1

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

² The earth was without form and empty. Darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

³ Then God said: »Let there be light!« And there was light.

⁴ God saw that the light was good. God separated the light from the darkness.

⁵ God called the light day. He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶ Then God said: »Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters. Let it separate the waters from the waters.«

⁷ God made the expanse. He separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. It was so.

⁸ God called the expanse heaven. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

⁹ Then God said: »Let the waters below the atmosphere be gathered into one place. Let the dry land appear.« It was so.

¹⁰ God called the dry land earth. The gathering of the waters He called seas. God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said: »Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them.« It was so.

¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind. God saw that it was good.

¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

¹⁴ Then God said: »Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.

¹⁵ »Let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.« It was so.

¹⁶ God made the two great lights. The sun was to govern the day. The moon was to govern the night. He made the stars also.

¹⁷ He placed the lights in the sky to shine on the earth.

¹⁸ The lights were to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. God saw that it was good.

¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

²⁰ God said: »Let the waters be filled with many kinds of living beings, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.«

²¹ God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves in the waters after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

²² God blessed them and said: »Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.«

²³ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

²⁴ God said: »Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.« It was so.

²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds. He made the livestock according to their kinds and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said: »Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.«

²⁷ God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. He created male and female.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them: »Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and dominate the birds of the air. Have dominion over every living creature that moves on the ground.«

²⁹ Then God said: »I give you every plant that bears seed on the face of the entire earth. I also give you every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

³⁰ »Also every beast of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground; everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food.« It was so.

³¹ God saw all that he had made. It was very good. There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

2

¹ The heavens and the earth and their immense arrangement were completed.

² By the seventh day God had finished his work. He rested from all his work on the seventh day.

³ God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. This is because he rested from all the work of creation he had done.

⁴ This is the account of when Jehovah God created the heavens and the earth.

⁵ No shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth. No plant of the field had yet sprung up, for Jehovah God had not sent rain on the earth. There was no man to work the ground.

⁶ Mist came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

⁷ Jehovah God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living being.

⁸ Now Jehovah God planted a garden in the east, in Eden. He put the man he had formed there.

⁹ Jehovah God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰ A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters.

¹¹ The name of the first river is the Pishon. It winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

¹² The gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.

¹³ The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the entire land of Cush.

¹⁴ The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ Jehovah God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

¹⁶ Jehovah God commanded the man: »You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.

¹⁷ »But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When you eat of it you will surely die.«

¹⁸ Jehovah God said: »It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.«

¹⁹ Then Jehovah God formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to let him name them. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

²⁰ So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But no suitable helper was found for Adam.

²¹ Jehovah God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

²² Then Jehovah made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man. He brought her to the man.

²³ The man said: »This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called ‘Woman.’ This is because she was taken out of Man.«

²⁴ This is the reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. They will become one flesh.

²⁵ The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

3

¹ Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman: »Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?«

² The woman said to the serpent: »We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden.

³ ‘»However, God did say: ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not touch it, or you will die.’«

⁴ »You will not die,« the serpent said to the woman.

⁵ »God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened. Then you will be like God, knowing good and evil.«

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened. They realized they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ The man and his wife heard the sound voice of Jehovah God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They hid from Jehovah, among the trees of the garden.

⁹ But Jehovah God called to the man: »Where are you?«

¹⁰ He Adam answered: »I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.«

¹¹ And he said: »Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?«

¹² Adam said: »The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.«

¹³ Then Jehovah God said to the Eve: »What is this you have done?« The woman answered: »The serpent deceived me, and I ate.«

¹⁴ So Jehovah God said to the serpent: »Because you have done this you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

¹⁵ »And I will put enmity hostility hatred between you and the woman, and between your offspring seed and hers. He will bruise overwhelm crush you in the head, and you will bruise overwhelm crush him in the heel.« (Romans 16:20)

¹⁶ He said to the woman: »I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.«

¹⁷ He said to Adam: »Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

¹⁸ »It will produce thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹ »You will eat your food by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground. You came from the ground. For dust you are and to dust you will return.«

²⁰ Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

²¹ Jehovah God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

²² Jehovah said: »The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.«

²³ Therefore Jehovah God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

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¹ Adam had sexual intercourse with his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said: »With the help of Jehovah I have brought forth a man.«

² Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.

³ As time went by, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to Jehovah.

⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn firstlings of his flock. Jehovah looked with favor on Abel and his offering.

⁵ He did not look with favor on Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his face was downcast he had a bad attitude .

⁶ Jehovah said to Cain: »Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?

⁷ »If you do what is right, will not your attitude improve? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.«

⁸ While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹ Jehovah asked Cain: »Where is your brother Abel?« »I do not know,« he replied. »Am I my brother’s keeper?«

¹⁰ Jehovah said: »What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood life cries out to me from the ground.

¹¹ »Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

¹² »When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer vagabond on the earth.«

¹³ Cain said to Jehovah: »My punishment is more than I can bear.

¹⁴ »You are driving me from the land today. I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless homeless wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me.«

¹⁵ Jehovah replied to him: »If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.« Then Jehovah put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

¹⁶ Cain went out from Jehovah’s presence and lived in the land of Nod Fugitiveness . Nod is east of Eden.

¹⁷ Cain had intercourse with his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Later Cain built a city. He named it after his son Enoch.

¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

¹⁹ Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.

²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.

²¹ His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.

²² Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of copper and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

²³ Lamech said to his wives: »Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.

²⁴ »If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.«

²⁵ Adam had intercourse with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. She said: »God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.«

²⁶ Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on proclaim the name of Jehovah.

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¹ This is the written genealogy of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

² He created them male and female and blessed them. When they were created, he called them Mankind.

³ When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.

⁴ After Seth was born, Adam lived eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

⁵ Altogether, Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, and then he died.

⁶ Seth lived one hundred and five years when he became the father of Enosh.

⁷ After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters.

⁸ Altogether, Seth lived nine hundred and twelve years, and then he died.

⁹ Enosh lived ninety years. He became the father of Kenan.

¹⁰ After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived eight hundred and fifteen years and had other sons and daughters.

¹¹ Enosh lived a total of nine hundred and five years, and then he died.

¹² Kenan lived seventy years. He became the father of Mahalalel.

¹³ After that Kenan lived eight hundred and forty years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ Altogether, Kenan lived nine hundred and ten years, and then he died.

¹⁵ When Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Jared.

¹⁶ After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived eight hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁷ Mahalalel lived a total of eight hundred and ninety-five years, and then he died.

¹⁸ When Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, he became the father of Enoch.

¹⁹ After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ Jared lived a total of nine hundred and sixty-two years, and then he died.

²¹ When Enoch lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah.

²² After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

²³ Altogether, Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years.

²⁴ Enoch walked with God. Then he was no more, because God took moved him away.

²⁵ When Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech.

²⁶ After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred eighty-two years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁷ Altogether, Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and then he died.

²⁸ When Lamech had lived one hundred and eighty-two years, he had a son.

²⁹ He named him Noah. He said: »He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground Jehovah has cursed.«

³⁰ After Noah was born, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years and had other sons and daughters.

³¹ Lamech lived a total of seven hundred seventy-seven years, and then he died.

³² After Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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¹ Men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them.

² The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They married any of them they chose.

³ Jehovah said: »My Spirit will not contend judge plead with man forever, for he is mortal and corrupt. Therefore his days will be a hundred and twenty years.«

⁴ The NEPHILIM were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God had sexual intercourse with the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

⁵ Jehovah saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

⁶ Jehovah was grieved that he had made man on the earth. His heart was grieved with pain.

⁷ So Jehovah said: »I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth. All of them: men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air. I am sorry that I created them.«

⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.

⁹ This is the ACCOUNT OF NOAH. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. He walked with God.

¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ The earth was corrupt in God’s sight. It was full of violence.

¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become. All the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

¹³ God said to Noah: »I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am going to destroy them with the earth.

¹⁴ »BUILD AN ARK of cypress wood a resinous tree . Make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

¹⁵ »This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high.

¹⁶ »Build a roof on it and finish the ark to within eighteen inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle, and upper decks.

¹⁷ »I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens. Every creature that has the breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish.

¹⁸ »But I will establish my covenant with you. You will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

¹⁹ »Bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.

²⁰ »Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.

²¹ »Take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.«

²² Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.

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¹ Jehovah said to Noah: »Go into the ark, you and your whole family. For I have found you righteous in this generation.

² »Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate.

³ »Also take seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.

⁴ »Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.«

⁵ Noah did all that Jehovah commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.

⁷ Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,

⁹ male and female came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰ Seven days passed and the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

¹² Rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.

¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.

¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, just as God had commanded Noah. Then Jehovah shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood came upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark high above the earth.

¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth. The ark floated on the surface of the water.

¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet.

²¹ Every living thing that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.

²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. Men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

²⁴ The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

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¹ God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark. He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

² The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the skies were closed. So the rain stopped falling from the sky.

³ Water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down.

⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ After forty days Noah opened the window he constructed in the ark.

⁷ He sent out a raven. It kept flying back and forth until the water dried up from the earth.

⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.

⁹ The dove, however, could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth. It returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and held the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.

¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.

¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.

¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵ God said to Noah:

¹⁶ »Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.

¹⁷ »Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground. They will multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it.«

¹⁸ Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.

¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds, everything that moves on the earth came out of the ark, one kind after another.

²⁰ Noah built an altar to Jehovah and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

²¹ Jehovah smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: »Never again will I curse the ground because of man, for the intent of his heart is evil from childhood. I will never again destroy every living creature, as I have done.

²² »As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.«

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¹ God blessed Noah and his sons. He said: »Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.

² »All the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air will be filled with fear and dread of you. Every creature that moves along the ground and all the fish of the sea are placed under your control.

³ »Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

⁴ »You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

⁵ »I will require your lifeblood as an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. I will demand an accounting from each man for the life of his fellow man.

⁶ »Whoever sheds the blood of man will have his blood shed by man. For man was made in the image of God.

⁷ »You should be fruitful and increase in number. Multiply increase on the earth.«

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

⁹ »I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you

¹⁰ "and with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you, every living creature on earth.

¹¹ »I establish my covenant with you: Never again will the waters of a flood destroy all life. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.«

¹² God said: »This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

¹³ »I give you my rainbow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world of mankind.

¹⁴ »Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

¹⁵ »I will remember my covenant with you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters flood to destroy all life.

¹⁶ »Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the long lasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.«

¹⁷ God said: »This is the sign of the covenant I have established with all life on the earth.«

¹⁸ Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.

¹⁹ These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.

²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, planted a vineyard.

²¹ He drank some of its wine. He became drunk and lay undressed inside his tent.

²² Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

²³ Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders. Then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴ Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him.

²⁵ He Noah said: »Canaan is cursed! He will be a lowly slave to his brothers.«

²⁶ He also said: »Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.

²⁷ »May God extend the territory of Japheth. And may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.«

²⁸ After the flood, Noah lived three hundred and fifty years.

²⁹ Noah lived a total of nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.

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¹ This is the genealogy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who also had sons after the flood.

² The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

³ The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.

⁴ The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim Dodanim .

⁵ From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.

⁶ The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim Egypt , Put, and Canaan.

⁷ The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

⁸ Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth.

⁹ He was a mighty hunter before Jehovah. That is why it is said: »Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Jehovah.«

¹⁰ The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in Shinar.

¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.

¹³ Mizraim was the father of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites,

¹⁴ Pathrusites, Casluhites, and Caphtorites.

¹⁵ Canaan was the father of Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites,

¹⁶ Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,

¹⁷ Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,

¹⁸ Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. Later the Canaanite clans scattered,

¹⁹ and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.

²⁰ These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

²¹ Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth. Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.

²² The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud and Aram.

²³ The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.

²⁴ Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah the father of Eber.

²⁵ Two sons were born to Eber. One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided. His brother was named Joktan.

²⁶ Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,

²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.

³⁰ The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

³¹ These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

³² These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

11

¹ The entire world had one language and common words.

² As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar Babylon and settled there.

³ They said to each other: »Let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.« They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

⁴ Then they said: »Let us build ourselves a city, with a lofty tower that reaches into space, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.«

⁵ But Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

⁶ Jehovah said: »If they become one people speaking the same language, nothing will be impossible for them. They have begun to do this.

⁷ »Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.«

⁸ Jehovah scattered them from there over all the earth. They stopped building the city.

⁹ That is why it was called Babel confusion because Jehovah confused the language of the whole world. Jehovah scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth.

¹⁰ This is the genealogy of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad.

¹¹ After he became the father of Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah.

¹³ After he became the father of Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴ Shelah lived thirty years. He became the father of Eber.

¹⁵ After he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶ When Eber lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg.

¹⁷ After he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸ When Peleg lived thirty years, he became the father of Reu.

¹⁹ After he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰ When Reu lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug.

²¹ After he became the father of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years and had other sons and daughters.

²² When Serug lived thirty years, he became the father of Nahor.

²³ After he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴ Nahor lived twenty-nine years; he became the father of Terah.

²⁵ After he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶ Terah lived seventy years. He became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷ This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.

²⁸ While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.

²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

³⁰ Now Sarai was barren. She had no children.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

³² Terah lived two hundred and five years. He died in Haran.

12

¹ Jehovah said to Abram: »Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.

² »I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. You will be a blessing.

³ »I will bless those who bless you. I will curse whoever curses you. All the people on earth will be blessed through you.«

⁴ So Abram left, just as Jehovah told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.

⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set out for the land of Canaan and soon arrived there.

⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

⁷ Jehovah appeared to Abram and said: »I will give this land to your offspring seed .« He built an altar there to Jehovah, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent. Bethel was on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to Jehovah and called on the name of Jehovah.

⁹ Abram continued toward the Negev.

¹⁰ There was a famine in the land. Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while, because the famine was severe.

¹¹ He was about to enter Egypt. He said to his wife Sarai: »I know what a beautiful woman you are.

¹² »When the Egyptians see you, they will say: ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but will let you live.

¹³ »Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and my life will be spared because of you.«

¹⁴ When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman.

¹⁵ Pharaoh’s officials saw her. They praised her to Pharaoh. She was taken into his palace.

¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake. Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

¹⁷ Jehovah inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram. »What have you done to me?« he asked. »Why did you not tell me she was your wife?

¹⁹ »Why did you say: ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!«

²⁰ Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

13

¹ Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.

² Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.

³ He traveled from place to place from the Negev until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier.

⁴ This was where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of Jehovah.

⁵ Lot moved about with Abram. He also had flocks and herds and tents.

⁶ But the land could not support them while they stayed together. Their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.

⁷ Quarreling arose between Abram’s herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.

⁸ Abram said to Lot: »Let us not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.

⁹ »Is not the whole land before you? Let us part company. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.«

¹⁰ Lot looked up and saw that the district of the Jordan River was well watered, like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. This was before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:

¹² Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

¹³ The men of Sodom were wicked and sinned greatly against Jehovah.

¹⁴ After Lot had parted from Abram, Jehovah said to Abram: »Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.

¹⁵ »All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring descendants from generation to generation.

¹⁶ »I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust, your offspring could be counted.

¹⁷ »Go walk through the length and breadth of the land that I am giving to you.«

¹⁸ Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron. He built an altar to Jehovah there.

14

¹ In the days of King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim,

² these four kings made war with King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Zoar.

³ These joined forces in the Valley of Siddim at the Dead Sea.

⁴ They served Chedorlaomer for twelve years. They rebelled in the thirteenth year.

⁵ In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶ and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the wilderness.

⁷ They turned back and came to En-mishpat Kadesh , and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸ Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Zoar went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim.

⁹ They fought against King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar, four kings against five.

¹⁰ The Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen tar pits. As the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them. The rest fled to the hill country.

¹¹ The enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food provisions, and went their way.

¹² They also captured Lot, son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

¹³ Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. He was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. They were Abram’s allies.

¹⁴ Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive. Abram led his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, in pursuit as far as Dan.

¹⁵ He divided his forces against them by night. He and his servants routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.

¹⁶ Then he brought back all the goods. He also brought back his nephew Lot and all the men and women.

¹⁷ As soon as the king of Sodom returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, he went out to meet Abram at the King's Valley of Shaveh.

¹⁸ King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High.

¹⁹ He blessed him and said: »Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth.

²⁰ »Blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!« Abram gave him one tenth of everything.

²¹ Then the king of Sodom said to Abram: »Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.«

²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom: »I have sworn to Jehovah, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth:

²³ "I will take nothing. Not a thread or a sandal strap. You will not be able to say: 'I have made Abram rich.’

²⁴ »Let the young men who came with me take their portion: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre.«

15

¹ The word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision: »Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.«

² Abram said: »O Jehovah God, what will you give me? I continue childless! The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.«

³ Abram also said: »You have given me no offspring. So a slave born in my house is to be my heir.«

⁴ The word of Jehovah came to him: »This man shall not be your heir. No one but your very own issue shall be your heir.«

⁵ He brought him outside and said: »Look toward heaven and count the stars. Are you able to count them?« He continued: »So shall your descendants be.«

⁶ He believed in Jehovah. Jehovah considered Abram’s faith as his righteousness.

⁷ Then God said to him: »I AM JEHOVAH, who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.«

⁸ Abram replied: »O Jehovah God, how will I know that I shall possess it?«

⁹ He God said to him: »Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.«

¹⁰ Abram brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other. He did not cut the birds in two.

¹¹ When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

¹³ Jehovah said to Abram: »Know this for sure; your offspring will be strangers aliens in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years.

¹⁴ »I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve! Afterward they will come out with great possessions.

¹⁵ »As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age.

¹⁶ »They shall come back here in the fourth generation. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.«

¹⁷ The sun went down and it was dark. A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

¹⁸ On that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram. He said: »To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.«

16

¹ Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.

² She said to Abram: »Jehovah has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my maidservant. Perhaps I can build a family through her.« Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

³ After Abram lived in Canaan ten years, Sarai, his wife, gave her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to her husband to be his wife.

⁴ Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram: »You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms; she knows she is pregnant and she despises me. May Jehovah judge between you and me.«

⁶ »Your servant is in your hands,« Abram said. »Do with her whatever you think best.« Then Sarai mistreated Hagar. So she ran away from her.

⁷ The angel of Jehovah found Hagar near a spring in the desert. It was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.

⁸ He said: »Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?« »I am running away from my mistress Sarai,« she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of Jehovah told her: »Go back to your mistress and submit to her.

¹⁰ »I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.«

¹¹ Jehovah’s angel also said: »You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael means: God hears . Jehovah has heard of your misery.

¹² »He Ishmael will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him. He will live in hostility toward all his brothers.«

¹³ She called the name of Jehovah, who spoke to her: »You are the God who sees me, for she said, ‘I have not seen the one who sees me.’"

¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi Well of the Living One Who Sees Me . It is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar bore Abram a son. Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

17

¹ Abram was ninety-nine years old. Jehovah appeared to him and said: »I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

² »I will establish my covenant between us. I will greatly increase your numbers.«

³ Abram fell on his face and God said to him:

⁴ »This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.

⁵ »You will no longer be called Abram Exalted Father . Your name will be Abraham means Father of Many . I have made you a father of many nations.

⁶ »I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

⁷ »I will establish my covenant as a long lasting covenant between us. It will be for your descendants after you, for the generations to come. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸ »The whole land of Canaan, where you are now a guest alien foreigner stranger , I will give a long lasting possession to you and your descendants after you. I will be their God.«

⁹ Then God said to Abraham: »As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.

¹⁰ »This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ »You are to undergo circumcision. It will be the sign of the covenant between us.

¹² »For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised. This includes those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner, those who are not your offspring.

¹³ »Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be a long lasting covenant.

¹⁴ »Any male not circumcised in the flesh will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.«

¹⁵ God continued: »Do not call your wife Sarai any longer. Her name will be Sarah.

¹⁶ »I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.«

¹⁷ Abraham fell to his face. He laughed and said to himself: »Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?«

¹⁸ Abraham said to God: »If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!«

¹⁹ God replied: »Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son! You will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as a long lasting covenant for his descendants after him.

²⁰ »Concerning Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him. I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

²¹ »But my covenant I will establish with Isaac. Sarah will bear him to you by this time next year.«

²² When he finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

²³ On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.

²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised.

²⁵ His son Ishmael was thirteen.

²⁶ Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day.

²⁷ Every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

18

¹ Jehovah appeared again to Abraham by the oak grove of Mamre. He was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

² He looked up and noticed three men coming toward him. He ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed to the ground.

³ Abraham said: »My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.

⁴ »Please. Let a little water be brought. Wash your feet and rest under the tree.

⁵ »I will bring a bite to eat to refresh you. Stay a while before you continue your journey.« They responded: »Very well, do as you have said.«

⁶ Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said: »Quick! Make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.«

⁷ Then Abraham ran to the herd. He selected a fat calf and told a servant to butcher it and prepare it.

⁸ He took butter and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree as they ate.

⁹ Then they said to him: »Where is Sarah your wife« ? He responded: »Here, in the tent.«

¹⁰ He said: »Next year I will give you and Sarah a son.« Sarah was listening in the tent door behind him.

¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

¹² Therefore Sarah laughed within herself. She said to herself: "After I have grown old, shall I have a baby? My lord is old also."

¹³ Jehovah said to Abraham: »Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?'

¹⁴ »Is anything too hard for Jehovah? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life. Sarah shall have a son!«

¹⁵ Sarah denied saying: »I did not laugh!« She was afraid. He said: »But you did laugh!«

¹⁶ Then the men stood up from their meal and started in the direction of Sodom. Abraham went with them to send them on the way.

¹⁷ Jehovah said: »Shall I hide what I am doing from Abraham?

¹⁸ »Abraham will definitely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him.

¹⁹ »I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household; and that they may remain in the righteous and just way of Jehovah. Jehovah will bring to Abraham what he told him.«

²⁰ Jehovah said: »Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,

²¹ »I will go down now and see whether they have done the bad things I have been told. Then I will know.«

²² The men left there and went toward Sodom. Abraham still stood before Jehovah.

²³ Abraham came near and said: »Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴ »Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city. Would you also destroy the place and not spare it because the righteous people are there?

²⁵ »Surely you would not do that! Would you slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?«

²⁶ Jehovah said: »If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, I will spare the entire place for their sakes.«

²⁷ Then Abraham answered and said: »Indeed now, I who am only dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to Jehovah:

²⁸ »Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous. Would you destroy the entire city for lack of five?« So He God said: »If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.«

²⁹ Abraham spoke again: »Suppose there should be forty found there?« God replied: »I will not do it for the sake of forty.«

³⁰ Abraham then said: »Do not be angry, and let me speak. Suppose thirty should be found there?« God replied: »I will not do it if I find thirty there.«

³¹ Abraham then said: »Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to Jehovah: Suppose twenty should be found there?« God replied: »I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.«

³² Abraham again queried: »Please do not be angry as I speak once more: Suppose ten should be found there?« God said: »I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.«

³³ Jehovah went his way as soon as he finished speaking with Abraham. Abraham returned to his place.

19

¹ That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom. Lot was sitting there as they arrived. When he saw them, he got up to greet them. Then he welcomed them and bowed low to the ground.

² »My lords,« he said, »come to my home to wash your feet, and be my guests for the night. You may get up in the morning as early as you like and be on your way again.« »Oh no,« they said, »We will spend the night out here in the city square.«

³ Lot insisted, so at last they went home with him. He set a great feast before them, complete with fresh unleavened unfermented bread.

⁴ They prepared to retire for the night when suddenly all the men of Sodom, young and old, came from all over the city and surrounded the house.

⁵ They shouted to Lot: »Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them!«

⁶ Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him.

⁷ »Please, my brothers,« he begged, »do not do such a wicked thing.

⁸ »I have two virgin daughters. Do with them as you wish, but leave these men alone, for they are under my protection.«

⁹ »Stand back!« they shouted. »Who do you think you are? We let you settle among us, and now you are trying to tell us what to do! We will treat you far worse than those other men!« They pushed Lot and began breaking down the door.

¹⁰ But the two angels reached out and pulled Lot in and bolted the door.

¹¹ Then they blinded the men of Sodom so they could not find the doorway.

¹² »Do you have any other relatives here in the city?« The angels asked. »Get them out of this place, sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else.

¹³ »We will destroy the city completely. The stench of the place has reached Jehovah. He has sent us to destroy it.«

¹⁴ Lot rushed out to tell his sons-in-law: »Hurry! Get out of the city! Jehovah is going to destroy it.« But the young men thought he was only joking.

¹⁵ At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. They said to Lot: »Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out of here right now, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city.«

¹⁶ Lot still hesitated. So the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for Jehovah was merciful.

¹⁷ »Run for your lives!« The angels warned. »Do not stop and do not look behind you! Escape to the mountains, or you will die.«

¹⁸ »Oh no, my lords, please,« Lot begged.

¹⁹ »You have been so kind to me and saved my life, and you have granted me such mercy. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die.

²⁰ »There is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead. Do you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.«

²¹ The angel said to him: »All right, I will grant you this request too. I will not destroy the city you are talking about.

²² »Run there quickly! I cannot do anything until you get there." The city is named Zoar Small .

²³ The sun had just risen over the land as Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴ Jehovah made burning sulfur and fire rain out of the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁵ He destroyed those cities, the whole Plain, all who lived in the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.

²⁶ Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Early the next morning Abraham came to the place where he had stood in front of Jehovah.

²⁸ He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land in the Plain. He saw smoke rising from the land like the thick smoke of a furnace.

²⁹ When God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot was living, he kept Abraham in mind and allowed Lot to escape to safety.

³⁰ Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar. So he and his two daughters moved up into the hills and lived in a cave.

³¹ The older daughter said to her sister: »Our father is getting old. There are no men in the whole world to marry us so we can have children.

³² »Come, let us get our father drunk. Then we can sleep with him and have children by him.«

³³ That night they gave him wine to drink. The older daughter had intercourse with him. But he was so drunk that he did not know it.

³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to her sister: »I slept with him last night. Let us get him drunk again tonight, and you sleep with him. Then each of us will have a child by our father.«

³⁵ So that night they got him drunk. The younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he did not know it.

³⁶ Both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their own father.

³⁷ The older daughter had a son, whom she named Moab. He was the ancestor of the present-day Moabites.

³⁸ The younger daughter also had a son, whom she named Ben-ammi. He was the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.

20

¹ Abraham moved from Mamre to the southern part of Canaan and lived between Kadesh and Shur. Later, while he was living in Gerar,

² he said that his wife Sarah was his sister. So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

³ God appeared to the king in a dream and said: »You are going to die, because you have taken this woman. She is already married.«

⁴ Abimelech had not come near her. He said: »Lord, I am innocent! Would you destroy my people and me?

⁵ »Abraham said that she was his sister. She said the same thing. I did this with a clear conscience. I have done no wrong!«

⁶ God said to him in a dream: »Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. In fact, I kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.

⁷ »Give the man’s wife back to him now. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not give her back, you and all who belong to you are doomed to die.«

⁸ So Abimelech got up early in the morning. He called all his servants and told them everything. The men were very afraid.

⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham. He said to him: »What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you? You have brought a great sin on me and on my kingdom. You have done to me things that ought not to be done.«

¹⁰ Abimelech also asked Abraham: »What were you thinking when you did this?«

¹¹ Abraham said: »I thought that because there are no people who reverence God in this place, I would be killed because of my wife.

¹² »Besides, she is my sister. She is my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s. She is also my wife.

¹³ »When God had me leave my father’s home and travel around, I said to her: 'Do me a favor: Wherever we go, say that I am your brother.'"

¹⁴ Abimelech took sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. He also gave his wife Sarah back to him.

¹⁵ Abimelech said: »Look, here is my land. Live anywhere you like.

¹⁶ He said to Sarah: »Do not forget that I have given your brother twenty-five pounds of silver. This is to silence any criticism against you from everyone with you. You are completely cleared.«

¹⁷ Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could have children.

¹⁸ Jehovah had made it impossible for any woman in Abimelech’s household to have children because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

21

¹ Jehovah was gracious to Sarah, as he had said. Jehovah did for Sarah what he had promised.

² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. It was at the very time God had promised him.

³ Abraham gave the name Isaac he laughs to the son Sarah bore him.

⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded him.

⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said: »God brought me laughter. Everyone who hears about this will laugh on account of me.«

⁷ She added: »Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.«

⁸ The child grew and was weaned. Abraham held a big feast on the day Isaac was weaned.

⁹ Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was laughing in mockery.

¹⁰ She said to Abraham: »Get rid of that slave woman and her son.«

¹¹ This upset Abraham because of his son Ishmael.

¹² God said to Abraham: »Do not be upset about the boy and your slave. Listen to what Sarah says, because through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name.

¹³ »I will make the slave’s son into a nation also, because he is your child.«

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took bread and a container of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder. He also gave her the boy and sent her on her way. So she left and wandered around in the desert near Beer-sheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes.

¹⁶ She sat across from him at a distance. She thought: »I cannot watch the boy die." She sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.

¹⁷ God heard the lad crying. The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her: »What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear! God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

¹⁸ »Arise, lift up the lad. Hold him by the hand. I will make him a great nation.«

¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes. She saw a well of water. She filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink.

²⁰ God was with the lad, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.

²¹ He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

²² Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham. They said: »God is with you in all that you do.

²³ »Swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity. Consider the kindness that I have shown to you. Please show it to me and to the land in which you have sojourned.«

²⁴ Abraham said: »I swear it.«

²⁵ Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well of water that the servants of Abimelech had seized.

²⁶ Abimelech said: »I do not know who has done this thing. You did not tell me, nor did I hear of it until today.«

²⁷ Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a covenant.

²⁸ Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹ Abimelech asked Abraham: »What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?«

³⁰ He said: »You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a witness to me, that I dug this well.«

³¹ Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba, because there the two of them took an oath.

³² They made a covenant at Beer-sheba. Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba. There he called on the name of Jehovah, the Everlasting God.

³⁴ Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for many days.

22

¹ God tested Abraham. He said to him: »Abraham!« Abraham replied: »Here I am.«

² »Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.«

³ Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey. He took two of his servants and his son Isaac with him. He had cut the wood for the burnt offering. Then he set out for the place that God had told him about.

⁴ Two days later Abraham saw the place in the distance.

⁵ He said to the servants: »Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship. Then we will come back to you.«

⁶ Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice. Abraham carried a knife and live coals for starting the fire. As they walked along together,

⁷ Isaac spoke up: »Father!« He answered: »Yes, my son?« Isaac asked: »I see that you have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?«

⁸ Abraham answered: »God will provide one.« And the two of them walked on together.

⁹ They came to the place God had told him about. Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰ Then he picked up the knife to kill him.

¹¹ Jehovah’s angel shouted from heaven: »Abraham! Abraham!« »Here I am!« he answered.

¹² »Do not hurt the boy or harm him in any way!« The angel said. »Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son.«

¹³ Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son.

¹⁴ Abraham named that place »Jehovah Will Provide.« It is still said today: »It will be provided on the mountain of Jehovah.«

¹⁵ The angel of Jehovah called to Abraham from heaven a second time.

¹⁶ He said: »I am taking an oath on my own name, declares Jehovah, that because you have done this and have not refused to give me your son, your only son,

¹⁷ ‘»I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of their enemies’ cities.

¹⁸ ‘»All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants. This is because you obeyed my command.’«

¹⁹ Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him. They returned to Abraham’s home in Beer-sheba.

²⁰ Abraham’s brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons.

²¹ Uz was their firstborn. Buz was next. Then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram. Their other five sons were

²² Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.

²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These are the eight children Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

²⁴ His concubine, Reumah, also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

23

¹ Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.

² Sarah died in Kiriath-arba that is, Hebron in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to cry because of her death.

³ Abraham left the side of his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites.

⁴ He said: »I am a stranger with no permanent home. Let me have some of your property for a tomb that I can bury my dead wife.«

⁵ The Hittites answered Abraham:

⁶ »Listen to us, my lord. You are a mighty leader among us. Bury your dead in one of our best tombs. Not one of us will withhold from you his tomb for burying your dead.«

⁷ Abraham got up and bowed to the people of that region, the Hittites.

⁸ He said: »If you are willing to let me bury my wife here, please ask Ephron son of Zohar

⁹ to sell me Machpelah Cave. It is near the edge of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for its full price here in your presence. Then I can own it as a burial ground.«

¹⁰ Ephron was sitting with the other Hittites at the meeting place at the city gate. He answered in the hearing of everyone there:

¹¹ »Hear me my lord, I give you the field, including the cave. It is yours. With my own people as witnesses, I freely give it to you as a burial place for your dead.«

¹² Once again, Abraham bowed down.

¹³ He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land. He said: »If you will only please listen to me. I will give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.«

¹⁴ Ephron answered Abraham:

¹⁵ »My lord, listen to me. It is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.«

¹⁶ Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard.

¹⁷ Ephron’s field at Machpelah, east of Mamre, was sold to Abraham.

¹⁸ His property included the field with the cave in it as well as all the trees inside the boundaries of the field. The Hittites together with all who had entered the city gate were the official witnesses for the agreement.

¹⁹ Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre Hebron , in the land of Canaan.

²⁰ The Hittites sold the field and its cave to Abraham as his property to be used as a tomb.

24

¹ By now Abraham was old, and Jehovah had blessed him in every way.

² Abraham said to the senior servant of his household who was in charge of all that he owned: »Take a solemn oath.

³ »I want you to swear by Jehovah God of heaven and earth that you will not get my son a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living.

⁴ »Instead, you will go to the land of my relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.«

⁵ The servant asked: »What if the young woman will not leave home to come with me to this land? Shall I send your son back to the land you came from?«

⁶ Abraham answered: »Make sure that you do not send my son back there!

⁷ »Jehovah, the God of heaven, took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth. He spoke to me and swore to me. He said: I will give this land to your descendants. He will send his angel before you. You will take a wife for my son from there.

⁸ »You will be free from this oath if the woman is not willing to follow you. Only do not take my son back there.«

⁹ The servant placed his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master. He swore to him concerning this matter.

¹⁰ The servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and then set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand. He arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.

¹¹ He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at evening time. This is the time when women go out to draw water.

¹² He said: »O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today. Show loving-kindness to my master Abraham.

¹³ »I am standing by the spring. The daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

¹⁴ »Let there be the girl to whom I say: ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,' and who answers: 'Drink, and I will water your camels also.' May she be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown loving-kindness to my master.«

¹⁵ Before he finished praying, Rebekah came with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel, son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor.

¹⁶ The girl was a very attractive virgin. No man had ever had sexual intercourse with her. She went to the spring and filled her jar, and came back.

¹⁷ The servant ran to meet her and said: »Please give me a drink of water.«

¹⁸ »Drink, my lord,« she said. She quickly lowered her jar to her hand and gave him a drink.

¹⁹ When she finished giving him a drink, she said: »I will also keep drawing water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.«

²⁰ She quickly emptied her jar into the water trough. Then she ran back to the well to draw more water. She drew enough for all his camels.

²¹ The man quietly watched her to see whether or not Jehovah made his trip successful.

²² When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a fifth of an ounce and two gold bracelets weighing four ounces.

²³ He said: »Please tell me who your father is. Is there room in his house for my men and me to spend the night?«

²⁴ »My father is Bethuel son of Nahor and Milcah,« she answered.

²⁵ »There is plenty of straw and fodder at our house. There is also a place for you to stay.«

²⁶ The man knelt down and worshiped Jehovah.

²⁷ He said: »Praise Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham. He has faithfully kept his promise to my master. Jehovah has led me straight to my master’s relatives.«

²⁸ The young woman ran to her mother’s house and told the entire story.

²⁹ Rebecca’s brother was named Laban. He ran outside to go to the well where Abraham’s servant was.

³⁰ Laban had seen the nose ring and the bracelets on his sister’s arms and had heard her say what the man told her. He went to Abraham’s servant, who was standing by his camels at the well,

³¹ and said: »Come home with me. You are a man Jehovah has blessed. Why are you standing out here? I have a room ready for you in my house. There is a place for your camels.«

³² The man went into the house. Laban unloaded the camels and gave them straw and fodder. Then he brought water for Abraham’s servant and his men to wash their feet.

³³ Food was brought. The man said: »I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.« Laban responded: »Go ahead and speak.«

³⁴ »I am the servant of Abraham,« he began.

³⁵ »Jehovah has greatly blessed my master and made him a rich man. He has given him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, silver, gold, male and female slaves, camels, and donkeys.

³⁶ »Sarah, my master’s wife, did not have any children until she was very old. Then she had a son, and my master has given him everything.

³⁷ »I solemnly promised my master I would do what he said. He told me: ‘Do not choose a wife for my son from the women in this land of Canaan.

³⁸ »‘Go back to the land where I was born and find a wife for my son from among my relatives.’

³⁹ »I asked my master: ‘What if the young woman refuses to come with me?’

⁴⁰ »He said to me: ‘Jehovah, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you to make your journey successful. You will take a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father’s house.

⁴¹ »‘If my relatives do not give her to you, then you will be free from my oath.’«

⁴² »I came to the spring today. I prayed to Jehovah: ‘God of my master Abraham, if now you will make my journey successful,

⁴³ »‘make it be that the maiden who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, »Please let me drink a little water from your jar,«

⁴⁴ »And she will say to me, »You drink, and I will draw for your camels also,« let her be the woman whom Jehovah has appointed for my master’s son.’

⁴⁵ »Before I had finished speaking in my heart, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew, and I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’

⁴⁶ »She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’; so I drank, and she watered the camels also.

⁴⁷ »Then I asked her: ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said: ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists.

⁴⁸ »I bowed low and worshiped Jehovah, and praised Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham. He guided me in the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son.

⁴⁹ »If you are going to deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, let me know, that I may turn to the right hand or the left.«

⁵⁰ Laban and Bethuel replied: »The matter comes from Jehovah. We cannot speak to you bad or good.

⁵¹ »Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go. Let her be the wife of your master’s son, as Jehovah has spoken.«

⁵² Abraham’s servant heard their answer. Then he bowed down to Jehovah.

⁵³ The servant took out gold and silver jewelry and clothes and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave expensive presents to her brother and mother.

⁵⁴ He and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they got up in the morning, he said: »Let me go back to my master.«

⁵⁵ Her brother and mother replied: »Let the girl stay with us ten days or so. After that she may go.«

⁵⁶ He said: »Do not make us stay. Jehovah has made my journey a success. Let me go back to my master.«

⁵⁷ They answered: »Let us call her and find out what she has to say.«

⁵⁸ They called Rebecca and asked: »Do you want to go with this man?« »Yes,« she answered.

⁵⁹ They allowed Rebecca and her old family servant to go with Abraham’s servant and his men.«

⁶⁰ They gave Rebecca their blessing in these words: »May you, sister, become the mother of millions! May your descendants conquer the cities of their enemies!«

⁶¹ Rebecca and her young women got ready. They mounted the camels to go with Abraham’s servant, and they all started out.

⁶² Isaac had come into the wilderness of »The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.« He was staying in the southern part of Canaan.

⁶³ He went out in the early evening to take a walk in the fields. He saw camels coming.

⁶⁴ Rebecca saw Isaac and she got down from her camel

⁶⁵ She asked Abraham’s servant: »Who is that man walking toward us in the field?« »He is my master,« the servant answered. So she took her veil scarf and covered her face.

⁶⁶ The servant told Isaac everything he had done.

⁶⁷ Isaac brought Rebecca into the tent that his mother Sarah had lived in. She became his wife. Isaac loved Rebecca. He was comforted for the loss of his mother.

25

¹ Abraham married another woman. Her name was Keturah.

² She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

³ Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim.

⁴ The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were Keturah’s descendants.

⁵ Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.

⁶ While Abraham was still alive, he gave gifts to the sons of Hagar and Keturah. He also sent their sons to live in the east far from his son Isaac.

⁷ Abraham lived one hundred and seventy-five years.

⁸ Then he took his last breath and died at a very old age. After a long and full life, he joined his ancestors in death.

⁹ His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre.

¹⁰ This was the field Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. Abraham and Sarah his wife were buried there.

¹¹ After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi. The Well of the Living One, My Beholder .

¹² This is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham.

¹³ These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam

¹⁴ and Mishma and Dumah and Massa,

¹⁵ Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah.

¹⁶ These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps: twelve leaders according to their tribes.

¹⁷ Ishmael lived one hundred and thirty-seven years. Then he died and was gathered to his ancestors.

¹⁸ His descendants lived as nomads from the region of Havilah to Shur. This is near Egypt, in the direction of Assyria. He died in the presence of all his brothers.

¹⁹ This is the genealogy of Abraham’s son Isaac and his descendants. Abraham was the father of Isaac.

²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, and sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹ Isaac prayed to Jehovah for his wife because she was childless. Jehovah answered his prayer. His wife Rebekah became pregnant.

²² She was going to have twins. Before they were born they struggled against each other in her womb. She said: »Why should something like this happen to me?« She asked Jehovah for an answer.

²³ Jehovah said: »Two nations are within you. You will give birth to two rival peoples. One will be stronger than the other. The older will serve the younger.«

²⁴ The time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to twin sons.

²⁵ The first one was reddish. His skin was like a hairy robe, so he was named Esau.

²⁶ The second one was born holding on tightly to the heel of Esau. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷ The boys grew up. Esau became a skilled hunter, a man who loved the outdoors. Jacob was an upright man who stayed at home.

²⁸ Isaac preferred Esau. This is because he enjoyed eating the animals Esau killed. Rebecca preferred Jacob.

²⁹ One day while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from hunting. He was hungry.

³⁰ He said to Jacob: »I am starving! Give me some of that red stuff.« That is why he was named Edom.

³¹ Jacob answered: »I will give it to you if you give me your birthright as the firstborn son.«

³² Esau said: »All right! I am about to die. What good are rights as firstborn to me?«

³³ Jacob answered: »First make a vow that you will give me your birthright.« Esau made the vow and gave his rights as firstborn to Jacob.

³⁴ Jacob gave him some bread and some of the soup. He ate and drank and then got up and left. Esau did not care about his birthright.

26

¹ There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

² Jehovah appeared to Isaac and said: »Isaac, stay away from Egypt! I will show you where I want you to go.

³ »You will live there as a foreigner. I will be with you and bless you. I will keep my promise to your father Abraham by giving this land to you and your descendants.

⁴ »I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all of this land. They will be a blessing to every nation on earth.

⁵ »This is because Abraham did everything I told him to do.«

⁶ Isaac moved to Gerar.

⁷ His wife Rebekah was very beautiful. He was afraid that someone might kill him to get her. So he told everyone that Rebekah was his sister.

⁸ After Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech looked out a window and saw Isaac intimately laughing and caressing Rebekah.

⁹ Abimelech called him in and said: »Rebekah must be your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?« »I thought someone would kill me,« Isaac answered.

¹⁰ »Do you know what you have done?« Abimelech shouted. »If someone had slept with her, you would have made our whole nation guilty!«

¹¹ So Abimelech charged all the people, saying: »He who touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.«

¹² Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.

¹³ He became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy.

¹⁴ He possessed flocks and herds and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father. They filled them with dirt.

¹⁶ Abimelech said to Isaac: »Go away from us. You are too powerful for us.«

¹⁷ Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar where he settled.

¹⁸ Then Isaac dug the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham. The Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the valley wadi torrent-valley and found a well of running water.

²⁰ The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac. They said: »The water is ours!« So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him.

²¹ They dug another well. And they quarreled over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah Accusation .

²² He moved on from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over this one. So he named it Rehoboth Roomy . He said: »Now Jehovah has made room for us. We will prosper in this land.«

²³ He went from there to Beer-sheba.

²⁴ That night Jehovah appeared to Isaac. Jehovah said: »I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you and increase the number of your descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.«

²⁵ Isaac built an altar there and worshiped Jehovah. Then he set up his camp. His servants dug another well.

²⁶ Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his friend companion , and Phicol, the commander of his army, to see Isaac.

²⁷ Isaac asked: »Why have you now come to see me? You were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country.«

²⁸ They answered: »Now we know that Jehovah is with you. We think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise

²⁹ »that you will not harm us. We did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that Jehovah has blessed you.«

³⁰ Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹ Early the next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said good-bye to them. They parted as friends.

³² That day Isaac’s servants told him about the well they dug. They said: »We have found water.«

³³ Isaac named the well Shibah. The town is still called Beer-sheba.

³⁴ When Esau was forty he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵ These two women brought a lot of grief to his parents, Isaac and Rebekah.

27

¹ Isaac was old and going blind. He called his older son Esau and said to him: »Son!« Esau answered: »Here I am.«

² Isaac said: »I am old. I do not know when I will die.

³ »Please take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me.

⁴ »Prepare a good-tasting meal for me. Prepare it the way I like it. Bring it to me to eat so that I will bless you before I die.«

⁵ Rebekah listened while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. Esau went into the open country to hunt for some wild game to bring back.

⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob: »I have just heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

⁷ »He said: ‘Bring me some wild game, and prepare a good-tasting meal for me to eat. Then I will bless you in the presence of Jehovah before I die.’

⁸ »Now listen to me, Son, and do what I tell you.

⁹ »Go to the flock and pick out two fat young goats. I will cook them and make some of that food your father likes so much.

¹⁰ »You take it to him to eat. Then he will give you his blessing before he dies.«

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother: »You know that Esau is a hairy man. I have smooth skin.

¹² »Perhaps my father will touch me and find out that I am deceiving him. That way, I will bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.«

¹³ His mother replied: »Let any curse against you fall on me, my son. Just do as I say, and go and get the goats for me.«

¹⁴ So Jacob brought the meat to his mother. And she cooked the tasty food that his father liked.

¹⁵ Then she took Esau’s best clothes and dressed Jacob in them.

¹⁶ She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins.

¹⁷ She gave her son Jacob the good-tasting meal and the bread she had prepared.

¹⁸ He went to his father and said: »Father?« »Yes,« he answered. »Who are you, Son?«

¹⁹ Jacob answered: »I am your older son Esau. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the meat that I brought you. Then you can give me your blessing.«

²⁰ Isaac said: »How did you find it so quickly, son?« Jacob answered: »Jehovah your God helped me find it.«

²¹ Isaac said to Jacob: »Please come closer. Let me touch you. Are you really Esau?«

²² Jacob went closer. His father touched him. He said: »You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau’s.«

²³ So Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking he was Esau.

²⁴ Isaac asked: »Are you really my son Esau?« »Yes, I am,« Jacob answered.

²⁵ So Isaac told him: »Serve me the wild meat. I can give you my blessing.« Jacob gave him some meat, and he ate it. He also gave him some wine, and he drank it.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him: »Come close, my son, and kiss me.«

²⁷ He came close and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his garments. Then he blessed him and said: »See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field Jehovah has blessed.«

²⁸ »May God give you of the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹ »May peoples serve you. And nations bow down to you. Be master of your brothers. And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you. Blessed be those who bless you.«

³⁰ No sooner had Isaac finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob left his presence, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

³¹ He also prepared a good-tasting meal and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father: »Please, Father, eat some of the meat I have hunted for you so that you will bless me.«

³² »Who are you?« his father Isaac asked him. »I am your firstborn son, Esau,« he answered.

³³ Isaac began to tremble and shake all over. He asked: »Who was it, then, who killed an animal and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came. I gave him my final blessing, and so it is his forever.«

³⁴ When Esau heard this he cried out loudly and bitterly. He said: »Give me your blessing also, Father!«

³⁵ Isaac responded: »Your brother deceived me. He has taken your blessing.«

³⁶ Esau said: »This is the second time that he has cheated me. No wonder his name is Jacob. He took my rights as the firstborn son. Now he has taken my blessing. Have you saved a blessing for me?«

³⁷ Isaac answered: »I have already made him master over you. I have made all his relatives his slaves. I have given him grain and wine. Now there is nothing that I can do for you, son!«

³⁸ Esau pleaded: »Father, please! Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!« Esau broke down and wept.

³⁹ Then Isaac said to him: »You will live off the land and what it yields.

⁴⁰ »You will live by your sword. You will serve your brother. Soon you will become restless and break his yoke from your neck.«

⁴¹ So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. Esau said to himself: »The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.«

⁴² When Rebekah heard about Esau’s plans to kill Jacob, she called her younger son, Jacob. She said: »Your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you.

⁴³ »Go quickly, my son. Run away to my brother Laban in Haran.

⁴⁴ »Stay with him until your brother’s anger cools down.

⁴⁵ »When your brother’s anger is gone and he has forgotten what you did to him, I will let you know. Then you may come back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?«

⁴⁶ Rebekah said to Isaac: »I cannot stand Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.«

28

¹ Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and told him: »Do not marry a Canaanite.

² »Go to Mesopotamia instead, to the home of your grandfather Bethuel. Marry one of the young women there, one of your uncle Laban’s daughters.

³ »Almighty God will bless your marriage and give you many children. You will become the father of many nations!

⁴ »He will bless you and your descendants as he blessed Abraham. You may take possession of this land, in which you have lived and which God gave to Abraham!«

⁵ Isaac then sent Jacob to stay with Rebekah’s brother Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.

⁶ Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and had warned him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. He also learned that Jacob had been sent to find a wife in northern Syria.

⁷ Jacob did as his father and mother said. He went to Paddan-aram.

⁸ It was clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women.

⁹ So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

¹⁰ Jacob left Beer-sheba and traveled toward Haran.

¹¹ As soon as the sun went down he stopped for the night. He took one of the stones from that place, put it under his head, and lay down there.

¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway set up on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven. He saw the angels of God going up and coming down on it.

¹³ Jehovah was standing above the stairway. He proclaimed: »I am Jehovah, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give the land on which you are lying to you and your descendants.

¹⁴ »Your descendants will be like the dust on the earth. You will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. Every family on earth will be blessed through you and through your descendants.

¹⁵ »Remember, I am with you. I will watch over you wherever you go. I will also bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I do what I have promised you.«

¹⁶ Jacob woke up from his sleep and said: »Truly, Jehovah is in this place, and I did not know it!«

¹⁷ He was filled with reverence. He said: »This is an awesome place! Certainly, this is the house of God and the gateway to the heavens!«

¹⁸ Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had under his head. He set it up as a marker and poured oil on top of it.

¹⁹ He named that place Bethel House of God . Previously, the name of the city was Luz.

²⁰ Jacob made a vow. He said: »If God will be with me and will watch over me on my trip and give me food to eat and clothes to wear,

²¹ »and if I return safely to my father’s home, then Jehovah will be my God.

²² »This stone I placed as a marker will be the house of God. I will certainly give you a tenth of everything you give me.«

29

¹ Jacob continued on his trip and arrived at the land in the east.

² Suddenly he came upon a well out in the fields. There were three flocks of sheep lying around it. The flocks were watered from this well. It had a large stone over the opening.

³ When all the flocks came together there, the shepherds would roll the stone back and water them. Then they would put the stone back in place.

⁴ Jacob asked the shepherds: »Where are you from?« They answered: »We are from Haran.«

⁵ Then he asked: »Do you know Nahor’s grandson Laban?« »Yes, we do,« they replied.

⁶ Jacob asked: »How is he?« They replied: »He is well. Here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.«

⁷ »It is still the heat of the day. It is not time for livestock to be gathered. Would you like to water the sheep so they can get back to grazing?«

⁸ They said: »We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep.«

⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

¹⁰ Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of his uncle Laban, with his uncle Laban’s sheep. He came forward and rolled the stone off the opening of the well and watered his uncle Laban’s sheep.

¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept loudly.

¹² Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s nephew and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.

¹³ As soon as Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him. He embraced and kissed him and brought him into his home. Then Jacob told Laban all that had happened.

¹⁴ Laban said: »You are indeed my own flesh and blood.« Jacob stayed there a whole month.

¹⁵ Laban said to Jacob: »You should not work for me for nothing just because you are my relative. How much pay do you want?«

¹⁶ Laban had two daughters. The older was named Leah and the younger Rachel.

¹⁷ Leah had soft eyes and Rachel was shapely and very beautiful.

¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said: »I will work seven years for you, if you will let me marry Rachel.«

¹⁹ Laban answered: »It is better that I give her to you than to anyone else. Stay here with me.«

²⁰ Jacob worked seven years for Laban. The time seemed like only a few days, because he loved Rachel so much.

²¹ Jacob said to Laban: »Give me my wife for the time is completed. I want to marry Rachel now!«

²² Laban gathered all the men of the place and gave a feast.

²³ In the evening when it was dark, he took Leah, his daughter, and gave her to him. Jacob slept with her.

²⁴ Laban gave Zilpah, his servant-girl, to Leah, to be her maid.

²⁵ »What have you done to me?« Jacob asked Laban: »Did I work for you in return for Rachel? Why did you cheat me?«

²⁶ Laban answered: »It is not our custom to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.

²⁷ »Finish the week of wedding festivities with this daughter. Then we will give you the other one too. But you will have to work for me another seven years.«

²⁸ Jacob did that. He finished the week with Leah. Then Laban gave his daughter Rachel to him as his wife.

²⁹ Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.

³⁰ Jacob slept with Rachel too. He loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

³¹ Jehovah saw that Leah was loved less, so he made it possible for her to have children. But Rachel had none.

³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, because she said: »Certainly, Jehovah has seen my misery. Now my husband will love me!«

³³ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said: »Certainly, Jehovah has heard that I am unloved. He has also given me this son.« She named him Simeon.

³⁴ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said: »Now at last my husband will become attached to me because I have given him three sons.« She named him Levi.

³⁵ Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said: »This time I will praise Jehovah.« So she named him Judah Praise . Then she stopped having children.

30

¹ Rachel had not borne Jacob any children. As a result, she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob: »Give me children, or I will die.«

² Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said: »I cannot take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children.«

³ She said: »Here is my maid Bilhah. Sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. This way I can become a mother through her.«

⁴ Then Rachel let Jacob marry Bilhah. Jacob slept with Bilhah.

⁵ They had a son.

⁶ Rachel named him Dan, because she said: »God has answered my prayers. He has vindicated me and given me a son.«

⁷ Bilhah and Jacob had a second son.

⁸ Rachel said: »I have struggled hard with my sister, and I have won!« So she named the boy Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah realized she could not have any more children, she let Jacob marry her servant Zilpah.

¹⁰ They had a son.

¹¹ Leah said: »How fortunate. She called him Gad.«

¹² Leah’s slave Zilpah gave birth to her second son for Jacob.

¹³ Leah said: »I am happy, for women will call me blessed. So she named him Asher.«

¹⁴ During the wheat harvest Reuben went out into the fields. He found some mandrake plants. He brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah: »Please, give me some of your son’s mandrake plants.«

¹⁵ Leah replied: »Is it not enough that you took my husband? Are you also going to take my son’s mandrake plants?« Rachel responded: »Very well, Jacob can go to bed with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrake plants.«

¹⁶ Jacob came in from the fields that evening. Leah went out to meet him. »You are to sleep with me,« she said. »You are my reward for my son’s mandrake plants.« So he went to bed with her that night.

¹⁷ God answered Leah’s prayer. She became pregnant and gave birth to her fifth son for Jacob.

¹⁸ Leah said: »God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave to my husband.« So she named him Issachar.

¹⁹ She became pregnant again and gave birth to her sixth son for Jacob.

²⁰ Leah said: »God has presented me with a wonderful gift. This time my husband will honor me, because I have given him six sons.« So she named him Zebulun.

²¹ Later she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb.

²³ So she conceived and gave birth to a son. She said: »God has taken away my reproach.«

²⁴ She named him Joseph. She said: »May Jehovah give me another son.«

²⁵ When Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: »Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.

²⁶ »Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you. Let me depart. For you know how much service I have done for you.«

²⁷ But Laban said: »If now it pleases you, stay with me. I have observed that Jehovah has blessed me on your account.«

²⁸ He continued: »Name your wages, and I will pay.«

²⁹ Jacob responded: »You know how much work I have done for you and what has happened to your livestock under my care.

³⁰ »The little that you had before I came has grown to a large amount. Jehovah has blessed you wherever I have been. When may I do something for my own family?«

³¹ Laban asked: »What should I give you?« Jacob answered: »Do not give me anything. Instead, do something for me. Then I will go back to taking care of and watching your flocks again.

³² »Let me go through all of your flocks today and take every speckled and spotted sheep, every black lamb, and every spotted and speckled goat. They will be my wages.

³³ »My honesty will speak for itself whenever you come to check on my wages. Any goat I have that is not speckled or spotted or any lamb that is not black will be considered stolen.«

³⁴ Laban answered: »I agree; we will do as you have said.«

³⁵ Laban took out the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats every one with white on it , and every black lamb. He had his sons take charge of them that same day.

³⁶ They moved away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Jacob took green branches of poplar storax , almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them.

³⁸ He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink.

³⁹ So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰ Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban’s flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban’s.

⁴¹ When the strongest of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods.

⁴² When the flock was feeble, he did not put them in. That way the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³ He became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.

31

¹ Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying: »Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. He has gained all his wealth from him.«

² He also noticed that Laban did not appear as friendly to him as before.

³ Jehovah said to Jacob: »Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your relatives. I will be with you.«

⁴ Then Jacob sent a message to Rachel and Leah to come out to the open country where his flocks were.

⁵ He said to them: »I have seen that your father’s attitude toward me is not as friendly as before. The God of my father has been with me.

⁶ »You both know that I have worked for your father with all my strength.

⁷ »Yet he has cheated me. He changed my wages ten times. However, God did not let him harm me.«

⁸ »When Laban said, ‘The speckled goats shall be your wages,’ all the flocks produced speckled young. When he said, ‘The striped goats shall be your wages,’ all the flocks produced striped young.

⁹ »This way God has taken sheep and goats from your father and given them to me.

¹⁰ »Once, when the flocks were mating, I dreamed that all the rams were either spotted or speckled.

¹¹ »Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I said, here I am.

¹² »He said, ‘Look up and see, now please , that all the male goats that are mating are striped, speckled, or spotted, because I have seen everything that Laban is doing to you.

¹³ »‘I am the God of Bethel. That is where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Arise and leave this land. Return to the land of your birth.’«

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah asked: »Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?

¹⁵ »Are we not accounted as foreigners by him? He sold us and also utterly consumed the price paid for us.

¹⁶ »For all the riches that God took away from our father belong to us and to our children. Do what God told you to do.«

¹⁷ Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels.

¹⁸ He drove all his livestock ahead of him. He took all the possessions that he had accumulated. He took his own livestock that he had accumulated in Paddan-aram and went back to his father Isaac in Canaan.

¹⁹ When Laban went to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

²⁰ Jacob also tricked Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was leaving.

²¹ He left in a hurry with all that belonged to him. He crossed the Euphrates River and went toward the mountains of Gilead.

²² Three days after he left, Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

²³ Laban took his men with him and pursued Jacob for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

²⁴ In a dream that night God came to Laban. God said: »Be careful not to threaten Jacob in any way.«

²⁵ Jacob camped on a mountain. So when Laban caught up with Jacob as he was camped in the hill country of Gilead, he set up his camp not far from Jacod’s.

²⁶ Laban said to Jacob: »Why did you deceive me and carry off my daughters like women captured in war?

²⁷ »Why did you deceive me and slip away without telling me? If you had told me, I would have sent you on your way with rejoicing and singing to the music of tambourines and harps.

²⁸ »You did not even let me give a kiss to my sons and my daughters. This was a foolish thing you did.

²⁹ »It is in my power to do you harm. But the God of your father came to me this night. He said, ‘Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob.’

³⁰ »It appears that you are going because your heart’s desire is for your father’s house. But why have you taken my gods?«

³¹ Jacob answered Laban: »I was afraid you might take your daughters from me by force.

³² »As for your gods, if anyone of us has them, let him be put to death. Make a search in front of us all for what is yours, and take it.« Jacob had no knowledge that Rachel had taken them.

³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent, and into the tents of the two servant-women, but they were not there. He left Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s.

³⁴ Rachel took the images. She put them in the camels’ basket and was seated on them. Laban searched through the tent and did not find them.

³⁵ Rachel said to her father: »Do not be angry, Father, but I cannot get up to greet you. I am having my period.« So even though Laban had made a thorough search, he did not find the idols.

³⁶ Jacob lost his temper. »What crime have I committed?« he asked angrily. »What law have I broken that gives you the right to hunt me down?

³⁷ »Now that you have searched through all my belongings, what household article have you found that belongs to you? Put it out here where your men and mine can see it. Let them decide which one of us is right.

³⁸ »I have been with you now for twenty years. Your sheep and your goats have not failed to reproduce. I have not even eaten any rams from your flocks.

³⁹ »I always absorbed the loss when wild animals killed a sheep. I did not take it to you to show that it was not my fault. You demanded that I make good anything that was stolen during the day or during the night.

⁴⁰ »Many times I suffered from the heat during the day and from the cold at night. I was not able to sleep.

⁴¹ »I have been in your house twenty years! I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters. I kept your flock for six years. You changed my wages ten times.

⁴² »If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, out of respect for Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed by now. God has seen my misery and hard work. Last night he made it right!«

⁴³ Then Laban answered Jacob: »These are my daughters, my grandchildren, and my flocks. Everything you see is mine! Yet, what can I do today for my daughters or for their children?

⁴⁴ »Now, let us make an agreement covenant and let it stand as a witness between you and me.«

⁴⁵ Jacob took a stone and set it up as a marker.

⁴⁶ Jacob said to his relatives: »Gather some stones.« They took stones, put them into a pile, and ate there by the pile of stones.

⁴⁷ In his language, Laban called it »Jegar Sahadutha« Witness Pile , but Jacob called it »Galeed.«

⁴⁸ Laban said: »This pile of stones stands as a witness between you and me today.« This is why it was named Galeed,

⁴⁹ and also Mizpah Watchtower , because he said: »May Jehovah watch between you and me when we are unable to see each other.

⁵⁰ »If you mistreat my daughters or marry other women behind my back, remember that God stands as a witness between you and me.«

⁵¹ Laban also said to Jacob: »Here is the pile of stones. Here is the marker that I have set up between you and me.

⁵² »This pile of stones and this marker stand as witnesses that I will not go past the pile of stones to harm you, and that you will not go past the pile of stones or marker to harm me.

⁵³ »May the God of Abraham and Nahor—the God of their father—judge between us.« So Jacob swore this oath out of respect for his father Isaac.

⁵⁴ He offered a sacrifice on the mountain. He invited his relatives to eat the meal with him. They ate with him and spent the night on the mountain.

⁵⁵ Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left and went back home.

32

¹ Along the way God’s angels met Jacob.

² When he saw them, Jacob said: »This is God’s camp!« He named that place Mahanaim.

³ Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the country of Edom.

⁴ He informed them to say: »Your obedient servant, Jacob, reports to my master Esau that I have been staying with Laban and that I have delayed my return until now.

⁵ »I own cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and slaves. I am sending you word in the hope of gaining your favor.«

⁶ When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said: »We went to your brother Esau. He is already on his way to meet you. He has four hundred men with him.«

⁷ Jacob was frightened and worried. He divided the people who were with him into two groups. He also divided his sheep, goats, cattle, and camels.

⁸ He thought: »If Esau comes and attacks the first group, the other may be able to escape.«

⁹ Then Jacob prayed: »O God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac, O Jehovah, you said to me: ‘Go back to your country and your family and I will be good to you.’

¹⁰ »I am less than nothing in comparison with all your love and your faithfulness to me your servant. I only had a stick in my hand when I traveled across Jordan. Now I have become two armies.

¹¹ »Save me from the hand of Esau, my brother. I fear that he will attack me and kill both mothers and children.

¹² »You said, ‘I will make sure that you are prosperous and that your descendants will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. No one will be able to count them because there are so many.’«

¹³ Jacob stayed there that night. Then he prepared a gift for his brother Esau from what he had brought with him:

¹⁴ There were two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty male sheep,

¹⁵ also thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

¹⁶ He placed servants in charge of each herd. He said to his servants: »Go ahead of me, and maintain a distance between the herds.«

¹⁷ He commanded the first servant: »When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and whose animals are these ahead of you?’

¹⁸ »Say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. This is a gift sent to you. Jacob is directly behind us.’«

¹⁹ He also commanded the second servant, the third, and all the others who followed the herds. He said: »Say the same thing to Esau when you find him.

²⁰ »Be sure to say, ‘Jacob is right behind us.’« He thought: »I will make peace with him by giving him this gift that I am sending ahead of me. After that, I will see him, and he will welcome me back.«

²¹ Jacob sent the gift ahead of him, while he stayed in the camp that night.

²² That same night Jacob got up, took his two wives, his two concubines, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok River.

²³ After he sent them across, he also sent across all that he owned.

²⁴ Then Jacob was by himself. A man was fighting with him till dawn.

²⁵ The man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob. He gave him a blow in the hollow part of his thigh, so that his leg was damaged.

²⁶ He said to him: »Let me go now, for the dawn is near.« But Jacob said: »I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing.«

²⁷ Then he asked: »What is your name?« And he said, »Jacob.«

²⁸ The man said: »Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel He Struggles With God , because you have struggled with God and with men—and you have won.«

²⁹ Jacob said: »Please tell me your name.« The man answered: »Why do you ask for my name?« Then he blessed Jacob there.

³⁰ Jacob named that place Peniel Face of God , because he said: »I have seen God face to face, yet my life was saved.«

³¹ The sun rose as he passed Penuel. He was limping because of his thigh.

³² Therefore, even today the people of Israel do not eat the muscle of the thigh the sinew attached to the hip socket. This is because God touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh at the muscle.

33

¹ Jacob saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. Therefore he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two concubines.

² He put the concubines and their children first, then Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

³ Jacob went ahead of them. He bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

⁴ Esau ran to meet him. He threw his arms around him, and kissed him. They both cried.

⁵ Esau looked around and saw the women and the children. He asked: »Who are these people with you?« Jacob answered: »These are the children whom God has been good enough to give me.«

⁶ Then the concubines came up with their children and bowed down.

⁷ Leah and her children came next, and last of all Joseph and Rachel came and bowed down.

⁸ Esau asked: »What about that other group I met? What do you mean by all this company?« Jacob answered: »It was to gain your favor.«

⁹ »But, brother, I already have plenty,« Esau replied. »Keep them for yourself.«

¹⁰ Jacob said: »Please accept these gifts as a sign of your friendship for me. When you welcomed me and I saw your face, it was like seeing the face of God.

¹¹ »Take my offering then, with my blessing. God has been very good to me and I have enough.« So at his strong request, he took it.

¹² Esau said: »Let us go on our journey together. I will go in front.«

¹³ Jacob responded: »My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds that are nursing are a care to me. If they are driven hard one day, all the flocks will die.

¹⁴ »Please let my lord pass on before his servant. I will proceed at my leisure, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.«

¹⁵ Esau said: »Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.« But he said: »What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.«

¹⁶ So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

¹⁷ Jacob moved on to Succoth. He built a house there for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is named Succoth.

¹⁸ Jacob traveled safely from Paddan-aram to the city of Shechem in Canaan. He camped within sight of the city.

¹⁹ He bought the piece of land on which he pitched his tents. He bought it from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver.

²⁰ He set up an altar there and named it God, the God of Israel.

34

¹ One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women.

² Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her. He grabbed her and raped sexually defiled her.

³ He found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her. So he tried to win her affection.

⁴ He told his father: »I want you to get Dinah for me as my wife.«

⁵ Jacob learned that his daughter had been disgraced. Since his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back.

⁶ Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.

⁷ About that time Jacob’s sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard about it, they were shocked and furious that Shechem had done such a thing. He had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter.

⁸ Hamor said to him: »My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter. Please let him marry her.

⁹ »Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours.

¹⁰ »Then you may stay here in our country with us. You may live anywhere you wish. You may trade freely and own property.«

¹¹ Shechem added: »Let me have your favor and I will give you whatever you want.

¹² »Ask anything as the bride price, no matter how expensive. I will do anything. Just let me marry Dinah.«

¹³ Jacob’s sons wanted to get even with Shechem and his father because of what happened to their sister.

¹⁴ So they tricked them by saying: »You are not circumcised! It would be a disgrace for us to let you marry Dinah now.

¹⁵ »But we will let you marry her, if you and the other men in your tribe get circumcised.

¹⁶ »Then we will give our daughters to you. And we will take your daughters for us. We will live with you as one people.

¹⁷ »But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go.«

¹⁸ Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem.

¹⁹ The young man did not delay to do what was required. This was because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter. He was the most honored of all his family.

²⁰ Hamor and his son Shechem went to their city gate to speak to the men of their city. They said:

²¹ »These people are friendly toward us. So let them live in our land and move about freely in the area. Look, there is plenty of room in this land for them. We can marry their daughters and let them marry ours.

²² »These people will consent to live with us and become one nation on one condition: Every male must be circumcised, as they are.

²³ »Then all their livestock and everything else they own will be ours. So let us agree that they can live among us.«

²⁴ All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed. Then all the males were circumcised.

²⁵ Three days later the men who had been circumcised were still weak from pain. So Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s brothers, attacked with their swords and killed every man in town.

²⁶ They also killed Hamor and Shechem. Then they took Dinah and left.

²⁷ The sons of Jacob came upon the slain. They plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled.

²⁸ They took their flocks and their herds, their asses and whatever was in the city and in the field.

²⁹ They captured their wives and all their little ones. They took all the wealth that was in their houses.

³⁰ Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: »You have brought trouble on me by making me loathsome to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Per’izzites. My numbers are few. If they gather themselves against me and attack my household I will be destroyed.«

³¹ They responded: »Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?«

35

¹ God said to Jacob: »Go to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.«

² Jacob said to his family and those who were with him: »Get rid of the foreign gods that you have. Wash yourselves until you are ritually clean. Change your clothes.

³ »After that let us go to Bethel. I will make an altar there to God, who answered me when I was troubled and who has been with me wherever I have gone.«

⁴ So everyone gave Jacob their idols and their earrings. He buried them under the oak big tree near Shechem.

⁵ Jacob and his family traveled through Canaan. God terrified the people in the towns so much that no one dared bother them.

⁶ Finally, they reached Bethel, also known as Luz.

⁷ Jacob built an altar there and called it God of Bethel. That was the place where God appeared to him when he was running from Esau.

⁸ Deborah died. She was the servant who cared for Rebekah from childhood. She was buried near Bethel, under the holy tree. They named it Allon-bacuth weeping tree .

⁹ God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram. He blessed him.

¹⁰ God said to him: »Your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob. Israel shall be your name.« Thus He called him Israel.

¹¹ God also said: »I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and an assembly of nations will come from you. Kings shall come forth from you.

¹² »The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. I will give the land to your descendants after you.«

¹³ Then God went up from him at the place where he had spoken with him.

¹⁴ So Jacob set up a memorial, a stone marker, to mark the place where God had spoken with him. He poured a wine offering and olive oil on it.

¹⁵ Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel House of God .

¹⁶ After that they moved from Bethel. When there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. She had severe labor pains.

¹⁷ When one of her pains hit, the midwife said: »Do not be afraid. You have another son!«

¹⁸ Rachel was dying! With her last breath she named her son Ben-oni Son of My Sorrow , but his father named him Benjamin Son of My Right Hand .

¹⁹ Rachel died and was buried on the way to Bethlehem Ephrath .

²⁰ Jacob set up a stone as a marker for her grave. The same marker is at Rachel’s grave today.

²¹ Israel moved on again. He pitched his tent by the tower of Eder.

²² While Israel lived in that region, Reuben went to bed with his father’s concubine Bilhah. Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons.

²³ The sons of Leah were Jacob’s firstborn Reuben, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴ The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵ The sons of Rachel’s slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶ The sons of Leah’s slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob’s sons, who were born in Paddan-aram.

²⁷ Jacob came home to his father Isaac, to Mamre’s city, Kiriath-arba Hebron . Abraham and Isaac had lived there for a while.

²⁸ Isaac was one hundred and eighty years old.

²⁹ Isaac took his last breath and died. He joined his ancestors in death at a very old age. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

36

¹ This is the genealogy of Esau, who is Edom, and his descendants.

² Esau selected his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;

³ and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.

⁴ Now Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel.

⁵ And Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presence of his brother Jacob.

⁷ For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together, and the land where they were strangers could not support them because of their livestock.

⁸ So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom.

⁹ This is the genealogy of Esau the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir.

¹⁰ These were the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Adah, the wife of Esau, and Reuel the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau.

¹¹ The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹² Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife.

¹³ These were the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.

¹⁴ These were the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife, the daughter of Anah, and the daughter of Zibeon. And she bore to Esau: Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah.

¹⁵ These were the sheiks chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn son of Esau, were Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, Chief Kenaz,

¹⁶ Chief Korah, Chief Gatam, and Chief Amalek. These were the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. They were the sons of Adah.

¹⁷ These were the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: Chief Nahath, Chief Zerah, Chief Shammah, and Chief Mizzah. These were the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom. These were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.

¹⁸ These were the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife: Chief Jeush, Chief Jaalam, and Chief Korah. These were the chiefs who descended from Oholibamah, Esau’s wife, the daughter of Anah.

¹⁹ These were the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these were their chiefs.

²⁰ These were the sons of Seir the Horite who inhabited the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

²¹ Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the sheiks chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir, in the land of Edom.

²² The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam. Lotan’s sister was Timna.

²³ These were the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴ These were the sons of Zibeon: both Aiah and Anah. This was the Anah who found the water in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of his father Zibeon.

²⁵ These were the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah.

²⁶ These were the sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

²⁷ These the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸ These were the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

²⁹ These were the chiefs of the Horites: Chief Lotan, Chief Shobal, Chief Zibeon, Chief Anah,

³⁰ Chief Dishon, Chief Ezer, and Chief Dishan. These were the chiefs of the Horites, according to their chiefs in the land of Seir.

³¹ Now these were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the children of Israel:

³² Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

³³ And when Bela died, Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place.

³⁴ When Jobab died, Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.

³⁵ And when Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who attacked Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place. And the name of his city was Avith.

³⁶ When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.

³⁷ And when Samlah died, Shaul of Rehoboth-by-the-River reigned in his place.

³⁸ When Shaul died, Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.

³⁹ And when Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, Hadar reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Pau. His wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.

⁴⁰ These were the names of the sheiks chiefs of Esau, according to their families and their places, by their names: Chief Timnah, Chief Alvah, Chief Jetheth,

⁴¹ Chief Oholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon,

⁴² Chief Kenaz, Chief Teman, Chief Mibzar,

⁴³ Chief Magdiel, and Chief Iram. These were the sheiks of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. Esau was the father of the Edomites.

37

¹ Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived.

² This is the story of Jacob and his descendants. Joseph was a seventeen-year-old young man. He took care of the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph told his father about the bad things his brothers were doing.

³ Jacob Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph had been born in Israel’s old age. So he made Joseph a special multicolored robe with long sleeves.

⁴ Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and could not speak to him in a friendly way.

⁵ One time Joseph had a dream. He told his brothers about it and they hated him even more.

⁶ He said: »Please listen to the dream I had.

⁷ »We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat. My sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it.«

⁸ »Do you think you are going to be a king and rule over us?« his brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them.

⁹ Joseph had another dream and told his brothers: »I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.«

¹⁰ He also told the dream to his father. His father scolded him. »What kind of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, your brothers, and I are going to come and bow down to you?«

¹¹ Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him. His father kept thinking about the whole matter.

¹² His brothers went to Shechem to take care of their father’s flock.

¹³ His father Jacob said to him: »I want you to go to your brothers. They are with the sheep near Shechem.« »Yes, I will go,« Joseph answered.

¹⁴ His father said: »Go and find out how your brothers and the sheep are doing. Then come back and let me know.« So he sent him from Hebron Valley. Joseph was near Shechem,

¹⁵ and wandering through the fields, when a man asked: »What are you looking for?«

¹⁶ Joseph answered: »I am looking for my brothers who are watching the sheep. Can you tell me where they are?«

¹⁷ »They are not here anymore,« the man replied. »I heard them say they were going to Dothan.« Joseph soon found his brothers in Dothan.

¹⁸ Before he arrived, they saw him coming and made plans to kill him.

¹⁹ They said to one another: »Look, here comes the hero of those dreams!

²⁰ »Let us kill him and throw him into a water pit. We can say that some wild animal ate him. Then we will see what happens to those dreams.«

²¹ Reuben heard this and tried to protect Joseph from them. »Let us not kill him,« he said.

²² »Do not murder him or even harm him. Just throw him into a dry well out here in the desert.« Reuben planned to rescue Joseph later and take him back to his father.

²³ When Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his fancy coat.

²⁴ They put him into a water pit. It had no water in it.

²⁵ As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt.

²⁶ Judah asked his brothers: »What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up his death?

²⁷ »Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let us not hurt him, because he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.« His brothers agreed.

²⁸ Some of the Midianite traders approached. The brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites. They took him to Egypt.

²⁹ Reuben came back to the pit and found that Joseph was not there. He tore his clothes in sorrow.

³⁰ He returned to his brothers and said: »The boy is not there! What am I going to do?«

³¹ Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood.

³² They took the robe to their father and said: »We found this. Does it belong to your son?«

³³ He recognized it and said: »Yes, it is his! Some wild animal has killed him. My son Joseph has been torn to pieces!«

³⁴ Jacob tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. He mourned for his son a long time.

³⁵ All his sons and daughters came to comfort him. However, he refused to be comforted. He said: »I will go down to the grave still mourning for my son.« So he continued to mourn for his son Joseph.

³⁶ Meanwhile, in Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of the king’s officers, who was the captain of the palace guard.

38

¹ At that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam.

² Judah met a young Canaanite woman there whose father was named Shua. He married her.

³ Shua bore him a son, whom he named Er.

⁴ She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son and named him Onan.

⁵ She had another son and named him Shelah. Judah was at Achzib when the boy was born.

⁶ For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar.

⁷ Er was an evil man. It displeased Jehovah. So Jehovah killed him.

⁸ Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan: »Go sleep with your brother’s widow. Fulfill your obligation to her as her husband’s brother. That way your brother may have descendants.«

⁹ Onan knew that the children would not belong to him. So when he had intercourse with his brother’s widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, assuring that there would be no children for his brother.

¹⁰ What he did displeased Jehovah. So Jehovah killed him also.

¹¹ Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar: »Return to your father’s house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up.« He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.

¹² After some time Judah’s wife died. When he finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared.

¹³ Tamar found out that her father-in-law Judah was going to Timnah to shear his sheep.

¹⁴ She realized that Shelah was now a grown man. She had not been allowed to marry him. So she decided to dress in something other than her widow’s clothes and to cover her face with a veil. Then she sat outside the town of Enaim on the road to Timnah.

¹⁵ Judah came along. He did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute,

¹⁶ and asked her to sleep with him. She asked: »What will you give me if I do?«

¹⁷ He answered: »One of my young goats.« Then she asked: »What will you give me to keep until you send the goat?«

¹⁸ »What do you want?« he asked. »The ring on that cord around your neck,« she replied. »I also want the special walking stick you have with you.« So he gave them to her. They slept together and she became pregnant.

¹⁹ After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow’s clothes again.

²⁰ Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand. But he did not find her.

²¹ He asked the men: »Where is the temple prostitute who was by the road at Enaim?« They said: »There has been no temple prostitute here.«

²² So he went back to Judah and said: »I did not find her. Besides, the men who lived there said there has not been any temple prostitute here.«

²³ Then Judah said: »Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you did not find her.«

²⁴ Three months later Judah was told: »Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.« Judah said: »Bring her out and have her burned to death!«

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. »I am pregnant by the man who owns these,« she said. She added: »See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.«

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said: »She is more righteous than I, since I would not give her to my son Shelah.« He did not sleep with her again.

²⁷ When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand. The midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said: »This one came out first.«

²⁹ When he drew back his hand, his brother came out. She said: »So this is how you have broken out!« He was named Perez.

³⁰ Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.

39

¹ Joseph had been taken to Egypt. Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s Egyptian officials and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

² Jehovah was with Joseph. Joseph became a successful man. He worked in the house of his Egyptian master.

³ Joseph’s master saw that Jehovah was with him. Jehovah made him succeed in everything he did.

⁴ Potiphar was pleased with him and made him his personal servant. He put him in charge of his house and everything he owned.

⁵ Jehovah blessed the Egyptian’s household and everything he had in his house and in his fields because of Joseph.

⁶ Potiphar turned over everything he had to the care of Joseph. He did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Joseph was well built and good-looking.

⁷ Soon his master’s wife began to desire Joseph and asked him to go to bed with her.

⁸ He refused, and said to her: »My master does not have to concern himself with anything in the house, because I am here. He has put me in charge of everything he has.

⁹ »No one in this house is greater than I. He has kept nothing back from me except you. You are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?«

¹⁰ She kept asking Joseph day after day. He refused to go to bed with her or be with her.

¹¹ One day he went into the house to do his work. None of the household servants were there.

¹² She grabbed him by his coat and said: »Come to bed with me!« But he ran outside and left his coat in her hand.

¹³ When she realized that he had gone but had left his coat behind,

¹⁴ she called her household servants and said to them: »Look! My husband brought this Hebrew here to fool around with us. He came in and tried to go to bed with me. I screamed as loud as I could.

¹⁵ »When he heard me scream, he ran out of the house, leaving his coat with me.«

¹⁶ Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s coat until her husband came home.

¹⁷ She said: »That Hebrew slave of yours tried to rape me!

¹⁸ »When I screamed for help, he left his coat and ran out of the house.«

¹⁹ Potiphar became very angry

²⁰ and threw Joseph in the same prison where the king’s prisoners were kept. While Joseph was in prison,

²¹ Jehovah helped him and was good to him. He even made the jailer like Joseph so much that

²² he put him in charge of the other prisoners and of everything that was done in the jail.

²³ The jailer did not worry about anything, because Jehovah was with Joseph and made him successful in all that he did.

40

¹ The king’s chief cupbearer and his chief baker made the king angry.

² Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.

³ So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard. It was the same place where Joseph was imprisoned.

⁴ The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph. He took care of them. After they had been confined for some time,

⁵ both prisoners, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, had dreams one night. Each man had a dream with its own special meaning.

⁶ Joseph saw that they were upset when he came to them in the morning.

⁷ He asked these officials of Pharaoh who were with him in his master’s prison: »Why do you look so unhappy today?«

⁸ »We both had dreams,« they answered him, »but there is no one to tell us what they mean.« »Is it not God who can tell what dreams mean?« Joseph asked them. »Tell me all about them.«

⁹ So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said: »In my dream a grapevine with three branches appeared in front of me.

¹⁰ »Soon after it sprouted it blossomed. Then its clusters ripened into grapes.

¹¹ »Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand. I took the grapes and squeezed them into it. I put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.«

¹² »This is what it means,« Joseph said to him. »The three branches are three days.

¹³ »In the next three days Pharaoh will release you and restore you to your position. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.

¹⁴ »Remember me when things go well for you. Please do me a favor. Mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison.

¹⁵ »I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. And here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.«

¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, he said to Joseph: »I also saw in my dream three baskets of white bread on my head.

¹⁷ »The top basket contained all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh. The birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.«

¹⁸ Joseph answered: »This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days.

¹⁹ »In three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you. He will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off you.«

²⁰ It happened on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday that he made a feast for all his servants. He lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

²¹ He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.

²² He did indeed hang the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.

²³ Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph. In fact he forgot him.

41

¹ Two years later Pharaoh had a dream. He dreamed he was standing by the Nile River.

² Suddenly, seven nice-looking well-fed cows came up from the river and began to graze among the reeds.

³ Seven other cows came up from the river behind them. These cows were sickly and skinny. They stood behind the first seven cows on the riverbank.

⁴ The cows that were sickly and skinny ate the seven nice-looking well-fed cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

⁵ He fell asleep again and had another dream. Seven heads of grain, full and ripe, were growing on one stalk.

⁶ Then seven other heads of grain sprouted thin and scorched by the desert wind.

⁷ The thin heads of grain swallowed the full ones. The king woke up and realized that he had been dreaming.

⁸ The king was upset the next morning. So he called his magicians and wise men and told them what he had dreamed. None of them could tell him what the dreams meant.

⁹ The king’s chief cupbearer said: »Now I remember what I was supposed to do.

¹⁰ »When you were angry with your chief cook and me, you threw us both in jail in the house of the captain of the guard.

¹¹ »One night we both had dreams. Each dream had a different meaning.

¹² »A young Hebrew, who was a servant of the captain of the guard, was there with us at the time. When we told him our dreams, he explained what each of them meant.

¹³ »Everything happened just as he said it would. I got my job back, and the cook was put to death.«

¹⁴ So the king sent for Joseph. He was quickly brought out of jail. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to the king.

¹⁵ The king said: »I had a dream. No one can explain what it means. I am told that you can interpret dreams.«

¹⁶ Joseph then answered Pharaoh: »I cannot do it myself, but God can give the meaning of your dreams.«

¹⁷ The king told Joseph: »I dreamed as I stood on the bank of the Nile River,

¹⁸ »I saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river. They began feeding on the grass.

¹⁹ »Next, seven skinny, bony cows came up out of the river. I have never seen such terrible looking cows anywhere in Egypt.

²⁰ »The skinny cows ate the fat ones!

²¹ »Even though they had eaten the fat cows, no one could tell they had eaten them. They looked just as sick as before. Then I woke up.

²² »In my second dream I saw seven good, full heads of grain growing on a single stalk.

²³ »Seven other heads of grain, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, sprouted behind them.

²⁴ »The thin heads of grain swallowed the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but no one could tell me what it meant.«

²⁵ Joseph said to Pharaoh: »Pharaoh had the same dream twice. God has told Pharaoh what he is going to do.

²⁶ »The seven good cows are seven years. The seven good heads of grain are seven years. It is all the same dream.

²⁷ »The seven thin, sickly cows that came up behind them are seven years. The seven empty heads of grain scorched by the east wind are also seven years. Seven years of famine are coming!

²⁸ »It is just as I said to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is going to do.

²⁹ »Seven years are coming when there will be plenty of food in Egypt.

³⁰ »Seven years of famine will follow. Then people will forget that there was plenty of food in Egypt. The famine will ruin the land.

³¹ »People will not remember that there was once plenty of food in the land, because the coming famine will be so severe.

³² »The reason Pharaoh has had a recurring dream is because the matter has been definitely decided by God. He will do it very soon.

³³ »Pharaoh should look for a wise and intelligent man and put him in charge of Egypt.

³⁴ »Make arrangements to appoint supervisors over the land. Take a fifth of Egypt’s harvest during the seven good years.

³⁵ »Have them collect all the food during these good years. Store up grain under Pharaoh’s control, to be kept for food in the cities.

³⁶ »This food will be a reserve supply for our country during the seven years of famine that will happen in Egypt. Then the land will not be ruined by the famine.«

³⁷ The king and his officials approved this plan,

³⁸ and he said to them: »We will never find a better man than Joseph. He is a man who has God’s Spirit in him.«

³⁹ The king said to Joseph: »God has shown you all this. Therefore it is obvious that you have greater wisdom and insight than anyone else.

⁴⁰ »I will put you in charge of my country. All my people will obey your orders. Your authority will be second only to mine.

⁴¹ »I now appoint you governor over all Egypt.«

⁴² Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand. He clothed him in garments of fine linen and put the gold necklace around his neck.

⁴³ He had him ride in his second chariot. They proclaimed before him: »Bow the knee!« Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴ Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph: »Though I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.«

⁴⁵ Pharaoh named Joseph, Zaphenath-paneah. He gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶ Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁷ During the seven years of plenty the land produced abundantly.

⁴⁸ He gathered all the food of these seven years that occurred in the land of Egypt and placed the food in the cities. He placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields.

⁴⁹ Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea. He finally stopped measuring it, for it was beyond measure.

⁵⁰ Before the year of famine came, there were born to Joseph two sons, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

⁵¹ Joseph named his firstborn son Manasseh, because God helped him forget all his troubles and all about his father’s family.

⁵² He named the second son Ephraim, because God made him fruitful in the land where he had suffered.

⁵³ The seven years when there was plenty of food in Egypt came to an end.

⁵⁴ The seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every other country, but there was food throughout Egypt.

⁵⁵ When the Egyptians became hungry, they cried out to the king for food. So he ordered them to go to Joseph and do what he told them.

⁵⁶ The famine grew worse and spread over the entire country. Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians.

⁵⁷ People came to Egypt from all over the world to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.

42

¹ When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons: »Why are you doing nothing?«

² He said: »I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us from that place, so that we may live and not die.«

³ Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went to Egypt to buy grain.

⁴ Jacob would not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with the other brothers. He was afraid that something would happen to him.

⁵ Israel’s sons left with the others who were going to buy grain. This is because there was also famine in Canaan.

⁶ As governor of the country, Joseph was selling grain to everyone. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed in front of him with their faces touching the ground.

⁷ Joseph recognized his brothers the moment he saw them. Even so, he acted as if he did not know them and spoke harshly to them: »Where did you come from?« They answered: »From Canaan, to buy food.«

⁸ Even though Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

⁹ He remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them and said: »You are spies! You have come to find out where our country is weak.«

¹⁰ »No!« they answered. »We have come as your slaves, to buy food.

¹¹ »We are all brothers. We are not spies. We are honest men.«

¹² Joseph said to them: »No! You have come to find out where our country is weak.«

¹³ They said: »Sir, we were twelve brothers in all, sons of the same man in the land of Canaan. One brother is dead, and the youngest is now with our father.«

¹⁴ »It is just as I said,« Joseph answered. »You are spies.

¹⁵ »This is how you will be tested: I swear by the name of the king that you will never leave unless your youngest brother comes here.

¹⁶ »One of you must go and get him. The rest of you will be kept under guard until the truth of what you say can be tested. Otherwise, as sure as the king lives, you are spies.«

¹⁷ He put all of them together in prison for three days.

¹⁸ On the third day, Joseph said: »Do this and live, for I too respect God.

¹⁹ »If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in prison. Concerning the rest of you, carry grain for the famine of your households,

²⁰ »and bring your youngest brother to me. We will verify your words and you will not die.« They complied.

²¹ They said to one another: »Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw his distress when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.«

²² Reuben said: »Did I not tell you? Did I say, ‘Do not sin against the boy’? You would not listen! Now comes the reckoning for his blood.«

²³ They did not know that Joseph understood. There was an interpreter between them.

²⁴ He turned away from them and wept. When he returned to them and spoke to them, he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

²⁵ Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to restore every man’s money in his sack. They were to give them provisions for the journey. And thus it was done for them.

²⁶ They loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.

²⁷ They stopped for the night. One of them opened his sack to feed his donkey and his money was right inside his sack.

²⁸ He said to his brothers: »My money has been put back! It is right here in my sack!« They wanted to die. They trembled and turned to each other and asked: »What has God done to us?«

²⁹ They came to their father Jacob in Canaan. Then they told him all that had happened to them. They said:

³⁰ »The governor of that land spoke harshly to us and treated us like spies.«

³¹ We told him: »We are honest men, not spies.

³² »We were twelve brothers, sons of the same father. One is no longer with us. The youngest brother stayed with our father in Canaan.

³³ »The governor of that land said to us, ‘This is how I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers with me. Take food for your starving families and go.

³⁴ »‘But bring me your youngest brother. Then I will know that you are not spies but honest men. I will give your brother back to you, and you will be able to move about freely in this country.’«

³⁵ As they were emptying their sacks, each man found his bag of money in his sack. When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were frightened.

³⁶ Their father Jacob said to them: »You are going to make me lose all my children! Joseph is no longer with us. Simeon is no longer with us. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!«

³⁷ So Reuben said to his father: »You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Let me take care of him. I will bring him back to you.«

³⁸ Jacob replied: »My son will not go with you. His brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If any harm comes to him on the trip you are taking, the grief would drive this gray-haired old man to his grave!«

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¹ The famine was extremely bad in the land.

² When they finished eating the grain they brought from Egypt, Israel said to his sons: »Go back and buy us a little more food.«

³ Judah said to him: »The man gave us strict warning! He said: ‘You will not be allowed to see me again unless your brother is with you.’

⁴ »If you let our brother go with us, we will go and buy food for you.

⁵ ‘»If you will not let him go, we will not go. The man said to us: ‘You will not be allowed to see me again unless your brother is with you.’«

⁶ Israel asked: »Why have you made trouble for me by telling the man you had another brother?«

⁷ They answered: »The man kept asking about our family and us. He asked, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How could we possibly know he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?«

⁸ Then Judah said to his father Israel: »Send the boy along with me. Let us get going so that we will not starve to death.

⁹ »I guarantee that he will come back. You can hold me responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and place him here in front of you, you can blame me the rest of my life.

¹⁰ »If we had not waited so long, we could have made this trip twice by now.«

¹¹ Their father Israel said: »If that is the way it has to be, then take the man a gift. Put some of the best products of the land in your bags. Take a little balm, a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.

¹² »Take twice as much money with you, because you must take back the money that was returned in the top of your sacks. Maybe it was a mistake.

¹³ »Take your brother and return at once.

¹⁴ »May God Almighty cause the man to have pity on you, so that he will give Benjamin and your other brother back to you. As for me, if I must lose my children, I must lose them.«

¹⁵ So the brothers took the gifts and twice as much money, and set out for Egypt with Benjamin. There they presented themselves to Joseph.

¹⁶ He saw Benjamin and told the servant in charge of his house: »Take these men to my house. Slaughter an animal and cook it, so they can eat with me at noon.«

¹⁷ The servant did as he was told. He took the brothers to Joseph’s house.

¹⁸ On the way they were worried and started talking: »We are being taken there because of the money that was put back in our sacks last time. He will arrest us and take our donkeys. He will make us his slaves!«

¹⁹ When they arrived at Joseph’s house, they said to the servant in charge:

²⁰ »We came to Egypt once before to buy grain.

²¹ »When we stopped for the night, we each found in our grain sacks the exact amount we had paid. We have brought that money back.

²² »We brought enough money to buy more grain. We do not know who put the money in our sacks.«

²³ »It is all right,« the servant replied. »Do not worry. The God you and your father worship must have put the money there, because your money came first to me.« Then he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴ The servant took them into Joseph’s house. He gave them water to wash their feet. He also tended their donkeys.

²⁵ The brothers prepared their gifts so they could give them to Joseph at noon. For they had heard they were going to eat there.

²⁶ Joseph came home and they gave him the gifts they had brought. They bowed down to him.

²⁷ Joseph asked how they were. He said: »What about your elderly father? Is he still alive?«

²⁸ They answered: »Your servant our father is still alive and well.« Again they bowed down to Joseph.

²⁹ Joseph looked around and saw his brother Benjamin. He said: »This must be the youngest brother you told me about. God bless you, my son.«

³⁰ Right away he rushed off to his room and cried because of his love for Benjamin.

³¹ After washing his face and returning, he was able to control himself. He said: »Serve the meal!«

³² Joseph was served at a table by himself. His brothers were served at another. The Egyptians sat at yet another table. This is because Egyptians felt it was disgusting to eat with Hebrews.

³³ To the surprise of Joseph’s brothers, they were seated in front of him according to their ages, from the oldest to the youngest.

³⁴ They were served food from Joseph’s table. And Benjamin was given five times as much as each of the others. So Joseph’s brothers drank with him and had a good time.

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¹ Later, Joseph told the servant in charge of his house: »Fill the men’s grain sacks with as much as they can hold and put their money in the sacks.

² »Also put my silver cup in the sack of the youngest brother.« The servant did as he was told.

³ When it was light the men took their donkeys and left.

⁴ They just left the city and were not far off, when Joseph said to the man in charge of his house: »Follow the men and when you overtake them, say to them: ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

⁵ »‘Is this the cup that my master drinks from and that he uses for telling the future? What you have done is evil!’«

⁶ When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them.

⁷ They answered him: »What do you mean, Sir, by talking like this? We swear that we have done no such thing.

⁸ »You know that we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money we found in the top of our sacks. Why should we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?

⁹ »If you find that one of us has the cup, then kill him. The rest of us will become your slaves.«

¹⁰ »Good!« the man replied. »I would do what you have said. But only the one who has the cup will become my slave. The rest of you can go free.«

¹¹ Each of the brothers quickly put his sack on the ground and opened it.

¹² Joseph’s servant started searching the sacks. They began with the one that belonged to the oldest brother. When he came to Benjamin’s sack, he found the cup.

¹³ This upset the brothers so much that they began tearing their clothes in sorrow. Then they loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.

¹⁴ When Judah and his brothers got there, Joseph was still at home. So they bowed down to Joseph.

¹⁵ He asked them: »What have you done? Did you not know I could find out?«

¹⁶ »Sir, what can we say?« Judah replied. »How can we prove we are innocent? God has shown that we are guilty. And now all of us are your slaves, especially the one who had the cup.«

¹⁷ He said: »It is far from me that I should do this. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant. As for you, you go in peace to your father.«

¹⁸ Judah went up to Joseph and said: »Please, Sir, let me speak openly with you. Do not be angry with me, although you are equal to Pharaoh.

¹⁹ »Sir, you asked us, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’

²⁰ »We answered, ‘We have a father who is old and a younger brother born to him when he was already old. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’

²¹ ‘Then you said to us, ‘Bring him here to me so that I can see him myself.’

²² »We replied, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If the boy leaves him, his father will die.’

²³ »Then you said you will not be admitted to my presence again unless your youngest brother comes with you.’

²⁴ »We went back and told our father what you said.

²⁵ »He told us to return and buy a little food.

²⁶ »We answered, ‘We cannot go. We will not be admitted to the man’s presence unless our youngest brother is with us. We can go only if our youngest brother also goes.’

²⁷ »Our father said, ‘You know that my wife Rachel bore me only two sons.

²⁸ »‘One has already left me. He must have been torn to pieces by wild animals, because I have not seen him since he left.

²⁹ »‘If you take this one from me now and something happens to him, the sorrow you would cause me would kill me, as old as I am.’

³⁰ »That is why Benjamin must be with us when I go back to my father. He loves him so much

³¹ »that he will die if Benjamin does not come back with me.

³² »I promised my father I would bring him home safely. If I do not, I told my father he could blame me the rest of my life.

³³ »Sir, I am your slave. Please let me stay here in place of Benjamin. Please let him return home with his brothers.

³⁴ »How can I face my father if Benjamin is not with me? I could not bear to see my father in such sorrow.«

45

¹ Joseph could no longer control himself in front of those standing near him. He sent them out of the room and when he was alone with his brothers he made himself known to them. / Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his servants. He sent them out of the room. When he was alone with his brothers, he told them: »I am Joseph!«

² He cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him. In fact, Pharaoh’s household heard about it.

³ Joseph said to his brothers: »I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?« His brothers could not answer him because they were afraid of him.

⁴ »Please come closer to me,« Joseph said to his brothers. They came closer. He said: »I am Joseph, the brother you sold into slavery in Egypt!

⁵ »Dear brothers, do not be sad or angry with yourselves that you sold me. God sent me ahead of you to save lives.

⁶ »The famine has been in the land for two years. There will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

⁷ »God sent me ahead of you to make sure that you would have descendants on the earth, and to save your lives in an amazing way.

⁸ »It was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me like a father to Pharaoh. He made me lord over his entire household, and ruler of Egypt.

⁹ »Hurry back to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: »God has made me lord of Egypt. Come here to me immediately!

¹⁰ »‘»Live in the land of Goshen. You will be near me. Live there with your children and your grandchildren, as well as your flocks, your herds, and everything you have.

¹¹ »‘»I will provide for you in Egypt. For there will be five more years of famine. Then you, your family, and all who belong to you will not lose all that you have.« ’

¹² »You and my brother Benjamin can see for yourselves that I am the one who is speaking to you.

¹³ »You must tell my father of my entire splendor in Egypt. Tell him all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.«

¹⁴ Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck huged his brother and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. (Acts 20:37)

¹⁵ He kissed all his brothers and wept on them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶ When the news reached the palace that Joseph’s brothers had come, the king and his officials were pleased.

¹⁷ The king said to Joseph: »Tell your brothers to load their animals and to return to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸ »Have them get their father and their families and come back here. I will give them the best of the land in Egypt. They will have more than enough to live on.

¹⁹ »Tell them to take wagons with them from Egypt to bring their wives and small children and to bring their father with them.

²⁰ »They should not worry about leaving their possessions behind. The best in the whole land of Egypt will be theirs.«

²¹ The sons of Israel did as they were told. Joseph gave them wagons filled with food for the trip, as the king had ordered.

²² Joseph gave some new clothes to each of his brothers. He gave Benjamin five new outfits and three hundred pieces of silver.

²³ To his father he sent ten donkeys loaded with the best things in Egypt. And ten other donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other food for the return trip.

²⁴ Then he sent his brothers off and told them: »Do not argue on the way home!«

²⁵ Joseph’s brothers left Egypt. When they arrived in Canaan,

²⁶ they told their father that Joseph was still alive and was the ruler of Egypt. But their father was so surprised that he could not believe them.

²⁷ Then they told him everything Joseph said. When he saw the wagons Joseph had sent, he felt much better.

²⁸ He said: »Now I can believe you! My son Joseph must really be alive. I will get to see him before I die.«

46

¹ Jacob Israel packed up everything he owned and left for Egypt. On the way he stopped near the town of Beer-sheba and offered sacrifices to the God his father Isaac had worshiped.

² That night, God spoke to him and said: »Jacob! Jacob!« »Here I am,« Jacob answered.

³ God said: »I am God! I am the same God your father worshiped. Do not be afraid to go to Egypt. I will give you so many descendants that one day they will become a nation.

⁴ »I will go to Egypt with you. I will make sure you come back again. Joseph will close your eyes when you die.«

⁵ Jacob left Beer-sheba. Israel’s sons put their father Jacob, their children, and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to bring him back.

⁶ They took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. Jacob and all his family arrived in Egypt.

⁷ He brought his sons, his grandsons, his daughters, and his granddaughters, his entire family.

⁸ These are the names of Israel’s descendants Jacob and his descendants who arrived in Egypt. Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn.

⁹ The sons of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

¹⁰ The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.

¹¹ The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

¹² The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. Er and Onan died in Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

¹³ The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron.

¹⁴ The sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵ These were the sons Leah gave to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of these sons and daughters was thirty-three.

¹⁶ The sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

¹⁷ The sons of Asher were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah. Their sister was Serah. The sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸ These were the descendants of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah. She gave birth to these children for Jacob. The total was sixteen.

¹⁹ The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰ In Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest from the city of On.

²¹ The sons of Benjamin were Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

²² These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob. The total was fourteen.

²³ The son of Dan was Hushim.

²⁴ The sons of Naphtali were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵ These were the descendants of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She gave birth to these sons for Jacob. The total was seven.

²⁶ The total number of Jacob’s direct descendants who went with him to Egypt was sixty-six. This did not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.

²⁷ Joseph had two sons who were born in Egypt. There were a total of seventy people in Jacob’s household who went to Egypt.

²⁸ Jacob sent Judah ahead to ask Joseph to meet them in Goshen. When they arrived,

²⁹ Joseph got in his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father. When they met, Joseph threw his arms around his father’s neck and cried for a long time.

³⁰ Jacob said to Joseph: »Now I am ready to die. Now that I have seen you and know that you are still alive.«

³¹ Joseph said to his brothers and the rest of his father’s family: »I must go and tell the king that my brothers and all my father’s family, who were living in Canaan, have come to me.

³² »I will tell him that you are shepherds and take care of livestock. And that you have brought your flocks and herds and everything else that belongs to you.

³³ »The king will call for you. He will ask what your occupation is.

³⁴ »Be sure to tell him that you have taken care of livestock all your lives, just as your ancestors did. In this way he will let you live in the region of Goshen. Joseph said this because Egyptians will have nothing to do with shepherds consider shepherds loathsome .

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¹ Joseph took five of his brothers and went to the king. He told him: »My father and my brothers have come from Canaan with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own. They are now in the region of Goshen.«

² Then he presented his brothers to the king.

³ The king asked: »What is your occupation?« »We are shepherds, Sir, just as our ancestors were,« they answered.

⁴ »We have come to live in this country. The famine is so severe in the land of Canaan that there is no pasture for our flocks. Please give us permission to live in the region of Goshen.«

⁵ The king said to Joseph: »Now that your father and your brothers have arrived,

⁶ »the land of Egypt is theirs. Let them settle in the region of Goshen, the best part of the land. If there are any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.«

⁷ Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to the king. Jacob gave the king his blessing.

⁸ The king asked him: »How old are you?«

⁹ Jacob answered: »My life of wandering has lasted a hundred and thirty years. Those years have been few and difficult, unlike the long years of my ancestors in their wanderings.«

¹⁰ Jacob gave the king a farewell blessing and left.

¹¹ Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt. He gave them property in the best of the land near the city of Rameses. This was as the king had commanded.

¹² Joseph provided food for his father, his brothers, and all the rest of his father’s family, including the very youngest.

¹³ The famine was so severe that there was no food anywhere. The people of Egypt and Canaan became weak with hunger.

¹⁴ They bought grain from Joseph. Joseph collected all the money and took it to the palace.

¹⁵ When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was spent, the Egyptians came to Joseph and said: »Give us food! Do not let us die. Do something! Our money is all gone.«

¹⁶ Joseph answered: »Bring your livestock. I will give you food in exchange for it if your money is all gone.«

¹⁷ They brought their livestock to Joseph. He gave them food in exchange for their horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

¹⁸ The following year they said to him: »We will not hide the fact from you, Sir, that our money is all gone and our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left to give you except our bodies and our lands.

¹⁹ »Do not let us die. Do something! Do not let our fields be deserted. Buy us and buy our land in exchange for food. We will be the king’s slaves. He will own our land. Give us grain to keep us alive and seed so that we can plant our fields.«

²⁰ Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for the king. Every Egyptian was forced to sell his land, because the famine was so severe. All the land became the king’s property.

²¹ He Joseph removed the people into the cities from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other.

²² The only land he did not buy was the land that belonged to the priests. The king gave the priests an allowance to live on. So they did not have to sell their lands.

²³ Joseph said to the people: »I have now bought you and your lands for the king. Here is seed for you to sow in your fields.

²⁴ »You must give one-fifth to the king at the time of harvest. You can use the rest for seed and for food for yourselves and your families.«

²⁵ They answered: »You have saved our lives. You have been good to us. We will be the king’s slaves.«

²⁶ Joseph made it a law for the land of Egypt that one-fifth of the harvest should belong to the king. This law still remains in force today. Only the lands of the priests did not become the king’s property.

²⁷ The Israelites lived in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They became rich and had many children.

²⁸ Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, until he was a hundred and forty-seven years old.

²⁹ When the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him: »Place your hand under my thighs and make a solemn vow that you will not bury me in Egypt.

³⁰ »I want to be buried where my fathers are. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.« Joseph answered: »I will do as you say.«

³¹ Jacob said: »Make a vow that you will.« Joseph made the vow. Jacob gave thanks there on his bed.

48

¹ Later Joseph was told that his father was ill. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to see Jacob.

² Jacob was told that his son Joseph had come to see him. He gathered his strength and sat up in bed.

³ Jacob said to Joseph: »Almighty God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

⁴ »He promised: ‘I will give you a large family with many descendants that will grow into a nation. I am giving you this land that will belong to you and your family from generation to generation.’« Hebrew: olam olam long lasting possession

⁵ Jacob went on to say: »Joseph, your two sons Ephraim and Manasseh were born in Egypt. But I accept them as my own, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.

⁶ »Any children you have later will be considered yours. Their inheritance will come from Ephraim and Manasseh.

⁷ »Your mother Rachel died in Canaan after we left northern Syria and before we reached Bethlehem. I had to bury her along the way.«

⁸ Then Israel saw Joseph’s sons. He asked Joseph: »Who are these boys?« Joseph answered:

⁹ »They are my sons. God has given them to me here in Egypt.« »Bring them to me,« Jacob said. »I want to give them my blessing.« Joseph brought the boys to him.

¹⁰ Israel’s eyesight was failing because of old age. He could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to his father. Israel hugged them and kissed them.

¹¹ Israel said to Joseph: »I never expected to see you again. Now God has even let me see your sons.«

¹² Joseph took them off his father’s lap and bowed with his face touching the ground.

¹³ Then Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right, facing Israel’s left, and Manasseh on his left, facing Israel’s right, and brought them close to him.

¹⁴ But Israel crossed his hands and reached out. He put his right hand on Ephraim’s head, although Ephraim was the younger son. He put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, although Manasseh was older.

¹⁵ Jacob blessed Joseph. He said: »May God, in whose presence my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac walked, may this God who has been my shepherd all my life to this very day,

¹⁶ »May the being who rescued me from all evil bless these boys! May they be called by my name and by the names of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac. May they have many children on the earth.«

¹⁷ Joseph saw that his father had put his right hand on Ephraim’s head. Joseph did not like it. So he took his father’s hand in order to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

¹⁸ He said to his father: »That is not right, Father! This is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.«

¹⁹ His father refused and said: »I know, Son, I know! Manasseh, too, will become a nation. He, too, will be important. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be more important than he. His descendants will become many nations.«

²⁰ That day he blessed them. He said: »Because of you, Israel will speak this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!’ In this way Israel put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.«

²¹ Then Israel said to Joseph: »I am about to die. God will be with you. He will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

²² »I am giving you one more mountain ridge than your brothers. I took it from the Amorites with my own sword and bow.«

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¹ Jacob called for his sons. He said: »Gather around, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the future.

² »Come together and listen, sons of Jacob. Listen to your father Israel.

³ »Reuben, you are my firstborn; you are my strength and the first child of my manhood. You are the proudest and strongest of all my sons.

⁴ »You are like a raging flood. But you will not be the most important, for you slept with my concubine. You dishonored your father’s bed.

⁵ »Simeon and Levi are brothers. They use their weapons to commit violence.

⁶ »I will not join in their secret talks. I will not take part in their meetings. They killed people in anger. They crippled bulls for sport.

⁷ »A curse is on their anger, because it is so fierce. And a curse is on their fury, because it is so cruel. I will scatter them throughout the land of Israel. I will disperse them among its people.

⁸ »Judah, your brothers will praise you. You hold your enemies by the neck. Your brothers will bow down before you.

⁹ »Judah is like a lion, killing his victim and returning to his den. He is like a lion stretching out and lying down. No one dares disturb him.

¹⁰ »The royal scepter shall not depart from Judah. His descendants will always rule. Nations will bring him tribute and bow in obedience before him. This, until Shiloh comes and all will obey him.

¹¹ »He will tie his donkey to a grapevine, his colt to the best vine. He will wash his clothes in wine, his garments in the blood of grapes.

¹² »His eyes are darker than wine. His teeth are whiter than milk.

¹³ »Zebulun will live by the coast. He will have ships by the coast. His border will go as far as Sidon.

¹⁴ »Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the saddlebags.

¹⁵ »When he sees that his resting place is good and that the land is pleasant, he will bend his back to the burden and will become a slave laborer.

¹⁶ »Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷ »Dan will be a snake on a road, a viper on a path that bites a horse’s heels so that its rider falls backwards.

¹⁸ »I wait with hope for your salvation, O Jehovah.

¹⁹ »Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders. He will strike back at their heels.

²⁰ »Asher’s food will be rich. He will provide delicacies fit for a king.

²¹ »Naphtali is a deer set free with beautiful fawns words .

²² »Joseph is a fruitful tree, a fruitful tree by a spring, with branches climbing over a wall.

²³ »Archers provoked him, shot at him, and harassed him.

²⁴ »His bow stayed steady! His arms remained limber because of the help of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

²⁵ »because of the God of your father who helps you, because of the Almighty who blesses you from the heavens above, blessings from the deep springs below the ground, blessings from breasts and womb.

²⁶ »The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the oldest mountains and the riches of the ancient hills. May these blessings rest on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the prince among his brothers.

²⁷ »Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning and evening he destroys his enemies.«

²⁸ These are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is how Jacob blessed each of them.

²⁹ Jacob told his sons: »Soon I will die. I want you to bury me in Machpelah Cave.

³⁰ »Abraham bought the cave from Ephron the Hittite to use as a burial place. It is near the field of Machpelah. It is also near the town of Mamre in Canaan.

³¹ »Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried there. Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried there. I also buried Leah there.

³² »The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.«

³³ Jacob finished giving these instructions to his sons. He pulled his feet into his bed. He took his last breath and joined his ancestors in death.

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¹ Joseph threw himself on his father. He cried over him, and kissed him.

² Then Joseph gave orders to embalm his father’s body.

³ It took forty days, which is the normal time for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴ When the time of mourning was over, Joseph said to the king’s officials: »Please take this message to the king:

⁵ »When my father was about to die, he made me promise him that I would bury him in the tomb that he had prepared in the land of Canaan. Please, let me go and bury my father. Then I will come back.«

⁶ The king replied: »By all means go and bury your father, as you promised you would.«

⁷ So Joseph went to bury his father. All the king’s officials, the senior men of his court, and all the leading men of Egypt went with Joseph.

⁸ His family, including his brothers, and the rest of his father’s family all went with him. Only their small children and their sheep, goats, and cattle stayed in the region of Goshen.

⁹ Men in chariots and men on horseback also went with him. It was a very large group.

¹⁰ They mourned loudly for a long time at the threshing place at Atad east of the Jordan. Joseph performed mourning ceremonies for seven days.

¹¹ The citizens of Canaan saw those people mourning at Atad. They said: »What a solemn ceremony of mourning the Egyptians are holding!« That is why the place was named Abel-mizraim.

¹² Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them.

¹³ They carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah east of Mamre. He was buried in the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.

¹⁴ After the funeral, Joseph, his brothers, and everyone else returned to Egypt.

¹⁵ After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers said to each other: »What if Joseph still hates us and wants to get even with us for all the cruel things we did to him?«

¹⁶ Thus they sent word to Joseph, saying: »Your father gave us orders before his death. He said,

¹⁷ »‘You are to say to Joseph: »Let the wrongdoing of your brothers be overlooked, and the evil they did to you. If it is your pleasure, forgive the sin of the servants of your father’s God.« ’« Upon hearing these words Joseph was overcome with weeping.

¹⁸ Then his brothers also came and immediately bowed down in front of him. »We are your slaves!« they said.

¹⁹ Joseph replied to them: »Do not be afraid! I cannot take God’s place.

²⁰ »Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it. This was to keep many people alive, as he is doing now.

²¹ »You have nothing to fear. I will take care of you and your children.« So he reassured them with kind words that touched their hearts.

²² Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father’s family. He was a hundred and ten years old when he died.

²³ Joseph lived long enough to see Ephraim’s children and grandchildren. He also lived to see the children of Manasseh’s son Machir. He welcomed them into his family.

²⁴ Before Joseph died, he told his brothers: »I will not live much longer. God will take care of you. He will lead you out of Egypt to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

²⁵ »Promise me that you will take my body with you when God leads you to that land.«

²⁶ Joseph died in Egypt at the age of one hundred and ten. His body was embalmed and put in a coffin.