} those sitting and before the elders of my people,' if you want to redeem [it], redeem [it]. But if you do not want to redeem, tell me so that I may know, for there is no one except you to redeem [it], and I [am] after you." And he said, "I want to redeem [it]."

{On} the day Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

But to Hannah he would give {a double portion}, because he loved Hannah, though Yahweh had closed her womb.

(Now her rival wife would provoke her severely in order to upset her because Yahweh had closed her womb.)

And so he used to do year after year; {whenever} she went up to the house of Yahweh, she would provoke her so that she would weep and would not eat.

So Elkanah her husband would say to her: "Hannah, why do you weep and why do you not eat? And {why are you heartsick}? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"

And the custom of the priests with the people [was this]: When any man {brought a sacrifice}, as the meat was boiling, the servant of the priest would take a three-pronged meat fork in his hand

and would thrust it into the pan or into the kettle or into the cauldron or into the cooking pot. All that the meat fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This [is] what they used to do to all of the Israelites who came there at Shiloh.