1 When God began creating the heavens and the earth,
2 the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors.
3 Then God said, "Let there be light." And light appeared.
4 And God was pleased with it and divided the light from the darkness.
5 He called the light "daytime," and the darkness "nighttime." Together they formed the first day.
6 And God said, "Let the vapors separate to form the sky above and the oceans below."
7 So God made the sky, dividing the vapor above from the water below.
8 This all happened on the second day.
9 Then God said, "Let the water beneath the sky be gathered into oceans so that the dry land will emerge." And so it was.
10 Then God named the dry land "earth," and the water "seas." And God was pleased.
11 And he said, "Let the earth burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant, and fruit trees with seeds inside the fruit, so that these seeds will produce the kinds of plants and fruits they came from."
12 And so it was, and God was pleased.
13 This all occurred on the third day.
14 Then God said, "Let bright lights appear in the sky to give light to the earth and to identify the day and the night; they shall bring about the seasons on the earth, and mark the days and years." And so it was.
15
16 For God had made two huge lights, the sun and moon, to shine down upon the earth--the larger one, the sun, to preside over the day and the smaller one, the moon, to preside through the night; he had also made the stars.
17 And God set them in the sky to light the earth,
18 and to preside over the day and night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God was pleased.
19 This all happened on the fourth day.
20 Then God said, "Let the waters teem with fish and other life, and let the skies be filled with birds of every kind."
21 So God created great sea animals, and every sort of fish and every kind of bird.
22 And God looked at them with pleasure, and blessed them all. "Multiply and stock the oceans," he told them, and to the birds he said, "Let your numbers increase. Fill the earth!"
23 That ended the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal--cattle and reptiles and wildlife of every kind." And so it was.
25 God made all sorts of wild animals and cattle and reptiles. And God was pleased with what he had done.
26 Then God said, "Let us make a man --someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas."
27 So God made man like his Maker. Like God did God make man; Man and maid did he make them.
28 And God blessed them and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals.
29 And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.
30 And I've given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food."
31 Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. This ended the sixth day.
1 Now at last the heavens and earth were successfully completed, with all that they contained.
2 So on the seventh day, having finished his task, God ceased from this work he had been doing,
3 and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he ceased this work of creation.
4 Here is a summary of the events in the creation of the heavens and earth when the Lord God made them.
5 There were no plants or grain sprouting up across the earth at first, for the Lord God hadn't sent any rain; nor was there anyone to farm the soil.
6 (However, water welled up from the ground at certain places and flowed across the land.)
7 The time came when the Lord God formed a man's body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life. And man became a living person.
8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed.
9 The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the center of the garden he placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad.
10 A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it; afterwards the river divided into four branches.
11 One of these was named the Pishon; it winds across the entire length of the land of Havilah, where nuggets of pure gold are found,
12 also beautiful bdellium and even lapis lazuli.
13 The second branch is called the Gihon, crossing the entire length of the land of Cush.
14 The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of the city of Asher. And the fourth is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it.
16 But the Lord God gave the man this warning: "You may eat any fruit in the garden
17 except fruit from the Tree of Conscience--for its fruit will open your eyes to make you aware of right and wrong, good and bad. If you eat its fruit, you will be doomed to die."
18 And the Lord God said, "It isn't good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs."
19 So the Lord God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
20 and whatever he called them, that was their name. But still there was no proper helper for the man.
21 Then the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he had removed it,
22 and made the rib into a woman, and brought her to the man.
23 "This is it!" Adam exclaimed. "She is part of my own bone and flesh! Her name is 'woman' because she was taken out of a man."
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife in such a way that the two become one person.
25 Now although the man and his wife were both naked, neither of them was embarrassed or ashamed.
1 The serpent was the craftiest of all the creatures the Lord God had made. So the serpent came to the woman. "Really?" he asked. "None of the fruit in the garden? God says you mustn't eat any of it?"
2 "Of course we may eat it," the woman told him.
3 "It's only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not to eat. God says we mustn't eat it or even touch it, or we will die."
4 "That's a lie!" the serpent hissed. "You'll not die!
5 God knows very well that the instant you eat it you will become like him, for your eyes will be opened--you will be able to distinguish good from evil!"
6 The woman was convinced. How lovely and fresh looking it was! And it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit and gave some to her husband, and he ate it too.
7 And as they ate it, suddenly they became aware of their nakedness, and were embarrassed. So they strung fig leaves together to cover themselves around the hips.
8 That evening they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden; and they hid themselves among the trees.
9 The Lord God called to Adam, "Why are you hiding?"
10 And Adam replied, "I heard you coming and didn't want you to see me naked. So I hid."
11 "Who told you you were naked?" the Lord God asked. "Have you eaten fruit from the tree I warned you about?"
12 "Yes," Adam admitted, "but it was the woman you gave me who brought me some, and I ate it."
13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, "How could you do such a thing?" "The serpent tricked me," she replied.
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "This is your punishment: You are singled out from among all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth--to be cursed. You shall grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly.
15 From now on you and the woman will be enemies, as will your offspring and hers. You will strike his heel, but he will crush your head."
16 Then God said to the woman, "You shall bear children in intense pain and suffering; yet even so, you shall welcome your husband's affections, and he shall be your master."
17 And to Adam, God said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit when I told you not to, I have placed a curse upon the soil. All your life you will struggle to extract a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat its grasses.
19 All your life you will sweat to master it, until your dying day. Then you will return to the ground from which you came. For you were made from the ground, and to the ground you will return."
20 The man named his wife Eve (meaning "The life-giving one"), for he said, "She shall become the mother of all mankind";
21 and the Lord God clothed Adam and his wife with garments made from skins of animals.
22 Then the Lord said, "Now that the man has become as we are, knowing good from bad, what if he eats the fruit of the Tree of Life and lives forever?"
23 So the Lord God banished him forever from the Garden of Eden, and sent him out to farm the ground from which he had been taken.
24 Thus God expelled him, and placed mighty angels at the east of the Garden of Eden, with a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the Tree of Life.
1 Then Adam had sexual intercourse with Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to a son, Cain (meaning "I have created"). For, as she said, "With God's help, I have created a man!"
2 Her next child was his brother, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer.
3 At harvest time Cain brought the Lord a gift of his farm produce,
4 and Abel brought the fatty cuts of meat from his best lambs, and presented them to the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abel's offering,
5 but not Cain's. This made Cain both dejected and very angry, and his face grew dark with fury.
6 "Why are you angry?" the Lord asked him. "Why is your face so dark with rage?
7 It can be bright with joy if you will do what you should! But if you refuse to obey, watch out. Sin is waiting to attack you, longing to destroy you. But you can conquer it!"
8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, "Let's go out into the fields." And while they were together there, Cain attacked and killed his brother.
9 But afterwards the Lord asked Cain, "Where is your brother? Where is Abel?" "How should I know?" Cain retorted. "Am I supposed to keep track of him wherever he goes?"
10 But the Lord said, "Your brother's blood calls to me from the ground. What have you done?
11 You are hereby banished from this ground which you have defiled with your brother's blood.
12 No longer will it yield crops for you, even if you toil on it forever! From now on you will be a fugitive and a tramp upon the earth, wandering from place to place."
13 Cain replied to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 For you have banished me from my farm and from you, and made me a fugitive and a tramp; and everyone who sees me will try to kill me."
15 The Lord replied, "They won't kill you, for I will give seven times your punishment to anyone who does." Then the Lord put an identifying mark on Cain as a warning not to kill him.
16 So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17 Then Cain's wife conceived and presented him with a baby son named Enoch; so when Cain founded a city, he named it Enoch, after his son.
18 Enoch was the father of Irad; Irad was the father of Mehujael; Mehujael was the father of Methusael; Methusael was the father of Lamech;
19 Lamech married two wives--Adah and Zillah.
20 To Adah was born a baby named Jabal. He became the first of the cattlemen and those living in tents.
21 His brother's name was Jubal, the first musician--the inventor of the harp and flute.
22 To Lamech's other wife, Zillah, was born Tubal-cain. He opened the first foundry forging instruments of bronze and iron.
23 One day Lamech said to Adah and Zillah, "Listen to me, my wives. I have killed a youth who attacked and wounded me.
24 If anyone who kills Cain will be punished seven times, anyone taking revenge against me for killing that youth should be punished seventy-seven times!"
25 Later on Eve gave birth to another son and named him Seth (meaning "Granted"); for, as Eve put it, "God has granted me another son for the one Cain killed."
26 When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. It was during his lifetime that men first began to call themselves "the Lord's people."
1 Here is a list of some of the descendants of Adam --the man who was like God from the day of his creation.
2 God created man and woman and blessed them, and called them Man from the start.
3 Adam: Adam was 130 years old when his son Seth was born, the very image of his father in every way.
4 After Seth was born, Adam lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters,
5 and died at the age of 930.
6 Seth: Seth was 105 years old when his son Enosh was born.
7 Afterwards he lived another 807 years, producing sons and daughters,
8 and died at the age of 912.
9 Enosh: Enosh was ninety years old when his son Kenan was born.
10 Afterwards he lived another 815 years, producing sons and daughters,
11 and died at the age of 905.
12 Kenan: Kenan was seventy years old when his son Mahalalel was born.
13 Afterwards he lived another 840 years, producing sons and daughters,
14 and died at the age of 910.
15 Mahalalel: Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when his son Jared was born.
16 Afterwards he lived 830 years, producing sons and daughters,
17 and died at the age of 895.
18 Jared: Jared was 162 years old when his son Enoch was born.
19 Afterwards he lived another 800 years, producing sons and daughters,
20 and died at the age of 962.
21 Enoch: Enoch was sixty-five years old when his son Methuselah was born.
22 Afterwards he lived another 300 years in fellowship with God, and produced sons and daughters; then,
23 when he was 365, and in constant touch with God, he disappeared, for God took him!
24
25 Methuselah: Methuselah was 187 years old when his son Lamech was born;
26 afterwards he lived another 782 years, producing sons and daughters,
27 and died at the age of 969.
28 Lamech: Lamech was 182 years old when his son Noah was born.
29 Lamech named him Noah (meaning "Relief") because he said, "He will bring us relief from the hard work of farming this ground which God has cursed."
30 Afterwards Lamech lived 595 years, producing sons and daughters,
31 and died at the age of 777.
32 Noah: Noah was 500 years old and had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
1 Now a population explosion took place upon the earth. It was at this time that beings from the spirit world looked upon the beautiful earth women and took any they desired to be their wives.
2
3 Then Jehovah said, "My Spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, wholly evil as he is. I will give him 120 years to mend his ways."
4 In those days, and even afterwards, when the evil beings from the spirit world were sexually involved with human women, their children became giants, of whom so many legends are told.
5 When the Lord God saw the extent of human wickedness, and that the trend and direction of men's lives were only towards evil,
6 he was sorry he had made them. It broke his heart.
7 And he said, "I will blot out from the face of the earth all mankind that I created. Yes, and the animals too, and the reptiles and the birds. For I am sorry I made them."
8 But Noah was a pleasure to the Lord. Here is the story of Noah:
9 He was the only truly righteous man living on the earth at that time. He tried always to conduct his affairs according to God's will.
10 And he had three sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Meanwhile, the crime rate was rising rapidly across the earth, and, as seen by God, the world was rotten to the core.
12 As God observed how bad it was, and saw that all mankind was vicious and depraved,
13 he said to Noah, "I have decided to destroy all mankind; for the earth is filled with crime because of man. Yes, I will destroy mankind from the earth.
14 Make a boat from resinous wood, sealing it with tar; and construct decks and stalls throughout the ship.
15 Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
16 Construct a skylight all the way around the ship, eighteen inches below the roof; and make three decks inside the boat--a bottom, middle, and upper deck--and put a door in the side.
17 "Look! I am going to cover the earth with a flood and destroy every living being--everything in which there is the breath of life. All will die.
18 But I promise to keep you safe in the ship, with your wife and your sons and their wives.
19 Bring a pair of every animal--a male and a female--into the boat with you, to keep them alive through the flood.
20 Bring in a pair of each kind of bird and animal and reptile.
21 Store away in the boat all the food that they and you will need."
22 And Noah did everything as God commanded him.
1 Finally the day came when the Lord said to Noah, "Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous.
2 Bring in the animals, too--a pair of each, except those kinds I have chosen for eating and for sacrifice: take seven pairs of each of them,
3 and seven pairs of every kind of bird. Thus there will be every kind of life reproducing again after the flood has ended.
4 One week from today I will begin forty days and nights of rain; and all the animals and birds and reptiles I have made will die."
5 So Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.
6 He was 600 years old when the flood came.
7 He boarded the boat with his wife and sons and their wives, to escape the flood.
8 With him were all the various kinds of animals--those for eating and sacrifice, and those that were not, and the birds and reptiles.
9 They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God commanded Noah.
10 One week later, when Noah was 600 years, two months, and seventeen days old, the rain came down in mighty torrents from the sky,
11
12 and the subterranean waters burst forth upon the earth for forty days and nights.
13 But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.
14 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal--domestic and wild--and reptiles and birds of every sort.
15
16 Two by two they came, male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the Lord God closed the door and shut them in.
17 For forty days the roaring floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth.
18 As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely upon it;
19 until finally the water covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven,
20 standing twenty-two feet and more above the highest peaks.
21 And all living things upon the earth perished--birds, domestic and wild animals, and reptiles and all mankind--
22 everything that breathed and lived upon dry land.
23 All existence on the earth was blotted out--man and animals alike, and reptiles and birds. God destroyed them all, leaving only Noah alive, and those with him in the boat.
24 And the water covered the earth 150 days.
1 God didn't forget about Noah and all the animals in the boat! He sent a wind to blow across the waters, and the floods began to disappear,
2 for the subterranean water sources ceased their gushing, and the torrential rains subsided.
3 So the flood gradually receded until, 150 days after it began, the boat came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat.
4
5 Three months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks appeared.
6 After another forty days, Noah opened a porthole
7 and released a raven that flew back and forth until the earth was dry.
8 Meanwhile he sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground,
9 but the dove found no place to light, and returned to Noah, for the water was still too high. So Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back into the boat.
10 Seven days later Noah released the dove again,
11 and this time, toward evening, the bird returned to him with an olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water was almost gone.
12 A week later he released the dove again, and this time she didn't come back.
13 Twenty-nine days after that, Noah opened the door to look, and the water was gone.
14 Eight more weeks went by. Then at last the earth was dry.
15 Then God told Noah, "You may all go out.
16
17 Release all the animals, birds, and reptiles, so that they will breed abundantly and reproduce in great numbers."
18 So the boat was soon empty. Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives all disembarked, along with all the animals, reptiles, and birds--all left the ark in pairs and groups.
19
20 Then Noah built an altar and sacrificed on it some of the animals and birds God had designated for that purpose.
21 And Jehovah was pleased with the sacrifice and said to himself, "I will never do it again--I will never again curse the earth, destroying all living things, even though man's bent is always toward evil from his earliest youth, and even though he does such wicked things.
22 As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night."
1 God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to have many children and to repopulate the earth.
2 "All wild animals and birds and fish will be afraid of you," God told him; "for I have placed them in your power, and they are yours to use for food, in addition to grain and vegetables.
3
4 But never eat animals unless their life-blood has been drained off.
5 And murder is forbidden. Man-killing animals must die, and any man who murders shall be killed; for to kill a man is to kill one made like God.
6
7 Yes, have many children and repopulate the earth and subdue it."
8 Then God told Noah and his sons,
9 "I solemnly promise you and your children
10 and the animals you brought with you--all these birds and cattle and wild animals--
11 that I will never again send another flood to destroy the earth.
12 And I seal this promise with this sign:
13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise until the end of time, to you and to all the earth.
14 When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds,
15 and I will remember my promise to you and to every being, that never again will the floods come and destroy all life.
16 For I will see the rainbow in the cloud and remember my eternal promise to every living being on the earth."
17
18 The names of Noah's three sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites.)
19 From these three sons of Noah came all the nations of the earth.
20 Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard, and he made wine. One day as he was drunk and lay naked in his tent,
21
22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and went outside and told his two brothers.
23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it over their shoulders and, walking backwards into the tent, let it fall across their father to cover his nakedness as they looked the other way.
24 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor, and learned what had happened and what Ham, his younger son, had done,
25 he cursed Ham's descendants: "A curse upon the Canaanites," he swore. "May they be the lowest of slaves To the descendants of Shem and Japheth."
26 Then he said, "God bless Shem, And may Canaan be his slave.
27 God bless Japheth, And let him share the prosperity of Shem, And let Canaan be his slave."
28 Noah lived another 350 years after the flood
29 and was 950 years old at his death.
1 These are the families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who were the three sons of Noah; for sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth were: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, Dodanim.
5 Their descendants became the maritime nations in various lands, each with a separate language.
6 The sons of Ham were: Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca. The sons of Raamah were: Sheba, Dedan.
8 One of the descendants of Cush was Nimrod, who became the first of the kings.
9 He was a mighty hunter, blessed of God, and his name became proverbial. People would speak of someone as being "like Nimrod--a mighty hunter, blessed of God."
10 The heart of his empire included Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar.
11 From there he extended his reign to Assyria. He built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen (which is located between Nineveh and Calah), the main city of the empire.
12
13 Mizraim was the ancestor of the people inhabiting these areas: Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines), and Caphtorim.
15 Canaan's oldest son was Sidon, and he was also the father of Heth; from Canaan descended these nations:
16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites,
17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,
18 Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites.
19 Eventually the descendants of Canaan spread from Sidon all the way to Gerar, in the Gaza strip; and to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
20 These, then, were the descendants of Ham, spread abroad in many lands and nations, with many languages.
21 Eber descended from Shem, the oldest brother of Japheth.
22 Here is a list of Shem's other descendants: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram.
23 Aram's sons were: Uz, Hul, Gether, Mash.
24 Arpachshad's son was Shelah, and Shelah's son was Eber.
25 Two sons were born to Eber: Peleg (meaning "Division," for during his lifetime the people of the world were separated and dispersed), and Joktan (Peleg's brother).
26 Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
28 Obal, Abima-el, Sheba,
29 Ophir, Havi-lah, Jobab. These descendants of Joktan lived all the way from Mesha to the eastern hills of Sephar.
30
31 These, then, were the descendants of Shem, classified according to their political groupings, languages, and geographical locations.
32 All of the men listed above descended from Noah, through many generations, living in the various nations that developed after the flood.
1 At that time all mankind spoke a single language.
2 As the population grew and spread eastward, a plain was discovered in the land of Babylon and was soon thickly populated.
3 The people who lived there began to talk about building a great city, with a temple-tower reaching to the skies--a proud, eternal monument to themselves.
4 "This will weld us together," they said, "and keep us from scattering all over the world." So they made great piles of hardburned brick, and collected bitumen to use as mortar.
5 But when God came down to see the city and the tower mankind was making,
6 he said, "Look! If they are able to accomplish all this when they have just begun to exploit their linguistic and political unity, just think of what they will do later! Nothing will be unattainable for them!
7 Come, let us go down and give them different languages, so that they won't understand each other's words!"
8 So, in that way, God scattered them all over the earth; and that ended the building of the city.
9 That is why the city was called Babel (meaning "confusion"), because it was there that Jehovah confused them by giving them many languages, thus widely scattering them across the face of the earth.
10 Shem's line of descendants included Arpachshad, born two years after the flood when Shem was 100 years old; after that he lived another 500 years and had many sons and daughters.
11
12 When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old, his son Shelah was born,
13 and after that he lived another 403 years and had many sons and daughters.
14 Shelah was thirty years old when his son Eber was born,
15 living 403 years after that, and had many sons and daughters.
16 Eber was thirty-four years old when his son Peleg was born.
17 He lived another 430 years afterwards and had many sons and daughters.
18 Peleg was thirty years old when his son Reu was born.
19 He lived another 209 years afterwards and had many sons and daughters.
20 Reu was thirty-two years old when Serug was born.
21 He lived 207 years after that, with many sons and daughters.
22 Serug was thirty years old when his son Nahor was born.
23 He lived 200 years afterwards, with many sons and daughters.
24 Nahor was twenty-nine years old at the birth of his son Terah.
25 He lived 119 years afterwards and had sons and daughters.
26 By the time Terah was seventy years old, he had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 And Haran had a son named Lot.
28 But Haran died young, in the land where he was born (in Ur of the Chaldeans), and was survived by his father.
29 Meanwhile, Abram married his half-sister Sarai, while his brother Nahor married their orphaned niece, Milcah, who was the daughter of their brother Haran; and she had a sister named Iscah.
30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31 Then Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (his son Haran's child), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but they stopped instead at the city of Haran and settled there.
32 And there Terah died at the age of 205.
1 God had told Abram, "Leave your own country behind you, and your own people, and go to the land I will guide you to.
2 If you do, I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others.
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and the entire world will be blessed because of you."
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went too; Abram was seventy-five years old at that time.
5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth--the cattle and slaves he had gotten in Haran--and finally arrived in Canaan.
6 Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem, and set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. (This area was inhabited by Canaanites at that time.)
7 Then Jehovah appeared to Abram and said, "I am going to give this land to your descendants." And Abram built an altar there to commemorate Jehovah's visit.
8 Afterwards Abram left that place and traveled southward to the hilly country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he made camp, and made an altar to the Lord and prayed to him.
9 Thus he continued slowly southward to the Negeb, pausing frequently.
10 There was at that time a terrible famine in the land: and so Abram went on down to Egypt to live.
11 But as he was approaching the borders of Egypt, he asked Sarai his wife to tell everyone that she was his sister! "You are very beautiful," he told her,
12 "and when the Egyptians see you they will say, 'This is his wife. Let's kill him and then we can have her!'
13 But if you say you are my sister, then the Egyptians will treat me well because of you, and spare my life!"
14 And sure enough, when they arrived in Egypt everyone spoke of her beauty.
15 When the palace aides saw her, they praised her to their king, the Pharaoh, and she was taken into his harem.
16 Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her--sheep, oxen, donkeys, men and women slaves, and camels.
17 But the Lord sent a terrible plague upon Pharaoh's household on account of her being there.
18 Then Pharaoh called Abram before him and accused him sharply. "What is this you have done to me?" he demanded. "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?
19 Why were you willing to let me marry her, saying she was your sister? Here, take her and be gone!"
20 And Pharaoh sent them out of the country under armed escort--Abram, his wife, and all his household and possessions.
1 So they left Egypt and traveled north into the Negeb--Abram with his wife, and Lot, and all that they owned, for Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.
2
3 Then they continued northward toward Bethel where he had camped before, between Bethel and Ai--to the place
4 where he had built the altar. And there he again worshiped the Lord.
5 Lot too was very wealthy, with sheep and cattle and many servants.
6 But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds. There were too many animals for the available pasture.
7 So fights broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot, despite the danger they all faced from the tribes of Canaanites and Perizzites present in the land.
8 Then Abram talked it over with Lot. "This fighting between our men has got to stop," he said. "We can't afford to let a rift develop between our clans. Close relatives such as we are must present a united front!
9 I'll tell you what we'll do. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want that part over there to the east, then I'll stay here in the western section. Or, if you want the west, then I'll go over there to the east."
10 Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan River, well watered everywhere (this was before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah); the whole section was like the Garden of Eden, or like the beautiful countryside around Zoar in Egypt.
11 So that is what Lot chose--the Jordan valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants, and thus he and Abram parted company.
12 For Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain, settling at a place near the city of Sodom.
13 The men of this area were unusually wicked, and sinned greatly against Jehovah.
14 After Lot was gone, the Lord said to Abram, "Look as far as you can see in every direction,
15 for I am going to give it all to you and your descendants.
16 And I am going to give you so many descendants that, like dust, they can't be counted!
17 Hike in all directions and explore the new possessions I am giving you."
18 Then Abram moved his tent to the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, and built an altar to Jehovah there.
1 Now war filled the land-- Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Ched-or-laomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim
2 Fought against: Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and The king of Bela (later called Zoar).
3 These kings (of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela) mobilized their armies in Siddim Valley (that is, the valley of the Dead Sea).
4 For twelve years they had all been subject to King Ched-or-laomer, but now in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.
5 One year later, Ched-or-laomer and his allies arrived and the slaughter began. For they were victorious over the following tribes at the places indicated: The Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim; The Zuzim in Ham; The Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim;
6 The Horites in Mount Seir, as far as El-paran at the edge of the desert.
7 Then they swung around to Enmishpat (later called Kadesh) and destroyed the Amalekites, and also the Amorites living in Hazazan-tamar.
8 But now the other army, that of the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (Zoar), unsuccessfully
9 attacked Ched-or-laomer and his allies as they were in the Dead Sea Valley (four kings against five).
10 As it happened, the valley was full of asphalt pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some slipped into the pits, and the remainder fled to the mountains.
11 Then the victors plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and carried off all their wealth and food, and went on their homeward way,
12 taking with them Lot--Abram's nephew who lived in Sodom--and all he owned.
13 One of the men who escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was camping among the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite (brother of Eshcol and Aner, Abram's allies).
14 When Abram learned that Lot had been captured, he called together the men born into his household, 318 of them in all, and chased after the retiring army as far as Dan.
15 He divided his men and attacked during the night from several directions, and pursued the fleeing army to Hobah, north of Damascus,
16 and recovered everything--the loot that had been taken, his relative Lot, and all of Lot's possessions, including the women and other captives.
17 As Abram returned from his strike against Ched-or-laomer and the other kings at the Valley of Shaveh (later called King's Valley), the king of Sodom came out to meet him,
18 and Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Jerusalem), who was a priest of the God of Highest Heaven, brought him bread and wine.
19 Then Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: "The blessing of the supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth, be upon you, Abram;
20 and blessed be God, who has delivered your enemies over to you." Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the loot.
21 The king of Sodom told him, "Just give me back my people who were captured; keep for yourself the booty stolen from my city."
22 But Abram replied, "I have solemnly promised Jehovah, the supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth,
23 that I will not take so much as a single thread from you, lest you say, 'Abram is rich because of what I gave him!'
24 All I'll accept is what these young men of mine have eaten; but give a share of the loot to Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, my allies."
1 Afterwards Jehovah spoke to Abram in a vision, and this is what he told him: "Don't be fearful, Abram, for I will defend you. And I will give you great blessings."
2 But Abram replied, "O Lord Jehovah, what good are all your blessings when I have no son?
3 For without a son, some other member of my household will inherit all my wealth."
4 Then Jehovah told him, "No, no one else will be your heir, for you will have a son to inherit everything you own."
5 Then God brought Abram outside beneath the nighttime sky and told him, "Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that--too many to count!"
6 And Abram believed God; then God considered him righteous on account of his faith.
7 And he told him, "I am Jehovah who brought you out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land."
8 But Abram replied, "O Lord Jehovah, how can I be sure that you will give it to me?"
9 Then Jehovah told him to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon,
10 and to slay them and to cut them apart down the middle, and to separate the halves, but not to divide the birds.
11 And when the vultures came down upon the carcasses, Abram shooed them away.
12 That evening as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a vision of terrible foreboding, darkness, and horror.
13 Then Jehovah told Abram, "Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years.
14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end they will come away with great wealth.
15 (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.)
16 After four generations they will return here to this land; for the wickedness of the Amorite nations living here now will not be ready for punishment until then."
17 As the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch that passed between the halves of the carcasses.
18 So that day Jehovah made this covenant with Abram: "I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish to the Euphrates River.
19 And I give to them these nations: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim,
21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites."
1 But Sarai and Abram had no children. So Sarai took her maid, an Egyptian girl named Hagar,
2 and gave her to Abram to be his second wife. "Since the Lord has given me no children," Sarai said, "you may sleep with my servant girl, and her children shall be mine." And Abram agreed.
3 (This took place ten years after Abram had first arrived in the land of Canaan.)
4 So he slept with Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized she was pregnant, she became very proud and arrogant toward her mistress Sarai.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "It's all your fault. For now this servant girl of mine despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of being your wife. May the Lord judge you for doing this to me!"
6 "You have my permission to punish the girl as you see fit," Abram replied. So Sarai beat her and she ran away.
7 The Angel of the Lord found her beside a desert spring along the road to Shur.
8 The Angel: "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" Hagar: "I am running away from my mistress."
9 The Angel: "Return to your mistress and act as you should,
10 for I will make you into a great nation.
11 Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael ('God hears'), because God has heard your woes.
12 This son of yours will be a wild one--free and untamed as a wild ass! He will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same toward him. But he will live near the rest of his kin."
13 Thereafter Hagar spoke of Jehovah--for it was he who appeared to her--as "the God who looked upon me," for she thought, "I saw God and lived to tell it."
14 Later that well was named "The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me." It lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.
16 (Abram was eighty-six years old at this time.)
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and told him, "I am the Almighty; obey me and live as you should.
2 I will prepare a contract between us, guaranteeing to make you into a mighty nation.
3 In fact you shall be the father of not only one nation, but a multitude of nations!" Abram fell face downward in the dust as God talked with him.
4
5 "What's more," God told him, "I am changing your name. It is no longer 'Abram' ('Exalted Father'), but 'Abraham' ('Father of Nations')--for that is what you will be. I have declared it.
6 I will give you millions of descendants who will form many nations! Kings shall be among your descendants!
7 And I will continue this agreement between us generation after generation, forever, for it shall be between me and your children as well.
8 It is a contract that I shall be your God and the God of your posterity. And I will give all this land of Canaan to you and them, forever. And I will be your God.
9 "Your part of the contract," God told him, "is to obey its terms.
10 You personally and all your posterity have this continual responsibility: that every male among you shall be circumcised;
11 the foreskin of his penis shall be cut off. This will be the proof that you and they accept this covenant.
12 Every male shall be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. This applies to every foreign-born slave as well as to everyone born in your household. This is a permanent part of this contract, and it applies to all your posterity.
13 All must be circumcised. Your bodies will thus be marked as participants in my everlasting covenant.
14 Anyone who refuses these terms shall be cut off from his people; for he has violated my contract."
15 Then God added, "Regarding Sarai your wife--her name is no longer 'Sarai' but 'Sarah' ('Princess').
16 And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and make her the mother of nations! Many kings shall be among your posterity."
17 Then Abraham threw himself down in worship before the Lord, but inside he was laughing in disbelief! "Me, be a father?" he said in amusement. "Me--100 years old? And Sarah, to have a baby at 90?"
18 And Abraham said to God, "Yes, do bless Ishmael!"
19 "No," God replied, "that isn't what I said. Sarah shall bear you a son; and you are to name him Isaac ('Laughter'), and I will sign my covenant with him forever, and with his descendants.
20 As for Ishmael, all right, I will bless him also, just as you have asked me to. I will cause him to multiply and become a great nation. Twelve princes shall be among his posterity.
21 But my contract is with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah next year at about this time."
22 That ended the conversation and God left.
23 Then, that very day, Abraham took Ishmael his son and every other male--born in his household or bought from outside--and cut off their foreskins, just as God had told him to.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old at that time,
25 and Ishmael was thirteen.
26 Both were circumcised the same day,
27 along with all the other men and boys of the household, whether born there or bought as slaves.
1 The Lord appeared again to Abraham while he was living in the oak grove at Mamre. This is the way it happened: One hot summer afternoon as he was sitting in the opening of his tent,
2 he suddenly noticed three men coming toward him. He sprang up and ran to meet them and welcomed them.
3 "Sirs," he said, "please don't go any farther. Stop awhile and rest here in the shade of this tree while I get water to refresh your feet,
4
5 and a bite to eat to strengthen you. Do stay awhile before continuing your journey." "All right," they said, "do as you have said."
6 Then Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, "Quick! Mix up some pancakes! Use your best flour, and make enough for the three of them!"
7 Then he ran out to the herd and selected a fat calf and told a servant to hurry and butcher it.
8 Soon, taking them cheese and milk and the roast veal, he set it before the men and stood beneath the trees beside them as they ate.
9 "Where is Sarah, your wife?" they asked him. "In the tent," Abraham replied.
10 Then the Lord said, "Next year I will give you and Sarah a son!" (Sarah was listening from the tent door behind him.)
11 Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old, and Sarah was long since past the time when she could have a baby.
12 So Sarah laughed silently. "A woman my age have a baby?" she scoffed to herself. "And with a husband as old as mine?"
13 Then God said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say 'Can an old woman like me have a baby?'
14 Is anything too hard for God? Next year, just as I told you, I will certainly see to it that Sarah has a son."
15 But Sarah denied it. "I didn't laugh," she lied, for she was afraid.
16 Then the men stood up from their meal and started on toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them part of the way.
17 "Should I hide my plan from Abraham?" God asked.
18 "For Abraham shall become a mighty nation, and he will be a source of blessing for all the nations of the earth.
19 And I have picked him out to have godly descendants and a godly household--men who are just and good--so that I can do for him all I have promised."
20 So the Lord told Abraham, "I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are utterly evil, and that everything they do is wicked.
21 I am going down to see whether these reports are true or not. Then I will know."
22 So the other two went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham a while. Then Abraham approached him and said, "Will you kill good and bad alike?
23
24 Suppose you find fifty godly people there within the city--will you destroy it, and not spare it for their sakes?
25 That wouldn't be right! Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, to kill the godly with the wicked! Why, you would be treating godly and wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn't do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth be fair?"
26 And God replied, "If I find fifty godly people there, I will spare the entire city for their sake."
27 Then Abraham spoke again. "Since I have begun, let me go on and speak further to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes.
28 Suppose there are only forty-five? Will you destroy the city for lack of five?" And God said, "I will not destroy it if I find forty-five."
29 Then Abraham went further with his request. "Suppose there are only forty?" And God replied, "I won't destroy it if there are forty."
30 "Please don't be angry," Abraham pleaded. "Let me speak: suppose only thirty are found there?" And God replied, "I won't do it if there are thirty there."
31 Then Abraham said, "Since I have dared to speak to God, let me continue--suppose there are only twenty?" And God said, "Then I won't destroy it for the sake of the twenty."
32 Finally, Abraham said, "Oh, let not the Lord be angry; I will speak but this once more! Suppose only ten are found?" And God said, "Then, for the sake of the ten, I won't destroy it."
33 And the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham. And Abraham returned to his tent.
1 That evening the two angels came to the entrance of the city of Sodom, and Lot was sitting there as they arrived. When he saw them he stood up to meet them, and welcomed them.
2 "Sirs," he said, "come to my home as my guests for the night; you can get up as early as you like and be on your way again." "Oh, no thanks," they said, "we'll just stretch out here along the street."
3 But he was very urgent, until at last they went home with him, and he set a great feast before them, complete with freshly baked unleavened bread. After the meal,
4 as they were preparing to retire for the night, the men of the city--yes, Sodomites, young and old from all over the city--surrounded the house
5 and shouted to Lot, "Bring out those men to us so we can rape them."
6 Lot stepped outside to talk to them, shutting the door behind him.
7 "Please, fellows," he begged, "don't do such a wicked thing.
8 Look--I have two virgin daughters, and I'll surrender them to you to do with as you wish. But leave these men alone, for they are under my protection."
9 "Stand back," they yelled. "Who do you think you are? We let this fellow settle among us and now he tries to tell us what to do! We'll deal with you far worse than with those other men." And they lunged at Lot and began breaking down the door.
10 But the two men reached out and pulled Lot in and bolted the door
11 and temporarily blinded the men of Sodom so that they couldn't find the door.
12 "What relatives do you have here in the city?" the men asked. "Get them out of this place--sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else.
13 For we will destroy the city completely. The stench of the place has reached to heaven and God has sent us to destroy it."
14 So Lot rushed out to tell his daughters' fiances, "Quick, get out of the city, for the Lord is going to destroy it." But the young men looked at him as though he had lost his senses.
15 At dawn the next morning the angels became urgent. "Hurry," they said to Lot, "take your wife and your two daughters who are here and get out while you can, or you will be caught in the destruction of the city."
16 When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety, outside the city, for the Lord was merciful.
17 "Flee for your lives," the angels told him. "And don't look back. Escape to the mountains. Don't stay down here on the plain or you will die."
18 "Oh no, sirs, please," Lot begged,
19 "since you've been so kind to me and saved my life, and you've granted me such mercy, let me flee to that little village over there instead of into the mountains, for I fear disaster in the mountain.
20 See, the village is close by and it is just a small one. Please, please, let me go there instead. Don't you see how small it is? And my life will be saved."
21 "All right," the angel said, "I accept your proposition and won't destroy that little city.
22 But hurry! For I can do nothing until you are there." (From that time on that village was named Zoar, meaning "Little City.")
23 The sun was rising as Lot reached the village.
24 Then the Lord rained down fire and flaming tar from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
25 and utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, eliminating all life--people, plants, and animals alike.
26 But Lot's wife looked back as she was following along behind him and became a pillar of salt.
27 That morning Abraham was up early and hurried out to the place where he had stood before the Lord.
28 He looked out across the plain to Sodom and Gomorrah and saw columns of smoke and fumes, as from a furnace, rising from the cities there.
29 So God heeded Abraham's plea and kept Lot safe, removing him from the maelstrom of death that engulfed the cities.
30 Afterwards Lot left Zoar, fearful of the people there, and went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters.
31 One day the older girl said to her sister, "There isn't a man anywhere in this entire area that our father would let us marry. And our father will soon be too old for having children.
32 Come, let's fill him with wine and then we will sleep with him, so that our clan will not come to an end."
33 So they got him drunk that night, and the older girl went in and had sexual intercourse with her father; but he was unaware of her lying down or getting up again.
34 The next morning she said to her younger sister, "I slept with my father last night. Let's fill him with wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him, so that our family line will continue."
35 So they got him drunk again that night, and the younger girl went in and lay with him, and, as before, he didn't know that anyone was there.
36 And so it was that both girls became pregnant from their father.
37 The older girl's baby was named Moab; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Moabites.
38 The name of the younger girl's baby was Benammi; he became the ancestor of the nation of the Ammonites.
1 Now Abraham moved south to the Negeb and settled between Kadesh and Shur. One day, when visiting the city of Gerar,
2 he declared that Sarah was his sister! Then King Abimelech sent for her, and had her brought to him at his palace.
3 But that night God came to him in a dream and told him, "You are a dead man, for that woman you took is married."
4 But Abimelech hadn't slept with her yet, so he said, "Lord, will you slay an innocent man?
5 He told me, 'She is my sister,' and she herself said, 'Yes, he is my brother.' I hadn't the slightest intention of doing anything wrong."
6 "Yes, I know," the Lord replied. "That is why I held you back from sinning against me; that is why I didn't let you touch her.
7 Now restore her to her husband, and he will pray for you (for he is a prophet) and you shall live. But if you don't return her to him, you are doomed to death along with all your household."
8 The king was up early the next morning, and hastily called a meeting of all the palace personnel and told them what had happened. And great fear swept through the crowd.
9 Then the king called for Abraham. "What is this you've done to us?" he demanded. "What have I done that deserves treatment like this, to make me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? Who would suspect that you would do a thing like this to me?
10 Whatever made you think of this vile deed?"
11 "Well," Abraham said, "I figured this to be a godless place. 'They will want my wife and will kill me to get her,' I thought.
12 And besides, she is my sister--or at least a half-sister (we both have the same father)--and I married her.
13 And when God sent me traveling far from my childhood home, I told her, 'Have the kindness to mention, wherever we come, that you are my sister.' "
14 Then King Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants--both men and women--and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.
15 "Look my kingdom over, and choose the place where you want to live," the king told him.
16 Then he turned to Sarah. "Look," he said, "I am giving your 'brother' a thousand silver pieces as damages for what I did, to compensate for any embarrassment and to settle any claim against me regarding this matter. Now justice has been done."
17 Then Abraham prayed, asking God to cure the king and queen and the other women of the household, so that they could have children;
18 for God had stricken all the women with barrenness to punish Abimelech for taking Abraham's wife.
1 Then God did as he had promised, and Sarah became pregnant and gave Abraham a baby son in his old age, at the time God had said;
2
3 and Abraham named him Isaac (meaning "Laughter!").
4 Eight days after he was born, Abraham circumcised him, as God required. (Abraham was 100 years old at that time.)
5
6 And Sarah declared, "God has brought me laughter! All who hear about this shall rejoice with me.
7 For who would have dreamed that I would ever have a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a child in his old age!"
8 Time went by and the child grew and was weaned; and Abraham gave a party to celebrate the happy occasion.
9 But when Sarah noticed Ishmael--the son of Abraham and the Egyptian girl Hagar--teasing Isaac,
10 she turned upon Abraham and demanded, "Get rid of that slave girl and her son. He is not going to share your property with my son. I won't have it."
11 This upset Abraham very much, for after all, Ishmael too was his son.
12 But God told Abraham, "Don't be upset over the boy or your slave-girl wife; do as Sarah says, for Isaac is the son through whom my promise will be fulfilled.
13 And I will make a nation of the descendants of the slave-girl's son, too, because he also is yours."
14 So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food for the journey, and strapped a canteen of water to Hagar's shoulders and sent her away with their son. She walked out into the wilderness of Beersheba, wandering aimlessly.
15 When the water was gone she left the youth in the shade of a bush
16 and went off and sat down a hundred yards or so away. "I don't want to watch him die," she said, and burst into tears, sobbing wildly.
17 Then God heard the boy crying, and the Angel of God called to Hagar from the sky, "Hagar, what's wrong? Don't be afraid! For God has heard the lad's cries as he is lying there.
18 Go and get him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants."
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well; so she refilled the canteen and gave the lad a drink.
20 And God blessed the boy and he grew up in the wilderness of Paran, and became an expert archer.
21 And his mother arranged a marriage for him with a girl from Egypt.
22 About this time King Abimelech and Phicol, commander of his troops, came to Abraham and said to him, "It is evident that God helps you in everything you do;
23 swear to me by God's name that you won't defraud me or my son or my grandson, but that you will be on friendly terms with my country, as I have been toward you."
24 Abraham replied, "All right, I swear to it!"
25 Then Abraham complained to the king about a well the king's servants had taken violently away from Abraham's servants.
26 "This is the first I've heard of it," the king exclaimed, "and I have no idea who is responsible. Why didn't you tell me before?"
27 Then Abraham gave sheep and oxen to the king, as sacrifices to seal their pact.
28 But when he took seven ewe lambs and set them off by themselves, the king inquired, "Why are you doing that?"
29
30 And Abraham replied, "They are my gift to you as a public confirmation that this well is mine."
31 So from that time on the well was called Beer-sheba ("Well of the Oath"), because that was the place where they made their covenant.
32 Then King Abimelech and Phicol, commander of his army, returned home again.
33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree beside the well and prayed there to the Lord, calling upon the Eternal God.
34 And Abraham lived in the Philistine country for a long time.
1 Later on, God tested Abraham's faith and obedience. "Abraham!" God called. "Yes, Lord?" he replied.
2 "Take with you your only son--yes, Isaac whom you love so much--and go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I'll point out to you!"
3 The next morning Abraham got up early, chopped wood for a fire upon the altar, saddled his donkey, and took with him his son Isaac and two young men who were his servants, and started off to the place where God had told him to go.
4 On the third day of the journey Abraham saw the place in the distance.
5 "Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the young men, "and the lad and I will travel yonder and worship, and then come right back."
6 Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering upon Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the knife and the flint for striking a fire. So the two of them went on together.
7 "Father," Isaac asked, "we have the wood and the flint to make the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?"
8 "God will see to it, my son," Abraham replied. And they went on.
9 When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood in order, ready for the fire, and then tied Isaac and laid him on the altar over the wood.
10 And Abraham took the knife and lifted it up to plunge it into his son, to slay him.
11 At that moment the Angel of God shouted to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Yes, Lord!" he answered.
12 "Lay down the knife; don't hurt the lad in any way," the Angel said, "for I know that God is first in your life--you have not withheld even your beloved son from me."
13 Then Abraham noticed a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it, instead of his son, as a burnt offering on the altar.
14 Abraham named the place "Jehovah provides"--and it still goes by that name to this day.
15 Then the Angel of God called again to Abraham from heaven.
16 "I, the Lord, have sworn by myself that because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your beloved son from me,
17 I will bless you with incredible blessings and multiply your descendants into countless thousands and millions, like the stars above you in the sky, and like the sands along the seashore. They will conquer their enemies,
18 and your offspring will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth--all because you have obeyed me."
19 So they returned to his young men and traveled home again to Beer-sheba.
20 After this, a message arrived that Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor, had borne him eight sons. Their names were:
21 Uz, the oldest, Buz, the next oldest, Kemuel (father of Aram),
22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph,
23 Bethuel (father of Rebekah).
24 He also had four other children from his concubine, Reumah: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, Maacah.
1 When Sarah was 127 years old, she died in Hebron in the land of Canaan; there Abraham mourned and wept for her.
2
3 Then, standing beside her body, he said to the men of Heth:
4 "Here I am, a visitor in a foreign land, with no place to bury my wife. Please sell me a piece of ground for this purpose."
5 "Certainly," the men replied, "for you are an honored prince of God among us; it will be a privilege to have you choose the finest of our sepulchers, so that you can bury her there."
6
7 Then Abraham bowed low before them and said,
8 "Since this is your feeling in the matter, be so kind as to ask Ephron, Zohar's son,
9 to sell me the cave of Mach-pelah, down at the end of his field. I will of course pay the full price for it, whatever is publicly agreed upon, and it will become a permanent cemetery for my family."
10 Ephron was sitting there among the others, and now he spoke up, answering Abraham as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the citizens of the town:
11 "Sir," he said to Abraham, "please listen to me. I will give you the cave and the field without any charge. Here in the presence of my people, I give it to you free. Go and bury your dead."
12 Abraham bowed again to the men of Heth,
13 and replied to Ephron, as all listened: "No, let me buy it from you. Let me pay the full price of the field, and then I will bury my dead."
14 "Well, the land is worth 400 pieces of silver," Ephron said, "but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead."
15
16 So Abraham paid Ephron the price he had suggested--400 pieces of silver, as publicly agreed.
17 This is the land he bought: Ephron's field at Mach-pelah, near Mamre, and the cave at the end of the field, and all the trees in the field.
18 They became his permanent possession, by agreement in the presence of the men of Heth at the city gate.
19 So Abraham buried Sarah there, in the field and cave deeded to him by the men of Heth as a burial plot.
20
1 Abraham was now a very old man, and God blessed him in every way.
2 One day Abraham said to his household administrator, who was his oldest servant,
3 "Swear by Jehovah, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not let my son marry one of these local girls, these Canaanites.
4 Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife for him there."
5 "But suppose I can't find a girl who will come so far from home?" the servant asked. "Then shall I take Isaac there, to live among your relatives?"
6 "No!" Abraham warned. "Be careful that you don't do that under any circumstance.
7 For the Lord God of heaven told me to leave that land and my people, and promised to give me and my children this land. He will send his angel on ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a girl from there to be my son's wife.
8 But if you don't succeed, then you are free from this oath; but under no circumstances are you to take my son there."
9 So the servant vowed to follow Abraham's instructions.
10 He took with him ten of Abraham's camels loaded with samples of the best of everything his master owned and journeyed to Iraq, to Nahor's village.
11 There he made the camels kneel down outside the town, beside a spring. It was evening, and the women of the village were coming to draw water.
12 "O Jehovah, the God of my master," he prayed, "show kindness to my master Abraham and help me to accomplish the purpose of my journey.
13 See, here I am, standing beside this spring, and the girls of the village are coming out to draw water.
14 This is my request: When I ask one of them for a drink and she says, 'Yes, certainly, and I will water your camels too!'--let her be the one you have appointed as Isaac's wife. That is how I will know."
15 As he was still speaking to the Lord about this, a beautiful young girl named Rebekah
16 arrived with a water jug on her shoulder and filled it at the spring. (Her father was Bethuel the son of Nahor and his wife Milcah.)
17 Running over to her, the servant asked her for a drink.
18 "Certainly, sir," she said, and quickly lowered the jug for him to drink.
19 Then she said, "I'll draw water for your camels, too, until they have enough!"
20 So she emptied the jug into the watering trough and ran down to the spring again and kept carrying water to the camels until they had enough.
21 The servant said no more, but watched her carefully to see if she would finish the job, so that he would know whether she was the one.
22 Then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he produced a quarter-ounce gold earring and two five-ounce gold bracelets for her wrists.
23 "Whose daughter are you, miss?" he asked. "Would your father have any room to put us up for the night?"
24 "My father is Bethuel," she replied. "My grandparents are Milcah and Nahor.
25 Yes, we have plenty of straw and food for the camels, and a guest room."
26 The man stood there a moment with head bowed, worshiping Jehovah.
27 "Thank you, Lord God of my master Abraham," he prayed; "thank you for being so kind and true to him, and for leading me straight to the family of my master's relatives."
28 The girl ran home to tell her folks,
29 and when her brother Laban saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister's wrists, and heard her story,
30 he rushed out to the spring where the man was still standing beside his camels, and said to him,
31 "Come and stay with us, friend; why stand here outside the city when we have a room all ready for you, and a place prepared for the camels!"
32 So the man went home with Laban, and Laban gave him straw to bed down the camels, and feed for them, and water for the camel drivers to wash their feet.
33 Then supper was served. But the old man said, "I don't want to eat until I have told you why I am here." "All right," Laban said, "tell us your errand."
34 "I am Abraham's servant," he explained.
35 "And Jehovah has overwhelmed my master with blessings so that he is a great man among the people of his land. God has given him flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and a fortune in silver and gold, and many slaves and camels and donkeys.
36 "Now when Sarah, my master's wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master's son, and my master has given him everything he owns.
37 And my master made me promise not to let Isaac marry one of the local girls,
38 but to come to his relatives here in this far-off land, to his brother's family, and to bring back a girl from here to marry his son.
39 'But suppose I can't find a girl who will come?' I asked him.
40 'She will,' he told me--'for my Lord, in whose presence I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your mission successful. Yes, find a girl from among my relatives, from my brother's family.
41 You are under oath to go and ask. If they won't send anyone, then you are freed from your promise.'
42 "Well, this afternoon when I came to the spring I prayed this prayer: 'O Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, if you are planning to make my mission a success, please guide me in this way:
43 Here I am, standing beside this spring. I will say to some girl who comes out to draw water, "Please give me a drink of water!"
44 And she will reply, "Certainly! And I'll water your camels too!" Let that girl be the one you have selected to be the wife of my master's son.'
45 "Well, while I was still speaking these words, Rebekah was coming along with her water jug upon her shoulder; and she went down to the spring and drew water and filled the jug. I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.'
46 She quickly lifted the jug down from her shoulder so that I could drink, and told me, 'Certainly, sir, and I will water your camels too!' So she did!
47 Then I asked her, 'Whose family are you from?' And she told me, 'Nahor's. My father is Bethuel, the son of Nahor and his wife Milcah.' So I gave her the ring and the bracelets.
48 Then I bowed my head and worshiped and blessed Jehovah, the God of my master Abraham, because he had led me along just the right path to find a girl from the family of my master's brother.
49 So tell me, yes or no. Will you or won't you be kind to my master and do what is right? When you tell me, then I'll know what my next step should be, whether to move this way or that."
50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, "The Lord has obviously brought you here, so what can we say?
51 Take her and go! Yes, let her be the wife of your master's son, as Jehovah has directed."
52 At this reply, Abraham's servant fell to his knees before Jehovah.
53 Then he brought out jewels set in solid gold and silver for Rebekah, and lovely clothing; and he gave many valuable presents to her mother and brother.
54 Then they had supper, and the servant and the men with him stayed there overnight. But early the next morning he said, "Send me back to my master!"
55 "But we want Rebekah here at least another ten days or so!" her mother and brother exclaimed. "Then she can go."
56 But he pleaded, "Don't hinder my return; the Lord has made my mission successful, and I want to report back to my master."
57 "Well," they said, "we'll call the girl and ask her what she thinks."
58 So they called Rebekah. "Are you willing to go with this man?" they asked her. And she replied, "Yes, I will go."
59 So they told her good-bye, sending along the woman who had been her childhood nurse,
60 and blessed her with this blessing as they parted: "Our sister, May you become The mother of many millions! May your descendants Overcome all your enemies."
61 So Rebekah and her servant girls mounted the camels and went with him.
62 Meanwhile, Isaac, whose home was in the Negeb, had returned to Beer-lahai-roi.
63 One evening as he was taking a walk out in the fields, meditating, he looked up and saw the camels coming.
64 Rebekah noticed him and quickly dismounted.
65 "Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?" she asked the servant. And he replied, "It is my master's son!" So she covered her face with her veil.
66 Then the servant told Isaac the whole story.
67 And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother's tent, and she became his wife. He loved her very much, and she was a special comfort to him after the loss of his mother.
1 Now Abraham married again. Keturah was his new wife, and she bore him several children:
2 Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah.
3 Jokshan's two sons were Sheba and Dedan. Dedan's sons were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
4 Midian's sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah.
5 Abraham deeded everything he owned to Isaac;
6 however, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off into the east, away from Isaac.
7 Then Abraham died, at the ripe old age of 174,
8
9 and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mach-pelah near Mamre,
10 in the field Abraham had purchased from Ephron the son of Zohar, the Hethite, where Sarah, Abraham's wife, was buried.
11 After Abraham's death, God poured out rich blessings upon Isaac. (Isaac had now moved south to Beer-lahai-roi in the Negeb.)
12 Here is a list, in the order of their births, of the descendants of Ishmael, who was the son of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's slave girl:
13 Nebaioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mibsam,
14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah.
16 These twelve sons of his became the founders of twelve tribes that bore their names.
17 Ishmael finally died at the age of 137, and joined his ancestors.
18 These descendants of Ishmael were scattered across the country from Havilah to Shur (which is a little way to the northeast of the Egyptian border in the direction of Assyria). And they were constantly at war with one another.
19 This is the story of Isaac's children:
20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddam-aram. Rebekah was the sister of Laban.
21 Isaac pleaded with Jehovah to give Rebekah a child, for even after many years of marriage she had no children. Then at last she became pregnant.
22 And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside her! "I can't endure this," she exclaimed. So she asked the Lord about it.
23 And he told her, "The sons in your womb shall become two rival nations. One will be stronger than the other; and the older shall be a servant of the younger!"
24 And sure enough, she had twins.
25 The first was born so covered with reddish hair that one would think he was wearing a fur coat! So they called him "Esau."
26 Then the other twin was born with his hand on Esau's heel! So they called him Jacob (meaning "Grabber"). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
27 As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home.
28 Isaac's favorite was Esau, because of the venison he brought home, and Rebekah's favorite was Jacob.
29 One day Jacob was cooking stew when Esau arrived home exhausted from the hunt.
30 Esau: "Boy, am I starved! Give me a bite of that red stuff there!" (From this came his nickname "Edom," which means "Red Stuff.")
31 Jacob: "All right, trade me your birthright for it!"
32 Esau: "When a man is dying of starvation, what good is his birthright?"
33 Jacob: "Well then, vow to God that it is mine!" And Esau vowed, thereby selling all his eldest-son rights to his younger brother.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread, peas, and stew; so he ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away.
1 Now a severe famine overshadowed the land, as had happened before, in Abraham's time, and so Isaac moved to the city of Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.
2 Jehovah appeared to him there and told him, "Don't go to Egypt.
3 Do as I say and stay here in this land. If you do, I will be with you and bless you, and I will give all this land to you and to your descendants, just as I promised Abraham your father.
4 And I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars! And I will give them all of these lands; and they shall be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.
5 I will do this because Abraham obeyed my commandments and laws."
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, "She is my sister!" For he feared for his life if he told them she was his wife; he was afraid they would kill him to get her, for she was very attractive.
8 But sometime later, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making love.
9 Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, "She is your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?" "Because I was afraid I would be murdered," Isaac replied. "I thought someone would kill me to get her from me."
10 "How could you treat us this way?" Abimelech exclaimed. "Someone might carelessly have raped her, and we would be doomed."
11 Then Abimelech made a public proclamation: "Anyone harming this man or his wife shall die."
12 That year Isaac's crops were tremendous--100 times the grain he sowed. For Jehovah blessed him.
13 He was soon a man of great wealth and became richer and richer.
14 He had large flocks of sheep and goats, great herds of cattle, and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him.
15 So they filled up his wells with earth--all those dug by the servants of his father Abraham.
16 And King Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country. "Go somewhere else," he said, "for you have become too rich and powerful for us."
17 So Isaac moved to Gerar Valley and lived there instead.
18 And Isaac redug the wells of his father Abraham, the ones the Philistines had filled after his father's death, and gave them the same names they had had before, when his father had named them.
19 His shepherds also dug a new well in Gerar Valley, and found a gushing underground spring.
20 Then the local shepherds came and claimed it. "This is our land and our well," they said, and argued over it with Isaac's herdsmen. So he named the well, "The Well of Argument!"
21 Isaac's men then dug another well, but again there was a fight over it. So he called it, "The Well of Anger."
22 Abandoning that one, he dug again, and the local residents finally left him alone. So he called it, "The Well of Room Enough for Us at Last!" "For now at last," he said, "the Lord has made room for us and we shall thrive."
23 When he went to Beer-sheba,
24 Jehovah appeared to him on the night of his arrival. "I am the God of Abraham your father," he said. "Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you, and will give you so many descendants that they will become a great nation--because of my promise to Abraham, who obeyed me."
25 Then Isaac built an altar and worshiped Jehovah; and he settled there, and his servants dug a well.
26 One day Isaac had visitors from Gerar. King Abimelech arrived with his advisor, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander.
27 "Why have you come?" Isaac asked them. "This is obviously no friendly visit, since you kicked me out in a most uncivil way."
28 "Well," they said, "we can plainly see that Jehovah is blessing you. We've decided to ask for a treaty between us.
29 Promise that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you, and in fact, have done only good to you and have sent you away in peace; we bless you in the name of the Lord."
30 So Isaac prepared a great feast for them, and they ate and drank in preparation for the treaty ceremonies.
31 In the morning, as soon as they were up, they each took solemn oaths to seal a nonaggression pact. Then Isaac sent them happily home again.
32 That very same day Isaac's servants came to tell him, "We have found water"--in the well they had been digging.
33 So he named the well, "The Well of the Oath," and the city that grew up there was named "Oath," and is called that to this day.
34 Esau, at the age of forty, married a girl named Judith, daughter of Be-eri the Hethite; and he also married Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hethite.
35 But Isaac and Rebekah were bitter about his marrying them.
1 One day, in Isaac's old age when he was almost blind, he called for Esau his oldest son. Isaac: "My son?" Esau: "Yes, father?"
2 Isaac: "I am an old man now, and expect every day to be my last.
3 Take your bow and arrows out into the fields and get me some venison,
4 and prepare it just the way I like it--savory and good--and bring it here for me to eat, and I will give you the blessings that belong to you, my first-born son, before I die."
5 But Rebekah overheard the conversation. So when Esau left for the field to hunt for the venison,
6 she called her son Jacob and told him what his father had said to his brother.
7
8 Rebekah: "Now do exactly as I tell you.
9 Go out to the flocks and bring me two young goats, and I'll prepare your father's favorite dish from them.
10 Then take it to your father, and after he has enjoyed it he will bless you before his death, instead of Esau!"
11 Jacob: "But mother! He won't be fooled that easily. Think how hairy Esau is, and how smooth my skin is!
12 What if my father feels me? He'll think I'm making a fool of him and curse me instead of blessing me!"
13 Rebekah: "Let his curses be on me, dear son. Just do what I tell you. Go out and get the goats."
14 So Jacob followed his mother's instructions, bringing the dressed kids, which she prepared in his father's favorite way.
15 Then she took Esau's best clothes--they were there in the house--and instructed Jacob to put them on.
16 And she made him a pair of gloves from the hairy skin of the young goats, and fastened a strip of the hide around his neck;
17 then she gave him the meat, with its rich aroma, and some fresh-baked bread.
18 Jacob carried the platter of food into the room where his father was lying. Jacob: "Father?" Isaac: "Yes? Who is it, my son--Esau or Jacob?"
19 Jacob: "It's Esau, your oldest son. I've done as you told me to. Here is the delicious venison you wanted. Sit up and eat it, so that you will bless me with all your heart!"
20 Isaac: "How were you able to find it so quickly, my son?" Jacob: "Because Jehovah your God put it in my path!"
21 Isaac: "Come over here. I want to feel you and be sure it really is Esau!"
22 (Jacob goes over to his father. He feels him!) Isaac: (to himself) "The voice is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's!"
23 (The ruse convinces Isaac and he gives Jacob his blessings):
24 Isaac: "Are you really Esau?" Jacob: "Yes, of course."
25 Isaac: "Then bring me the venison, and I will eat it and bless you with all my heart." (Jacob takes it over to him and Isaac eats; he also drinks the wine Jacob brings him.)
26 Isaac: "Come here and kiss me, my son!" (Jacob goes over and kisses him on the cheek. Isaac sniffs his clothes, and finally seems convinced.)
27 Isaac: "The smell of my son is the good smell of the earth and fields that Jehovah has blessed.
28 May God always give you plenty of rain for your crops, and good harvests and grapes.
29 May many nations be your slaves. Be the master of your brothers. May all your relatives bow low before you. Cursed are all who curse you, and blessed are all who bless you."
30 (As soon as Isaac has blessed Jacob, and almost before Jacob leaves the room, Esau arrives, coming in from his hunting.
31 He also has prepared his father's favorite dish and brings it to him.) Esau: "Here I am, father, with the venison. Sit up and eat it so that you can give me your finest blessings!"
32 Isaac: "Who is it?" Esau: "Why, it's me, of course! Esau, your oldest son!"
33 (Isaac begins to tremble noticeably.) Isaac: "Then who is it who was just here with venison, and I have already eaten it and blessed him with irrevocable blessing?"
34 (Esau begins to sob with deep and bitter sobs.) Esau: "O my father, bless me, bless me too!"
35 Isaac: "Your brother was here and tricked me and has carried away your blessing."
36 Esau: (bitterly) "No wonder they call him 'The Cheater.' For he took my birthright, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven't you saved even one blessing for me?"
37 Isaac: "I have made him your master, and have given him yourself and all of his relatives as his servants. I have guaranteed him abundance of grain and wine--what is there left to give?"
38 Esau: "Not one blessing left for me? O my father, bless me too." (Isaac says nothing as Esau weeps.)
39 Isaac: "Yours will be no life of ease and luxury,
40 but you shall hew your way with your sword. For a time you will serve your brother, but you will finally shake loose from him and be free."
41 So Esau hated Jacob because of what he had done to him. He said to himself, "My father will soon be gone, and then I will kill Jacob."
42 But someone got wind of what he was planning and reported it to Rebekah. She sent for Jacob and told him that his life was being threatened by Esau.
43 "This is what to do," she said. "Flee to your Uncle Laban in Haran.
44 Stay there with him awhile until your brother's fury is spent,
45 and he forgets what you have done. Then I will send for you. For why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?"
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm sick and tired of these local girls. I'd rather die than see Jacob marry one of them."
1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and said to him, "Don't marry one of these Canaanite girls.
2 Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your cousins--your Uncle Laban's daughters.
3 God Almighty bless you and give you many children; may you become a great nation of many tribes!
4 May God pass on to you and to your descendants the mighty blessings promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God has given it to Abraham."
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to visit his Uncle Laban, his mother's brother--the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
6 Esau realized that his father despised the local girls,
7 and that his father and mother had sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, with his father's blessing, to get a wife from there, and that they had strictly warned him against marrying a Canaanite girl,
8 and that Jacob had agreed and had left for Paddan-aram.
9 So Esau went to his Uncle Ishmael's family and married another wife from there, besides the wives he already had. Her name was Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth, and daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.
10 So Jacob left Beer-sheba and journeyed toward Haran.
11 That night, when he stopped to camp at sundown, he found a rock for a headrest and lay down to sleep,
12 and dreamed that a staircase reached from earth to heaven, and he saw the angels of God going up and down upon it.
13 At the top of the stairs stood the Lord. "I am Jehovah," he said, "the God of Abraham, and of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on is yours! I will give it to you and to your descendants.
14 For you will have descendants as many as dust! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south; and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
15 What's more, I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go, and will bring you back safely to this land; I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you all I am promising."
16 Then Jacob woke up. "God lives here!" he exclaimed in terror. "I've stumbled into his home! This is the awesome entrance to heaven!"
17
18 The next morning he got up very early and set his stone headrest upright as a memorial pillar, and poured olive oil over it.
19 He named the place Bethel ("House of God"), though the previous name of the nearest village was Luz.
20 And Jacob vowed this vow to God: "If God will help and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothes,
21 and will bring me back safely to my father, then I will choose Jehovah as my God!
22 And this memorial pillar shall become a place for worship; and I will give you back a tenth of everything you give me!"
1 Jacob traveled on, finally arriving in the land of the East.
2 He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying beside a well in an open field, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well.
3 (The custom was that the stone was not removed until all the flocks were there. After watering them, the stone was rolled back over the mouth of the well again.)
4 Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them where they lived. "At Haran," they said.
5 "Do you know a fellow there named Laban, the son of Nahor?" "We sure do."
6 "How is he?" "He's well and prosperous. Look, there comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep."
7 "Why don't you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?" Jacob asked. "They'll be hungry if you stop so early in the day!"
8 "We don't roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here," they replied.
9 As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
10 And because she was his cousin--the daughter of his mother's brother--and because the sheep were his uncle's, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle's flock.
11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and started crying!
12 He explained about being her cousin on her father's side, and that he was her Aunt Rebekah's son. She quickly ran and told her father, Laban,
13 and as soon as he heard of Jacob's arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly and brought him home. Then Jacob told him his story.
14 "Just think, my very own flesh and blood," Laban exclaimed. After Jacob had been there about a month,
15 Laban said to him one day, "Just because we are relatives is no reason for you to work for me without pay. How much do you want?"
16 Now Laban had two daughters, Leah, the older, and her younger sister, Rachel.
17 Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely, and in every way a beauty.
18 Well, Jacob was in love with Rachel. So he told her father, "I'll work for you seven years if you'll give me Rachel as my wife."
19 "Agreed!" Laban replied. "I'd rather give her to you than to someone outside the family."
20 So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But they seemed to him but a few days, he was so much in love.
21 Finally the time came for him to marry her. "I have fulfilled my contract," Jacob said to Laban. "Now give me my wife, so that I can sleep with her."
22 So Laban invited all the men of the settlement to celebrate with Jacob at a big party.
23 Afterwards, that night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her.
24 (And Laban gave to Leah a servant girl, Zilpah, to be her maid.)
25 But in the morning--it was Leah! "What sort of trick is this?" Jacob raged at Laban. "I worked for seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?"
26 "It's not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of her sister," Laban replied smoothly.
27 "Wait until the bridal week is over and you can have Rachel too--if you promise to work for me another seven years!"
28 So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. Then Laban gave him Rachel, too.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel a servant girl, Bilhah, to be her maid.
30 So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her more than Leah, and stayed and worked the additional seven years.
31 But because Jacob was slighting Leah, Jehovah let her have a child, while Rachel was barren.
32 So Leah became pregnant and had a son, Reuben (meaning "God has noticed my trouble"), for she said, "Jehovah has noticed my trouble--now my husband will love me."
33 She soon became pregnant again and had another son and named him Simeon (meaning "Jehovah heard"), for she said, "Jehovah heard that I was unloved, and so he has given me another son."
34 Again she became pregnant and had a son, and named him Levi (meaning "Attachment") for she said, "Surely now my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!"
35 Once again she was pregnant and had a son and named him Judah (meaning "Praise"), for she said, "Now I will praise Jehovah!" And then she stopped having children.
1 Rachel, realizing she was barren, became envious of her sister. "Give me children or I'll die," she exclaimed to Jacob.
2 Jacob flew into a rage. "Am I God?" he flared. "He is the one who is responsible for your barrenness."
3 Then Rachel told him, "Sleep with my servant-girl Bilhah, and her children will be mine."
4 So she gave him Bilhah to be his wife, and he slept with her,
5 and she became pregnant and presented him with a son.
6 Rachel named him Dan (meaning "Justice"), for she said, "God has given me justice, and heard my plea and given me a son."
7 Then Bilhah, Rachel's servant-girl, became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son.
8 Rachel named him Naphtali (meaning "Wrestling"), for she said, "I am in a fierce contest with my sister and I am winning!"
9 Meanwhile, when Leah realized that she wasn't getting pregnant anymore, she gave her servant-girl Zilpah to Jacob, to be his wife,
10 and soon Zilpah presented him with a son.
11 Leah named him Gad (meaning "My luck has turned!").
12 Then Zilpah produced a second son,
13 and Leah named him Asher (meaning "Happy"), for she said, "What joy is mine! The other women will think me blessed indeed!"
14 One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel begged Leah to give some of them to her.
15 But Leah angrily replied, "Wasn't it enough to steal my husband? And now will you steal my son's mandrakes too?" Rachel said sadly, "He will sleep with you tonight because of the mandrakes."
16 That evening as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me tonight!" she said; "for I am hiring you with some mandrakes my son has found!" So he did.
17 And God answered her prayers and she became pregnant again, and gave birth to her fifth son.
18 She named him Issachar (meaning "Wages"), for she said, "God has repaid me for giving my slave-girl to my husband."
19 Then once again she became pregnant, with a sixth son.
20 She named him Zebulun (meaning "Gifts"), for she said, "God has given me good gifts for my husband. Now he will honor me, for I have given him six sons."
21 Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered about Rachel's plight, and answered her prayers by giving her a child.
23 For she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. "God has removed the dark slur against my name," she said.
24 And she named him Joseph (meaning "May I also have another!"), for she said, "May Jehovah give me another son."
25 Soon after the birth of Joseph to Rachel, Jacob said to Laban, "I want to go back home.
26 Let me take my wives and children--for I earned them from you--and be gone, for you know how fully I have paid for them with my service to you."
27 "Please don't leave me," Laban replied, "for a fortune-teller that I consulted told me that the many blessings I've been enjoying are all because of your being here.
28 How much of a raise do you need to get you to stay? Whatever it is, I'll pay it."
29 Jacob replied, "You know how faithfully I've served you through these many years, and how your flocks and herds have grown.
30 For it was little indeed you had before I came, and your wealth has increased enormously; Jehovah has blessed you from everything I do! But now, what about me? When should I provide for my own family?"
31 "What wages do you want?" Laban asked again. Jacob replied, "If you will do one thing, I'll go back to work for you.
32 Let me go out among your flocks today and remove all the goats that are speckled or spotted, and all the black sheep. Give them to me as my wages.
33 Then if you ever find any white goats or sheep in my flock, you will know that I have stolen them from you!"
34 "All right!" Laban replied. "It shall be as you have said!"
35 So that very day Laban went out and formed a flock for Jacob of all the male goats that were ringed and spotted, and the females that were speckled and spotted with any white patches, and all of the black sheep.
36 He gave them to Jacob's sons to take them three days' distance, and Jacob stayed and cared for Laban's flock.
37 Then Jacob took fresh shoots from poplar, almond, and sycamore trees, and peeled white streaks in them,
38 and placed these rods beside the watering troughs so that Laban's flocks would see them when they came to drink; for that is when they mated.
39 So the flocks mated before the white-streaked rods, and their offspring were streaked and spotted, and Jacob added them to his flock.
40 Then he divided out the ewes from Laban's flock and segregated them from the rams, and let them mate only with Jacob's black rams. Thus he built his flocks from Laban's.
41 Moreover, he watched for the stronger animals to mate, and placed the peeled branches before them,
42 but didn't with the feebler ones. So the less healthy lambs were Laban's and the stronger ones were Jacob's!
43 As a result, Jacob's flocks increased rapidly and he became very wealthy, with many servants, camels, and donkeys.
1 But Jacob learned that Laban's sons were grumbling, "He owes everything he owns to our father. All his wealth is at our father's expense."
2 Soon Jacob noticed a considerable cooling in Laban's attitude toward him.
3 Jehovah now spoke to Jacob and told him, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives there; and I will be with you."
4 So one day Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come out to the field where he was with the flocks,
5 to talk things over with them. "Your father has turned against me," he told them, "and now the God of my fathers has come and spoken to me.
6 You know how hard I've worked for your father,
7 but he has been completely unscrupulous and has broken his wage contract with me again and again and again. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm!
8 For if he said the speckled animals would be mine, then all the flock produced speckled; and when he changed and said I could have the streaked ones, then all the lambs were streaked!
9 In this way God has made me wealthy at your father's expense.
10 "And at the mating season, I had a dream, and saw that the he-goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled.
11 Then, in my dream, the Angel of God called to me
12 and told me that I should mate the white female goats with streaked, speckled, and mottled male goats. 'For I have seen all that Laban has done to you,' the Angel said.
13 'I am the God you met at Bethel,' he continued, 'the place where you anointed the pillar and made a vow to serve me. Now leave this country and return to the land of your birth.' "
14 Rachel and Leah replied, "That's fine with us! There's nothing for us here--none of our father's wealth will come to us anyway!
15 He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women; he sold us, and what he received for us has disappeared.
16 The riches God has given you from our father were legally ours and our children's to begin with! So go ahead and do whatever God has told you to."
17 So one day while Laban was out shearing sheep, Jacob set his wives and sons on camels,
18 and fled without telling Laban his intentions.
19 He drove the flocks before him--Jacob's flocks he had gotten there at Paddan-aram--and took everything he owned and started out to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
20
21 So he fled with all of his possessions (and Rachel stole her father's household gods and took them with her) and crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the territory of Gilead.
22 Laban didn't learn of their flight for three days.
23 Then, taking several men with him, he set out in hot pursuit and caught up with them seven days later, at Mount Gilead.
24 That night God appeared to Laban in a dream. "Watch out what you say to Jacob," he was told. "Don't give him your blessing and don't curse him."
25 Laban finally caught up with Jacob as he was camped at the top of a ridge; Laban, meanwhile, camped below him in the mountains.
26 "What do you mean by sneaking off like this?" Laban demanded. "Are my daughters prisoners, captured in a battle, that you have rushed them away like this?
27 Why didn't you give me a chance to have a farewell party, with singing and orchestra and harp?
28 Why didn't you let me kiss my grandchildren and tell them good-bye? This is a strange way to act.
29 I could crush you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and told me, 'Be careful not to be too hard on Jacob!'
30 But see here--though you feel you must go, and long so intensely for your childhood home--why have you stolen my idols?"
31 "I sneaked away because I was afraid," Jacob answered. "I said to myself, 'He'll take his daughters from me by force.'
32 But as for your household idols, a curse upon anyone who took them. Let him die! If you find a single thing we've stolen from you, I swear before all these men, I'll give it back without question." For Jacob didn't know that Rachel had taken them.
33 Laban went first into Jacob's tent to search there, then into Leah's, and then searched the two tents of the concubines, but didn't find them. Finally he went into Rachel's tent.
34 Rachel, remember, was the one who had stolen the idols; she had stuffed them into her camel saddle and now was sitting on them! So although Laban searched the tents thoroughly, he didn't find them.
35 "Forgive my not getting up, father," Rachel explained, "but I'm having my monthly period." So Laban didn't find them.
36 Now Jacob got mad. "What did you find?" he demanded of Laban. "What is my crime? You have come rushing after me as though you were chasing a criminal
37 and have searched through everything. Now put everything I stole out here in front of us, before your men and mine, for all to see and to decide whose it is!
38 Twenty years I've been with you, and all that time I cared for your ewes and goats so that they produced healthy offspring, and I never touched one ram of yours for food.
39 If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, did I show them to you and ask you to reduce the count of your flock? No, I took the loss. You made me pay for every animal stolen from the flocks, whether I could help it or not.
40 I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day, and through the cold and sleepless nights.
41 Yes, twenty years--fourteen of them earning your two daughters, and six years to get the flock! And you have reduced my wages ten times!
42 In fact, except for the grace of God--the God of my grandfather Abraham, even the glorious God of Isaac, my father--you would have sent me off without a penny to my name. But God has seen your cruelty and my hard work, and that is why he appeared to you last night."
43 Laban replied, "These women are my daughters, and these children are mine, and these flocks and all that you have--all are mine. So how could I harm my own daughters and grandchildren?
44 Come now and we will sign a peace pact, you and I, and will live by its terms."
45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument,
46 and told his men to gather stones and make a heap, and Jacob and Laban ate together beside the pile of rocks.
47 They named it "The Witness Pile"--"Jegar-sahadutha," in Laban's language, and "Galeed" in Jacob's.
48 "This pile of stones will stand as a witness against us if either of us trespasses across this line," Laban said.
49 So it was also called "The Watchtower" (Mizpah). For Laban said, "May the Lord see to it that we keep this bargain when we are out of each other's sight.
50 And if you are harsh to my daughters, or take other wives, I won't know, but God will see it.
51 This heap," Laban continued, "stands between us as a witness of our vows that I will not cross this line to attack you and you will not cross it to attack me.
52
53 I call upon the God of Abraham and Nahor, and of their father, to destroy either one of us who does." So Jacob took oath before the mighty God of his father, Isaac, to respect the boundary line.
54 Then Jacob presented a sacrifice to God there at the top of the mountain, and invited his companions to a feast, and afterwards spent the night with them on the mountain.
55 Laban was up early the next morning and kissed his daughters and grandchildren, and blessed them, and returned home.
1 So Jacob and his household started on again. And the angels of God came to meet him.
2 When he saw them he exclaimed, "God lives here!" So he named the place "God's territory!"
3 Jacob now sent messengers to his brother, Esau, in Edom, in the land of Seir,
4 with this message: "Hello from Jacob! I have been living with Uncle Laban until recently,
5 and now I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform you of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to us."
6 The messengers returned with the news that Esau was on the way to meet Jacob--with an army of 400 men!
7 Jacob was frantic with fear. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups;
8 for he said, "If Esau attacks one group, perhaps the other can escape."
9 Then Jacob prayed, "O God of Abraham my grandfather, and of my father Isaac--O Jehovah who told me to return to the land of my relatives, and said that you would do me good--
10 I am not worthy of the least of all your loving-kindnesses shown me again and again just as you promised me. For when I left home I owned nothing except a walking stick! And now I am two armies!
11 O Lord, please deliver me from destruction at the hand of my brother Esau, for I am frightened--terribly afraid that he is coming to kill me and these mothers and my children.
12 But you promised to do me good, and to multiply my descendants until they become as the sands along the shores--too many to count."
13 Jacob stayed where he was for the night, and prepared a present for his brother Esau:
14 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,
15 30 milk camels, with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, 10 male donkeys.
16 He instructed his servants to drive them on ahead, each group of animals by itself, separated by a distance between.
17 He told the men driving the first group that when they met Esau and he asked, "Where are you going? Whose servants are you? Whose animals are these?"--
18 they should reply: "These belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present for his master Esau! He is coming right behind us!"
19 Jacob gave the same instructions to each driver, with the same message.
20 Jacob's strategy was to appease Esau with the presents before meeting him face to face! "Perhaps," Jacob hoped, "he will be friendly to us."
21 So the presents were sent on ahead, and Jacob spent that night in the camp.
22 But during the night he got up and wakened his two wives and his two concubines and eleven sons, and sent them across the Jordan River at the Jabbok ford
23 with all his possessions,
24 then returned again to the camp and was there alone; and a Man wrestled with him until dawn.
25 And when the Man saw that he couldn't win the match, he struck Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.
26 Then the Man said, "Let me go, for it is dawn." But Jacob panted, "I will not let you go until you bless me."
27 "What is your name?" the Man asked. "Jacob," was the reply.
28 "It isn't anymore!" the Man told him. "It is Israel--one who has power with God. Because you have been strong with God, you shall prevail with men."
29 "What is your name?" Jacob asked him. "No, you mustn't ask," the Man told him. And he blessed him there.
30 Jacob named the place "Peniel" ("The Face of God"), for he said, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is spared."
31 The sun rose as he started on, and he was limping because of his hip.
32 (That is why even today the people of Israel don't eat meat from near the hip, in memory of what happened that night.)
1 Then, far in the distance, Jacob saw Esau coming with his 400 men.
2 Jacob now arranged his family into a column, with his two concubines and their children at the head, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
3 Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother he bowed low seven times before him.
4 And then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him; and both of them were in tears!
5 Then Esau looked at the women and children and asked, "Who are these people with you?" "My children," Jacob replied.
6 Then the concubines came forward with their children, and bowed low before him.
7 Next came Leah with her children, and bowed, and finally Rachel and Joseph came and made their bows.
8 "And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?" Esau asked. And Jacob replied, "They are my gifts, to curry your favor!"
9 "Brother, I have plenty," Esau laughed. "Keep what you have."
10 "No, but please accept them," Jacob said, "for what a relief it is to see your friendly smile! I was as frightened of you as though approaching God!
11 Please take my gifts. For God has been very generous to me and I have enough." So Jacob insisted, and finally Esau accepted them.
12 "Well, let's be going," Esau said. "My men and I will stay with you and lead the way."
13 But Jacob replied, "As you can see, some of the children are small, and the flocks and herds have their young, and if they are driven too hard, they will die.
14 So you go on ahead of us and we'll follow at our own pace and meet you at Seir."
15 "Well," Esau said, "at least let me leave you some of my men to assist you and be your guides." "No," Jacob insisted, "we'll get along just fine. Please do as I suggest."
16 So Esau started back to Seir that same day.
17 Meanwhile Jacob and his household went as far as Succoth. There he built himself a camp, with pens for his flocks and herds. (That is why the place is called Succoth, meaning "huts.")
18 Then they arrived safely at Shechem, in Canaan, and camped outside the city.
19 (He bought the land he camped on from the family of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of silver.
20 And there he erected an altar and called it "El-Elohe-Israel," "The Altar to the God of Israel.")
1 One day Dinah, Leah's daughter, went out to visit some of the neighborhood girls,
2 but when Shechem, son of King Hamor the Hivite, saw her, he took her and raped her.
3 He fell deeply in love with her, and tried to win her affection.
4 Then he spoke to his father about it. "Get this girl for me," he demanded. "I want to marry her."
5 Word soon reached Jacob of what had happened, but his sons were out in the fields herding cattle, so he did nothing until their return.
6 Meanwhile King Hamor, Shechem's father, went to talk with Jacob,
7 arriving just as Jacob's sons came in from the fields, too shocked and angry to overlook the insult, for it was an outrage against all of them.
8 Hamor told Jacob, "My son Shechem is truly in love with your daughter, and longs for her to be his wife. Please let him marry her.
9 Moreover, we invite you folks to live here among us and to let your daughters marry our sons, and we will give our daughters as wives for your young men.
10 And you shall live among us wherever you wish and carry on your business among us and become rich!"
11 Then Shechem addressed Dinah's father and brothers. "Please be kind to me and let me have her as my wife," he begged. "I will give whatever you require.
12 No matter what dowry or gift you demand, I will pay it--only give me the girl as my wife."
13 Her brothers then lied to Shechem and Hamor, acting dishonorably because of what Shechem had done to their sister.
14 They said, "We couldn't possibly. For you are not circumcised. It would be a disgrace for her to marry such a man.
15 I'll tell you what we'll do--if every man of you will be circumcised,
16 then we will intermarry with you and live here and unite with you to become one people.
17 Otherwise we will take her and be on our way."
18 Hamor and Shechem gladly agreed,
19 and lost no time in acting upon this request, for Shechem was very much in love with Dinah, and could, he felt sure, sell the idea to the other men of the city--for he was highly respected and very popular.
20 So Hamor and Shechem appeared before the city council and presented their request.
21 "Those men are our friends," they said. "Let's invite them to live here among us and ply their trade. For the land is large enough to hold them, and we can intermarry with them.
22 But they will only consider staying here on one condition--that every one of us men be circumcised, the same as they are.
23 But if we do this, then all they have will become ours and the land will be enriched. Come on, let's agree to this so that they will settle here among us."
24 So all the men agreed, and all were circumcised.
25 But three days later, when their wounds were sore and sensitive to every move they made, two of Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi, took their swords, entered the city without opposition, and slaughtered every man there,
26 including Hamor and Shechem. They rescued Dinah from Shechem's house and returned to their camp again.
27 Then all of Jacob's sons went over and plundered the city because their sister had been dishonored there.
28 They confiscated all the flocks and herds and donkeys--everything they could lay their hands on, both inside the city and outside in the fields,
29 and took all the women and children, and wealth of every kind.
30 Then Jacob said to Levi and Simeon, "You have made me stink among all the people of this land--all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will come and crush us, and we will all be killed."
31 "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?" they retorted.
1 "Move on to Bethel now, and settle there," God said to Jacob, "and build an altar to worship me--the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."
2 So Jacob instructed all those in his household to destroy the idols they had brought with them, and to wash themselves and to put on fresh clothing.
3 "For we are going to Bethel," he told them, "and I will build an altar there to the God who answered my prayers in the day of my distress, and was with me on my journey."
4 So they gave Jacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.
5 Then they started on again. And the terror of God was upon all the cities they journeyed through, so that they were not attacked.
6 Finally they arrived at Luz (also called Bethel), in Canaan.
7 And Jacob erected an altar there and named it "The altar to the God who met me here at Bethel" because it was there at Bethel that God appeared to him when he was fleeing from Esau.
8 Soon after this Rebekah's old nurse, Deborah, died and was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. And ever after it was called "The Oak of Weeping."
9 Upon Jacob's arrival at Bethel, en route from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him once again and blessed him.
10 And God said to him, "You shall no longer be called Jacob ('Grabber'), but Israel ('One who prevails with God').
11 I am God Almighty," the Lord said to him, "and I will cause you to be fertile and to multiply and to become a great nation, yes, many nations; many kings shall be among your descendants.
12 And I will pass on to you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and to your descendants."
13 Afterwards Jacob built a stone pillar at the place where God had appeared to him; and he poured wine over it as an offering to God and then anointed the pillar with olive oil.
14
15 Jacob named the spot Bethel ("House of God"), because God had spoken to him there.
16 Leaving Bethel, he and his household traveled on toward Ephrath (Bethlehem). But Rachel's pains of childbirth began while they were still a long way away.
17 After a very hard delivery, the midwife finally exclaimed, "Wonderful--another boy!"
18 And with Rachel's last breath (for she died) she named him "Ben-oni" ("Son of my sorrow"); but his father called him "Benjamin" ("Son of my right hand").
19 So Rachel died, and was buried near the road to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).
20 And Jacob set up a monument of stones upon her grave, and it is there to this day.
21 Then Israel journeyed on and camped beyond the Tower of Eder.
22 It was while he was there that Reuben slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and someone told Israel about it. Here are the names of the twelve sons of Jacob:
23 The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's oldest child, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun.
24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin.
25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant-girl: Dan, Naphtali.
26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant-girl: Gad, Asher. All these were born to him at Paddan-aram.
27 So Jacob came at last to Isaac his father at Mamre in Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron), where Abraham too had lived.
28 Isaac died soon afterwards, at the ripe old age of 180. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
29
1 Here is a list of the descendants of Esau (also called Edom):
2 Esau married three local girls from Canaan: Adah (daughter of Elon the Hethite), Oholibamah (daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite),
3 Basemath (his cousin --she was a daughter of Ishmael--the sister of Nebaioth).
4 Esau and Adah had a son named Eliphaz. Esau and Basemath had a son named Reuel.
5 Esau and Oholibamah had sons named Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.
6 Then Esau took his wives, children, household servants, cattle and flocks--all the wealth he had gained in the land of Canaan--
7 and moved away from his brother Jacob to Mount Seir.
8 (For there was not land enough to support them both because of all their cattle.)
9 Here are the names of Esau's descendants, the Edomites, born to him in Mount Seir:
10 Descended from his wife Adah, born to her son Eliphaz were:
11 Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Kenaz,
12 Amalek (born to Timna, Eliphaz' concubine).
13 Esau also had grandchildren from his wife Basemath. Born to her son Reuel were: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah.
14
15 Esau's grandchildren became the heads of clans, as listed here: The clan of Teman, The clan of Omar, The clan of Zepho, The clan of Kenaz,
16 The clan of Korah, The clan of Gatam, The clan of Amalek. The above clans were the descendants of Eliphaz, the oldest son of Esau and Adah.
17 The following clans were the descendants of Reuel, born to Esau and his wife Basemath while they lived in Canaan: The clan of Nahath, The clan of Zerah, The clan of Shammah, The clan of Mizzah.
18 And these are the clans named after the sons of Esau and his wife Oholibamah (daughter of Anah): The clan of Jeush, The clan of Jalam, The clan of Korah.
19
20 These are the names of the tribes that descended from Seir, the Horite--one of the native families of the land of Seir: The tribe of Lotan, The tribe of Shobal, The tribe of Zibeon, The tribe of Anah,
21 The tribe of Dishon, The tribe of Ezer, The tribe of Dishan.
22 The children of Lotan (the son of Seir) were Hori and Heman. (Lotan had a sister, Timna.)
23 The children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, Onam.
24 The children of Zibeon: Aiah, Anah. (This is the boy who discovered a hot springs in the wasteland while he was grazing his father's donkeys.)
25 The children of Anah: Dishon, Oholibamah.
26 The children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, Cheran.
27 The children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, Akan.
28 The children of Dishan: Uz, Aran.
29
30
31 These are the names of the kings of Edom (before Israel had her first king):
32 King Bela (son of Beor), from Dinhabah in Edom.
33 Succeeded by: King Jobab (son of Zerah), from the city of Bozrah.
34 Succeeded by: King Husham, from the land of the Temanites.
35 Succeeded by: King Hadad (son of Bedad), the leader of the forces that defeated the army of Midian when it invaded Moab. His city was Avith.
36 Succeeded by: King Samlah, from Masrekah.
37 Succeeded by: King Shaul, from Rehoboth-by-the-River.
38 Succeeded by: King Baal-hanan (son of Achbor).
39 Succeeded by: King Hadad, from the city of Pau. King Hadad's wife was Mehetabel, daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab.
40 Here are the names of the sub-tribes of Esau, living in the localities named after themselves: The clan of Timna, The clan of Alvah, The clan of Jetheth,
41 The clan of Oholibamah, The clan of Elah, The clan of Pinon,
42 The clan of Kenaz, The clan of Teman, The clan of Mibzar,
43 The clan of Magdiel, The clan of Iram. These, then, are the names of the subtribes of Edom, each giving its name to the area it occupied. (All were Edomites, descendants of Esau.)
1 So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived.
2 Jacob's son Joseph was now seventeen years old. His job, along with his half-brothers, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah, was to shepherd his father's flocks. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things they were doing.
3 Now as it happened, Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other children, because Joseph was born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob gave him a special gift--a brightly colored coat.
4 His brothers of course noticed their father's partiality, and consequently hated Joseph; they couldn't say a kind word to him.
5 One night Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing even deeper hatred.
6 "Listen to this," he proudly announced.
7 "We were out in the field binding sheaves, and my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves all gathered around it and bowed low before it!"
8 "So you want to be our king, do you?" his brothers derided. And they hated him both for the dream and for his cocky attitude.
9 Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. "Listen to my latest dream," he boasted. "The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!"
10 This time he told his father as well as his brothers; but his father rebuked him. "What is this?" he asked. "Shall I indeed, and your mother and brothers come and bow before you?"
11 His brothers were fit to be tied concerning this affair, but his father gave it quite a bit of thought and wondered what it all meant.
12 One day Joseph's brothers took their father's flocks to Shechem to graze them there.
13 A few days later Israel called for Joseph, and told him, "Your brothers are over in Shechem grazing the flocks. Go and see how they are getting along, and how it is with the flocks, and bring me word." "Very good," Joseph replied.
14 So he traveled to Shechem from his home at Hebron Valley.
15 A man noticed him wandering in the fields. "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
16 "For my brothers and their flocks," Joseph replied. "Have you seen them?"
17 "Yes," the man told him, "they are no longer here. I heard your brothers say they were going to Dothan." So Joseph followed them to Dothan and found them there.
18 But when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him!
19 "Here comes that master-dreamer," they exclaimed.
20 "Come on, let's kill him and toss him into a well and tell Father that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we'll see what will become of all his dreams!"
21 But Reuben hoped to spare Joseph's life. "Let's not kill him," he said;
22 "we'll shed no blood--let's throw him alive into this well here; that way he'll die without our touching him!" (Reuben was planning to get him out later and return him to his father.)
23 So when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly-colored robe,
24 and threw him into an empty well--there was no water in it.
25 Then they sat down for supper. Suddenly they noticed a string of camels coming towards them in the distance, probably Ishmaelite traders who were taking gum, spices, and herbs from Gilead to Egypt.
26 "Look there," Judah said to the others. "Here come some Ishmaelites. Let's sell Joseph to them! Why kill him and have a guilty conscience?
27 Let's not be responsible for his death, for, after all, he is our brother!" And his brothers agreed.
28 So when the traders came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver, and they took him along to Egypt.
29 Some time later, Reuben (who was away when the traders came by) returned to get Joseph out of the well. When Joseph wasn't there, he ripped at his clothes in anguish and frustration.
30 "The child is gone; and I, where shall I go now?" he wept to his brothers.
31 Then the brothers killed a goat and spattered its blood on Joseph's coat,
32 and took the coat to their father and asked him to identify it. "We found this in the field," they told him. "Is it Joseph's coat or not?"
33 Their father recognized it at once. "Yes," he sobbed, "it is my son's coat. A wild animal has eaten him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces."
34 Then Israel tore his garments and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son in deepest mourning for many weeks.
35 His family all tried to comfort him, but it was no use. "I will die in mourning for my son," he would say, and then break down and cry.
36 Meanwhile, in Egypt, the traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh--the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard, the chief executioner.
1 About this time, Judah left home and moved to Adullam and lived there with a man named Hirah.
2 There he met and married a Canaanite girl--the daughter of Shua.
3 They lived at Chezib and had three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. These names were given to them by their mother, except for Er, who was named by his father.
4
5
6 When his oldest son, Er, grew up, Judah arranged for him to marry a girl named Tamar.
7 But Er was a wicked man, and so the Lord killed him.
8 Then Judah said to Er's brother, Onan, "You must marry Tamar, as our law requires of a dead man's brother; so that her sons from you will be your brother's heirs."
9 But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be counted as his own, and so, although he married her, whenever he went in to sleep with her, he spilled the sperm on the bed to prevent her from having a baby which would be his brother's.
10 So far as the Lord was concerned, it was very wrong of him to deny a child to his deceased brother, so he killed him, too.
11 Then Judah told Tamar, his daughter-in-law, not to marry again at that time, but to return to her childhood home and to her parents, and to remain a widow there until his youngest son, Shelah, was old enough to marry her. (But he didn't really intend for Shelah to do this, for fear God would kill him, too, just as he had his two brothers.) So Tamar went home to her parents.
12 In the process of time Judah's wife died. After the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite, went to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep.
13 When someone told Tamar that her father-in-law had left for the sheep-shearing at Timnah,
14 and realizing by now that she was not going to be permitted to marry Shelah, though he was fully grown, she laid aside her widow's clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah.
15 Judah noticed her as he went by and thought she was a prostitute, since her face was veiled.
16 So he stopped and propositioned her to sleep with him, not realizing of course that she was his own daughter-in-law. "How much will you pay me?" she asked.
17 "I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he promised. "What pledge will you give me, so that I can be sure you will send it?" she asked.
18 "Well, what do you want?" he inquired. "Your identification seal and your walking stick," she replied. So he gave them to her and she let him come and sleep with her; and she became pregnant as a result.
19 Afterwards she resumed wearing her widow's clothing as usual.
20 Judah asked his friend Hirah the Adullamite to take the young goat back to her, and to pick up the pledges he had given her, but Hirah couldn't find her!
21 So he asked around of the men of the city, "Where does the prostitute live who was soliciting out beside the road at the entrance of the village?" "But we've never had a public prostitute here," they replied.
22 So he returned to Judah and told him he couldn't find her anywhere, and what the men of the place had told him.
23 "Then let her keep them!" Judah exclaimed. "We tried our best. We'd be the laughingstock of the town to go back again."
24 About three months later word reached Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, was pregnant, obviously as a result of prostitution. "Bring her out and burn her," Judah shouted.
25 But as they were taking her out to kill her she sent this message to her father-in-law: "The man who owns this identification seal and walking stick is the father of my child. Do you recognize them?"
26 Judah admitted that they were his and said, "She is more in the right than I am, because I refused to keep my promise to give her to my son Shelah." But he did not marry her.
27 In due season the time of her delivery arrived and she had twin sons.
28 As they were being born, the midwife tied a scarlet thread around the wrist of the child who appeared first,
29 but he drew back his hand and the other baby was actually the first to be born. "Where did you come from!" she exclaimed. And ever after he was called Perez (meaning "Bursting Out").
30 Then, soon afterwards, the baby with the scarlet thread on his wrist was born, and he was named Zerah.
1 When Joseph arrived in Egypt as a captive of the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased from them by Potiphar, a member of the personal staff of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Now this man Potiphar was the captain of the king's bodyguard and his chief executioner.
2 The Lord greatly blessed Joseph there in the home of his master, so that everything he did succeeded.
3 Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph in a very special way.
4 So Joseph naturally became quite a favorite with him. Soon he was put in charge of the administration of Potiphar's household, and all of his business affairs.
5 At once the Lord began blessing Potiphar for Joseph's sake. All his household affairs began to run smoothly, his crops flourished and his flocks multiplied.
6 So Potiphar gave Joseph the complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. He hadn't a worry in the world with Joseph there, except to decide what he wanted to eat! Joseph, by the way, was a very handsome young man.
7 One day at about this time Potiphar's wife began making eyes at Joseph, and suggested that he come and sleep with her.
8 Joseph refused. "Look," he told her, "my master trusts me with everything in the entire household;
9 he himself has no more authority here than I have! He has held back nothing from me except you yourself because you are his wife. How can I do such a wicked thing as this? It would be a great sin against God."
10 But she kept on with her suggestions day after day, even though he refused to listen, and kept out of her way as much as possible.
11 Then one day as he was in the house going about his work--as it happened, no one else was around at the time--
12 she came and grabbed him by the sleeve demanding, "Sleep with me." He tore himself away, but as he did, his jacket slipped off and she was left holding it as he fled from the house.
13 When she saw that she had his jacket, and that he had fled,
14 she began screaming; and when the other men around the place came running in to see what had happened, she was crying hysterically. "My husband had to bring in this Hebrew slave to insult us!" she sobbed.
15 "He tried to rape me, but when I screamed, he ran, and forgot to take his jacket."
16 She kept the jacket, and when her husband came home that night,
17 she told him her story. "That Hebrew slave you've had around here tried to rape me,
18 and I was only saved by my screams. He fled, leaving his jacket behind!"
19 Well, when her husband heard his wife's story, he was furious.
20 He threw Joseph into prison, where the king's prisoners were kept in chains.
21 But the Lord was with Joseph there, too, and was kind to him by granting him favor with the chief jailer.
22 In fact, the jailer soon handed over the entire prison administration to Joseph, so that all the other prisoners were responsible to him.
23 The chief jailer had no more worries after that, for Joseph took care of everything, and the Lord was with him so that everything ran smoothly and well.
1 Some time later it so happened that the king of Egypt became angry with both his chief baker and his chief butler,
2
3 so he jailed them both in the prison where Joseph was, in the castle of Potiphar, the captain of the guard, who was the chief executioner.
4 They remained under arrest there for quite some time, and Potiphar assigned Joseph to wait on them.
5 One night each of them had a dream.
6 The next morning Joseph noticed that they looked dejected and sad.
7 "What in the world is the matter?" he asked.
8 And they replied, "We both had dreams last night, but there is no one here to tell us what they mean." "Interpreting dreams is God's business," Joseph replied. "Tell me what you saw."
9 The butler told his dream first. "In my dream," he said, "I saw a vine with three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon there were clusters of ripe grapes.
10
11 I was holding Pharaoh's wine cup in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into it, and gave it to him to drink."
12 "I know what the dream means," Joseph said. "The three branches mean three days!
13 Within three days Pharaoh is going to take you out of prison and give you back your job again as his chief butler.
14 And please have some pity on me when you are back in his favor, and mention me to Pharaoh, and ask him to let me out of here.
15 For I was kidnapped from my homeland among the Hebrews, and now this--here I am in jail when I did nothing to deserve it."
16 When the chief baker saw that the first dream had such a good meaning, he told his dream to Joseph, too. "In my dream," he said, "there were three baskets of pastries on my head.
17 In the top basket were all kinds of bakery goods for Pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them."
18 "The three baskets mean three days," Joseph told him.
19 "Three days from now Pharaoh will take off your head and impale your body on a pole, and the birds will come and pick off your flesh!"
20 Pharaoh's birthday came three days later, and he held a party for all of his officials and household staff. He sent for his chief butler and chief baker, and they were brought to him from the prison.
21 Then he restored the chief butler to his former position;
22 but he sentenced the chief baker to be impaled, just as Joseph had predicted.
23 Pharaoh's wine taster, however, promptly forgot all about Joseph, never giving him a thought.
1 One night two years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River,
2 when suddenly, seven sleek, fat cows came up out of the river and began grazing in the grass.
3 Then seven other cows came up from the river, but they were very skinny and all their ribs stood out. They went over and stood beside the fat cows.
4 Then the skinny cows ate the fat ones! At which point, Pharaoh woke up!
5 Soon he fell asleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw seven heads of grain on one stalk, with every kernel well formed and plump.
6 Then, suddenly, seven more heads appeared on the stalk, but these were shriveled and withered by the east wind.
7 And these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads! Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was all a dream.
8 Next morning, as he thought about it, he became very concerned as to what the dreams might mean; he called for all the magicians and sages of Egypt and told them about it, but not one of them could suggest what his dreams meant.
9 Then the king's wine taster spoke up. "Today I remember my sin!" he said.
10 "Some time ago when you were angry with a couple of us and put me and the chief baker in jail in the castle of the captain of the guard,
11 the chief baker and I each had a dream one night.
12 We told the dreams to a young Hebrew fellow there who was a slave of the captain of the guard, and he told us what our dreams meant.
13 And everything happened just as he said: I was restored to my position of wine taster, and the chief baker was executed, and impaled on a pole."
14 Pharaoh sent at once for Joseph. He was brought hastily from the dungeon, and after a quick shave and change of clothes, came in before Pharaoh.
15 "I had a dream last night," Pharaoh told him, "and none of these men can tell me what it means. But I have heard that you can interpret dreams, and that is why I have called for you."
16 "I can't do it by myself," Joseph replied, "but God will tell you what it means!"
17 So Pharaoh told him the dream. "I was standing upon the bank of the Nile River," he said,
18 "when suddenly, seven fat, healthy-looking cows came up out of the river and began grazing along the river bank.
19 But then seven other cows came up from the river, very skinny and bony--in fact, I've never seen such poor-looking specimens in all the land of Egypt.
20 And these skinny cattle ate up the seven fat ones that had come out first,
21 and afterwards they were still as skinny as before! Then I woke up.
22 "A little later I had another dream. This time there were seven heads of grain on one stalk, and all seven heads were plump and full.
23 Then, out of the same stalk, came seven withered, thin heads.
24 And the thin heads swallowed up the fat ones! I told all this to my magicians, but not one of them could tell me the meaning."
25 "Both dreams mean the same thing," Joseph told Pharaoh. "God was telling you what he is going to do here in the land of Egypt.
26 The seven fat cows (and also the seven fat, well-formed heads of grain) mean that there are seven years of prosperity ahead.
27 The seven skinny cows (and also the seven thin and withered heads of grain) indicate that there will be seven years of famine following the seven years of prosperity.
28 "So God has showed you what he is about to do:
29 The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout all the land of Egypt;
30 but afterwards there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten and wiped out; famine will consume the land.
31 The famine will be so terrible that even the memory of the good years will be erased.
32 The double dream gives double impact, showing that what I have told you is certainly going to happen, for God has decreed it, and it is going to happen soon.
33 My suggestion is that you find the wisest man in Egypt and put him in charge of administering a nationwide farm program.
34 Let Pharaoh divide Egypt into five administrative districts,
35 and let the officials of these districts gather into the royal storehouses all the excess crops of the next seven years,
36 so that there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come. Otherwise, disaster will surely strike."
37 Joseph's suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his assistants.
38 As they discussed who should be appointed for the job, Pharaoh said, "Who could do it better than Joseph? For he is a man who is obviously filled with the Spirit of God."
39 Turning to Joseph, Pharaoh said to him, "Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, you are the wisest man in the country!
40 I am hereby appointing you to be in charge of this entire project. What you say goes, throughout all the land of Egypt. I alone will outrank you."
41 Then Pharaoh placed his own signet ring on Joseph's finger as a token of his authority, and dressed him in beautiful clothing and placed the royal gold chain about his neck and declared,
42 "See, I have placed you in charge of all the land of Egypt."
43 Pharaoh also gave Joseph the chariot of his second-in-command, and wherever he went the shout arose, "Kneel down!"
44 And Pharaoh declared to Joseph, "I, the king of Egypt, swear that you shall have complete charge over all the land of Egypt."
45 Pharaoh gave him a name meaning "He has the godlike power of life and death!" And he gave him a wife, a girl named Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis. So Joseph became famous throughout the land of Egypt.
46 He was thirty years old as he entered the service of the king. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and began traveling all across the land.
47 And sure enough, for the next seven years there were bumper crops everywhere.
48 During those years, Joseph requisitioned for the government a portion of all the crops grown throughout Egypt, storing them in nearby cities.
49 After seven years of this, the granaries were full to overflowing, and there was so much that no one kept track of the amount.
50 During this time before the arrival of the first of the famine years, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of the sun god Re of Heliopolis.
51 Joseph named his oldest son Manasseh (meaning "Made to Forget"--what he meant was that God had made up to him for all the anguish of his youth, and for the loss of his father's home).
52 The second boy was named Ephraim (meaning "Fruitful"--"For God has made me fruitful in this land of my slavery," he said).
53 So at last the seven years of plenty came to an end.
54 Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There were crop failures in all the surrounding countries, too, but in Egypt there was plenty of grain in the storehouses.
55 The people began to starve. They pleaded with Pharaoh for food, and he sent them to Joseph. "Do whatever he tells you to," he instructed them.
56 So now, with severe famine all over the world, Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians
57 and to those from other lands who came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph.
1 When Jacob heard that there was grain available in Egypt he said to his sons, "Why are you standing around looking at one another?
2 I have heard that there is grain available in Egypt. Go down and buy some for us before we all starve to death."
3 So Joseph's ten older brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain.
4 However, Jacob wouldn't let Joseph's younger brother Benjamin go with them, for fear some harm might happen to him as it had to his brother Joseph.
5 So it was that Israel's sons arrived in Egypt along with many others from many lands to buy food, for the famine was as severe in Canaan as it was everywhere else.
6 Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt, and in charge of the sale of the grain, it was to him that his brothers came, and bowed low before him, with their faces to the earth.
7 Joseph recognized them instantly, but pretended he didn't. "Where are you from?" he demanded roughly. "From the land of Canaan," they replied. "We have come to buy grain."
8 Then Joseph remembered the dreams of long ago! But he said to them, "You are spies. You have come to see how destitute the famine has made our land."
9
10 "No, no," they exclaimed. "We have come to buy food.
11 We are all brothers and honest men, sir! We are not spies!"
12 "Yes, you are," he insisted. "You have come to see how weak we are."
13 "Sir," they said, "there are twelve of us brothers, and our father is in the land of Canaan. Our youngest brother is there with our father, and one of our brothers is dead."
14 "So?" Joseph asked. "What does that prove? You are spies.
15 This is the way I will test your story: I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you are not going to leave Egypt until this youngest brother comes here.
16 One of you go and get your brother! I'll keep the rest of you here, bound in prison. Then we'll find out whether your story is true or not. If it turns out that you don't have a younger brother, then I'll know you are spies."
17 So he threw them all into jail for three days.
18 The third day Joseph said to them, "I am a God-fearing man and I'm going to give you an opportunity to prove yourselves.
19 I'm going to take a chance that you are honorable; only one of you shall remain in chains in jail, and the rest of you may go on home with grain for your families;
20 but bring your youngest brother back to me. In this way I will know whether you are telling me the truth; and if you are, I will spare you." To this they agreed.
21 Speaking among themselves, they said, "This has all happened because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his terror and anguish and heard his pleadings, but we wouldn't listen."
22 "Didn't I tell you not to do it?" Reuben asked. "But you wouldn't listen. And now we are going to die because we murdered him."
23 Of course they didn't know that Joseph understood them as he was standing there, for he had been speaking to them through an interpreter.
24 Now he left the room and found a place where he could weep. Returning, he selected Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes.
25 Joseph then ordered his servants to fill the men's sacks with grain, but also gave secret instructions to put each brother's payment at the top of his sack! He also gave them provisions for their journey.
26 So they loaded up their donkeys with the grain and started for home.
27 But when they stopped for the night and one of them opened his sack to get some grain to feed the donkeys, there was his money in the mouth of the sack!
28 "Look," he exclaimed to his brothers, "my money is here in my sack." They were filled with terror. Trembling, they exclaimed to each other. "What is this that God has done to us?"
29 So they came to their father, Jacob, in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened.
30 "The king's chief assistant spoke very roughly to us," they told him, "and took us for spies.
31 'No, no,' we said, 'we are honest men, not spies.
32 We are twelve brothers, sons of one father; one is dead, and the youngest is with our father in the land of Canaan.'
33 Then the man told us, 'This is the way I will find out if you are what you claim to be. Leave one of your brothers here with me and take grain for your families and go on home,
34 but bring your youngest brother back to me. Then I shall know whether you are spies or honest men; if you prove to be what you say, then I will give you back your brother and you can come as often as you like to purchase grain.' "
35 As they emptied out the sacks, there at the top of each was the money paid for the grain! Terror gripped them, as it did their father.
36 Then Jacob exclaimed, "You have bereaved me of my children--Joseph didn't come back, Simeon is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin too! Everything has been against me."
37 Then Reuben said to his father, "Kill my two sons if I don't bring Benjamin back to you. I'll be responsible for him."
38 But Jacob replied, "My son shall not go down with you, for his brother Joseph is dead and he alone is left of his mother's children. If anything should happen to him, I would die."
1 But there was no relief from the terrible famine throughout the land.
2 When the grain they had brought from Egypt was almost gone, their father said to them, "Go again and buy us a little food."
3 But Judah told him, "The man wasn't fooling one bit when he said, 'Don't ever come back again unless your brother is with you.' We cannot go unless you let Benjamin go with us."
4
5
6 "Why did you ever tell him you had another brother?" Israel moaned. "Why did you have to treat me like that?"
7 "But the man specifically asked us about our family," they told him. "He wanted to know whether our father was still living and he asked us if we had another brother, so we told him. How could we know that he was going to say, 'Bring me your brother'?"
8 Judah said to his father, "Send the lad with me and we will be on our way; otherwise we will all die of starvation--and not only we, but you and all our little ones.
9 I guarantee his safety. If I don't bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame forever.
10 For we could have gone and returned by this time if you had let him come."
11 So their father Israel finally said to them, "If it can't be avoided, then at least do this. Load your donkeys with the best products of the land. Take them to the man as gifts--balm, honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.
12 Take double money so that you can pay back what was in the mouths of your sacks, as it was probably someone's mistake,
13 and take your brother and go.
14 May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, so that he will release Simeon and return Benjamin. And if I must bear the anguish of their deaths, then so be it."
15 So they took the gifts and double money and went to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
16 When Joseph saw that Benjamin was with them, he said to the manager of his household, "These men will eat with me this noon. Take them home and prepare a big feast."
17 So the man did as he was told and took them to Joseph's palace.
18 They were badly frightened when they saw where they were being taken. "It's because of the money returned to us in our sacks," they said. "He wants to pretend we stole it and seize us as slaves, with our donkeys."
19 As they arrived at the entrance to the palace, they went over to Joseph's household manager,
20 and said to him, "O sir, after our first trip to Egypt to buy food,
21 as we were returning home, we stopped for the night and opened our sacks, and the money was there that we had paid for the grain. Here it is; we have brought it back again,
22 along with additional money to buy more grain. We have no idea how the money got into our sacks."
23 "Don't worry about it," the household manager told them; "your God, even the God of your fathers, must have put it there, for we collected your money all right." Then he released Simeon and brought him out to them.
24 They were then conducted into the palace and given water to refresh their feet; and their donkeys were fed.
25 Then they got their presents ready for Joseph's arrival at noon, for they were told that they would be eating there.
26 When Joseph came home they gave him their presents, bowing low before him.
27 He asked how they had been getting along. "And how is your father--the old man you spoke about? Is he still alive?"
28 "Yes," they replied. "He is alive and well." Then again they bowed before him.
29 Looking at his brother Benjamin, he asked, "Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about? How are you, my son? God be gracious to you."
30 Then Joseph made a hasty exit, for he was overcome with love for his brother and had to go out and cry. Going into his bedroom, he wept there.
31 Then he washed his face and came out, keeping himself under control. "Let's eat," he said.
32 Joseph ate by himself, his brothers were served at a separate table, and the Egyptians at still another; for Egyptians despise Hebrews and never eat with them.
33 He told each of them where to sit, and seated them in the order of their ages, from the oldest to the youngest, much to their amazement!
34 Their food was served to them from his own table. He gave the largest serving to Benjamin--five times as much as to any of the others! They had a wonderful time bantering back and forth, and the wine flowed freely!
1 When his brothers were ready to leave, Joseph ordered his household manager to fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they could carry--and to put into the mouth of each man's sack the money he had paid!
2 He was also told to put Joseph's own silver cup at the top of Benjamin's sack, along with the grain money. So the household manager did as he was told.
3 The brothers were up at dawn and on their way with their loaded donkeys.
4 But when they were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his household manager, "Chase after them and stop them and ask them why they are acting like this when their benefactor has been so kind to them?
5 Ask them, 'What do you mean by stealing my lord's personal silver drinking cup, which he uses for fortune telling? What a wicked thing you have done!' "
6 So he caught up with them and spoke to them along the lines he had been instructed.
7 "What in the world are you talking about?" they demanded. "What kind of people do you think we are, that you accuse us of such a terrible thing as that?
8 Didn't we bring back the money we found in the mouth of our sacks? Why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?
9 If you find his cup with any one of us, let that one die. And all the rest of us will be slaves forever to your master."
10 "Fair enough," the man replied, "except that only the one who stole it will be a slave, and the rest of you can go free."
11 They quickly took down their sacks from the backs of their donkeys and opened them.
12 He began searching the oldest brother's sack, going on down the line to the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's!
13 They ripped their clothing in despair, loaded the donkeys again, and returned to the city.
14 Joseph was still home when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.
15 "What were you trying to do?" Joseph demanded. "Didn't you know such a man as I would know who stole it?"
16 And Judah said, "Oh, what shall we say to my lord? How can we plead? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins. Sir, we have all returned to be your slaves, both we and he in whose sack the cup was found."
17 "No," Joseph said. "Only the man who stole the cup, he shall be my slave. The rest of you can go on home to your father."
18 Then Judah stepped forward and said, "O sir, let me say just this one word to you. Be patient with me for a moment, for I know you can doom me in an instant, as though you were Pharaoh himself.
19 "Sir, you asked us if we had a father or a brother,
20 and we said, 'Yes, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one. And his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him very much.'
21 And you said to us, 'Bring him here so that I can see him.'
22 But we said to you, 'Sir, the lad cannot leave his father, for his father would die.'
23 But you told us, 'Don't come back here unless your youngest brother is with you.'
24 So we returned to our father and told him what you had said.
25 And when he said, 'Go back again and buy us a little food,'
26 we replied, 'We can't, unless you let our youngest brother go with us. Only then may we come.'
27 "Then my father said to us, 'You know that my wife had two sons,
28 and that one of them went away and never returned--doubtless torn to pieces by some wild animal; I have never seen him since.
29 And if you take away his brother from me also, and any harm befalls him, I shall die with sorrow.'
30 And now, sir, if I go back to my father and the lad is not with us--seeing that our father's life is bound up in the lad's life--
31 when he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die; and we will be responsible for bringing down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
32 Sir, I pledged my father that I would take care of the lad. I told him, 'If I don't bring him back to you, I shall bear the blame forever.'
33 Please sir, let me stay here as a slave instead of the lad, and let the lad return with his brothers.
34 For how shall I return to my father if the lad is not with me? I cannot bear to see what this would do to him."
1 Joseph could stand it no longer. "Out, all of you," he cried out to his attendants, and he was left alone with his brothers.
2 Then he wept aloud. His sobs could be heard throughout the palace, and the news was quickly carried to Pharaoh's palace.
3 "I am Joseph!" he said to his brothers. "Is my father still alive?" But his brothers couldn't say a word, they were so stunned with surprise.
4 "Come over here," he said. So they came closer. And he said again, "I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt!
5 But don't be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it! He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.
6 These two years of famine will grow to seven, during which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
7 God has sent me here to keep you and your families alive, so that you will become a great nation.
8 Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you! And he has made me a counselor to Pharaoh, and manager of this entire nation, ruler of all the land of Egypt.
9 "Hurry, return to my father and tell him, 'Your son Joseph says, "God has made me chief of all the land of Egypt. Come down to me right away!
10 You shall live in the land of Goshen so that you can be near me with all your children, your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all that you have.
11 I will take care of you there' " (you men are witnesses of my promise, and my brother Benjamin has heard me say it) 'for there are still five years of famine ahead of us. Otherwise you will come to utter poverty along with all your household.' "
12
13 Tell our father about all my power here in Egypt, and how everyone obeys me. And bring him to me quickly."
14 Then, weeping with joy, he embraced Benjamin and Benjamin began weeping too.
15 And he did the same with each of his brothers, who finally found their tongues!
16 The news soon reached Pharaoh--"Joseph's brothers have come"; and Pharaoh was very happy to hear it, as were his officials.
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers to load their pack animals and return quickly to their homes in Canaan,
18 and to bring your father and all of your families and come here to Egypt to live. Tell them, 'Pharaoh will assign to you the very best territory in the land of Egypt. You shall live off the fat of the land!'
19 And tell your brothers to take wagons from Egypt to carry their wives and little ones, and to bring your father here.
20 Don't worry about your property, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours."
21 So Joseph gave them wagons, as Pharaoh had commanded, and provisions for the journey,
22 and he gave each of them new clothes--but to Benjamin he gave five changes of clothes and three hundred pieces of silver!
23 He sent his father ten donkey-loads of the good things of Egypt, and ten donkeys loaded with grain and all kinds of other food, to eat on his journey.
24 So he sent his brothers off. "Don't quarrel along the way!" was his parting shot!
25 And leaving, they returned to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.
26 "Joseph is alive," they shouted to him. "And he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!" But Jacob's heart was like a stone; he couldn't take it in.
27 But when they had given him Joseph's messages, and when he saw the wagons filled with food that Joseph had sent him, his spirit revived.
28 And he said, "It must be true! Joseph my son is alive! I will go and see him before I die."
1 So Israel set out with all his possessions, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices there to the God of his father, Isaac.
2 During the night God spoke to him in a vision. "Jacob! Jacob!" he called. "Yes?" Jacob answered.
3 "I am God," the voice replied, "the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will see to it that you become a great nation there.
4 And I will go down with you into Egypt and I will bring your descendants back again; but you shall die in Egypt with Joseph at your side."
5 So Jacob left Beer-sheba, and his sons brought him to Egypt, along with their little ones and their wives, in the wagons Pharaoh had provided for them.
6 They brought their livestock, too, and all their belongings accumulated in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt--Jacob and all his children,
7 sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters--all his loved ones.
8 Here are the names of his sons and grandchildren who went with him into Egypt: Reuben, his oldest son;
9 Reuben's sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10 Simeon and his sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul (Shaul's mother was a girl from Canaan).
11 Levi and his sons: Gershon, Kohath, Merari.
12 Judah and his sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, Zerah (however, Er and Onan died while still in Canaan, before Israel went to Egypt). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 Issachar and his sons: Tola, Puvah, Iob, Shimron.
14 Zebulun and his sons: Sered, Elon, Jahleel.
15 So these descendants of Jacob and Leah, not including their daughter Dinah, born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, were thirty-three in all.
16 Also accompanying him were: Gad and his sons: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17 Asher and his sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and a sister, Serah. Beriah's sons were Heber and Malchiel.
18 These sixteen persons were the sons of Jacob and Zilpah, the slave-girl given to Leah by her father, Laban.
19 Also in the total of Jacob's household were these fourteen sons and descendants of Jacob and Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;
20 Joseph's sons, born in the land of Egypt, were Manasseh and Ephraim (their mother was Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of Heliopolis);
21 Benjamin's sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.
22
23 Also in the group were these seven sons and descendants of Jacob and Bilhah, the slave-girl given to Rachel by her father, Laban: Dan and his son: Hushim.
24
25 Naphtali and his sons: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
26 So the total number of those going to Egypt, of his own descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob's sons, was sixty-six.
27 With Joseph and his two sons included, this total of Jacob's household there in Egypt totaled seventy.
28 Jacob sent Judah on ahead to tell Joseph that they were on the way, and would soon arrive in Goshen--which they did.
29 Joseph jumped into his chariot and journeyed to Goshen to meet his father and they fell into each other's arms and wept a long while.
30 Then Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, for I have seen you again and know you are alive."
31 And Joseph said to his brothers and to all their households, "I'll go and tell Pharaoh that you are here, and that you have come from the land of Canaan to join me.
32 And I will tell him, 'These men are shepherds. They have brought with them their flocks and herds and everything they own.'
33 So when Pharaoh calls for you and asks you about your occupation,
34 tell him, 'We have been shepherds from our youth, as our fathers have been for many generations.' When you tell him this, he will let you live here in the land of Goshen." For shepherds were despised and hated in other parts of Egypt.
1 Upon their arrival, Joseph went in to see Pharaoh. "My father and my brothers are here from Canaan," he reported, "with all their flocks and herds and possessions. They wish to settle in the land of Goshen."
2 He took five of his brothers with him, and presented them to Pharaoh.
3 Pharaoh asked them, "What is your occupation?" And they replied, "We are shepherds like our ancestors.
4 We have come to live here in Egypt, for there is no pasture for our flocks in Canaan--the famine is very bitter there. We request permission to live in the land of Goshen."
5 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Choose anywhere you like for them to live. Give them the best land of Egypt. The land of Goshen will be fine. And if any of them are capable, put them in charge of my flocks, too."
6
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob to Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 "How old are you?" Pharaoh asked him.
9 Jacob replied, "I have lived 130 long, hard years, and I am not nearly as old as many of my ancestors."
10 Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again before he left.
11 So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt--the land of Rameses--to his father and brothers, just as Pharaoh had commanded.
12 And Joseph furnished food to them in accordance with the number of their dependents.
13 The famine became worse and worse, so that all the land of Egypt and Canaan was starving.
14 Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for grain, and he brought the money to Pharaoh's treasure-houses.
15 When the people were out of money, they came to Joseph crying again for food. "Our money is gone," they said, "but give us bread; for why should we die?"
16 "Well then," Joseph replied, "give me your livestock. I will trade you food in exchange."
17 So they brought their cattle to Joseph in exchange for food. Soon all the horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys of Egypt were in Pharaoh's possession.
18 The next year they came again and said, "Our money is gone, and our cattle are yours, and there is nothing left but our bodies and land.
19 Why should we die? Buy us and our land and we will be serfs to Pharaoh. We will trade ourselves for food, then we will live, and the land won't be abandoned."
20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; all the Egyptians sold him their fields because the famine was so severe. And the land became Pharaoh's.
21 Thus all the people of Egypt became Pharaoh's serfs.
22 The only land he didn't buy was that belonging to the priests, for they were assigned food from Pharaoh and didn't need to sell.
23 Then Joseph said to the people, "See, I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is grain. Go and sow the land.
24 And when you harvest it, a fifth of everything you get belongs to Pharaoh. Keep four parts for yourselves to be used for next year's seed, and as food for yourselves and for your households and little ones."
25 "You have saved our lives," they said. "We will gladly be the serfs of Pharaoh."
26 So Joseph made it a law throughout the land of Egypt--and it is still the law--that Pharaoh should have as his tax 20 percent of all the crops except those produced on the land owned by the temples.
27 So Israel lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt, and soon the people of Israel began to prosper, and there was a veritable population explosion among them.
28 Jacob lived seventeen years after his arrival, so that he was 147 years old at the time of his death.
29 As the time drew near for him to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, "Swear to me most solemnly that you will honor this, my last request: do not bury me in Egypt.
30 But when I am dead, take me out of Egypt and bury me beside my ancestors." And Joseph promised.
31 "Swear that you will do it," Jacob insisted. And Joseph did. Soon afterwards Jacob took to his bed.
1 One day not long after this, word came to Joseph that his father was failing rapidly. So, taking with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, he went to visit him.
2 When Jacob heard that Joseph had arrived, he gathered his strength and sat up in the bed to greet him,
3 and said to him, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me,
4 and said to me, 'I will make you a great nation and I will give this land of Canaan to you and to your children's children, for an everlasting possession.'
5 And now, as to these two sons of yours, Ephraim and Manasseh, born here in the land of Egypt before I arrived, I am adopting them as my own, and they will inherit from me just as Reuben and Simeon will.
6 But any other children born to you shall be your own, and shall inherit Ephraim's and Manasseh's portion from you.
7 For your mother, Rachel, died after only two children when I came from Paddan-aram, as we were just a short distance from Ephrath, and I buried her beside the road to Bethlehem."
8 Then Israel looked over at the two boys. "Are these the ones?" he asked.
9 "Yes," Joseph told him, "these are my sons whom God has given me here in Egypt." And Israel said, "Bring them over to me and I will bless them."
10 Israel was half blind with age, so that he could hardly see. So Joseph brought the boys close to him and he kissed and embraced them.
11 And Israel said to Joseph, "I never thought that I would see you again, but now God has let me see your children too."
12 Joseph took the boys by the hand, bowed deeply to him, and led the boys to their grandfather's knees--Ephraim at Israel's left hand and Manasseh at his right.
13
14 But Israel crossed his arms as he stretched them out to lay his hands upon the boys' heads, so that his right hand was upon the head of Ephraim, the younger boy, and his left hand was upon the head of Manasseh, the older. He did this purposely.
15 Then he blessed Joseph with this blessing: "May God, the God of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, the God who has shepherded me all my life, wonderfully bless these boys.
16 He is the Angel who has kept me from all harm. May these boys be an honor to my name and to the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and may they become a mighty nation."
17 But Joseph was upset and displeased when he saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head; so he lifted it to place it on Manasseh's head instead.
18 "No, Father," he said. "You've got your right hand on the wrong head! This one over here is the older. Put your right hand on him!"
19 But his father refused. "I know what I'm doing, my son," he said. "Manasseh too shall become a great nation, but his younger brother shall become even greater."
20 So Jacob blessed the boys that day with this blessing: "May the people of Israel bless each other by saying, 'God make you as prosperous as Ephraim and Manasseh.' " (Note that he put Ephraim before Manasseh.)
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, "I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to Canaan, the land of your fathers.
22 And I have given the choice land of Shekem to you instead of to your brothers, as your portion of that land which I took from the Amorites with my sword and with my bow."
1 Then Jacob called together all his sons and said, "Gather around me and I will tell you what is going to happen to you in the days to come.
2 Listen to me, O sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father.
3 "Reuben, you are my oldest son, the child of my vigorous youth. You are the head of the list in rank and in honor.
4 But you are unruly as the wild waves of the sea, and you shall be first no longer. I am demoting you, for you slept with one of my wives and thus dishonored me.
5 "Simeon and Levi are two of a kind. They are men of violence and injustice.
6 O my soul, stay away from them. May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered a man, and maimed oxen just for fun.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce and cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout Israel.
8 "Judah, your brothers shall praise you. You shall destroy your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow before you.
9 Judah is a young lion that has finished eating its prey. He has settled down as a lion--who will dare to rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes, whom all people shall obey.
11 He has chained his steed to the choicest vine and washed his clothes in wine.
12 His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth are whiter than milk.
13 "Zebulun shall dwell on the shores of the sea and shall be a harbor for ships, with his borders extending to Sidon.
14 "Issachar is a strong beast of burden resting among the saddlebags.
15 When he saw how good the countryside was, how pleasant the land, he willingly bent his shoulder to the task and served his masters with vigor.
16 "Dan shall govern his people like any other tribe in Israel.
17 He shall be a serpent in the path that bites the horses' heels, so that the rider falls off.
18 I trust in your salvation, Lord.
19 "A marauding band shall stamp upon Gad, but he shall rob and pursue them!
20 "Asher shall produce rich foods, fit for kings!
21 "Naphtali is a deer let loose, producing lovely fawns.
22 "Joseph is a fruitful tree beside a fountain. His branches shade the wall.
23 He has been severely injured by those who shot at him and persecuted him,
24 but their weapons were shattered by the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.
25 May the God of your fathers, the Almighty, bless you with blessings of heaven above and of the earth beneath--blessings of the breasts and of the womb,
26 blessings of the grain and flowers, blessings reaching to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. These shall be the blessings upon the head of Joseph who was exiled from his brothers.
27 "Benjamin is a wolf that prowls. He devours his enemies in the morning, and in the evening divides the loot."
28 So these are the blessings that Israel, their father, blessed his twelve sons with.
29 Then he told them, "Soon I will die. You must bury me with my fathers in the land of Canaan,
30 in the cave in the field of Mach-pelah, facing Mamre--the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hethite for a burial ground.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife; and there I buried Leah.
32 It is the cave which my grandfather Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth."
33 Then, when Jacob had finished his prophecies to his sons, he lay back in the bed, breathed his last, and died.
1 Joseph threw himself upon his father's body and wept over him and kissed him.
2 Afterwards he commanded his morticians to embalm the body.
3 The embalming process required forty days, with a period of national mourning of seventy days.
4 Then, when at last the mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh's staff and requested them to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf.
5 "Tell His Majesty," he requested them, "that Joseph's father made Joseph swear to take his body back to the land of Canaan, to bury him there. Ask His Majesty to permit me to go and bury my father; assure him that I will return promptly."
6 Pharaoh agreed. "Go and bury your father, as you promised," he said.
7 So Joseph went, and a great number of Pharaoh's counselors and assistants--all the senior officers of the land,
8 as well as all of Joseph's people--his brothers and their families. But they left their little children and flocks and herds in the land of Goshen.
9 So a very great number of chariots, cavalry, and people accompanied Joseph.
10 When they arrived at Atad (meaning "Threshing Place of Brambles"), beyond the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn funeral service, with a seven-day period of lamentation for Joseph's father.
11 The local residents, the Canaanites, renamed the place Abel-mizraim (meaning "Egyptian Mourners") for they said, "It is a place of very deep mourning by these Egyptians."
12 So his sons did as Israel commanded them,
13 and carried his body into the land of Canaan and buried it there in the cave of Mach-pelah--the cave Abraham had bought in the field of Ephron the Hethite, close to Mamre.
14 Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to the funeral of his father.
15 But now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers were frightened. "Now Joseph will pay us back for all the evil we did to him," they said.
16 So they sent him this message: "Before he died, your father instructed us to tell you
17 to forgive us for the great evil we did to you. We servants of the God of your father beg you to forgive us." When Joseph read the message, he broke down and cried.
18 Then his brothers came and fell down before him and said, "We are your slaves."
19 But Joseph told them, "Don't be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you?
20 As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil, for he brought me to this high position I have today so that I could save the lives of many people.
21 No, don't be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families." And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them.
22 So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph was 110 years old when he died.
23 He lived to see the birth of his son Ephraim's children, and the children of Machir, Manasseh's son, who played at his feet.
24 "Soon I will die," Joseph told his brothers, "but God will surely come and get you, and bring you out of this land of Egypt and take you back to the land he promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
25 Then Joseph made his brothers promise with an oath that they would take his body back with them when they returned to Canaan.
26 So Joseph died at the age of 110, and they embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.