'Family' in the Bible

These are the family records of the descendants of Adam. On the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God;

These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.

These are the family records of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They also had sons after the flood.

These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their family records, in their nations. The nations on earth spread out from these after the flood.

These are the family records of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.

but will go to my land and my family to take a wife for my son Isaac.”

but will go to my father’s household and to my family to take a wife for my son.’

He said to me, ‘The Lord before whom I have walked will send His angel with you and make your journey a success, and you will take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s household.

Then you will be free from my oath if you go to my family and they do not give her to you—you will be free from my oath.’

These are the family records of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave, bore to Abraham.

These are the names of Ishmael’s sons; their names according to the family records are: Nebaioth, Ishmael’s firstborn, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

These are the family records of Isaac son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac.

Then she said, “Here is my slave Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she’ll bear children for me so that through her I too can build a family.”

For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?”

Then the Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”

Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’

So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

These are the family records of Esau (that is, Edom).

These are the family records of Esau, father of the Edomites in the mountains of Seir.

These are the family records of Jacob.At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.

They answered, “The man kept asking about us and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:

Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman.

You are not to have sexual intercourse with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, because it will shame your family.

then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.

except for his immediate family: his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother.

He may make himself unclean for his young unmarried sister in his immediate family.

“No one outside a priest’s family is to eat the holy offering. A foreigner staying with a priest or a hired hand is not to eat the holy offering.

If the priest’s daughter is married to a man outside a priest’s family, she is not to eat from the holy contributions.

If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers and obtains enough to redeem his land,

The descendants of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting one by one the names of every male 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Simeon: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, those registered counting one by one the names of every male 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Gad: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Judah: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Issachar: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Zebulun: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Joseph: The descendants of Ephraim: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Manasseh: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Benjamin: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Dan: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Asher: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

The descendants of Naphtali: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of those 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

These are the family records of Aaron and Moses at the time the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.

and the leader of the Gershonite family was Eliasaph son of Lael.

and the leader of the family of the Kohathite clans was Elizaphan son of Uzziel.

The leader of the family of the Merarite clans was Zuriel son of Abihail; they camped on the north side of the tabernacle.

Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents. The Lord was very angry; Moses was also provoked.

These were the Levite family groups:the Libnite clan,the Hebronite clan,the Mahlite clan,the Mushite clan,and the Korahite clan.Kohath was the ancestor of Amram.

“You, Eleazar the priest, and the family leaders of the community are to take a count of what was captured, man and beast.

So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the family leaders of the Israelite tribes.

The family leaders from the clan of the descendants of Gilead—the son of Machir, son of Manasseh—who were from the clans of the sons of Joseph, approached and addressed Moses and the leaders who were over the Israelite families.

You may spend the money on anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or anything you desire. You are to feast there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice with your family.

But if your slave says to you, ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your family, and is well off with you,

Each year you and your family are to eat it before the Lord your God in the place the Lord chooses.

They will eat equal portions besides what he has received from the sale of the family estate.

“When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, have sexual relations with her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

And his family name in Israel will be called ‘The house of the man whose sandal was removed.’

Now please swear to me by the Lord that you will also show kindness to my family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign

unless, when we enter the land, you tie this scarlet cord to the window through which you let us down. Bring your father, mother, brothers, and all your father’s family into your house.

So the young men who had scouted went in and brought out Rahab and her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel.

In the morning you must present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the Lord selects is to come forward clan by clan. The clan the Lord selects is to come forward family by family. The family the Lord selects is to come forward man by man.

He then had Zabdi’s family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected.

So Joshua replied to Joseph’s family (that is, Ephraim and Manasseh), “You have many people and great strength. You will not have just one allotment,

Then they are to divide it into seven portions. Judah is to remain in its territory in the south and Joseph’s family in their territory in the north.

They sent 10 leaders with him—one family leader for each tribe of Israel. All of them were heads of their families among the clans of Israel.

But if it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.”

When he showed them the way into the town, they put the town to the sword but released the man and his entire family.

Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

He said to Him, “Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

“Now if you have acted faithfully and honestly in making Abimelech king, if you have done well by Jerubbaal and his family, and if you have rewarded him appropriately for what he did—

There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children.

Then his brothers and his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. So he judged Israel 20 years.

They told him, “Be quiet. Keep your mouth shut. Come with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one person or for you to be a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?”

The Danites said to him, “Don’t raise your voice against us, or angry men will attack you, and you and your family will lose your lives.”

At that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and family. Each returned from there to his own inheritance.

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side named Boaz. He was a prominent man of noble character from Elimelech’s family.

So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.

Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, who has not forsaken his kindness to the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.”

So he asked, “Who are you?”“I am Ruth, your slave,” she replied. “Spread your cloak over me, for you are a family redeemer.”

Yes, it is true that I am a family redeemer, but there is a redeemer closer than I am.

Boaz went to the gate of the town and sat down there. Soon the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz called him by name and said, “Come over here and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

Then the women said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name become well known in Israel.

“Therefore, this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Israel:‘Although I saidyour family and your ancestral housewould walk before Me forever,the Lord now says, “No longer!”I will honor those who honor Me,but those who despise Me will be disgraced.

“‘Look, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your ancestral family, so that none in your family will reach old age.

You will see distress in the place of worship, in spite of all that is good in Israel, and no one in your family will ever again reach old age.

Any man from your family I do not cut off from My altar will bring grief and sadness to you. All your descendants will die violently.

Anyone who is left in your family will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread. He will say: Please appoint me to some priestly office so I can have a piece of bread to eat.’”

On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I said about his family, from beginning to end.

I told him that I am going to judge his family forever because of the iniquity he knows about: his sons are defiling the sanctuary, and he has not stopped them.

Therefore, I have sworn to Eli’s family: The iniquity of Eli’s family will never be wiped out by either sacrifice or offering.”

As for the donkeys that wandered away from you three days ago, don’t worry about them because they’ve been found. And who does all Israel desire but you and all your father’s family?”

Then David responded, “Who am I, and what is my family or my father’s clan in Israel that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”

So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When David’s brothers and his father’s whole family heard, they went down and joined him there.

The king sent messengers to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and his father’s whole family, who were priests in Nob. All of them came to the king.

But the king said, “You will die, Ahimelech—you and your father’s whole family!”

Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew that Doeg the Edomite was there that day and that he was sure to report to Saul. I myself am responsible for the lives of everyone in your father’s family.

Therefore swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.”

Then say this: ‘Long life to you, and peace to you, to your family, and to all that is yours.

Now consider carefully what you must do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”