'Us' in the Bible

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, to be like us. Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over the earth itself!"

Later, the LORD God said, "Look! The man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, so he won't reach out, also take from the tree of life, eat, and then live forever "

whom he named Noah, because he said, "May this one comfort us from our work, from pain that is caused by our manual labor, and from the ground that the LORD has cursed."

They called out to Lot and asked, "Where are the men who came to visit you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!"

because we're going to destroy it. Their outcry has come to the attention of the LORD, so he sent us here to destroy it!"

One day the firstborn told the younger one, "Our father is old, and there's no man in the land to have sex with us, as everybody else throughout all the earth does.

Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great sin against me and my kingdom? You've done things to me that ought not to have been done."

"Listen to us, sir. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial tombs. None of us would refuse you his tomb for burying your dead."

"Sir, listen to me! The land is worth 400 shekels of silver, but what's that between us? You may bury your dead."

He asked her, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?"

But her brother and mother said, "Let the young lady stay with us a few days at least ten and after that she may go."

and asked the servant, "Who is that man coming in the field to meet us?"

"What have you done to us?" Abimelech asked. "Any minute now, one of the people could have had sex with your wife and you would have caused all of us to be guilty."

Then Abimelech ordered Isaac, "Move away from us! You've become more powerful than we are."

Then he left that area and dug still another well. Because they did not quarrel over that one, Isaac named it Rehoboth, because he used to say, "The LORD has enlarged the territory for us. We will prosper in the land."

"We've seen that the LORD is with you," they responded, "so we're proposing an agreement between us between us and you. Allow us to make a treaty with you

by which you'll agree not to do us any harm, just as we haven't harmed you, since we've done nothing but good for you after we sent you away in peace. As a result, you've been tremendously blessed by the LORD."

and informed them, "I've noticed that the way your father has been looking at us hasn't been as nice as it was just two days ago. But my father's God has been with me.

He's treating us like foreigners. He sold us and spent all of the money that rightfully belonged to us.

Furthermore, all of the wealth that God has stripped away from our father belongs to us now and to our children. So do everything that God tells you to do."

Now that you've searched all my belongings, what did you find that belongs to your house? Set it here in front of our relatives and we'll let them judge between us!

If you mistreat my daughters or if you take other wives besides them, though no one is watching us, keep in mind that God stands as a witness between you and me."

May Abraham's God and Nahor's god judge between us."

then you are to reply, "We're from your servant Jacob. The herds are a gift. He's sending them to my master, Esau. Look! There he is, coming along behind us.'"

You are to tell him, "Look! Your servant Jacob is coming along behind us.'"

Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us and take our sons for yourselves.

Live with us anywhere you want. Live, trade, and grow rich in it."

They told them, "We can't do this. We can't give our sister to a man who isn't circumcised, because that would be insulting to us.

But we'll agree to your request, only if you will become like us by circumcising every male among you.

But if you won't listen to us, then we're going to take our daughter and leave."

"These men are at peace with us," they announced. "Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. Look! The land is large enough for them. Let's take their daughters as wives for ourselves and let's give our sons to them.

"However," they added, "only on this condition will the men consent to live with us and be united as a single people with us: every male among us will have to be circumcised just as they are.

Shouldn't all their cattle, acquisitions, and animals belong to us? So, let's give our consent to them, and then they'll live with us."

At this, his brothers replied, "Do you really think you're going to rule us or lord it over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his interpretations of them.

and yelled for her household servants. "Look!" she cried out. "My husband brought in a Hebrew man to humiliate us. He came in here to have sex with me, but I screamed out loud!

and then this is what she told him: "That Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in here to rape me.

There was a Hebrew young man incarcerated with us, who was also working as a servant to the captain of the bodyguard.

"We each related our dreams, and then he interpreted them for us. He provided specific meanings for each of our dreams. And what he interpreted for each of us came true! Pharaoh restored me to my responsibilities, but he executed the other man."

Pay attention now! I've heard that there is grain in Egypt, so go down there and buy some grain for us, so we can live, instead of dying."

"We're all guilty because of what we did to our brother!" they told each other. "We kept on watching his suffering while he pleaded with us! We're in this mess because we wouldn't listen!"

He reported to his brothers, "My money has been returned! It's right here in my sack!" Trembling with mounting consternation, each of them asked one another, "What is God doing to us?"

"The man who was in charge of the land spoke harshly to us," they said. "He accused us of being spies!

Our father has twelve sons, but one of us isn't alive anymore, and our youngest brother is with our father today back home in Canaan.'

As a result, when Jacob's family was beginning to eat the last of the grain that they had brought back from Egypt, their father Jacob told his sons, "Go back to Egypt and buy us some food."

But Judah reminded him, "The man distinctly warned us: "You'll never see my face unless your brother comes with you.'

So if you send our brother with us, we'll go down and buy some food.

But if you don't send him, we're not going, because the man told us, "You'll never see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

"The man specifically asked about us and our relatives," they responded. "He asked us, "Is your father still alive?' and "Do you have another brother?' So we answered his questions. How could we have known that he would tell us to bring our brother back with us?"

"Send the young man with me," Judah told his father Israel, "and we'll get up and go so we can survive and not die and that includes all of us, you and our families.

The men were terrified as they were being taken to Joseph's palace. "It's because of that money that was returned to our sacks the first time we were brought to him," they reasoned. "He's seeking an excuse to attack us, enslave us, and confiscate our donkeys!"

when we arrived at our overnight lodging place, we opened our sacks and discovered each man's money was still in the mouth of his sack. All of our money was there! We've brought it back with us in full.

""Go back,' our father ordered, "and buy us a little food.'

"But we told him, "We can't go back there. If our youngest brother accompanies us, we'll go back, but we cannot see the man's face again unless our youngest brother accompanies us.'

"Then your servant, our father, told us, "You know my wife bore me two sons.

"So when I go back to your servant, my father, and the young man isn't with us, since he's constantly living life focused on his son,

when he notices that the young man hasn't come back with us, he'll die, and your servants really will have brought death to your servant, our father, along with his sad, gray hair!

"I'm your brother Joseph, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt!" he told them. "But don't be distressed or angry at yourselves because you sold me here, because God sent me ahead of you all in order to deliver us.

After all the money had been spent throughout Egypt and Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and demanded, "Give us food! Why should we die right in front of you? Our money is spent!"

So why should we and our land die right in front of you? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed, so we can survive and not die, and so the land won't stay desolate."

Later, after Joseph's brothers faced the reality of their father's death, they asked themselves, "What happens if Joseph decides to hold a grudge against us? What if he pays us back in full for all the wrong things we did to him?"

"Before he died, your father left some instructions. He told us, "Tell Joseph, "Please forgive your brothers' offenses. I beg you, forgive their sins, because they wronged you."' So please forgive the transgression of the servants of your father's God."

Come on, let's be careful how we treat them, so that when they grow numerous, if a war breaks out they won't join our enemies, fight against us, and leave our land."

The man replied, "Who appointed you to be an official judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses became terrified and told himself, "Certainly this event has become known!"

"An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds," they replied, "and he even drew water for us and watered the sheep!"

"The elders of Israel will listen to you, and then you and they are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, "The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now, let us take a three-day journey into the desert to sacrifice to the LORD our God.'

Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God so he does not strike us with pestilence or sword."

The Israeli supervisors came and cried out to Pharaoh, "Why are you doing this to us?

No straw is being given to us, yet they're saying to us, "Make bricks!' Look, we are being beaten. It's wrong how you are treating your people!"

The supervisors told them, "May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us repulsive to Pharaoh and his servants. You have put a sword in their hands to kill us."

"It wouldn't be right to sacrifice in this way," Moses replied, "because if we do, we will sacrifice to the LORD our God what is offensive to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are offensive to the Egyptians in front of them, they'll stone us, won't they?

We must go a three-day journey into the desert, and we'll offer sacrifices to the LORD our God just as he has told us."

Then the officials of Pharaoh told him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go so they may serve the LORD their God! Don't you realize yet that Egypt is about to be destroyed?"

Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old. We will go with our sons and our daughters, with our sheep and our cattle, because it's a festival to the LORD for us."

Moses said, "You must let us havesacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to the LORD our God.

And even our livestock must go with us. Not a hoof will be left behind because we will use some of them to serve the LORD our God, and until we get there we won't know what we need to serve the LORD."

Then when your child asks you in the future, "What is this?', you are to say to him, "The LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage with a strong show of force.

And when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of humans to the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD every male that first opens the womb, but I redeem every firstborn of my sons.

It is to be a sign on your hand and an emblem on your forehead, because the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a strong show of force.'"

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials changed toward the people, and they said, "What have we done in releasing Israel from serving us?"

They also told Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the desert? What have you done to us, by bringing us out of Egypt?

Is this not what we told you in Egypt, when we said, "Leave us alone!' and "Let us serve the Egyptians!'? Indeed, it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

He made the wheels of their chariots wobble so that they drove them with difficulty. The Egyptians said, "Let's flee from Israel because the LORD is fighting for them and against us."

The Israelis told them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by the cooking pots, when we ate bread until we were filled because you brought us to this desert to kill this entire congregation with hunger."

and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaints against him. After all, who are we that you complain against us?"

Moses also said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread in the morning to satisfy you, the LORD will hear your complaints directed against him. Who are we? Your complaints aren't against us, but rather against the LORD."

The people quarreled with Moses: "Give us water to drink." Moses told them, "Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the LORD?"

But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelis quarreled and tested the LORD by saying: "Is the LORD really among us or not?"

Moses told Joshua, "Choose some men for us and go out to fight against the Amalekites. Tomorrow I'll stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

Moses told the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai because you warned us: "Set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.'"

They told Moses, "You speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak with us, or we may die.

He told the elders, "Wait here for us until we return to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you, and whoever has a dispute, let him come to them."

When the people saw that Moses took a long time to come down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and told him, "Come here and make us a god who will go before us, because, as for this fellow Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

They told me, "Make a god for us who will go before us because, as for this fellow Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

Then Moses told the LORD, "If your presence does not go with us, don't bring us up from here.

Otherwise, how shall it be known that your people and I have received favor from you, unless you go with us and that we, your people and I, are distinguished from all the people on the surface of the earth?"

He said, "If I've found favor in your sight, Lord, please, Lord, walk among us. Certainly this is an obstinate people, but pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your own inheritance."

and told Moses, "The people are bringing much more than enough for the work that the LORD has commanded us to do."

Then Moses told Reuel's son Hobab, Moses' relative by marriage from Midian, "We are traveling to the place about which the LORD said "I will give it to you.' So come with us and we'll be good to you, because the LORD has spoken good things about Israel."

Then Moses responded, "Please don't leave us now, since you know where we can camp in the wilderness. You could be our guide.