'Brother' in the Bible

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

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?"

The name of his brother was Jubal; he was the first of all who play the harp and the flute.

And sons were also born to Shem (the older brother of Japheth), the father of all the sons of Eber.

A fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner. (All these were allied by treaty with Abram.)

Did Abraham not say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' I have done this with a clear conscience and with innocent hands!"

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."'"

To Sarah he said, "Look, I have given a thousand pieces of silver to your 'brother.' This is compensation for you so that you will stand vindicated before all who are with you."

After these things Abraham was told, "Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor --

Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram),

(Now Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.) These were the eight sons Milcah bore to Abraham's brother Nahor.

Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah (Milcah was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor).

(Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban.) Laban rushed out to meet the man at the spring.

Then I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right path to find the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.

Then he brought out gold, silver jewelry, and clothing and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave valuable gifts to her brother and to her mother.

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

When his brother came out with his hand clutching Esau's heel, they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I overheard your father tell your brother Esau,

"But Esau my brother is a hairy man," Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, "and I have smooth skin!

He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau's hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob.

Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt.

But Isaac replied, "Your brother came in here deceitfully and took away your blessing."

You will live by your sword but you will serve your brother. When you grow restless, you will tear off his yoke from your neck."

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. Esau said privately, "The time of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill my brother Jacob!"

When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, she quickly summoned her younger son Jacob and told him, "Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you.

Now then, my son, do what I say. Run away immediately to my brother Laban in Haran.

Leave immediately for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region of Edom.

The messengers returned to Jacob and said, "We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him."

Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.

Jacob stayed there that night. Then he sent as a gift to his brother Esau

He instructed the servant leading the first herd, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?'

But Jacob himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

But Esau said, "I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you."

Then God said to Jacob, "Go up at once to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."

He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from Jacob his brother

Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let's not lay a hand on him, for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers agreed.

Then Judah said to Onan, "Have sexual relations with your brother's wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise up a descendant for your brother."

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.

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. She said, "How you have broken out of the womb!" So he was named Perez.

Afterward his brother came out -- the one who had the scarlet thread on his hand -- and he was named Zerah.

But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "What if some accident happens to him?"

You will be tested in this way: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

One of you must go and get your brother, while the rest of you remain in prison. In this way your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!"

But you must bring your youngest brother to me. Then your words will be verified and you will not die." They did as he said.

They said to one other, "Surely we're being punished because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress has come on us!"

But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know that you are honest men and not spies. Then I will give your brother back to you and you may move about freely in the land.'"

But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave."

But Judah said to him, "The man solemnly warned us, 'You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.'

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

But if you will not send him, we won't go down there because the man said to us, 'You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

Israel said, "Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had one more brother?"

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'?"

Take your brother too, and go right away to the man.

May the sovereign God grant you mercy before the man so that he may release your other brother and Benjamin! As for me, if I lose my children I lose them."

When Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, he said, "Is this your youngest brother, whom you told me about?" Then he said, "May God be gracious to you, my son."

Joseph hurried out, for he was overcome by affection for his brother and was at the point of tears. So he went to his room and wept there.

My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?'

We said to my lord, 'We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old. The boy's brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him.'

But you said to your servants, 'If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.'

But we replied, 'We cannot go down there. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go, for we won't be permitted to see the man's face if our youngest brother is not with us.'

Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me," so they came near. Then he said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

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

Then he threw himself on the neck of his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations."

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.

So the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

You are to speak everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh that he must release the Israelites from his land.

"And you, bring near to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests -- Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.

You must make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for glory and for beauty.

Now these are the garments that they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a fitted tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make holy garments for your brother Aaron and for his sons, that they may minister as my priests.

"You are to clothe them -- your brother Aaron and his sons with him -- and anoint them and ordain them and set them apart as holy, so that they may minister as my priests.

and he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Each man fasten his sword on his side, and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and each one kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.'"

Moses said, "You have been consecrated today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today."

and the Lord said to Moses: "Tell Aaron your brother that he must not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil-canopy in front of the atonement plate that is on the ark so that he may not die, for I will appear in the cloud over the atonement plate.

You must not expose the nakedness of your father's brother; you must not approach his wife to have sexual intercourse with her. She is your aunt.

You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him.

except for his close relative who is near to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother,

If you make a sale to your fellow citizen or buy from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother.

"'If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold.

"'If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident.

Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you.

"'If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service.

You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly.

"'If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member of a foreigner's family,

He must not defile himself even for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, because the separation for his God is on his head.

"Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink."

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: "Thus says your brother Israel: 'You know all the hardships we have experienced,

When you have seen it, you will be gathered to your ancestors, as Aaron your brother was gathered to his ancestors.

They said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites; and my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

Suppose your own full brother, your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have previously known,

If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man's wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband's brother must go to her, marry her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law.

Then the first son she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel.

But if the man does not want to marry his brother's widow, then she must go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to preserve his brother's name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!"

The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.

You will die on the mountain that you ascend and join your deceased ancestors, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and joined his deceased ancestors,