Since Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, he said, “I’ll serve you seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rachel.”


Laban replied, “I’d rather give her to you than to another man. Stay with me.”


So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. But they seemed like only a few days to him because his love for her was so great.


Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time of service is up. I want to have marital relations with her.”


So Laban invited all the people of that place and prepared a feast.


In the evening he brought his daughter Leah to Jacob, and Jacob had marital relations with her.


(Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.)


In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?”


“It is not our custom here,” Laban replied, “to give the younger daughter in marriage before the firstborn.


Complete my older daughter’s bridal week. Then we will give you the younger one too, in exchange for seven more years of work.”


Jacob did as Laban said. When Jacob completed Leah’s bridal week, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.


(Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.)


Jacob had marital relations with Rachel as well. He loved Rachel more than Leah, so he worked for Laban for seven more years.


When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to become pregnant while Rachel remained childless.


So Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has looked with pity on my oppressed condition. Surely my husband will love me now.”


She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Because the Lord heard that I was unloved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.


She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi.


She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” That is why she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.


When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children or I’ll die!”


Jacob became furious with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”


She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with her so that she can bear children for me and I can have a family through her.”


So Rachel gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had marital relations with her.


Bilhah became pregnant and gave Jacob a son.


Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer and given me a son.” That is why she named him Dan.


Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, became pregnant again and gave Jacob another son.


Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.


When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.


Soon Leah’s servant Zilpah gave Jacob a son.


Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad.


Then Leah’s servant Zilpah gave Jacob another son.


Leah said, “How happy I am, for women will call me happy!” So she named him Asher.


At the time of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”


But Leah replied, “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” Rachel said, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”


When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep with me because I have paid for your services with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had marital relations with her that night.


God paid attention to Leah; she became pregnant and gave Jacob a son for the fifth time.


Then Leah said, “God has granted me a reward because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife.” So she named him Issachar.


Leah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a son for the sixth time.


Then Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will honor me because I have given him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.


After that she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.


Then God took note of Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant.


She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then she said, “God has taken away my shame.”


She named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord give me yet another son.”


After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can go home to my own country.


Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. Then I’ll depart, because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.”


But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, for I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”


He added, “Just name your wages – I’ll pay whatever you want.”


“You know how I have worked for you,” Jacob replied, “and how well your livestock have fared under my care.


Indeed, you had little before I arrived, but now your possessions have increased many times over. The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?”


So Laban asked, “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” Jacob replied, “but if you agree to this one condition, I will continue to care for your flocks and protect them:


Let me walk among all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and the spotted or speckled goats. These animals will be my wages.


My integrity will testify for me later on. When you come to verify that I’ve taken only the wages we agreed on, if I have in my possession any goat that is not speckled or spotted or any sheep that is not dark-colored, it will be considered stolen.”


“Agreed!” said Laban, “It will be as you say.”


So that day Laban removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care of his sons.


Then he separated them from Jacob by a three-day journey, while Jacob was taking care of the rest of Laban’s flocks.


But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible.


Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink.


When the sheep mated in front of the branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.


Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.


When the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.


But if the animals were weaker, he did not set the branches there. So the weaker animals ended up belonging to Laban and the stronger animals to Jacob.


In this way Jacob became extremely prosperous. He owned large flocks, male and female servants, camels, and donkeys.


Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich at our father’s expense!”


When Jacob saw the look on Laban’s face, he could tell his attitude toward him had changed.


The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you.”


So Jacob sent a message for Rachel and Leah to come to the field where his flocks were.


There he said to them, “I can tell that your father’s attitude toward me has changed, but the God of my father has been with me.


You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could,


but your father has humiliated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm.


If he said, ‘The speckled animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring.


In this way God has snatched away your father’s livestock and given them to me.


“Once during breeding season I saw in a dream that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and spotted.


In the dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ ‘Here I am!’ I replied.


Then he said, ‘Observe that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled, or spotted, for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.


I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the sacred stone and made a vow to me. Now leave this land immediately and return to your native land.’”


Then Rachel and Leah replied to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?


Hasn’t he treated us like foreigners? He not only sold us, but completely wasted the money paid for us!


Surely all the wealth that God snatched away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now do everything God has told you.”


So Jacob immediately put his children and his wives on the camels.


He took away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac.


While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father.


Jacob also deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was leaving.


He left with all he owned. He quickly crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the hill country of Gilead.


Three days later Laban discovered Jacob had left.


So he took his relatives with him and pursued Jacob for seven days. He caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.


But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, “Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.”


Laban overtook Jacob, and when Jacob pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead, Laban and his relatives set up camp there too.


“What have you done?” Laban demanded of Jacob. “You’ve deceived me and carried away my daughters as if they were captives of war!


Why did you run away secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me so I could send you off with a celebration complete with singing, tambourines, and harps?


You didn’t even allow me to kiss my daughters and my grandchildren good-bye. You have acted foolishly!


I have the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’


Now I understand that you have gone away because you longed desperately for your father’s house. Yet why did you steal my gods?”


“I left secretly because I was afraid!” Jacob replied to Laban. “I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force.


Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! In the presence of our relatives identify whatever is yours and take it.” (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)


So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.


(Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle and sat on them.) Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them.


Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord. I cannot stand up in your presence because I am having my period.” So he searched thoroughly, but did not find the idols.


Jacob became angry and argued with Laban. “What did I do wrong?” he demanded of Laban. “What sin of mine prompted you to chase after me in hot pursuit?


When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? Set it here before my relatives and yours, and let them settle the dispute between the two of us!


“I have been with you for the past twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.


Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself. You always made me pay for every missing animal, whether it was taken by day or at night.


I was consumed by scorching heat during the day and by piercing cold at night, and I went without sleep.


This was my lot for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave for you – fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times!


If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night.”


Laban replied to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today or the children to whom they have given birth?


So now, come, let’s make a formal agreement, you and I, and it will be proof that we have made peace.”


So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a memorial pillar.


Then he said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they brought stones and put them in a pile. They ate there by the pile of stones.


Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.


Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement today.” That is why it was called Galeed.


It was also called Mizpah because he said, “May the Lord watch between us when we are out of sight of one another.


If you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one else is with us, realize that God is witness to your actions.”


“Here is this pile of stones and this pillar I have set up between me and you,” Laban said to Jacob.


“This pile of stones and the pillar are reminders that I will not pass beyond this pile to come to harm you and that you will not pass beyond this pile and this pillar to come to harm me.


May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared.


Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat the meal. They ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.


Early in the morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters goodbye and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned home.


So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him.


When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.


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


He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.


I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”


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


Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.


“If Esau attacks one camp,” he thought, “then the other camp will be able to escape.”


Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’


I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.


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


But you said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”


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


two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,


thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.


He entrusted them to his servants, who divided them into herds. He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.”


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


then you must say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’”


He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying, “You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.


You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” Jacob thought, “I will first appease him by sending a gift ahead of me. After that I will meet him. Perhaps he will accept me.”


So the gifts were sent on ahead of him while he spent that night in the camp.


During the night Jacob quickly took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.


He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions.


So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak.


When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.


Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.”


The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.”


“No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”


Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” “Why do you ask my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.


So Jacob named the place Peniel, explaining, “Certainly I have seen God face to face and have survived.”


The sun rose over him as he crossed over Penuel, but he was limping because of his hip.


That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip near the attached sinew.


Jacob looked up and saw that Esau was coming along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.


He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them.


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


But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both wept.


When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob replied, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”


The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down.


Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.


Esau then asked, “What did you intend by sending all these herds to meet me?” Jacob replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.”


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


“No, please take them,” Jacob said. “If I have found favor in your sight, accept my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, it is as if I have seen the face of God.


Please take my present that was brought to you, for God has been generous to me and I have all I need.” When Jacob urged him, he took it.


Then Esau said, “Let’s be on our way! I will go in front of you.”


But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.


Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”


So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” “Why do that?” Jacob replied. “My lord has already been kind enough to me.”


So that same day Esau made his way back to Seir.


But Jacob traveled to Succoth where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called Succoth.


After he left Paddan Aram, Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped near the city.


Then he purchased the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent; he bought it from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.


There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.”


Now Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she bore to Jacob, went to meet the young women of the land.


When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area, saw her, he grabbed her, forced himself on her, and sexually assaulted her.


Then he became very attached to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her.


Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Acquire this young girl as my wife.”


When Jacob heard that Shechem had violated his daughter Dinah, his sons were with the livestock in the field. So Jacob remained silent until they came in.


Then Shechem’s father Hamor went to speak with Jacob about Dinah.


Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the field when they heard the news. They were offended and very angry because Shechem had disgraced Israel by sexually assaulting Jacob’s daughter, a crime that should not be committed.


But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.


Intermarry with us. Let us marry your daughters, and take our daughters as wives for yourselves.


You may live among us, and the land will be open to you. Live in it, travel freely in it, and acquire property in it.”


Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your sight, and whatever you require of me I’ll give.


You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, and I’ll give whatever you ask of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”


Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully when they spoke because Shechem had violated their sister Dinah.


They said to them, “We cannot give our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for it would be a disgrace to us.


We will give you our consent on this one condition: You must become like us by circumcising all your males.


Then we will give you our daughters to marry, and we will take your daughters as wives for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people.


But if you do not agree to our terms by being circumcised, then we will take our sister and depart.”


Their offer pleased Hamor and his son Shechem.


The young man did not delay in doing what they asked because he wanted Jacob’s daughter Dinah badly. (Now he was more important than anyone in his father’s household.)


So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city,


“These men are at peace with us. So let them live in the land and travel freely in it, for the land is wide enough for them. We will take their daughters for wives, and we will give them our daughters to marry.


Only on this one condition will these men consent to live with us and become one people: They demand that every male among us be circumcised just as they are circumcised.


If we do so, won’t their livestock, their property, and all their animals become ours? So let’s consent to their demand, so they will live among us.”


All the men who assembled at the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate was circumcised.


In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and went to the unsuspecting city and slaughtered every male.


They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left.


Jacob’s sons killed them and looted the city because their sister had been violated.


They took their flocks, herds, and donkeys, as well as everything in the city and in the surrounding fields.


They captured as plunder all their wealth, all their little ones, and their wives, including everything in the houses.


Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin on me by making me a foul odor among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”


But Simeon and Levi replied, “Should he treat our sister like a common prostitute?”


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


So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.


Let us go up at once to Bethel. Then I will make an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress and has been with me wherever I went.”


So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem


and they started on their journey. The surrounding cities were afraid of God, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.


Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.


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


(Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named Oak of Weeping.)


God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.


God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.” So God named him Israel.


Then God said to him, “I am the sovereign God. Be fruitful and multiply! A nation – even a company of nations – will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants!


The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants I will also give this land.”


Then God went up from the place where he spoke with him.


So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it.


Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Bethel.


They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, Rachel went into labor – and her labor was hard.


When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.”


With her dying breath, she named him Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin instead.


So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).


Jacob set up a marker over her grave; it is the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day.


Then Israel traveled on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.


While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:


The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, as well as Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.


The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.


The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali.


The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.


So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.


Isaac lived to be 180 years old.


Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors. He died an old man who had lived a full life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.


What follows is the account of Esau (also known as Edom).


Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite,


in addition to Basemath the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.


Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel,


and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.


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


because they had too many possessions to be able to stay together and the land where they had settled was not able to support them because of their livestock.


So Esau (also known as Edom) lived in the hill country of Seir.


This is the account of Esau, the father of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir.


These were the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.


The sons of Eliphaz were: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.


Timna, a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Adah.


These were the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath.


These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon: She bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah to Esau.


These were the chiefs among the descendants of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,


chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah.


These were the sons of Esau’s son Reuel: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah. These were the chiefs descended from Reuel in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath.


These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah. These were the chiefs descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.


These were the sons of Esau (also known as Edom), and these were their chiefs.


These were the sons of Seir the Horite, who were living in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,


Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the chiefs of the Horites, the descendants of Seir in the land of Edom.


The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Lotan’s sister was Timna.


These were the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.


These were the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah (who discovered the hot springs in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of his father Zibeon).


These were the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.


These were the sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.


These were the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.


These were the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.


These were the chiefs of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah,


chief Dishon, chief Ezer, chief Dishan. These were the chiefs of the Horites, according to their chief lists in the land of Seir.


These were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the Israelites:


Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah.


When Bela died, Jobab the son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his place.


When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.


When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab, reigned in his place; the name of his city was Avith.


When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah reigned in his place.


When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth by the River reigned in his place.


When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.


When Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor died, Hadad reigned in his place; the name of his city was Pau. His wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.


These were the names of the chiefs of Esau, according to their families, according to their places, by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth,


chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon,


chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar,


chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they possessed. This was Esau, the father of the Edomites.


But Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, in the land of Canaan.


This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, was taking care of the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.


Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him.


When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly.


Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.


He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:


There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down to it!”


Then his brothers asked him, “Do you really think you will rule over us or have dominion over us?” They hated him even more because of his dream and because of what he said.


Then he had another dream, and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said. “I had another dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”


When he told his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him, saying, “What is this dream that you had? Will I, your mother, and your brothers really come and bow down to you?”


His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what Joseph said.


When his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem,


Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” “I’m ready,” Joseph replied.


So Jacob said to him, “Go now and check on the welfare of your brothers and of the flocks, and bring me word.” So Jacob sent him from the valley of Hebron.


When Joseph reached Shechem, a man found him wandering in the field, so the man asked him, “What are you looking for?”


He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are grazing their flocks.”


The man said, “They left this area, for I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.


Now Joseph’s brothers saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.


They said to one another, “Here comes this master of dreams!


Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!”


When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph from their hands, saying, “Let’s not take his life!”


Reuben continued, “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” (Reuben said this so he could rescue Joseph from them and take him back to his father.)


When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the special tunic that he wore.


Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.)


When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt.


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


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


So when the Midianite merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites then took Joseph to Egypt.


Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it! He tore his clothes,


returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?”


So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a young goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood.


Then they brought the special tunic to their father and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”


He recognized it and exclaimed, “It is my son’s tunic! A wild animal has eaten him! Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”


Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days.


All his sons and daughters stood by him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” So Joseph’s father wept for him.


Now in Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.


At that time Judah left his brothers and stayed with an Adullamite man named Hirah.


There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. Judah acquired her as a wife and had marital relations with her.


She became pregnant and had a son. Judah named him Er.


She became pregnant again and had another son, whom she named Onan.


Then she had yet another son, whom she named Shelah. She gave birth to him in Kezib.


Judah acquired a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar.


But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him.


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


But Onan knew that the child would not be considered his. So whenever he had sexual relations with his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely so as not to give his brother a descendant.


What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him too.


Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.


After some time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah was consoled, he left for Timnah to visit his sheepshearers, along with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.


Tamar was told, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”


So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.)


When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face.


He turned aside to her along the road and said, “Come on! I want to have sex with you.” (He did not realize it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, “What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?”


He replied, “I’ll send you a young goat from the flock.” She asked, “Will you give me a pledge until you send it?”


He said, “What pledge should I give you?” She replied, “Your seal, your cord, and the staff that’s in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had sex with her. She became pregnant by him.


She left immediately, removed her veil, and put on her widow’s clothes.


Then Judah had his friend Hirah the Adullamite take a young goat to get back from the woman the items he had given in pledge, but Hirah could not find her.


He asked the men who were there, “Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim by the road?” But they replied, “There has been no cult prostitute here.”


So he returned to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. Moreover, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.’”


Judah said, “Let her keep the things for herself. Otherwise we will appear to be dishonest. I did indeed send this young goat, but you couldn’t find her.”


After three months Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”


While they were bringing her out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong.” Then she said, “Identify the one to whom the seal, cord, and staff belong.”


Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.” He did not have sexual relations with her again.


When it was time for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.


While she was giving birth, one child put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”


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


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


Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.


The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful and lived in the household of his Egyptian master.


His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful.


So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar appointed Joseph overseer of his household and put him in charge of everything he owned.


From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields.


So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; he gave no thought to anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and good-looking.


Soon after these things, his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Have sex with me.”


But he refused, saying to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought to his household with me here, and everything that he owns he has put into my care.


There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”


Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to have sex with her.


One day he went into the house to do his work when none of the household servants were there in the house.


She grabbed him by his outer garment, saying, “Have sex with me!” But he left his outer garment in her hand and ran outside.


When she saw that he had left his outer garment in her hand and had run outside,


she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought in a Hebrew man to us to humiliate us. He tried to have sex with me, but I screamed loudly.


When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his outer garment beside me and ran outside.”


So she laid his outer garment beside her until his master came home.


This is what she said to him: “That Hebrew slave you brought to us tried to humiliate me,


but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his outer garment and ran outside.”


When his master heard his wife say, “This is the way your slave treated me,” he became furious.


Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison.


But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden.


The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing.


The warden did not concern himself with anything that was in Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.


After these things happened, the cupbearer to the king of Egypt and the royal baker offended their master, the king of Egypt.


Pharaoh was enraged with his two officials, the cupbearer and the baker,


so he imprisoned them in the house of the captain of the guard in the same facility where Joseph was confined.


The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be their attendant, and he served them. They spent some time in custody.


Both of them, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream the same night. Each man’s dream had its own meaning.


When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were looking depressed.


So he asked Pharaoh’s officials, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”


They told him, “We both had dreams, but there is no one to interpret them.” Joseph responded, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me.”


So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph: “In my dream, there was a vine in front of me.


On the vine there were three branches. As it budded, its blossoms opened and its clusters ripened into grapes.


Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes, squeezed them into his cup, and put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”


“This is its meaning,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches represent three days.


In three more days Pharaoh will reinstate you and restore you to your office. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you did before when you were cupbearer.


But remember me when it goes well for you, and show me kindness. Make mention of me to Pharaoh and bring me out of this prison,


for I really was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon.”


When the chief baker saw that the interpretation of the first dream was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also appeared in my dream and there were three baskets of white bread on my head.


In the top basket there were baked goods of every kind for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them from the basket that was on my head.”


Joseph replied, “This is its meaning: The three baskets represent three days.


In three more days Pharaoh will decapitate you and impale you on a pole. Then the birds will eat your flesh from you.”


On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He “lifted up” the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.


He restored the chief cupbearer to his former position so that he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand,


but the chief baker he impaled, just as Joseph had predicted.


But the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph – he forgot him.


At the end of two full years Pharaoh had a dream. As he was standing by the Nile,


seven fine-looking, fat cows were coming up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the reeds.


Then seven bad-looking, thin cows were coming up after them from the Nile, and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river.


The bad-looking, thin cows ate the seven fine-looking, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.


Then he fell asleep again and had a second dream: There were seven heads of grain growing on one stalk, healthy and good.


Then seven heads of grain, thin and burned by the east wind, were sprouting up after them.


The thin heads swallowed up the seven healthy and full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up and realized it was a dream.


In the morning he was troubled, so he called for all the diviner-priests of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.


Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I recall my failures.


Pharaoh was enraged with his servants, and he put me in prison in the house of the captain of the guards – me and the chief baker.


We each had a dream one night; each of us had a dream with its own meaning.


Now a young man, a Hebrew, a servant of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us.


It happened just as he had said to us – Pharaoh restored me to my office, but he impaled the baker.”


Then Pharaoh summoned Joseph. So they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; he shaved himself, changed his clothes, and came before Pharaoh.


Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard about you, that you can interpret dreams.”


Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.”


Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing by the edge of the Nile.


Then seven fat and fine-looking cows were coming up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the reeds.


Then seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows as these in all the land of Egypt!


The lean, bad-looking cows ate up the seven fat cows.


When they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.


I also saw in my dream seven heads of grain growing on one stalk, full and good.


Then seven heads of grain, withered and thin and burned with the east wind, were sprouting up after them.


The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads of grain. So I told all this to the diviner-priests, but no one could tell me its meaning.”


Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Both dreams of Pharaoh have the same meaning. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.


The seven good cows represent seven years, and the seven good heads of grain represent seven years. Both dreams have the same meaning.


The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent seven years of famine.


This is just what I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.


Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the whole land of Egypt.


But seven years of famine will occur after them, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will devastate the land.


The previous abundance of the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows, for the famine will be very severe.


The dream was repeated to Pharaoh because the matter has been decreed by God, and God will make it happen soon.


“So now Pharaoh should look for a wise and discerning man and give him authority over all the land of Egypt.


Pharaoh should do this – he should appoint officials throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.


They should gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming. By Pharaoh’s authority they should store up grain so the cities will have food, and they should preserve it.


This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt. In this way the land will survive the famine.”


This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials.


So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, one in whom the Spirit of God is present?”


So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning as you are!


You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands. Only I, the king, will be greater than you.


“See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I place you in authority over all the land of Egypt.”


Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He clothed him with fine linen clothes and put a gold chain around his neck.


Pharaoh had him ride in the chariot used by his second-in-command, and they cried out before him, “Kneel down!” So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.


Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your permission no one will move his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.”


Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. He also gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of all the land of Egypt.


Now Joseph was 30 years old when he began serving Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph was commissioned by Pharaoh and was in charge of all the land of Egypt.


During the seven years of abundance the land produced large, bountiful harvests.


Joseph collected all the excess food in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities. In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it.


Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.


Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother.


Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “Certainly God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s house.”


He named the second child Ephraim, saying, “Certainly God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”


The seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end.


Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.


When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”


While the famine was over all the earth, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt.


People from every country came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.


When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?”


He then said, “Look, I hear that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us so that we may live and not die.”


So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.


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


So Israel’s sons came to buy grain among the other travelers, for the famine was severe in the land of Canaan.


Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.


When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.”


Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.


Then Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see if our land is vulnerable!”


But they exclaimed, “No, my lord! Your servants have come to buy grain for food!


We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”


“No,” he insisted, “but you have come to see if our land is vulnerable.”


They replied, “Your servants are from a family of twelve brothers. We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father at this time, and one is no longer alive.”


But Joseph told them, “It is just as I said to you: You are spies!


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


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


He imprisoned them all for three days.


On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do as I say and you will live, for I fear God.


If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison while the rest of you go and take grain back for your hungry families.


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


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


Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!”


(Now they did not know that Joseph could understand them, for he was speaking through an interpreter.)


He turned away from them and wept. When he turned around and spoke to them again, he had Simeon taken from them and tied up before their eyes.


Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to return each man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. His orders were carried out.


So they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.


When one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey at their resting place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack.


He said to his brothers, “My money was returned! Here it is in my sack!” They were dismayed; they turned trembling one to another and said, “What in the world has God done to us?”


They returned to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan and told him all the things that had happened to them, saying,


“The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and treated us as if we were spying on the land.


But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies!


We are from a family of twelve brothers; we are the sons of one father. One is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father at this time in the land of Canaan.’


“Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for your hungry households and go.


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


When they were emptying their sacks, there was each man’s bag of money in his sack! When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were afraid.


Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. Simeon is gone. And now you want to take Benjamin! Everything is against me.”


Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care and I will bring him back to you.”


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


Now the famine was severe in the land.


When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Return, buy us a little more food.”


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


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


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


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


They replied, “The man questioned us thoroughly about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ So we answered him in this way. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?”


Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. Then we will live and not die – we and you and our little ones.


I myself pledge security for him; you may hold me liable. If I do not bring him back to you and place him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.


But if we had not delayed, we could have traveled there and back twice by now!”


Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and take a gift down to the man – a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.


Take double the money with you; you must take back the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks – perhaps it was an oversight.


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


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


So the men took these gifts, and they took double the money with them, along with Benjamin. Then they hurried down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.


When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, “Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon.”


The man did just as Joseph said; he brought the men into Joseph’s house.


But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks last time. He wants to capture us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys!”


So they approached the man who was in charge of Joseph’s household and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.


They said, “My lord, we did indeed come down the first time to buy food.


But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money – the full amount – in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it.


We have brought additional money with us to buy food. We do not know who put the money in our sacks!”


“Everything is fine,” the man in charge of Joseph’s household told them. “Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.


The servant in charge brought the men into Joseph’s house. He gave them water, and they washed their feet. Then he gave food to their donkeys.


They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to have a meal there.


When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, and they bowed down to the ground before him.


He asked them how they were doing. Then he said, “Is your aging father well, the one you spoke about? Is he still alive?”


“Your servant our father is well,” they replied. “He is still alive.” They bowed down in humility.


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


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


Then he washed his face and came out. With composure he said, “Set out the food.”


They set a place for him, a separate place for his brothers, and another for the Egyptians who were eating with him. (The Egyptians are not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting to do so.)


They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. The men looked at each other in astonishment.


He gave them portions of the food set before him, but the portion for Benjamin was five times greater than the portions for any of the others. They drank with Joseph until they all became drunk.


He instructed the servant who was over his household, “Fill the sacks of the men with as much food as they can carry and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.


Then put my cup – the silver cup – in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the money for his grain.” He did as Joseph instructed.


When morning came, the men and their donkeys were sent off.


They had not gone very far from the city when Joseph said to the servant who was over his household, “Pursue the men at once! When you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil?


Doesn’t my master drink from this cup and use it for divination? You have done wrong!’”


When the man overtook them, he spoke these words to them.


They answered him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!


Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?


If one of us has it, he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves!”


He replied, “You have suggested your own punishment! The one who has it will become my slave, but the rest of you will go free.”


So each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it.


Then the man searched. He began with the oldest and finished with the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack!


They all tore their clothes! Then each man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.


So Judah and his brothers came back to Joseph’s house. He was still there, and they threw themselves to the ground before him.


Joseph said to them, “What did you think you were doing? Don’t you know that a man like me can find out things like this by divination?”


Judah replied, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? God has exposed the sin of your servants! We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”


But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do this! The man in whose hand the cup was found will become my slave, but the rest of you may go back to your father in peace.”


Then Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please allow your servant to speak a word with you. Please do not get angry with your servant, for you are just like Pharaoh.


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


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


“Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him.’


We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves his father, his father will die.’


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


When we returned to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.


“Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’


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


“Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife gave me two sons.


The first disappeared and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” I have not seen him since.


If you take this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair in tragedy to the grave.’


“So now, when I return to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us – his very life is bound up in his son’s life.


When he sees the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.


Indeed, your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’


“So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers.


For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see my father’s pain.”


Joseph was no longer able to control himself before all his attendants, so he cried out, “Make everyone go out from my presence!” No one remained with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.


He wept loudly; the Egyptians heard it and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.


Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” His brothers could not answer him because they were dumbfounded before him.


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


Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life!


For these past two years there has been famine in the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.


God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.


So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.


Now go up to my father quickly and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not delay!


You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me – you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and everything you have.


I will provide you with food there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’


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


So tell my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!”


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


He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After this his brothers talked with him.


Now it was reported in the household of Pharaoh, “Joseph’s brothers have arrived.” It pleased Pharaoh and his servants.


Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and go to the land of Canaan!


Get your father and your households and come to me! Then I will give you the best land in Egypt and you will eat the best of the land.’


You are also commanded to say, ‘Do this: Take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives. Bring your father and come.


Don’t worry about your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt will be yours.’”


So the sons of Israel did as he said. Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had instructed, and he gave them provisions for the journey.


He gave sets of clothes to each one of them, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothes.


To his father he sent the following: ten donkeys loaded with the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, food, and provisions for his father’s journey.


Then he sent his brothers on their way and they left. He said to them, “As you travel don’t be overcome with fear.”


So they went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.


They told him, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.


But when they related to him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, their father Jacob’s spirit revived.


Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive! I will go and see him before I die.”


So Israel began his journey, taking with him all that he had. When he came to Beer Sheba he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.


God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am!”


He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.


I will go down with you to Egypt and I myself will certainly bring you back from there. Joseph will close your eyes.”


Then Jacob started out from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him.


Jacob and all his descendants took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they went to Egypt.


He brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters – all his descendants.


These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt – Jacob and his sons: Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob.


The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.


The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul (the son of a Canaanite woman).


The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.


The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.


The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.


The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.


These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, along with Dinah his daughter. His sons and daughters numbered thirty-three in all.


The sons of Gad: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.


The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister. The sons of Beriah were Heber and Malkiel.


These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen in all.


The sons of Rachel the wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin.


Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore them to him.


The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.


These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob, fourteen in all.


The son of Dan: Hushim.


The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.


These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.


All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.)


Counting the two sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt, all the people of the household of Jacob who were in Egypt numbered seventy.


Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph to accompany him to Goshen. So they came to the land of Goshen.


Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he met him, he hugged his neck and wept on his neck for quite some time.


Israel said to Joseph, “Now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.”


Then Joseph said to his brothers and his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me.


The men are shepherds; they take care of livestock. They have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’


Pharaoh will summon you and say, ‘What is your occupation?’


Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting to the Egyptians.”


Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father, my brothers, their flocks and herds, and all that they own have arrived from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.”


He took five of his brothers and introduced them to Pharaoh.


Pharaoh said to Joseph’s brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants take care of flocks, just as our ancestors did.”


Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live as temporary residents in the land. There is no pasture for your servants’ flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”


Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.


The land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best region of the land. They may live in the land of Goshen. If you know of any highly capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.”


Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.


Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How long have you lived?”


Jacob said to Pharaoh, “All the years of my travels are 130. All the years of my life have been few and painful; the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors.”


Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence.


So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them territory in the land of Egypt, in the best region of the land, the land of Rameses, just as Pharaoh had commanded.


Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.


But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away because of the famine.


Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment for the grain they were buying. Then Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace.


When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Why should we die before your very eyes because our money has run out?”


Then Joseph said, “If your money is gone, bring your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock.”


So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses, the livestock of their flocks and herds, and their donkeys. He got them through that year by giving them food in exchange for livestock.


When that year was over, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our lord that the money is used up and the livestock and the animals belong to our lord. Nothing remains before our lord except our bodies and our land.


Why should we die before your very eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become Pharaoh’s slaves. Give us seed that we may live and not die. Then the land will not become desolate.”


So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Each of the Egyptians sold his field, for the famine was severe. So the land became Pharaoh’s.


Joseph made all the people slaves from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.


But he did not purchase the land of the priests because the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh and they ate from their allotment that Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.


Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate the land.


When you gather in the crop, give one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and the rest will be yours for seed for the fields and for you to eat, including those in your households and your little children.”


They replied, “You have saved our lives! You are showing us favor, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”


So Joseph made it a statute, which is in effect to this day throughout the land of Egypt: One-fifth belongs to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s.


Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they owned land there. They were fruitful and increased rapidly in number.


Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; the years of Jacob’s life were 147 in all.


The time for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,


but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph said, “I will do as you say.”


Jacob said, “Swear to me that you will do so.” So Joseph gave him his word. Then Israel bowed down at the head of his bed.


After these things Joseph was told, “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.


When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has just come to you,” Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed.


Jacob said to Joseph, “The sovereign God appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.


He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and will multiply you. I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants as an everlasting possession.’


“Now, as for your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they will be mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are.


Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance.


But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).


When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he asked, “Who are these?”


Joseph said to his father, “They are the sons God has given me in this place.” His father said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.”


Now Israel’s eyes were failing because of his age; he was not able to see well. So Joseph brought his sons near to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.


Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see you again, but now God has allowed me to see your children too.”


So Joseph moved them from Israel’s knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.


Joseph positioned them; he put Ephraim on his right hand across from Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh on his left hand across from Israel’s right hand. Then Joseph brought them closer to his father.


Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the younger. Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.


Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked – the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,


the Angel who has protected me from all harm – bless these boys. May my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”


When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. So he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.


Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”


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


So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you will Israel bless, saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’” So he put Ephraim before Manasseh.


Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.


As one who is above your brothers, I give to you the mountain slope, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.”


Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you what will happen to you in the future.


“Assemble and listen, you sons of Jacob; listen to Israel, your father.


Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.


You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father’s bed, then you defiled it – he got on my couch!


Simeon and Levi are brothers, weapons of violence are their knives!


O my soul, do not come into their council, do not be united to their assembly, my heart, for in their anger they have killed men, and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.


Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their fury, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel!


Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down before you.


You are a lion’s cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness – who will rouse him?


The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.


Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.


His eyes will be dark from wine, and his teeth white from milk.


Zebulun will live by the haven of the sea and become a haven for ships; his border will extend to Sidon.


Issachar is a strong-boned donkey lying down between two saddlebags.


When he sees a good resting place, and the pleasant land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and become a slave laborer.


Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.


May Dan be a snake beside the road, a viper by the path, that bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward.


I wait for your deliverance, O Lord.


Gad will be raided by marauding bands, but he will attack them at their heels.


Asher’s food will be rich, and he will provide delicacies to royalty.


Naphtali is a free running doe, he speaks delightful words.


Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough near a spring whose branches climb over the wall.


The archers will attack him, they will shoot at him and oppose him.


But his bow will remain steady, and his hands will be skillful; because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,


because of the God of your father, who will help you, because of the sovereign God, who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb.


The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the eternal mountains or the desirable things of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of the prince of his brothers.


Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning devouring the prey, and in the evening dividing the plunder.”


These are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing.


Then he instructed them, “I am about to go to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.


It is the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought for a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.


There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah; there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah; and there I buried Leah.


The field and the cave in it were acquired from the sons of Heth.”


When Jacob finished giving these instructions to his sons, he pulled his feet up onto the bed, breathed his last breath, and went to his people.


Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. He wept over him and kissed him.


Joseph instructed the physicians in his service to embalm his father, so the physicians embalmed Israel.


They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.


When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh,


‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, “I am about to die. Bury me in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’”


So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father, just as he made you swear to do.”


So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh’s officials went with him – the senior courtiers of his household, all the senior officials of the land of Egypt,


all Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household. But they left their little children and their flocks and herds in the land of Goshen.


Chariots and horsemen also went up with him, so it was a very large entourage.


When they came to the threshing floor of Atad on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.


When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.


So the sons of Jacob did for him just as he had instructed them.


His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the field Abraham purchased as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.


After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, along with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to bury his father.


When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay us in full for all the harm we did to him?”


So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave these instructions before he died:


‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept.


Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, “Here we are; we are your slaves.”


But Joseph answered them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?


As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.


So now, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your little children.” Then he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.


Joseph lived in Egypt, along with his father’s family. Joseph lived 110 years.


Joseph saw the descendants of Ephraim to the third generation. He also saw the children of Makir the son of Manasseh; they were given special inheritance rights by Joseph.


Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to you and lead you up from this land to the land he swore on oath to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”


Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, “God will surely come to you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place.”


So Joseph died at the age of 110. After they embalmed him, his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.


These are the names of the sons of Israel who entered Egypt – each man with his household entered with Jacob:


Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,


Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,


Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.


All the people who were directly descended from Jacob numbered seventy. But Joseph was already in Egypt,


and in time Joseph and his brothers and all that generation died.


The Israelites, however, were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them.


Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power over Egypt.


He said to his people, “Look at the Israelite people, more numerous and stronger than we are!


Come, let’s deal wisely with them. Otherwise they will continue to multiply, and if a war breaks out, they will ally themselves with our enemies and fight against us and leave the country.”


So they put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor. As a result they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.


But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread. As a result the Egyptians loathed the Israelites,


and they made the Israelites serve rigorously.


They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.


The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,


“When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, observe at the delivery: If it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she may live.”


But the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.


Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”


The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women – for the Hebrew women are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!”


So God treated the midwives well, and the people multiplied and became very strong.


And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them.


Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live.”


A man from the household of Levi married a woman who was a descendant of Levi.


The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a healthy child, she hid him for three months.


But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile.


His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him.


Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it,


opened it, and saw the child – a boy, crying! – and she felt compassion for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”


Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get a nursing woman for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse the child for you?”


Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes, do so.” So the young girl went and got the child’s mother.


Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.


When the child grew older she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “Because I drew him from the water.”


In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and observed their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking a Hebrew man, one of his own people.


He looked this way and that and saw that no one was there, and then he attacked the Egyptian and concealed the body in the sand.


When he went out the next day, there were two Hebrew men fighting. So he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your fellow Hebrew?”


The man replied, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Surely what I did has become known.”


When Pharaoh heard about this event, he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he settled by a certain well.


Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw water and fill the troughs in order to water their father’s flock.


When some shepherds came and drove them away, Moses came up and defended them and then watered their flock.


So when they came home to their father Reuel, he asked, “Why have you come home so early today?”


They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the shepherds, and he actually drew water for us and watered the flock!”


He said to his daughters, “So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us.”


Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.


When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land.”


During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.


God heard their groaning, God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob,


God saw the Israelites, and God understood....


Now Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.


The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from within a bush. He looked – and the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed!


So Moses thought, “I will turn aside to see this amazing sight. Why does the bush not burn up?”


When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him from within the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”


God said, “Do not approach any closer! Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”


He added, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.


The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.


I have come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a land that is both good and spacious, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the region of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.


And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them.


So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”


Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”


He replied, “Surely I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and they will serve God on this mountain.”


Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ – what should I say to them?”


God said to Moses, “I am that I am.” And he said, “You must say this to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”