Springs would well up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.

The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

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.

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

Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!"

The Lord visited Sarah just as he had said he would and did for Sarah what he had promised.

She went on to say, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!"

So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and gave his solemn promise he would carry out his wishes.

He made the camels kneel down by the well outside the city. It was evening, the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Then Abimelech exclaimed, "What in the world have you done to us? One of the men might easily have had sexual relations with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am deeply depressed because of these daughters of Heth. If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!"

When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well's mouth.

But Leah replied, "Wasn't it enough that you've taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes too?" "All right," Rachel said, "he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes."

When the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

If the God of my father -- the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears -- had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night."

They said to them, "We cannot give our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for it would be a disgrace to us.

But Onan knew that the child would not be considered his. So whenever he had sexual relations with his brother's wife, he withdrew prematurely so as not to give his brother a descendant.

Judah recognized them and said, "She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn't give her to Shelah my son." He did not have sexual relations with her again.

When they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

Reuben said to them, "Didn't I say to you, 'Don't sin against the boy,' but you wouldn't listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!"

They replied, "The man questioned us thoroughly about ourselves and our family, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?' So we answered him in this way. How could we possibly know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down'?"

Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?

I will provide you with food there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor -- you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you."'

His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

But Moses said, "That would not be the right thing to do, for the sacrifices we make to the Lord our God would be an abomination to the Egyptians. If we make sacrifices that are an abomination to the Egyptians right before their eyes, will they not stone us?

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

So now, forgive my sin this time only, and pray to the Lord your God that he would only take this death away from me."

So they gathered it each morning, each person according to what he could eat, and when the sun got hot, it would melt.

Whenever Moses would raise his hands, then Israel prevailed, but whenever he would rest his hands, then Amalek prevailed.

They judged the people under normal circumstances; the difficult cases they would bring to Moses, but every small case they would judge themselves.

Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, at a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp.

And when Moses went out to the tent, all the people would get up and stand at the entrance to their tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent.

And whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.

When all the people would see the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people, each one at the entrance of his own tent, would rise and worship.

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his servant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.

When Moses finished speaking with them, he would put a veil on his face.

But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. Then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded.

When the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord.

They tied the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod by blue cord, so that it was above the waistband of the ephod, so that the breastpiece would not be loose from the ephod, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Moses and Aaron and his sons would wash their hands and their feet from it.

Whenever they entered the tent of meeting, and whenever they approached the altar, they would wash, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

But when the cloud was lifted up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on all their journeys;

but if the cloud was not lifted up, then they would not journey further until the day it was lifted up.

For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, but fire would be on it at night, in plain view of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

But Aaron spoke to Moses, "See here! Just today they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord and such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten a sin offering today would the Lord have been pleased?"

He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him.

This is the way it used to be continually: The cloud would cover it by day, and there was a fiery appearance by night.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the Israelites would begin their journey; and in whatever place the cloud settled, there the Israelites would make camp.

At the commandment of the Lord the Israelites would begin their journey, and at the commandment of the Lord they would make camp; as long as the cloud remained settled over the tabernacle they would camp.

When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a number of days, they remained camped according to the Lord's commandment, and according to the Lord's commandment they would journey.

And when the ark traveled, Moses would say, "Rise up, O Lord! May your enemies be scattered, and may those who hate you flee before you!"

And when it came to rest he would say, "Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel!"

Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?"

Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for me? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!"

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."

Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"

But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised.

Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away the snakes from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, "Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment of the Lord my God to do less or more.

And Balaam said to the donkey, "You have made me look stupid; I wish there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now."

The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her alive."

So now, go back where you came from! I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor."

If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak'?

"Any vow or sworn obligation that would bring affliction to her, her husband can confirm or nullify.

So build cities for your descendants and pens for your sheep, but do what you have said you would do."

Now if they should be married to one of the men from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

Indeed, may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you a thousand times more numerous than you are now, blessing you just as he said he would!

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

But the Lord was angry at me because of you and would not listen to me. Instead, he said to me, "Enough of that! Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

But the Lord became angry with me because of you and vowed that I would never cross the Jordan nor enter the good land that he is about to give you.

(I was standing between the Lord and you at that time to reveal to you the message of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:

If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever.

Just like the nations the Lord is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you because you would not obey him.

And when he sent you from Kadesh-Barnea and told you, "Go up and possess the land I have given you," you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him.

I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, for he had said he would destroy you.

When the Lord your God extends your borders as he said he would do and you say, "I want to eat meat just as I please," you may do so as you wish.

You may eat it in your villages, whether you are ritually impure or clean, just as you would eat a gazelle or an ibex.

You must not shed innocent blood in your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, for that would make you guilty.

The Lord will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you.

All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given you.

Likewise, the most tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters,

Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

But I fear the reaction of their enemies, for their adversaries would misunderstand and say, "Our power is great, and the Lord has not done all this!"'

Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them.

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, a land rich in milk and honey.

They said to Joshua, "It was carefully reported to your subjects how the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified we would lose our lives, so we did this thing.

for the Lord determined to make them obstinate so they would attack Israel. He wanted Israel to annihilate them without mercy, as he had instructed Moses.

One time Acsah came and charmed her father so that she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, "What would you like?"

We swear we have done this because we were worried that in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, 'What relationship do you have with the Lord God of Israel?

One of you makes a thousand run away, for the Lord your God fights for you as he promised you he would.

One time Acsah came and charmed her father so she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, "What would you like?"

but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.' But you have disobeyed me. Why would you do such a thing?

Whenever they went out to fight, the Lord did them harm, just as he had warned and solemnly vowed he would do. They suffered greatly.

When a leader died, the next generation would again act more wickedly than the previous one. They would follow after other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them. They did not give up their practices or their stubborn ways.

Joshua left those nations to test Israel. I wanted to see whether or not the people would carefully walk in the path marked out by the Lord, as their ancestors were careful to do."

They were left to test Israel, so the Lord would know if his people would obey the commands he gave their ancestors through Moses.

She would sit under the Date Palm Tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraimite hill country. The Israelites would come up to her to have their disputes settled.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east would attack them.

He said, "They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. I swear, as surely as the Lord is alive, if you had let them live, I would not kill you."