| Genesis 2:4* |
When the LORD God made earth and heaven— |
| Genesis 2:5 |
when no shrub of the field was yet on earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted, because the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, |
| Genesis 2:6 |
but a flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth— |
| Genesis 2:7 |
the LORD God formed man He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. |
| Genesis 2:8 |
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had formed. |
| Genesis 2:9 |
And from the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad. |
| Genesis 2:10 |
A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches. |
| Genesis 2:11 |
The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. |
| Genesis 2:12 |
(The gold of that land is good; bdellium is there, and lapis lazuli.) |
| Genesis 2:13 |
The name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through the whole land of Cush. |
| Genesis 2:14 |
The name of the third river is Tigris, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. |
| Genesis 2:15 |
The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it. |
| Genesis 2:16 |
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; |
| Genesis 2:17 |
but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.” |
| Genesis 2:18 |
The LORD God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.” |
| Genesis 2:19 |
And the LORD God formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that would be its name. |
| Genesis 2:20 |
And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found. |
| Genesis 2:21 |
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. |
| Genesis 2:22 |
And the LORD God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man. |
| Genesis 2:23 |
Then the man said,/“This one at last/Is bone of my bones/And flesh of my flesh./This one shall be called Woman, was she taken.” |
| Genesis 2:24 |
Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, so that they become one flesh. |
| Genesis 2:25 |
The two of them were naked, the man and /his wife, yet they felt no shame. |
| Genesis 3:1 |
Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?” |
| Genesis 3:2 |
The woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. |
| Genesis 3:3 |
It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said: ‘You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.’” |
| Genesis 3:4 |
And the serpent said to the woman, “You are not going to die, |
| Genesis 3:5 |
but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings who know good and bad.” |
| Genesis 3:6 |
When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. |
| Genesis 3:7 |
Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths. |
| Genesis 3:8 |
They heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the man and his wife hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. |
| Genesis 3:9 |
The LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” |
| Genesis 3:10 |
He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” |
| Genesis 3:11 |
Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?” |
| Genesis 3:12 |
The man said, “The woman You put at my side—she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” |
| Genesis 3:13 |
And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done!” The woman replied, “The serpent duped me, and I ate.” |
| Genesis 3:14 |
Then the LORD God said to the serpent,/“Because you did this,/More cursed shall you be/Than all cattle/And all the wild beasts:/On your belly shall you crawl/And dirt shall you eat/All the days of your life. |
| Genesis 3:15 |
I will put enmity/Between you and the woman,/And between your offspring and hers;/They shall strike at your head,/And you shall strike at their heel.” |
| Genesis 3:16 |
And to the woman He said,/“I will make most severe/Your pangs in childbearing;/In pain shall you bear children./Yet your urge shall be for your husband,/And he shall rule over you.” |
| Genesis 3:17 |
To Adam He said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’/Cursed be the ground because of you;/By toil shall you eat of it/All the days of your life: |
| Genesis 3:18 |
Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you./But your food shall be the grasses of the field; |
| Genesis 3:19 |
By the sweat of your brow/Shall you get bread to eat,/Until you return to the ground—/For from it you were taken./For dust you are,/And to dust you shall return.” |
| Genesis 3:20 |
The man named his wife Eve, |
| Genesis 3:21 |
And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. |
| Genesis 3:22 |
And the LORD God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!” |
| Genesis 3:23 |
So the LORD God banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. |
| Genesis 3:24 |
He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life. |
| Genesis 4:1 |
Now the man knew a male child with the help of the LORD.” |
| Genesis 4:2 |
She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil. |
| Genesis 4:3 |
In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil; |
| Genesis 4:4 |
and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The LORD paid heed to Abel and his offering, |
| Genesis 4:5 |
but to Cain and his offering He paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell. |
| Genesis 4:6 |
And the LORD said to Cain,/“Why are you distressed,/And why is your face fallen? |
| Genesis 4:7 |
Surely, if you do right,/There is uplift./But if you do not do right/Sin couches at the door;/Its urge is toward you,/Yet you can be its master.” |
| Genesis 4:8 |
Cain said to his brother Abel … and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him. |
| Genesis 4:9 |
The LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” |
| Genesis 4:10 |
Then He said, “What have you done? Hark, your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! |
| Genesis 4:11 |
Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. |
| Genesis 4:12 |
If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth.” |
| Genesis 4:13 |
Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear! |
| Genesis 4:14 |
Since You have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid Your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth—anyone who meets me may kill me!” |
| Genesis 4:15 |
The LORD said to him, “I promise, if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be taken on him.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who met him should kill him. |
| Genesis 4:16 |
Cain left the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. |
| Genesis 4:17 |
Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded a city, and named the city after his son Enoch. |
| Genesis 4:18 |
To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech. |
| Genesis 4:19 |
Lamech took to himself two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah. |
| Genesis 4:20 |
Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who dwell in tents and amidst herds. |
| Genesis 4:21 |
And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the ancestor of all who play the lyre and the pipe. |
| Genesis 4:22 |
As for Zillah, she bore Tubal-cain, who forged all implements of copper and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. |
| Genesis 4:23 |
And Lamech said to his wives,/“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;/O wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech./I have slain a man for wounding me,/And a lad for bruising me. |
| Genesis 4:24 |
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,/Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” |
| Genesis 4:25 |
Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, meaning, “God has provided me with another offspring in place of Abel,” for Cain had killed him. |
| Genesis 4:26 |
And to Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. It was then that men began to invoke the LORD by name. |
| Genesis 6:1 |
When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them, |
| Genesis 6:2 |
the divine beings saw how beautiful the daughters of men were and took wives from among those that pleased them.— |
| Genesis 6:3 |
The LORD said, “My breath shall not abide in man forever, since he too is flesh; let the days allowed him be one hundred and twenty years.”— |
| Genesis 6:4 |
It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth—when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown. |
| Genesis 6:5 |
The LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. |
| Genesis 6:6 |
And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened. |
| Genesis 6:7 |
The LORD said, “I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created—men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.” |
| Genesis 6:8 |
But Noah found favor with the LORD. |
| Genesis 6:9* |
Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age. |
| Genesis 7:1 |
Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, with all your household, for you alone have I found righteous before Me in this generation. |
| Genesis 7:2 |
Of every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, males and their mates, and of every animal that is not clean, two, a male and its mate; |
| Genesis 7:3 |
of the birds of the sky also, seven pairs, male and female, to keep seed alive upon all the earth. |
| Genesis 7:4 |
For in seven days’ time I will make it rain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out from the earth all existence that I created.” |
| Genesis 7:5 |
And Noah did just as the LORD commanded him. |
| Genesis 7:8 |
Of the clean animals, of the animals that are not clean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, |
| Genesis 7:9 |
two of each, male and female, came to Noah into the ark, as God had commanded Noah. |
| Genesis 7:10 |
And on the seventh day the waters of the Flood came upon the earth. |
| Genesis 7:12 |
(The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.) |
| Genesis 7:23 |
All existence on earth was blotted out—man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. |
| Genesis 8:8 |
Then he sent out the dove to see whether the waters had decreased from the surface of the ground. |
| Genesis 8:9 |
But the dove could not find a resting place for its foot, and returned to him to the ark, for there was water over all the earth. So putting out his hand, he took it into the ark with him. |
| Genesis 8:10 |
He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove from the ark. |
| Genesis 8:11 |
The dove came back to him toward evening, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth. |
| Genesis 8:12 |
He waited still another seven days and sent the dove forth; and it did not return to him any more. |
| Genesis 8:20 |
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. |
| Genesis 8:21 |
The LORD smelled the pleasing odor, and the LORD said to Himself: “Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done. |
| Genesis 8:22 |
So long as the earth endures,/Seedtime and harvest,/Cold and heat,/Summer and winter,/Day and night/Shall not cease.” |
| Genesis 9:18 |
The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth—Ham being the father of Canaan. |
| Genesis 9:19 |
These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole world branched out. |
| Genesis 9:20 |
Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. |
| Genesis 9:21 |
He drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself within his tent. |
| Genesis 9:22 |
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. |
| Genesis 9:23 |
But Shem and Japheth took a cloth, placed it against both their backs and, walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness; their faces were turned the other way, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. |
| Genesis 9:24 |
When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, |
| Genesis 9:25 |
he said,/“Cursed be Canaan;/The lowest of slaves/Shall he be to his brothers.” |
| Genesis 9:26 |
And he said,/“Blessed be the LORD,/The God of Shem;/Let Canaan be a slave to them. |
| Genesis 9:27 |
May God enlarge Japheth,/And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;/And let Canaan be a slave to them.” |
| Genesis 10:1* |
sons were born to them after the Flood. |
| Genesis 10:8 |
Cush also begot Nimrod, who was the first man of might on earth. |
| Genesis 10:9 |
He was a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD; hence the saying, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter by the grace of the LORD.” |
| Genesis 10:10 |
The mainstays of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. |
| Genesis 10:11 |
From that land Asshur went forth and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, |
| Genesis 10:12 |
and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that is the great city. |
| Genesis 10:13 |
And Mizraim begot the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim, |
| Genesis 10:14 |
the Pathrusim, the Casluhim, and the Caphtorim, whence the Philistines came forth. |
| Genesis 10:15 |
Canaan begot Sidon, his first-born, and Heth; |
| Genesis 10:16 |
and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, |
| Genesis 10:17 |
the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, |
| Genesis 10:18 |
the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites spread out. |
| Genesis 10:19 |
(The [original] Canaanite territory extended from Sidon as far as Gerar, near Gaza, and as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.) |
| Genesis 10:21 |
Sons were also born to Shem, ancestor of all the descendants of Eber and older brother of Japheth. |
| Genesis 10:24 |
Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber. |
| Genesis 10:25 |
Two sons were born to Eber: the name of the first was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and the name of his brother was Joktan. |
| Genesis 10:26 |
Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, |
| Genesis 10:27 |
Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, |
| Genesis 10:28 |
Obal, Abimael, Sheba, |
| Genesis 10:29 |
Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the descendants of Joktan. |
| Genesis 10:30 |
Their settlements extended from Mesha as far as Sephar, the hill country to the east. |
| Genesis 11:1 |
Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. |
| Genesis 11:2 |
And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. |
| Genesis 11:3 |
They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— |
| Genesis 11:4 |
And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.” |
| Genesis 11:5 |
The LORD came down to look at the city and tower that man had built, |
| Genesis 11:6 |
and the LORD said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. |
| Genesis 11:7 |
Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.” |
| Genesis 11:8 |
Thus the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. |
| Genesis 11:9 |
That is why it was called Babel, the speech of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. |
| Genesis 11:29 |
Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the name of Abram’s wife being Sarai and that of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. |
| Genesis 11:30 |
Now Sarai was barren, she had no child. |
| Genesis 12:1 |
The LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. |
| Genesis 12:2 |
I will make of you a great nation,/And I will bless you;/I will make your name great,/And you shall be a blessing. |
| Genesis 12:3 |
I will bless those who bless you/And curse him that curses you;/And all the families of the earth/Shall bless themselves by you.” |
| Genesis 12:4* |
Abram went forth as the LORD had commanded him, and Lot went with him. |
| Genesis 12:6 |
Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, at the terebinth of Moreh. The Canaanites were then in the land. |
| Genesis 12:7 |
The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will assign this land to your offspring.” And he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. |
| Genesis 12:8 |
From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and he built there an altar to the LORD and invoked the LORD by name. |
| Genesis 12:9 |
Then Abram journeyed by stages toward the Negeb. |
| Genesis 12:10 |
There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. |
| Genesis 12:11 |
As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. |
| Genesis 12:12 |
If the Egyptians see you, and think, ‘She is his wife,’ they will kill me and let you live. |
| Genesis 12:13 |
Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may remain alive thanks to you.” |
| Genesis 12:14 |
When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw how very beautiful the woman was. |
| Genesis 12:15 |
Pharaoh’s courtiers saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s palace. |
| Genesis 12:16 |
And because of her, it went well with Abram; he acquired sheep, oxen, asses, male and female slaves, she-asses, and camels. |
| Genesis 12:17 |
But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his household with mighty plagues on account of Sarai, the wife of Abram. |
| Genesis 12:18 |
Pharaoh sent for Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me! Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? |
| Genesis 12:19 |
Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife; take her and begone!” |
| Genesis 12:20 |
And Pharaoh put men in charge of him, and they sent him off with his wife and all that he possessed. |
| Genesis 13:1 |
From Egypt, Abram went up into the Negeb, with his wife and all that he possessed, together with Lot. |
| Genesis 13:2 |
Now Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold. |
| Genesis 13:3 |
And he proceeded by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been formerly, between Bethel and Ai, |
| Genesis 13:4 |
the site of the altar that he had built there at first; and there Abram invoked the LORD by name. |
| Genesis 13:5 |
Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, |
| Genesis 13:7 |
And there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle.—The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land.— |
| Genesis 13:8 |
Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, between my herdsmen and yours, for we are kinsmen. |
| Genesis 13:9 |
Is not the whole land before you? Let us separate: if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.” |
| Genesis 13:10 |
Lot looked about him and saw how well watered was the whole plain of the Jordan, all of it—this was before the LORD had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—all the way to Zoar, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. |
| Genesis 13:11 |
So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they parted from each other; |
| Genesis 13:12* |
pitching his tents near Sodom. |
| Genesis 13:13 |
Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked sinners against the LORD. |
| Genesis 13:14 |
And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, “Raise your eyes and look out from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west, |
| Genesis 13:15 |
for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever. |
| Genesis 13:16 |
I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring too can be counted. |
| Genesis 13:17 |
Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I give it to you.” |
| Genesis 13:18 |
And Abram moved his tent, and came to dwell at the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron; and he built an altar there to the LORD. |
| Genesis 14:1 |
Now, when King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim |
| Genesis 14:2 |
made war on King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar, |
| Genesis 14:3 |
all the latter joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, now the Dead Sea. |
| Genesis 14:4 |
Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. |
| Genesis 14:5 |
In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim at Shaveh-kiriathaim, |
| Genesis 14:6 |
and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran, which is by the wilderness. |
| Genesis 14:7 |
On their way back they came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and subdued all the territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar. |
| Genesis 14:8 |
Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar, went forth and engaged them in battle in the Valley of Siddim: |
| Genesis 14:9 |
King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against those five. |
| Genesis 14:10 |
Now the Valley of Siddim was dotted with bitumen pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, in their flight, threw themselves into them, while the rest escaped to the hill country. |
| Genesis 14:11 |
[The invaders] seized all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions, and went their way. |
| Genesis 14:12 |
They also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions, and departed; for he had settled in Sodom. |
| Genesis 14:13 |
A fugitive brought the news to Abram the Hebrew, who was dwelling at the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, kinsman of Eshkol and Aner, these being Abram’s allies. |
| Genesis 14:14 |
When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers, born into his household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. |
| Genesis 14:15 |
At night, he and his servants deployed against them and defeated them; and he pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. |
| Genesis 14:16 |
He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, and the women and the rest of the people. |
| Genesis 14:17 |
When he returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, which is the Valley of the King. |
| Genesis 14:18 |
And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. |
| Genesis 14:19 |
He blessed him, saying,/“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,/Creator of heaven and earth. |
| Genesis 14:20 |
And blessed be God Most High,/Who has delivered your foes into your hand.”/And [Abram] gave him a tenth of everything. |
| Genesis 14:21 |
Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the possessions for yourself.” |
| Genesis 14:22 |
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I swear to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth: |
| Genesis 14:23 |
I will not take so much as a thread or a sandal strap of what is yours; you shall not say, ‘It is I who made Abram rich.’ |
| Genesis 14:24 |
For me, nothing but what my servants have used up; as for the share of the men who went with me—Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre—let them take their share.” |
| Genesis 16:2 |
And Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the LORD has kept me from bearing. Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a son through her.” And Abram heeded Sarai’s request. |
| Genesis 16:4 |
He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem. |
| Genesis 16:5 |
And Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. The LORD decide between you and me!” |
| Genesis 16:6 |
Abram said to Sarai, “Your maid is in your hands. Deal with her as you think right.” Then Sarai treated her harshly, and she ran away from her. |
| Genesis 16:7 |
An angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, |
| Genesis 16:8 |
and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” And she said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.” |
| Genesis 16:9 |
And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh treatment.” |
| Genesis 16:10 |
And the angel of the LORD said to her,/“I will greatly increase your offspring,/And they shall be too many to count.” |
| Genesis 16:11 |
The angel of the LORD said to her further,/“Behold, you are with child/And shall bear a son;/You shall call him Ishmael,/For the LORD has paid heed to your suffering. |
| Genesis 16:12 |
He shall be a wild ass of a man;/His hand against everyone,/And everyone’s hand against him;/He shall dwell alongside of all his kinsmen.” |
| Genesis 16:13 |
And she called the LORD who spoke to her, “You Are El-roi,”“Have I not gone on seeing after He saw me!” |
| Genesis 16:14 |
Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.— |
| Genesis 18:1 |
The LORD appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot. |
| Genesis 18:2 |
Looking up, he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, |
| Genesis 18:3 |
he said, “My lords, if it please you, do not go on past your servant. |
| Genesis 18:4 |
Let a little water be brought; bathe your feet and recline under the tree. |
| Genesis 18:5 |
And let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves; then go on—seeing that you have come your servant’s way.” They replied, “Do as you have said.” |
| Genesis 18:6 |
Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quick, three <i>seah</i>s of choice flour! Knead and make cakes!” |
| Genesis 18:7 |
Then Abraham ran to the herd, took a calf, tender and choice, and gave it to a servant-boy, who hastened to prepare it. |
| Genesis 18:8 |
He took curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree as they ate. |
| Genesis 18:9 |
They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he replied, “There, in the tent.” |
| Genesis 18:10 |
Then one said, “I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son!” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him. |
| Genesis 18:11 |
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah had stopped having the periods of women. |
| Genesis 18:12 |
And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “Now that I am withered, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old?” |
| Genesis 18:13 |
Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?’ |
| Genesis 18:14 |
Is anything too wondrous for the LORD? I will return to you at the same season next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” |
| Genesis 18:15 |
Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was frightened. But He replied, “You did laugh.” |
| Genesis 18:16 |
The men set out from there and looked down toward Sodom, Abraham walking with them to see them off. |
| Genesis 18:17 |
Now the LORD had said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, |
| Genesis 18:18 |
since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him? |
| Genesis 18:19 |
For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right, in order that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.” |
| Genesis 18:20 |
Then the LORD said, “The outrage of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave! |
| Genesis 18:21 |
I will go down to see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry that has reached Me; if not, I will take note.” |
| Genesis 18:22 |
The men went on from there to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the LORD. |
| Genesis 18:23 |
Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? |
| Genesis 18:24 |
What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it? |
| Genesis 18:25 |
Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” |
| Genesis 18:26 |
And the LORD answered, “If I find within the city of Sodom fifty innocent ones, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” |
| Genesis 18:27 |
Abraham spoke up, saying, “Here I venture to speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes: |
| Genesis 18:28 |
What if the fifty innocent should lack five? Will You destroy the whole city for want of the five?” And He answered, “I will not destroy if I find forty-five there.” |
| Genesis 18:29 |
But he spoke to Him again, and said, “What if forty should be found there?” And He answered, “I will not do it, for the sake of the forty.” |
| Genesis 18:30 |
And he said, “Let not my Lord be angry if I go on: What if thirty should be found there?” And He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” |
| Genesis 18:31 |
And he said, “I venture again to speak to my Lord: What if twenty should be found there?” And He answered, “I will not destroy, for the sake of the twenty.” |
| Genesis 18:32 |
And he said, “Let not my Lord be angry if I speak but this last time: What if ten should be found there?” And He answered, “I will not destroy, for the sake of the ten.” |
| Genesis 18:33 |
When the LORD had finished speaking to Abraham, He departed; and Abraham returned to his place. |
| Genesis 19:1 |
The two angels arrived in Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to greet them and, bowing low with his face to the ground, |
| Genesis 19:2 |
he said, “Please, my lords, turn aside to your servant’s house to spend the night, and bathe your feet; then you may be on your way early.” But they said, “No, we will spend the night in the square.” |
| Genesis 19:3 |
But he urged them strongly, so they turned his way and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. |
| Genesis 19:4 |
They had not yet lain down, when the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old—all the people to the last man—gathered about the house. |
| Genesis 19:5 |
And they shouted to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may be intimate with them.” |
| Genesis 19:6 |
So Lot went out to them to the entrance, shut the door behind him, |
| Genesis 19:7 |
and said, “I beg you, my friends, do not commit such a wrong. |
| Genesis 19:8 |
Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please; but do not do anything to these men, since they have come under the shelter of my roof.” |
| Genesis 19:9 |
But they said, “Stand back! The fellow,” they said, “came here as an alien, and already he acts the ruler! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” And they pressed hard against the person of Lot, and moved forward to break the door. |
| Genesis 19:10 |
But the men stretched out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. |
| Genesis 19:11 |
And the people who were at the entrance of the house, young and old, they struck with blinding light, so that they were helpless to find the entrance. |
| Genesis 19:12 |
Then the men said to Lot, “Whom else have you here? Sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else that you have in the city—bring them out of the place. |
| Genesis 19:13 |
For we are about to destroy this place; because the outcry against them before the LORD has become so great that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” |
| Genesis 19:14 |
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law as one who jests. |
| Genesis 19:15 |
As dawn broke, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two remaining daughters, lest you be swept away because of the iniquity of the city.” |
| Genesis 19:16 |
Still he delayed. So the men seized his hand, and the hands of his wife and his two daughters—in the LORD’s mercy on him—and brought him out and left him outside the city. |
| Genesis 19:17 |
When they had brought them outside, one said, “Flee for your life! Do not look behind you, nor stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, lest you be swept away.” |
| Genesis 19:18 |
But Lot said to them, “Oh no, my lord! |
| Genesis 19:19 |
You have been so gracious to your servant, and have already shown me so much kindness in order to save my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. |
| Genesis 19:20 |
Look, that town there is near enough to flee to; it is such a little place! Let me flee there—it is such a little place—and let my life be saved.” |
| Genesis 19:21 |
He replied, “Very well, I will grant you this favor too, and I will not annihilate the town of which you have spoken. |
| Genesis 19:22 |
Hurry, flee there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Hence the town came to be called Zoar. |
| Genesis 19:23 |
As the sun rose upon the earth and Lot entered Zoar, |
| Genesis 19:24 |
the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire from the LORD out of heaven. |
| Genesis 19:25 |
He annihilated those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground. |
| Genesis 19:26 |
Lot’s and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt. |
| Genesis 19:27 |
Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the LORD, |
| Genesis 19:28 |
and, looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the Plain, he saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a kiln. |
| Genesis 19:30 |
Lot went up from Zoar and settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar; and he and his two daughters lived in a cave. |
| Genesis 19:31 |
And the older one said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to consort with us in the way of all the world. |
| Genesis 19:32 |
Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, that we may maintain life through our father.” |
| Genesis 19:33 |
That night they made their father drink wine, and the older one went in and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. |
| Genesis 19:34 |
The next day the older one said to the younger, “See, I lay with Father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go and lie with him, that we may maintain life through our father.” |
| Genesis 19:35 |
That night also they made their father drink wine, and the younger one went and lay with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. |
| Genesis 19:36 |
Thus the two daughters of Lot came to be with child by their father. |
| Genesis 19:37 |
The older one bore a son and named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. |
| Genesis 19:38 |
And the younger also bore a son, and she called him Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today. |
| Genesis 21:1 |
The LORD took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. |
| Genesis 21:6 |
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” |
| Genesis 21:7 |
And she added,/“Who would have said to Abraham/That Sarah would suckle children!/Yet I have borne a son in his old age.” |
| Genesis 21:8 |
The child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. |
| Genesis 21:22 |
At that time Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything that you do. |
| Genesis 21:23 |
Therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my kith and kin, but will deal with me and with the land in which you have sojourned as loyally as I have dealt with you.” |
| Genesis 21:24 |
And Abraham said, “I swear it.” |
| Genesis 21:25 |
Then Abraham reproached Abimelech for the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized. |
| Genesis 21:26 |
But Abimelech said, “I do not know who did this; you did not tell me, nor have I heard of it until today.” |
| Genesis 21:27 |
Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a pact. |
| Genesis 21:28 |
Abraham then set seven ewes of the flock by themselves, |
| Genesis 21:29 |
and Abimelech said to Abraham, “What mean these seven ewes which you have set apart?” |
| Genesis 21:30 |
He replied, “You are to accept these seven ewes from me as proof that I dug this well.” |
| Genesis 21:31 |
Hence that place was called Beer-sheba, for there the two of them swore an oath. |
| Genesis 21:32 |
When they had concluded the pact at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, departed and returned to the land of the Philistines. |
| Genesis 21:33 |
[Abraham] planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and invoked there the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. |
| Genesis 21:34 |
And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines a long time. |
| Genesis 22:20 |
Some time later, Abraham was told, “Milcah too has borne children to your brother Nahor: |
| Genesis 22:21 |
Uz the first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram; |
| Genesis 22:22 |
and Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel”— |
| Genesis 22:23 |
Bethuel being the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. |
| Genesis 22:24 |
And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah. |
| Genesis 24:1 |
Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. |
| Genesis 24:2 |
And Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, “Put your hand under my thigh |
| Genesis 24:3 |
and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, |
| Genesis 24:4 |
but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac.” |
| Genesis 24:5 |
And the servant said to him, “What if the woman does not consent to follow me to this land, shall I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” |
| Genesis 24:6 |
Abraham answered him, “On no account must you take my son back there! |
| Genesis 24:7 |
The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from my native land, who promised me on oath, saying, ‘I will assign this land to your offspring’—He will send His angel before you, and you will get a wife for my son from there. |
| Genesis 24:8 |
And if the woman does not consent to follow you, you shall then be clear of this oath to me; but do not take my son back there.” |
| Genesis 24:9 |
So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore to him as bidden. |
| Genesis 24:10 |
Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and set out, taking with him all the bounty of his master; and he made his way to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor. |
| Genesis 24:11 |
He made the camels kneel down by the well outside the city, at evening time, the time when women come out to draw water. |
| Genesis 24:12 |
And he said, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, grant me good fortune this day, and deal graciously with my master Abraham: |
| Genesis 24:13 |
Here I stand by the spring as the daughters of the townsmen come out to draw water; |
| Genesis 24:14 |
let the maiden to whom I say, ‘Please, lower your jar that I may drink,’ and who replies, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels’—let her be the one whom You have decreed for Your servant Isaac. Thereby shall I know that You have dealt graciously with my master.” |
| Genesis 24:15 |
He had scarcely finished speaking, when Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. |
| Genesis 24:16 |
The maiden was very beautiful, a virgin whom no man had known. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. |
| Genesis 24:17 |
The servant ran toward her and said, “Please, let me sip a little water from your jar.” |
| Genesis 24:18 |
“Drink, my lord,” she said, and she quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and let him drink. |
| Genesis 24:19 |
When she had let him drink his fill, she said, “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking.” |
| Genesis 24:20 |
Quickly emptying her jar into the trough, she ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. |
| Genesis 24:21 |
The man, meanwhile, stood gazing at her, silently wondering whether the LORD had made his errand successful or not. |
| Genesis 24:22 |
When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold nose-ring weighing a half-shekel, and two gold bands for her arms, ten shekels in weight. |
| Genesis 24:23 |
“Pray tell me,” he said, “whose daughter are you? Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?” |
| Genesis 24:24 |
She replied, “I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” |
| Genesis 24:25 |
And she went on, “There is plenty of straw and feed at home, and also room to spend the night.” |
| Genesis 24:26 |
The man bowed low in homage to the LORD |
| Genesis 24:27 |
and said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His steadfast faithfulness from my master. For I have been guided on my errand by the LORD, to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” |
| Genesis 24:28 |
The maiden ran and told all this to her mother’s household. |
| Genesis 24:29 |
Now Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man at the spring— |
| Genesis 24:30 |
when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on his sister’s arms, and when he heard his sister Rebekah say, “Thus the man spoke to me.” He went up to the man, who was still standing beside the camels at the spring. |
| Genesis 24:31 |
“Come in, O blessed of the LORD,” he said, “why do you remain outside, when I have made ready the house and a place for the camels?” |
| Genesis 24:32 |
So the man entered the house, and the camels were unloaded. The camels were given straw and feed, and water was brought to bathe his feet and the feet of the men with him. |
| Genesis 24:33 |
But when food was set before him, he said, “I will not eat until I have told my tale.” He said, “Speak, then.” |
| Genesis 24:34 |
“I am Abraham’s servant,” he began. |
| Genesis 24:35 |
“The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich: He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and asses. |
| Genesis 24:36 |
And Sarah, my master’s wife, bore my master a son in her old age, and he has assigned to him everything he owns. |
| Genesis 24:37 |
Now my master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell; |
| Genesis 24:38 |
but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’ |
| Genesis 24:39 |
And I said to my master, ‘What if the woman does not follow me?’ |
| Genesis 24:40 |
He replied to me, ‘The LORD, whose ways I have followed, will send His angel with you and make your errand successful; and you will get a wife for my son from my kindred, from my father’s house. |
| Genesis 24:41 |
Thus only shall you be freed from my adjuration: if, when you come to my kindred, they refuse you—only then shall you be freed from my adjuration.’ |
| Genesis 24:42 |
“I came today to the spring, and I said: O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if You would indeed grant success to the errand on which I am engaged! |
| Genesis 24:43 |
As I stand by the spring of water, let the young woman who comes out to draw and to whom I say, ‘Please, let me drink a little water from your jar,’ |
| Genesis 24:44 |
and who answers, ‘You may drink, and I will also draw for your camels’—let her be the wife whom the LORD has decreed for my master’s son.’ |
| Genesis 24:45 |
I had scarcely finished praying in my heart, when Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and went down to the spring and drew. And I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ |
| Genesis 24:46 |
She quickly lowered her jar and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. |
| Genesis 24:47 |
I inquired of her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ And I put the ring on her nose and the bands on her arms. |
| Genesis 24:48 |
Then I bowed low in homage to the LORD and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who led me on the right way to get the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. |
| Genesis 24:49 |
And now, if you mean to treat my master with true kindness, tell me; and if not, tell me also, that I may turn right or left.” |
| Genesis 24:50 |
Then Laban and Bethuel answered, “The matter was decreed by the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good. |
| Genesis 24:51 |
Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be a wife to your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.” |
| Genesis 24:52 |
When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed low to the ground before the LORD. |
| Genesis 24:53 |
The servant brought out objects of silver and gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; and he gave presents to her brother and her mother. |
| Genesis 24:54 |
Then he and the men with him ate and drank, and they spent the night. When they arose next morning, he said, “Give me leave to go to my master.” |
| Genesis 24:55 |
But her brother and her mother said, “Let the maiden remain with us some ten days; then you may go.” |
| Genesis 24:56 |
He said to them, “Do not delay me, now that the LORD has made my errand successful. Give me leave that I may go to my master.” |
| Genesis 24:57 |
And they said, “Let us call the girl and ask for her reply.” |
| Genesis 24:58 |
They called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will.” |
| Genesis 24:59 |
So they sent off their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. |
| Genesis 24:60 |
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,/“O sister!/May you grow/Into thousands of myriads;/May your offspring seize/The gates of their foes.” |
| Genesis 24:61 |
Then Rebekah and her maids arose, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and went his way. |
| Genesis 24:62 |
Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi, for he was settled in the region of the Negeb. |
| Genesis 24:63 |
And Isaac went out walking in the field toward evening and, looking up, he saw camels approaching. |
| Genesis 24:64 |
Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac. She alighted from the camel |
| Genesis 24:65 |
and said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field toward us?” And the servant said, “That is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. |
| Genesis 24:66 |
The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. |
| Genesis 24:67 |
Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death. |
| Genesis 25:1 |
Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. |
| Genesis 25:2 |
She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. |
| Genesis 25:3 |
Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurim, the Letushim, and the Leummim. |
| Genesis 25:4 |
The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah. |
| Genesis 25:5 |
Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac; |
| Genesis 25:6 |
but to Abraham’s sons by concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the East. |
| Genesis 25:11* |
And Isaac settled near Beer-lahai-roi. |
| Genesis 25:21 |
Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD responded to his plea, and his wife Rebekah conceived. |
| Genesis 25:22 |
But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, “If so, why do I exist?” She went to inquire of the LORD, |
| Genesis 25:23 |
and the LORD answered her,/“Two nations are in your womb,/Two separate peoples shall issue from your body;/One people shall be mightier than the other,/And the older shall serve the younger.” |
| Genesis 25:24 |
When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. |
| Genesis 25:25 |
The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau. |
| Genesis 25:26* |
Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob. |
| Genesis 25:27 |
When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the outdoors; but Jacob was a mild man who stayed in camp. |
| Genesis 25:28 |
Isaac favored Esau because he had a taste for game; but Rebekah favored Jacob. |
| Genesis 25:29 |
Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the open, famished. |
| Genesis 25:30 |
And Esau said to Jacob, “Give me some of that red stuff to gulp down, for I am famished”—which is why he was named Edom. |
| Genesis 25:31 |
Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” |
| Genesis 25:32 |
And Esau said, “I am at the point of death, so of what use is my birthright to me?” |
| Genesis 25:33 |
But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. |
| Genesis 25:34 |
Jacob then gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, and he rose and went away. Thus did Esau spurn the birthright. |
| Genesis 26:1 |
There was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham—and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar. |
| Genesis 26:2 |
The LORD had appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land which I point out to you. |
| Genesis 26:3 |
Reside in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; I will assign all these lands to you and to your heirs, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. |
| Genesis 26:4 |
I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, and assign to your heirs all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your heirs— |
| Genesis 26:5 |
inasmuch as Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge: My commandments, My laws, and My teachings.” |
| Genesis 26:6 |
So Isaac stayed in Gerar. |
| Genesis 26:7 |
When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.” |
| Genesis 26:8 |
When some time had passed, Abimelech king of the Philistines, looking out of the window, saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah. |
| Genesis 26:9 |
Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is your wife! Why then did you say: ‘She is my sister?’” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.” |
| Genesis 26:10 |
Abimelech said, “What have you done to us! One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” |
| Genesis 26:11 |
Abimelech then charged all the people, saying, “Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall be put to death.” |
| Genesis 26:12 |
Isaac sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. The LORD blessed him, |
| Genesis 26:16 |
And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you have become far too big for us.” |
| Genesis 26:17 |
So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the wadi of Gerar, where he settled. |
| Genesis 26:19 |
But when Isaac’s servants, digging in the wadi, found there a well of spring water, |
| Genesis 26:20 |
the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” He named that well Esek, because they contended with him. |
| Genesis 26:21 |
And when they dug another well, they disputed over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. |
| Genesis 26:22 |
He moved from there and dug yet another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth, saying, “Now at last the LORD has granted us ample space to increase in the land.” |
| Genesis 26:23 |
From there he went up to Beer-sheba. |
| Genesis 26:24 |
That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you and increase your offspring for the sake of My servant Abraham.” |
| Genesis 26:25 |
So he built an altar there and invoked the LORD by name. Isaac pitched his tent there and his servants started digging a well. |
| Genesis 26:26 |
And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his councilor and Phicol chief of his troops. |
| Genesis 26:27 |
Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you have been hostile to me and have driven me away from you?” |
| Genesis 26:28 |
And they said, “We now see plainly that the LORD has been with you, and we thought: Let there be a sworn treaty between our two parties, between you and us. Let us make a pact with you |
| Genesis 26:29 |
that you will not do us harm, just as we have not molested you but have always dealt kindly with you and sent you away in peace. From now on, be you blessed of the LORD!” |
| Genesis 26:30 |
Then he made for them a feast, and they ate and drank. |
| Genesis 26:31 |
Early in the morning, they exchanged oaths. Isaac then bade them farewell, and they departed from him in peace. |
| Genesis 26:32 |
That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water!” |
| Genesis 26:33 |
He named it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day. |
| Genesis 27:1 |
When Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.” |
| Genesis 27:2 |
And he said, “I am old now, and I do not know how soon I may die. |
| Genesis 27:3 |
Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game. |
| Genesis 27:4 |
Then prepare a dish for me such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my innermost blessing before I die.” |
| Genesis 27:5 |
Rebekah had been listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out into the open to hunt game to bring home, |
| Genesis 27:6 |
Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, |
| Genesis 27:7 |
‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you, with the LORD’s approval, before I die.’ |
| Genesis 27:8 |
Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you. |
| Genesis 27:9 |
Go to the flock and fetch me two choice kids, and I will make of them a dish for your father, such as he likes. |
| Genesis 27:10 |
Then take it to your father to eat, in order that he may bless you before he dies.” |
| Genesis 27:11 |
Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned. |
| Genesis 27:12 |
If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.” |
| Genesis 27:13 |
But his mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, be upon me! Just do as I say and go fetch them for me.” |
| Genesis 27:14 |
He got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. |
| Genesis 27:15 |
Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on; |
| Genesis 27:16 |
and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids. |
| Genesis 27:17 |
Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared. |
| Genesis 27:18 |
He went to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Yes, which of my sons are you?” |
| Genesis 27:19 |
Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me. Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may give me your innermost blessing.” |
| Genesis 27:20 |
Isaac said to his son, “How did you succeed so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God granted me good fortune.” |
| Genesis 27:21 |
Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer that I may feel you, my son—whether you are really my son Esau or not.” |
| Genesis 27:22 |
So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.” |
| Genesis 27:23 |
He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; and so he blessed him. |
| Genesis 27:24 |
He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And when he said, “I am,” |
| Genesis 27:25 |
he said, “Serve me and let me eat of my son’s game that I may give you my innermost blessing.” So he served him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank. |
| Genesis 27:26 |
Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son”; |
| Genesis 27:27 |
and he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of the fields that the LORD has blessed. |
| Genesis 27:28 |
“May God give you/Of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth,/Abundance of new grain and wine. |
| Genesis 27:29 |
Let peoples serve you,/And nations bow to you;/Be master over your brothers,/And let your mother’s sons bow to you./Cursed be they who curse you,/Blessed they who bless you.” |
| Genesis 27:30 |
No sooner had Jacob left the presence of his father Isaac—after Isaac had finished blessing Jacob—than his brother Esau came back from his hunt. |
| Genesis 27:31 |
He too prepared a dish and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may give me your innermost blessing.” |
| Genesis 27:32 |
His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, Esau, your first-born!” |
| Genesis 27:33 |
Isaac was seized with very violent trembling. “Who was it then,” he demanded, “that hunted game and brought it to me? Moreover, I ate of it before you came, and I blessed him; now he must remain blessed!” |
| Genesis 27:34 |
When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst into wild and bitter sobbing, and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!” |
| Genesis 27:35 |
But he answered, “Your brother came with guile and took away your blessing.” |
| Genesis 27:36 |
[Esau] said, “Was he, then, named Jacob that he might supplant me these two times? First he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing!” And he added, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” |
| Genesis 27:37 |
Isaac answered, saying to Esau, “But I have made him master over you: I have given him all his brothers for servants, and sustained him with grain and wine. What, then, can I still do for you, my son?” |
| Genesis 27:38 |
And Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau wept aloud. |
| Genesis 27:39 |
And his father Isaac answered, saying to him,/“See, your abode shall enjoy the fat of the earth/And the dew of heaven above. |
| Genesis 27:40 |
Yet by your sword you shall live,/And you shall serve your brother;/But when you grow restive,/You shall break his yoke from your neck.” |
| Genesis 27:41 |
Now Esau harbored a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, “Let but the mourning period of my father come, and I will kill my brother Jacob.” |
| Genesis 27:42 |
When the words of her older son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. |
| Genesis 27:43 |
Now, my son, listen to me. Flee at once to Haran, to my brother Laban. |
| Genesis 27:44 |
Stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury subsides— |
| Genesis 27:45 |
until your brother’s anger against you subsides—and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will fetch you from there. Let me not lose you both in one day!” |
| Genesis 28:10 |
Jacob left Beer-sheba, and set out for Haran. |
| Genesis 28:13 |
And the LORD was standing beside him and He said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac: the ground on which you are lying I will assign to you and to your offspring. |
| Genesis 28:14 |
Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants. |
| Genesis 28:15 |
Remember, I am with you: I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” |
| Genesis 28:16* |
and [Jacob] said, “Surely the LORD is present in this place, and I did not know it!” |
| Genesis 28:20* |
“If God remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, |
| Genesis 28:21 |
and if I return safe to my father’s house—the LORD shall be my God. |
| Genesis 29:1 |
Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the Easterners. |
| Genesis 29:2 |
There before his eyes was a well in the open. Three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, for the flocks were watered from that well. The stone on the mouth of the well was large. |
| Genesis 29:3 |
When all the flocks were gathered there, the stone would be rolled from the mouth of the well and the sheep watered; then the stone would be put back in its place on the mouth of the well. |
| Genesis 29:4 |
Jacob said to them, “My friends, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” |
| Genesis 29:5 |
He said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?” And they said, “Yes, we do.” |
| Genesis 29:6 |
He continued, “Is he well?” They answered, “Yes, he is; and there is his daughter Rachel, coming with the flock.” |
| Genesis 29:7 |
He said, “It is still broad daylight, too early to round up the animals; water the flock and take them to pasture.” |
| Genesis 29:8 |
But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are rounded up; then the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well and we water the sheep.” |
| Genesis 29:9 |
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s flock; for she was a shepherdess. |
| Genesis 29:10 |
And when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, and the flock of his uncle Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his uncle Laban. |
| Genesis 29:11 |
Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and broke into tears. |
| Genesis 29:12 |
Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father. |
| Genesis 29:13 |
On hearing the news of his sister’s son Jacob, Laban ran to greet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and took him into his house. He told Laban all that had happened, |
| Genesis 29:14 |
and Laban said to him, “You are truly my bone and flesh.”/When he had stayed with him a month’s time, |
| Genesis 29:15 |
Laban said to Jacob, “Just because you are a kinsman, should you serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” |
| Genesis 29:16 |
Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older one was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. |
| Genesis 29:17 |
Leah had weak eyes; Rachel was shapely and beautiful. |
| Genesis 29:18 |
Jacob loved Rachel; so he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” |
| Genesis 29:19 |
Laban said, “Better that I give her to you than that I should give her to an outsider. Stay with me.” |
| Genesis 29:20 |
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. |
| Genesis 29:21 |
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time is fulfilled, that I may cohabit with her.” |
| Genesis 29:22 |
And Laban gathered all the people of the place and made a feast. |
| Genesis 29:23 |
When evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and he cohabited with her.— |
| Genesis 29:24 |
Laban had given his maidservant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.— |
| Genesis 29:25 |
When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I was in your service for Rachel! Why did you deceive me?” |
| Genesis 29:26 |
Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the older. |
| Genesis 29:27 |
Wait until the bridal week of this one is over and we will give you that one too, provided you serve me another seven years.” |
| Genesis 29:28 |
Jacob did so; he waited out the bridal week of the one, and then he gave him his daughter Rachel as wife.— |
| Genesis 29:29 |
Laban had given his maidservant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.— |
| Genesis 29:30 |
And Jacob cohabited with Rachel also; indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served him another seven years. |
| Genesis 29:31 |
The LORD saw that Leah was unloved and He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. |
| Genesis 29:32 |
Leah conceived and bore a son, and named him Reuben; |
| Genesis 29:33 |
She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, “This is because the LORD heard that I was unloved and has given me this one also”; so she named him Simeon. |
| Genesis 29:34 |
Again she conceived and bore a son and declared, “This time my husband will become attached to me, for I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi. |
| Genesis 29:35 |
She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing. |
| Genesis 30:1 |
When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, she became envious of her sister; and Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die.” |
| Genesis 30:2 |
Jacob was incensed at Rachel, and said, “Can I take the place of God, who has denied you fruit of the womb?” |
| Genesis 30:3 |
She said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Consort with her, that she may bear on my knees and that through her I too may have children.” |
| Genesis 30:4 |
So she gave him her maid Bilhah as concubine, and Jacob cohabited with her. |
| Genesis 30:5 |
Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. |
| Genesis 30:6 |
And Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; indeed, He has heeded my plea and given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan. |
| Genesis 30:7 |
Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. |
| Genesis 30:8 |
And Rachel said, “A fateful contest I waged with my sister; yes, and I have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali. |
| Genesis 30:9 |
When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as concubine. |
| Genesis 30:10 |
And when Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son, |
| Genesis 30:11 |
Leah said, “What luck!” So she named him Gad. |
| Genesis 30:12 |
When Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, |
| Genesis 30:13 |
Leah declared, “What fortune!” meaning, “Women will deem me fortunate.” So she named him Asher. |
| Genesis 30:14 |
Once, at the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben came upon some mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” |
| Genesis 30:15 |
But she said to her, “Was it not enough for you to take away my husband, that you would also take my son’s mandrakes?” Rachel replied, “I promise, he shall lie with you tonight, in return for your son’s mandrakes.” |
| Genesis 30:16 |
When Jacob came home from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You are to sleep with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night. |
| Genesis 30:17 |
God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore him a fifth son. |
| Genesis 30:18 |
And Leah said, “God has given me my reward for having given my maid to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. |
| Genesis 30:19 |
When Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son, |
| Genesis 30:20 |
Leah said, “God has given me a choice gift; for I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. |
| Genesis 30:21 |
Last, she bore him a daughter, and named her Dinah. |
| Genesis 30:22 |
Now God remembered Rachel; God heeded her and opened her womb. |
| Genesis 30:23 |
She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” |
| Genesis 30:24 |
So she named him Joseph, which is to say, “May the LORD add another son for me.” |
| Genesis 30:25 |
After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Give me leave to go back to my own homeland. |
| Genesis 30:26 |
Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, that I may go; for well you know what services I have rendered you.” |
| Genesis 30:27 |
But Laban said to him, “If you will indulge me, I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me on your account.” |
| Genesis 30:28 |
And he continued, “Name the wages due from me, and I will pay you.” |
| Genesis 30:29 |
But he said, “You know well how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me. |
| Genesis 30:30 |
For the little you had before I came has grown to much, since the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. And now, when shall I make provision for my own household?” |
| Genesis 30:31 |
He said, “What shall I pay you?” And Jacob said, “Pay me nothing! If you will do this thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flocks: |
| Genesis 30:32 |
let me pass through your whole flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted animal—every dark-colored sheep and every spotted and speckled goat. Such shall be my wages. |
| Genesis 30:33 |
In the future when you go over my wages, let my honesty toward you testify for me: if there are among my goats any that are not speckled or spotted or any sheep that are not dark-colored, they got there by theft.” |
| Genesis 30:34 |
And Laban said, “Very well, let it be as you say.” |
| Genesis 30:35 |
But that same day he removed the streaked and spotted he-goats and all the speckled and spotted she-goats—every one that had white on it—and all the dark-colored sheep, and left them in the charge of his sons. |
| Genesis 30:36 |
And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock. |
| Genesis 30:37 |
Jacob then got fresh shoots of poplar, and of almond and plane, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white of the shoots. |
| Genesis 30:38 |
The rods that he had peeled he set up in front of the goats in the troughs, the water receptacles, that the goats came to drink from. Their mating occurred when they came to drink, |
| Genesis 30:39 |
and since the goats mated by the rods, the goats brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young. |
| Genesis 30:40 |
But Jacob dealt separately with the sheep; he made these animals face the streaked or wholly dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. And so he produced special flocks for himself, which he did not put with Laban’s flocks. |
| Genesis 30:41 |
Moreover, when the sturdier animals were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they mated by the rods; |
| Genesis 30:42 |
but with the feebler animals he would not place them there. Thus the feeble ones went to Laban and the sturdy to Jacob. |
| Genesis 31:3 |
Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers where you were born, and I will be with you.” |
| Genesis 32:4 |
Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, |
| Genesis 32:5 |
and instructed them as follows, “Thus shall you say, ‘To my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob: I stayed with Laban and remained until now; |
| Genesis 32:6 |
I have acquired cattle, asses, sheep, and male and female slaves; and I send this message to my lord in the hope of gaining your favor.’” |
| Genesis 32:7 |
The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau; he himself is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” |
| Genesis 32:8 |
Jacob was greatly frightened; in his anxiety, he divided the people with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, |
| Genesis 32:9 |
thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp may yet escape.” |
| Genesis 32:10 |
Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your native land and I will deal bountifully with you’! |
| Genesis 32:11 |
I am unworthy of all the kindness that You have so steadfastly shown Your servant: with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. |
| Genesis 32:12 |
Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; else, I fear, he may come and strike me down, mothers and children alike. |
| Genesis 32:13 |
Yet You have said, ‘I will deal bountifully with you and make your offspring as the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’” |
| Genesis 32:14* |
he selected from what was at hand these presents for his brother Esau: |
| Genesis 32:15 |
200 she-goats and 20 he-goats; 200 ewes and 20 rams; |
| Genesis 32:16 |
30 milch camels with their colts; 40 cows and 10 bulls; 20 she-asses and 10 he-asses. |
| Genesis 32:17 |
These he put in the charge of his servants, drove by drove, and he told his servants, “Go on ahead, and keep a distance between droves.” |
| Genesis 32:18 |
He instructed the one in front as follows, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘Whose man are you? Where are you going? And whose [animals] are these ahead of you?’ |
| Genesis 32:19 |
you shall answer, ‘Your servant Jacob’s; they are a gift sent to my lord Esau; and [Jacob] himself is right behind us.’” |
| Genesis 32:20 |
He gave similar instructions to the second one, and the third, and all the others who followed the droves, namely, “Thus and so shall you say to Esau when you reach him. |
| Genesis 32:21 |
And you shall add, ‘And your servant Jacob himself is right behind us.’” For he reasoned, “If I propitiate him with presents in advance, and then face him, perhaps he will show me favor.” |
| Genesis 32:22 |
And so the gift went on ahead, while he remained in camp that night. |
| Genesis 32:23 |
That same night he arose, and taking his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children, he crossed the ford of the Jabbok. |
| Genesis 32:24 |
After taking them across the stream, he sent across all his possessions. |
| Genesis 32:25* |
Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. |
| Genesis 32:26* |
When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, |
| Genesis 32:27 |
Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” |
| Genesis 32:28 |
Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” |
| Genesis 32:29 |
Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have strivenbeings divine and human, and have prevailed.” |
| Genesis 32:30 |
Jacob asked, “Pray tell me your name.” But he said, “You must not ask my name!” And he took leave of him there. |
| Genesis 32:31 |
So Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning, “I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” |
| Genesis 33:1 |
Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming, accompanied by four hundred men. He divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maids, |
| Genesis 33:2 |
putting the maids and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. |
| Genesis 33:3 |
He himself went on ahead and bowed low to the ground seven times until he was near his brother. |
| Genesis 33:4 |
Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept. |
| Genesis 33:5 |
Looking about, he saw the women and the children. “Who,” he asked, “are these with you?” He answered, “The children with whom God has favored your servant.” |
| Genesis 33:6 |
Then the maids, with their children, came forward and bowed low; |
| Genesis 33:7 |
next Leah, with her children, came forward and bowed low; and last, Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed low. |
| Genesis 33:8 |
And he asked, “What do you mean by all this company which I have met?” He answered, “To gain my lord’s favor.” |
| Genesis 33:9 |
Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let what you have remain yours.” |
| Genesis 33:10 |
But Jacob said, “No, I pray you; if you would do me this favor, accept from me this gift; for to see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favorably. |
| Genesis 33:11 |
Please accept my present which has been brought to you, for God has favored me and I have plenty.” And when he urged him, he accepted. |
| Genesis 33:12 |
And [Esau] said, “Let us start on our journey, and I will proceed at your pace.” |
| Genesis 33:13 |
But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; if they are driven hard a single day, all the flocks will die. |
| Genesis 33:14 |
Let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I travel slowly, at the pace of the cattle before me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” |
| Genesis 33:15 |
Then Esau said, “Let me assign to you some of the men who are with me.” But he said, “Oh no, my lord is too kind to me!” |
| Genesis 33:16 |
So Esau started back that day on his way to Seir. |
| Genesis 33:17 |
But Jacob journeyed on to Succoth, and built a house for himself and made stalls for his cattle; that is why the place was called Succoth. |
| Genesis 34:1 |
Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. |
| Genesis 34:2 |
Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her by force. |
| Genesis 34:5 |
Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah; but since his sons were in the field with his cattle, Jacob kept silent until they came home. |
| Genesis 34:7 |
Meanwhile Jacob’s sons, having heard the news, came in from the field. The men were distressed and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing not to be done. |
| Genesis 34:13* |
because he had defiled their sister Dinah— |
| Genesis 34:25* |
Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword, came upon the city unmolested, and slew all the males. |
| Genesis 34:26 |
They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. |
| Genesis 34:27 |
The other sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the town, because their sister had been defiled. |
| Genesis 34:30 |
Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my men are few in number, so that if they unite against me and attack me, I and my house will be destroyed.” |
| Genesis 34:31 |
But they answered, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” |
| Genesis 35:21 |
Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-eder. |
| Genesis 35:22* |
While Israel stayed in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine; and Israel found out. |
| Genesis 37:2* |
At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father. |
| Genesis 37:3 |
Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him an ornamented tunic. |
| Genesis 37:4 |
And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him. |
| Genesis 37:5 |
Once Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him even more. |
| Genesis 37:6 |
He said to them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed: |
| Genesis 37:7 |
There we were binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf stood up and remained upright; then your sheaves gathered around and bowed low to my sheaf.” |
| Genesis 37:8 |
His brothers answered, “Do you mean to reign over us? Do you mean to rule over us?” And they hated him even more for his talk about his dreams. |
| Genesis 37:9 |
He dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” |
| Genesis 37:10 |
And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father berated him. “What,” he said to him, “is this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you to the ground?” |
| Genesis 37:11 |
So his brothers were wrought up at him, and his father kept the matter in mind. |
| Genesis 37:12 |
One time, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem, |
| Genesis 37:13 |
Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “I am ready.” |
| Genesis 37:14 |
And he said to him, “Go and see how your brothers are and how the flocks are faring, and bring me back word.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron./When he reached Shechem, |
| Genesis 37:15 |
a man came upon him wandering in the fields. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?” |
| Genesis 37:16 |
He answered, “I am looking for my brothers. Could you tell me where they are pasturing?” |
| Genesis 37:17 |
The man said, “They have gone from here, for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothan.” So Joseph followed his brothers and found them at Dothan. |
| Genesis 37:19 |
They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer! |
| Genesis 37:20 |
Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we can say, ‘A savage beast devoured him.’ We shall see what comes of his dreams!” |
| Genesis 37:26 |
Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? |
| Genesis 37:27 |
Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. |
| Genesis 37:31 |
Then they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood. |
| Genesis 37:32 |
They had the ornamented tunic taken to their father, and they said, “We found this. Please examine it; is it your son’s tunic or not?” |
| Genesis 37:33 |
He recognized it, and said, “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn by a beast!” |
| Genesis 37:34 |
Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days. |
| Genesis 37:35 |
All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” Thus his father bewailed him. |
| Genesis 38:1 |
About that time Judah left his brothers and camped near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. |
| Genesis 38:2 |
There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her and cohabited with her. |
| Genesis 38:3 |
She conceived and bore a son, and he named him Er. |
| Genesis 38:4 |
She conceived again and bore a son, and named him Onan. |
| Genesis 38:5 |
Once again she bore a son, and named him Shelah; he was at Chezib when she bore him. |
| Genesis 38:6 |
Judah got a wife for Er his first-born; her name was Tamar. |
| Genesis 38:7 |
But Er, Judah’s first-born, was displeasing to the LORD, and the LORD took his life. |
| Genesis 38:8 |
Then Judah said to Onan, “Join with your brother’s wife and do your duty by her as a brother-in-law, and provide offspring for your brother.” |
| Genesis 38:9 |
But Onan, knowing that the seed would not count as his, let it go to waste whenever he joined with his brother’s wife, so as not to provide offspring for his brother. |
| Genesis 38:10 |
What he did was displeasing to the LORD, and He took his life also. |
| Genesis 38:11 |
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Stay as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he thought, “He too might die like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house. |
| Genesis 38:12 |
A long time afterward, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. When his period of mourning was over, Judah went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, together with his friend Hirah the Adullamite. |
| Genesis 38:13 |
And Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is coming up to Timnah for the sheepshearing.” |
| Genesis 38:14 |
So she took off her widow’s garb, covered her face with a veil, and, wrapping herself up, sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him as wife. |
| Genesis 38:15 |
When Judah saw her, he took her for a harlot; for she had covered her face. |
| Genesis 38:16 |
So he turned aside to her by the road and said, “Here, let me sleep with you”—for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. “What,” she asked, “will you pay for sleeping with me?” |
| Genesis 38:17 |
He replied, “I will send a kid from my flock.” But she said, “You must leave a pledge until you have sent it.” |
| Genesis 38:18 |
And he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your seal and cord, and the staff which you carry.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she conceived by him. |
| Genesis 38:19 |
Then she went on her way. She took off her veil and again put on her widow’s garb. |
| Genesis 38:20 |
Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to redeem the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her. |
| Genesis 38:21 |
He inquired of the people of that town, “Where is the cult prostitute, the one at Enaim, by the road?” But they said, “There has been no prostitute here.” |
| Genesis 38:22 |
So he returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her; moreover, the townspeople said: There has been no prostitute here.” |
| Genesis 38:23 |
Judah said, “Let her keep them, lest we become a laughingstock. I did send her this kid, but you did not find her.” |
| Genesis 38:24 |
About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot; in fact, she is with child by harlotry.” “Bring her out,” said Judah, “and let her be burned.” |
| Genesis 38:25 |
As she was being brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law, “I am with child by the man to whom these belong.” And she added, “Examine these: whose seal and cord and staff are these?” |
| Genesis 38:26 |
Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more in the right than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he was not intimate with her again. |
| Genesis 38:27 |
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb! |
| Genesis 38:28 |
While she was in labor, one of them put out his hand, and the midwife tied a crimson thread on that hand, to signify: This one came out first. |
| Genesis 38:29 |
But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez. |
| Genesis 38:30 |
Afterward his brother came out, on whose hand was the crimson thread; he was named Zerah. |
| Genesis 39:1 |
When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a certain Egyptian, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. |
| Genesis 39:2 |
The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he stayed in the house of his Egyptian master. |
| Genesis 39:3 |
And when his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD lent success to everything he undertook, |
| Genesis 39:4 |
he took a liking to Joseph. He made him his personal attendant and put him in charge of his household, placing in his hands all that he owned. |
| Genesis 39:5 |
And from the time that the Egyptian put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed his house for Joseph’s sake, so that the blessing of the LORD was upon everything that he owned, in the house and outside. |
| Genesis 39:6 |
He left all that he had in Joseph’s hands and, with him there, he paid attention to nothing save the food that he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome. |
| Genesis 39:7 |
After a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” |
| Genesis 39:8 |
But he refused. He said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. |
| Genesis 39:9 |
He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?” |
| Genesis 39:10 |
And much as she coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her. |
| Genesis 39:11 |
One such day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside, |
| Genesis 39:12 |
she caught hold of him by his garment and said, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside. |
| Genesis 39:13 |
When she saw that he had left it in her hand and had fled outside, |
| Genesis 39:14 |
she called out to her servants and said to them, “Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud. |
| Genesis 39:15 |
And when he heard me screaming at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside.” |
| Genesis 39:16 |
She kept his garment beside her, until his master came home. |
| Genesis 39:17 |
Then she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew slave whom you brought into our house came to me to dally with me; |
| Genesis 39:18 |
but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and fled outside.” |
| Genesis 39:19 |
When his master heard the story that his wife told him, namely, “Thus and so your slave did to me,” he was furious. |
| Genesis 39:20 |
So Joseph’s master had him put in prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. But even while he was there in prison, |
| Genesis 39:21 |
the LORD was with Joseph: He extended kindness to him and disposed the chief jailer favorably toward him. |
| Genesis 39:22 |
The chief jailer put in Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in that prison, and he was the one to carry out everything that was done there. |
| Genesis 39:23 |
The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him, and whatever he did the LORD made successful. |
| Genesis 42:1 |
When Jacob saw that there were food rations to be had in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another? |
| Genesis 42:2 |
Now I hear,” he went on, “that there are rations to be had in Egypt. Go down and procure rations for us there, that we may live and not die.” |
| Genesis 42:3 |
So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to get grain rations in Egypt; |
| Genesis 42:4 |
for Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, since he feared that he might meet with disaster. |
| Genesis 42:5 |
Thus the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations, for the famine extended to the land of Canaan. |
| Genesis 42:6 |
Now Joseph was the vizier of the land; it was he who dispensed rations to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed low to him, with their faces to the ground. |
| Genesis 42:7 |
When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them; but he acted like a stranger toward them and spoke harshly to them. He asked them, “Where do you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to procure food.” |
| Genesis 42:8 |
For though Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. |
| Genesis 42:9 |
Recalling the dreams that he had dreamed about them, Joseph said to them, “You are spies, you have come to see the land in its nakedness.” |
| Genesis 42:10 |
But they said to him, “No, my lord! Truly, your servants have come to procure food. |
| Genesis 42:11 |
We are all of us sons of the same man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies!” |
| Genesis 42:12 |
And he said to them, “No, you have come to see the land in its nakedness!” |
| Genesis 42:13 |
And they replied, “We your servants were twelve brothers, sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan; the youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more.” |
| Genesis 42:14 |
But Joseph said to them, “It is just as I have told you: You are spies! |
| Genesis 42:15 |
By this you shall be put to the test: unless your youngest brother comes here, by Pharaoh, you shall not depart from this place! |
| Genesis 42:16 |
Let one of you go and bring your brother, while the rest of you remain confined, that your words may be put to the test whether there is truth in you. Else, by Pharaoh, you are nothing but spies!” |
| Genesis 42:17 |
And he confined them in the guardhouse for three days. |
| Genesis 42:18 |
On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you shall live, for I am a God-fearing man. |
| Genesis 42:19 |
If you are honest men, let one of you brothers be held in your place of detention, while the rest of you go and take home rations for your starving households; |
| Genesis 42:20 |
but you must bring me your youngest brother, that your words may be verified and that you may not die.” And they did accordingly. |
| Genesis 42:21 |
They said to one another, “Alas, we are being punished on account of our brother, because we looked on at his anguish, yet paid no heed as he pleaded with us. That is why this distress has come upon us.” |
| Genesis 42:22 |
Then Reuben spoke up and said to them, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do no wrong to the boy’? But you paid no heed. Now comes the reckoning for his blood.” |
| Genesis 42:23 |
They did not know that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between him and them. |
| Genesis 42:24 |
He turned away from them and wept. But he came back to them and spoke to them; and he took Simeon from among them and had him bound before their eyes. |
| Genesis 42:25 |
Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, return each one’s money to his sack, and give them provisions for the journey; and this was done for them. |
| Genesis 42:26 |
So they loaded their asses with the rations and departed from there. |
| Genesis 42:27 |
As one of them was opening his sack to give feed to his ass at the night encampment, he saw his money right there at the mouth of his bag. |
| Genesis 42:28 |
And he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned! It is here in my bag!” Their hearts sank; and, trembling, they turned to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” |
| Genesis 42:29 |
When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had befallen them, saying, |
| Genesis 42:30 |
“The man who is lord of the land spoke harshly to us and accused us of spying on the land. |
| Genesis 42:31 |
We said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies! |
| Genesis 42:32 |
There were twelve of us brothers, sons by the same father; but one is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.’ |
| Genesis 42:33 |
But the man who is lord of the land said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take something for your starving households and be off. |
| Genesis 42:34 |
And bring your youngest brother to me, that I may know that you are not spies but honest men. I will then restore your brother to you, and you shall be free to move about in the land.’” |
| Genesis 42:35 |
As they were emptying their sacks, there, in each one’s sack, was his money-bag! When they and their father saw their money-bags, they were dismayed. |
| Genesis 42:36 |
Their father Jacob said to them, “It is always me that you bereave: Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you would take away Benjamin. These things always happen to me!” |
| Genesis 42:37 |
Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.” |
| Genesis 42:38 |
But he said, “My son must not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If he meets with disaster on the journey you are taking, you will send my white head down to Sheol in grief.” |
| Genesis 43:1 |
But the famine in the land was severe. |
| Genesis 43:2 |
And when they had eaten up the rations which they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again and procure some food for us.” |
| Genesis 43:3 |
But Judah said to him, “The man warned us, ‘Do not let me see your faces unless your brother is with you.’ |
| Genesis 43:4 |
If you will let our brother go with us, we will go down and procure food for you; |
| Genesis 43:5 |
but if you will not let him go, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘Do not let me see your faces unless your brother is with you.’” |
| Genesis 43:6 |
And Israel said, “Why did you serve me so ill as to tell the man that you had another brother?” |
| Genesis 43:7 |
They replied, “But the man kept asking about us and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still living? Have you another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How were we to know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?” |
| Genesis 43:8 |
Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy in my care, and let us be on our way, that we may live and not die—you and we and our children. |
| Genesis 43:9 |
I myself will be surety for him; you may hold me responsible: if I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, I shall stand guilty before you forever. |
| Genesis 43:10 |
For we could have been there and back twice if we had not dawdled.” |
| Genesis 43:11 |
Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, do this: take some of the choice products of the land in your baggage, and carry them down as a gift for the man—some balm and some honey, gum, ladanum, pistachio nuts, and almonds. |
| Genesis 43:12 |
And take with you double the money, carrying back with you the money that was replaced in the mouths of your bags; perhaps it was a mistake. |
| Genesis 43:13 |
Take your brother too; and go back at once to the man. |
| Genesis 43:14 |
And may El Shaddai dispose the man to mercy toward you, that he may release to you your other brother, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to be bereaved, I shall be bereaved.” |
| Genesis 43:15 |
So the men took that gift, and they took with them double the money, as well as Benjamin. They made their way down to Egypt, where they presented themselves to Joseph. |
| Genesis 43:16 |
When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to his house steward, “Take the men into the house; slaughter and prepare an animal, for the men will dine with me at noon.” |
| Genesis 43:17 |
The man did as Joseph said, and he brought the men into Joseph’s house. |
| Genesis 43:18 |
But the men were frightened at being brought into Joseph’s house. “It must be,” they thought, “because of the money replaced in our bags the first time that we have been brought inside, as a pretext to attack us and seize us as slaves, with our pack animals.” |
| Genesis 43:19 |
So they went up to Joseph’s house steward and spoke to him at the entrance of the house. |
| Genesis 43:20 |
“If you please, my lord,” they said, “we came down once before to procure food. |
| Genesis 43:21 |
But when we arrived at the night encampment and opened our bags, there was each one’s money in the mouth of his bag, our money in full. So we have brought it back with us. |
| Genesis 43:22 |
And we have brought down with us other money to procure food. We do not know who put the money in our bags.” |
| Genesis 43:23 |
He replied, “All is well with you; do not be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, must have put treasure in your bags for you. I got your payment.” And he brought out Simeon to them. |
| Genesis 43:24 |
Then the man brought the men into Joseph’s house; he gave them water to bathe their feet, and he provided feed for their asses. |
| Genesis 43:25 |
They laid out their gifts to await Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to dine there. |
| Genesis 43:26 |
When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts that they had brought with them into the house, bowing low before him to the ground. |
| Genesis 43:27 |
He greeted them, and he said, “How is your aged father of whom you spoke? Is he still in good health?” |
| Genesis 43:28 |
They replied, “It is well with your servant our father; he is still in good health.” And they bowed and made obeisance. |
| Genesis 43:29 |
Looking about, he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and asked, “Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me?” And he went on, “May God be gracious to you, my boy.” |
| Genesis 43:30 |
With that, Joseph hurried out, for he was overcome with feeling toward his brother and was on the verge of tears; he went into a room and wept there. |
| Genesis 43:31 |
Then he washed his face, reappeared, and—now in control of himself—gave the order, “Serve the meal.” |
| Genesis 43:32 |
They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves; for the Egyptians could not dine with the Hebrews, since that would be abhorrent to the Egyptians. |
| Genesis 43:33 |
As they were seated by his direction, from the oldest in the order of his seniority to the youngest in the order of his youth, the men looked at one another in astonishment. |
| Genesis 43:34 |
Portions were served them from his table; but Benjamin’s portion was several times that of anyone else. And they drank their fill with him. |
| Genesis 44:1 |
Then he instructed his house steward as follows, “Fill the men’s bags with food, as much as they can carry, and put each one’s money in the mouth of his bag. |
| Genesis 44:2 |
Put my silver goblet in the mouth of the bag of the youngest one, together with his money for the rations.” And he did as Joseph told him. |
| Genesis 44:3 |
With the first light of morning, the men were sent off with their pack animals. |
| Genesis 44:4 |
They had just left the city and had not gone far, when Joseph said to his steward, “Up, go after the men! And when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why did you repay good with evil? |
| Genesis 44:5 |
It is the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination. It was a wicked thing for you to do!’” |
| Genesis 44:6 |
He overtook them and spoke those words to them. |
| Genesis 44:7 |
And they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything of the kind! |
| Genesis 44:8 |
Here we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money that we found in the mouths of our bags. How then could we have stolen any silver or gold from your master’s house! |
| Genesis 44:9 |
Whichever of your servants it is found with shall die; the rest of us, moreover, shall become slaves to my lord.” |
| Genesis 44:10 |
He replied, “Although what you are proposing is right, only the one with whom it is found shall be my slave; but the rest of you shall go free.” |
| Genesis 44:11 |
So each one hastened to lower his bag to the ground, and each one opened his bag. |
| Genesis 44:12 |
He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the goblet turned up in Benjamin’s bag. |
| Genesis 44:13 |
At this they rent their clothes. Each reloaded his pack animal, and they returned to the city. |
| Genesis 44:14 |
When Judah and his brothers reentered the house of Joseph, who was still there, they threw themselves on the ground before him. |
| Genesis 44:15 |
Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me practices divination?” |
| Genesis 44:16 |
Judah replied, “What can we say to my lord? How can we plead, how can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered the crime of your servants. Here we are, then, slaves of my lord, the rest of us as much as he in whose possession the goblet was found.” |
| Genesis 44:17 |
But he replied, “Far be it from me to act thus! Only he in whose possession the goblet was found shall be my slave; the rest of you go back in peace to your father.” |
| Genesis 44:18 |
Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh. |
| Genesis 44:19 |
My lord asked his servants, ‘Have you a father or another brother?’ |
| Genesis 44:20 |
We told my lord, ‘We have an old father, and there is a child of his old age, the youngest; his full brother is dead, so that he alone is left of his mother, and his father dotes on him.’ |
| Genesis 44:21 |
Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set eyes on him.’ |
| Genesis 44:22 |
We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he were to leave him, his father would die.’ |
| Genesis 44:23 |
But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, do not let me see your faces.’ |
| Genesis 44:24 |
When we came back to your servant my father, we reported my lord’s words to him. |
| Genesis 44:25 |
“Later our father said, ‘Go back and procure some food for us.’ |
| Genesis 44:26 |
We answered, ‘We cannot go down; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go down, for we may not show our faces to the man unless our youngest brother is with us.’ |
| Genesis 44:27 |
Your servant my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons. |
| Genesis 44:28 |
But one is gone from me, and I said: Alas, he was torn by a beast! And I have not seen him since. |
| Genesis 44:29 |
If you take this one from me, too, and he meets with disaster, you will send my white head down to Sheol in sorrow.’ |
| Genesis 44:30 |
“Now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—since his own life is so bound up with his— |
| Genesis 44:31 |
when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the white head of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief. |
| Genesis 44:32 |
Now your servant has pledged himself for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I shall stand guilty before my father forever.’ |
| Genesis 44:33 |
Therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers. |
| Genesis 44:34 |
For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!” |
| Genesis 45:1 |
Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So there was no one else about when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. |
| Genesis 45:2 |
His sobs were so loud that the Egyptians could hear, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace. |
| Genesis 45:3 |
Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still well?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dumfounded were they on account of him. |
| Genesis 45:4 |
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come forward to me.” And when they came forward, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. |
| Genesis 45:5 |
Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. |
| Genesis 45:6 |
It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. |
| Genesis 45:7 |
God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. |
| Genesis 45:8 |
So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt. |
| Genesis 45:9 |
“Now, hurry back to my father and say to him: Thus says your son Joseph, ‘God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me without delay. |
| Genesis 45:10 |
You will dwell in the region of Goshen, where you will be near me—you and your children and your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all that is yours. |
| Genesis 45:11 |
There I will provide for you—for there are yet five years of famine to come—that you and your household and all that is yours may not suffer want.’ |
| Genesis 45:12 |
You can see for yourselves, and my brother Benjamin for himself, that it is indeed I who am speaking to you. |
| Genesis 45:13 |
And you must tell my father everything about my high station in Egypt and all that you have seen; and bring my father here with all speed.” |
| Genesis 45:14 |
With that he embraced his brother Benjamin around the neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. |
| Genesis 45:15 |
He kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; only then were his brothers able to talk to him. |
| Genesis 45:16 |
The news reached Pharaoh’s palace: “Joseph’s brothers have come.” Pharaoh and his courtiers were pleased. |
| Genesis 45:17 |
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do as follows: load up your beasts and go at once to the land of Canaan. |
| Genesis 45:18 |
Take your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall live off the fat of the land.’ |
| Genesis 45:19 |
And you are bidden [to add], ‘Do as follows: take from the land of Egypt wagons for your children and your wives, and bring your father here. |
| Genesis 45:20 |
And never mind your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt shall be yours.’” |
| Genesis 45:21 |
The sons of Israel did so; Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey. |
| Genesis 45:22 |
To each of them, moreover, he gave a change of clothing; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and several changes of clothing. |
| Genesis 45:23 |
And to his father he sent the following: ten he-asses laden with the best things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain, bread, and provisions for his father on the journey. |
| Genesis 45:24 |
As he sent his brothers off on their way, he told them, “Do not be quarrelsome on the way.” |
| Genesis 45:25 |
They went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. |
| Genesis 45:26 |
And they told him, “Joseph is still alive; yes, he is ruler over the whole land of Egypt.” His heart went numb, for he did not believe them. |
| Genesis 45:27 |
But when they recounted all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. |
| Genesis 45:28 |
“Enough!” said Israel. “My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die.” |
| Genesis 46:5* |
The sons of Israel put their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to transport him; |
| Genesis 46:28 |
He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to point the way before him to Goshen. So when they came to the region of Goshen, |
| Genesis 46:29 |
Joseph ordered his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel; he presented himself to him and, embracing him around the neck, he wept on his neck a good while. |
| Genesis 46:30 |
Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now I can die, having seen for myself that you are still alive.” |
| Genesis 46:31 |
Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell the news to Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. |
| Genesis 46:32 |
The men are shepherds; they have always been breeders of livestock, and they have brought with them their flocks and herds and all that is theirs.’ |
| Genesis 46:33 |
So when Pharaoh summons you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ |
| Genesis 46:34 |
you shall answer, ‘Your servants have been breeders of livestock from the start until now, both we and our fathers’—so that you may stay in the region of Goshen. For all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians.” |
| Genesis 47:1 |
Then Joseph came and reported to Pharaoh, saying, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that is theirs, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in the region of Goshen.” |
| Genesis 47:2 |
And selecting a few of his brothers, he presented them to Pharaoh. |
| Genesis 47:3 |
Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” They answered Pharaoh, “We your servants are shepherds, as were also our fathers. |
| Genesis 47:4 |
We have come,” they told Pharaoh, “to sojourn in this land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, the famine being severe in the land of Canaan. Pray, then, let your servants stay in the region of Goshen.” |
| Genesis 47:6* |
let them stay in the region of Goshen. And if you know any capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.” |
| Genesis 47:12 |
Joseph sustained his father, and his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, down to the little ones. |
| Genesis 47:13 |
Now there was no bread in all the world, for the famine was very severe; both the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. |
| Genesis 47:14 |
Joseph gathered in all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, as payment for the rations that were being procured, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. |
| Genesis 47:15 |
And when the money gave out in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, lest we die before your very eyes; for the money is gone!” |
| Genesis 47:16 |
And Joseph said, “Bring your livestock, and I will sell to you against your livestock, if the money is gone.” |
| Genesis 47:17 |
So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, for the stocks of sheep and cattle, and the asses; thus he provided them with bread that year in exchange for all their livestock. |
| Genesis 47:18 |
And when that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from my lord that, with all the money and animal stocks consigned to my lord, nothing is left at my lord’s disposal save our persons and our farmland. |
| Genesis 47:19 |
Let us not perish before your eyes, both we and our land. Take us and our land in exchange for bread, and we with our land will be serfs to Pharaoh; provide the seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become a waste.” |
| Genesis 47:20 |
So Joseph gained possession of all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, every Egyptian having sold his field because the famine was too much for them; thus the land passed over to Pharaoh. |
| Genesis 47:21 |
And he removed the population town by town, from one end of Egypt’s border to the other. |
| Genesis 47:22 |
Only the land of the priests he did not take over, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh had made to them; therefore they did not sell their land. |
| Genesis 47:23 |
Then Joseph said to the people, “Whereas I have this day acquired you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed for you to sow the land. |
| Genesis 47:24 |
And when harvest comes, you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be yours as seed for the fields and as food for you and those in your households, and as nourishment for your children.” |
| Genesis 47:25 |
And they said, “You have saved our lives! We are grateful to my lord, and we shall be serfs to Pharaoh.” |
| Genesis 47:26 |
And Joseph made it into a land law in Egypt, which is still valid, that a fifth should be Pharaoh’s; only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s. |
| Genesis 47:29 |
And when the time approached for Israel to die, he summoned his son Joseph and said to him, “Do me this favor, place your hand under my thigh as a pledge of your steadfast loyalty: please do not bury me in Egypt. |
| Genesis 47:30 |
When I lie down with my fathers, take me up from Egypt and bury me in their burial-place.” He replied, “I will do as you have spoken.” |
| Genesis 47:31 |
And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed. |
| Genesis 49:1 |
And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come. |
| Genesis 49:2 |
Assemble and hearken, O sons of Jacob;/Hearken to Israel your father: |
| Genesis 49:3 |
Reuben, you are my first-born,/My might and first fruit of my vigor,/Exceeding in rank/And exceeding in honor. |
| Genesis 49:4 |
Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer;/For when you mounted your father’s bed,/You brought disgrace—my couch he mounted! |
| Genesis 49:5 |
Simeon and Levi are a pair;/Their weapons are tools of lawlessness. |
| Genesis 49:6 |
Let not my person be included in their council,/Let not my being be counted in their assembly./For when angry they slay men,/And when pleased they maim oxen. |
| Genesis 49:7 |
Cursed be their anger so fierce,/And their wrath so relentless./I will divide them in Jacob,/Scatter them in Israel. |
| Genesis 49:8 |
You, O Judah, your brothers shall praise;/Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes;/Your father’s sons shall bow low to you. |
| Genesis 49:9 |
Judah is a lion’s whelp;/On prey, my son, have you grown./He crouches, lies down like a lion,/Like the king of beasts—who dare rouse him? |
| Genesis 49:10 |
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,/Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet;/So that tribute shall come to him/And the homage of peoples be his. |
| Genesis 49:11 |
He tethers his ass to a vine,/His ass’s foal to a choice vine;/He washes his garment in wine,/His robe in blood of grapes. |
| Genesis 49:12 |
His eyes are darker than wine;/His teeth are whiter than milk. |
| Genesis 49:13 |
Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore;/He shall be a haven for ships,/And his flank shall rest on Sidon. |
| Genesis 49:14 |
Issachar is a strong-boned ass,/Crouching among the sheepfolds. |
| Genesis 49:15 |
When he saw how good was security,/And how pleasant was the country,/He bent his shoulder to the burden,/And became a toiling serf. |
| Genesis 49:16 |
Dan shall govern his people,/As one of the tribes of Israel. |
| Genesis 49:17 |
Dan shall be a serpent by the road,/A viper by the path,/That bites the horse’s heels/So that his rider is thrown backward. |
| Genesis 49:18 |
I wait for Your deliverance, O LORD! |
| Genesis 49:19 |
Gad shall be raided by raiders,/But he shall raid at their heels. |
| Genesis 49:20 |
Asher’s bread shall be rich,/And he shall yield royal dainties. |
| Genesis 49:21 |
Naphtali is a hind let loose,/Which yields lovely fawns. |
| Genesis 49:22 |
Joseph is a wild ass,/A wild ass by a spring/—Wild colts on a hillside. |
| Genesis 49:23 |
Archers bitterly assailed him;/They shot at him and harried him. |
| Genesis 49:24 |
Yet his bow stayed taut,/And his arms were made firm/By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob—/There, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel— |
| Genesis 49:25 |
The God of your father who helps you,/And Shaddai who blesses you/With blessings of heaven above,/Blessings of the deep that couches below,/Blessings of the breast and womb. |
| Genesis 49:26 |
The blessings of your father/Surpass the blessings of my ancestors,/To the utmost bounds of the eternal hills./May they rest on the head of Joseph,/On the brow of the elect of his brothers. |
| Genesis 49:27 |
Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;/In the morning he consumes the foe,/And in the evening he divides the spoil.” |
| Genesis 49:28 |
All these were the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, addressing to each a parting word appropriate to him. |
| Genesis 49:29 |
Then he instructed them, saying to them, “I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my fathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, |
| Genesis 49:30 |
the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site— |
| Genesis 49:31 |
there Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah— |
| Genesis 49:32 |
the field and the cave in it, bought from the Hittites.” |
| Genesis 49:33 |
When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and, breathing his last, he was gathered to his people. |
| Genesis 50:1 |
Joseph flung himself upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. |
| Genesis 50:2 |
Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. |
| Genesis 50:3 |
It required forty days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him seventy days; |
| Genesis 50:4 |
and when the wailing period was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s court, saying, “Do me this favor, and lay this appeal before Pharaoh: |
| Genesis 50:5 |
‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die. Be sure to bury me in the grave which I made ready for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now, therefore, let me go up and bury my father; then I shall return.’” |
| Genesis 50:6 |
And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath.” |
| Genesis 50:7 |
So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the officials of Pharaoh, the senior members of his court, and all of Egypt’s dignitaries, |
| Genesis 50:8 |
together with all of Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the region of Goshen. |
| Genesis 50:9 |
Chariots, too, and horsemen went up with him; it was a very large troop. |
| Genesis 50:10 |
When they came to Goren ha-Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn lamentation; and he observed a mourning period of seven days for his father. |
| Genesis 50:11 |
And when the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at Goren ha-Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” That is why it was named Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. |
| Genesis 50:14* |
[After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.] |
| Genesis 50:15 |
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong that we did him!” |
| Genesis 50:16 |
So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before his death your father left this instruction: |
| Genesis 50:17 |
So shall you say to Joseph, ‘Forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly.’ Therefore, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father.” And Joseph was in tears as they spoke to him. |
| Genesis 50:18 |
His brothers went to him themselves, flung themselves before him, and said, “We are prepared to be your slaves.” |
| Genesis 50:19 |
But Joseph said to them, “Have no fear! Am I a substitute for God? |
| Genesis 50:20 |
Besides, although you intended me harm, God intended it for good, so as to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. |
| Genesis 50:21 |
And so, fear not. I will sustain you and your children.” Thus he reassured them, speaking kindly to them. |
| Genesis 50:22* |
So Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt. |
| Genesis 50:26* |
Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. |
| Exodus 1:6 |
Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. |
| Exodus 1:8 |
A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. |
| Exodus 1:9 |
And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. |
| Exodus 1:10 |
Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.” |
| Exodus 1:11 |
So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. |
| Exodus 1:12 |
But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites. |
| Exodus 2:11 |
Some time after that, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. |
| Exodus 2:12 |
He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. |
| Exodus 2:13 |
When he went out the next day, he found two Hebrews fighting; so he said to the offender, “Why do you strike your fellow?” |
| Exodus 2:14 |
He retorted, “Who made you chief and ruler over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was frightened, and thought: Then the matter is known! |
| Exodus 2:15 |
When Pharaoh learned of the matter, he sought to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharaoh. He arrived in the land of Midian, and sat down beside a well. |
| Exodus 2:16 |
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock; |
| Exodus 2:17 |
but shepherds came and drove them off. Moses rose to their defense, and he watered their flock. |
| Exodus 2:18 |
When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?” |
| Exodus 2:19 |
They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” |
| Exodus 2:20 |
He said to his daughters, “Where is he then? Why did you leave the man? Ask him in to break bread.” |
| Exodus 2:21 |
Moses consented to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah as wife. |
| Exodus 2:22 |
She bore a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.” |
| Exodus 2:23* |
A long time after that, the king of Egypt died. |
| Exodus 3:2 |
An angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. |
| Exodus 3:3 |
Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?” |
| Exodus 3:4* |
When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, |
| Exodus 3:5 |
And He said, “Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. |
| Exodus 3:6* |
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. |
| Exodus 3:7 |
And the LORD continued, “I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. |
| Exodus 3:8 |
I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. |
| Exodus 3:16 |
“Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: the LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said, ‘I have taken note of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt, |
| Exodus 3:17 |
and I have declared: I will take you out of the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.’ |
| Exodus 3:18 |
They will listen to you; then you shall go with the elders of Israel to the king of Egypt and you shall say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, manifested Himself to us. Now therefore, let us go a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ |
| Exodus 3:19 |
Yet I know that the king of Egypt will let you go only because of a greater might. |
| Exodus 3:20 |
So I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with various wonders which I will work upon them; after that he shall let you go. |
| Exodus 3:21 |
And I will dispose the Egyptians favorably toward this people, so that when you go, you will not go away empty-handed. |
| Exodus 3:22 |
Each woman shall borrow from her neighbor and the lodger in her house objects of silver and gold, and clothing, and you shall put these on your sons and daughters, thus stripping the Egyptians.” |
| Exodus 4:1 |
But Moses spoke up and said, “What if they do not believe me and do not listen to me, but say: The LORD did not appear to you?” |
| Exodus 4:2 |
The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he replied, “A rod.” |
| Exodus 4:3 |
He said, “Cast it on the ground.” He cast it on the ground and it became a snake; and Moses recoiled from it. |
| Exodus 4:4 |
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and grasp it by the tail”—he put out his hand and seized it, and it became a rod in his hand— |
| Exodus 4:5 |
“that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did appear to you.” |
| Exodus 4:6 |
The LORD said to him further, “Put your hand into your bosom.” He put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, his hand was encrusted with snowy scales! |
| Exodus 4:7 |
And He said, “Put your hand back into your bosom.”—He put his hand back into his bosom; and when he took it out of his bosom, there it was again like the rest of his body.— |
| Exodus 4:8 |
“And if they do not believe you or pay heed to the first sign, they will believe the second. |
| Exodus 4:9 |
And if they are not convinced by both these signs and still do not heed you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and it—the water that you take from the Nile—will turn to blood on the dry ground.” |
| Exodus 4:10 |
But Moses said to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” |
| Exodus 4:11 |
And the LORD said to him, “Who gives man speech? Who makes him dumb or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? |
| Exodus 4:12 |
Now go, and I will be with you as you speak and will instruct you what to say.” |
| Exodus 4:13 |
But he said, “Please, O Lord, make someone else Your agent.” |
| Exodus 4:14 |
The LORD became angry with Moses, and He said, “There is your brother Aaron the Levite. He, I know, speaks readily. Even now he is setting out to meet you, and he will be happy to see you. |
| Exodus 4:15 |
You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth—I will be with you and with him as you speak, and tell both of you what to do— |
| Exodus 4:16 |
and he shall speak for you to the people. Thus he shall serve as your spokesman, with you playing the role of God to him. |
| Exodus 4:17 |
And take with you this rod, with which you shall perform the signs.” |
| Exodus 4:19 |
The LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.” |
| Exodus 4:21 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the marvels that I have put within your power. I, however, will stiffen his heart so that he will not let the people go. |
| Exodus 4:22 |
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: Israel is My first-born son. |
| Exodus 4:23 |
I have said to you, “Let My son go, that he may worship Me,” yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your first-born son.’” |
| Exodus 4:24 |
At a night encampment on the way, the LORD encountered him and sought to kill him. |
| Exodus 4:25 |
So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his legs with it, saying, “You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!” |
| Exodus 4:26 |
And when He let him alone, she added, “A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.” |
| Exodus 4:27 |
The LORD said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” He went and met him at the mountain of God, and he kissed him. |
| Exodus 4:28 |
Moses told Aaron about all the things that the LORD had committed to him and all the signs about which He had instructed him. |
| Exodus 4:29 |
Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites. |
| Exodus 4:30 |
Aaron repeated all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and he performed the signs in the sight of the people, |
| Exodus 4:31 |
and the people were convinced. When they heard that the LORD had taken note of the Israelites and that He had seen their plight, they bowed low in homage. |
| Exodus 5:1 |
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let My people go that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness.” |
| Exodus 5:2 |
But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should heed Him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.” |
| Exodus 5:3 |
They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has manifested Himself to us. Let us go, we pray, a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He strike us with pestilence or sword.” |
| Exodus 5:4 |
But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you distract the people from their tasks? Get to your labors!” |
| Exodus 5:5 |
And Pharaoh continued, |
| Exodus 5:6 |
That same day Pharaoh charged the taskmasters and foremen of the people, saying, |
| Exodus 5:7 |
“You shall no longer provide the people with straw for making bricks as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves. |
| Exodus 5:8 |
But impose upon them the same quota of bricks as they have been making heretofore; do not reduce it, for they are shirkers; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God!’ |
| Exodus 5:9 |
Let heavier work be laid upon the men; let them keep at it and not pay attention to deceitful promises.” |
| Exodus 5:10 |
So the taskmasters and foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh: I will not give you any straw. |
| Exodus 5:11 |
You must go and get the straw yourselves wherever you can find it; but there shall be no decrease whatever in your work.” |
| Exodus 5:12 |
Then the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. |
| Exodus 5:13 |
And the taskmasters pressed them, saying, “You must complete the same work assignment each day as when you had straw.” |
| Exodus 5:14 |
And the foremen of the Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten. “Why,” they were asked, “did you not complete the prescribed amount of bricks, either yesterday or today, as you did before?” |
| Exodus 5:15 |
Then the foremen of the Israelites came to Pharaoh and cried: “Why do you deal thus with your servants? |
| Exodus 5:16 |
No straw is issued to your servants, yet they demand of us: Make bricks! Thus your servants are being beaten, when the fault is with your own people.” |
| Exodus 5:17 |
He replied, “You are shirkers, shirkers! That is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’ |
| Exodus 5:18 |
Be off now to your work! No straw shall be issued to you, but you must produce your quota of bricks!” |
| Exodus 5:19 |
Now the foremen of the Israelites found themselves in trouble because of the order, “You must not reduce your daily quantity of bricks.” |
| Exodus 5:20 |
As they left Pharaoh’s presence, they came upon Moses and Aaron standing in their path, |
| Exodus 5:21 |
and they said to them, “May the LORD look upon you and punish you for making us loathsome to Pharaoh and his courtiers—putting a sword in their hands to slay us.” |
| Exodus 5:22 |
Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why did You bring harm upon this people? Why did You send me? |
| Exodus 5:23 |
Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has dealt worse with this people; and still You have not delivered Your people.” |
| Exodus 6:1 |
Then the LORD said to Moses, “You shall soon see what I will do to Pharaoh: he shall let them go because of a greater might; indeed, because of a greater might he shall drive them from his land.” |
| Exodus 7:14 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go. |
| Exodus 7:15 |
Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is coming out to the water, and station yourself before him at the edge of the Nile, taking with you the rod that turned into a snake. |
| Exodus 7:16 |
And say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, “Let My people go that they may worship Me in the wilderness.” But you have paid no heed until now. |
| Exodus 7:17 |
Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD.” See, I shall strike the water in the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood; |
| Exodus 7:18 |
and the fish in the Nile will die. The Nile will stink so that the Egyptians will find it impossible to drink the water of the Nile.’” |
| Exodus 7:20* |
he lifted up the rod and struck the water in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and all the water in the Nile was turned into blood |
| Exodus 7:21 |
and the fish in the Nile died. The Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile; and there was blood throughout the land of Egypt. |
| Exodus 7:23 |
Pharaoh turned and went into his palace, paying no regard even to this. |
| Exodus 7:24 |
And all the Egyptians had to dig round about the Nile for drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the Nile. |
| Exodus 7:25 |
When seven days had passed after the LORD struck the Nile, |
| Exodus 7:26 |
the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: Let My people go that they may worship Me. |
| Exodus 7:27 |
If you refuse to let them go, then I will plague your whole country with frogs. |
| Exodus 7:28 |
The Nile shall swarm with frogs, and they shall come up and enter your palace, your bedchamber and your bed, the houses of your courtiers and your people, and your ovens and your kneading bowls. |
| Exodus 7:29 |
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your courtiers.’” |
| Exodus 8:4 |
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Plead with the LORD to remove the frogs from me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” |
| Exodus 8:5 |
And Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have this triumph over me: for what time shall I plead in behalf of you and your courtiers and your people, that the frogs be cut off from you and your houses, to remain only in the Nile?” |
| Exodus 8:6 |
“For tomorrow,” he replied. And [Moses] said, “As you say—that you may know that there is none like the LORD our God; |
| Exodus 8:7 |
the frogs shall retreat from you and your courtiers and your people; they shall remain only in the Nile.” |
| Exodus 8:8 |
Then Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh’s presence, and Moses cried out to the LORD in the matter of the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh. |
| Exodus 8:9 |
And the LORD did as Moses asked; the frogs died out in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. |
| Exodus 8:10 |
And they piled them up in heaps, till the land stank. |
| Exodus 8:11* |
But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he became stubborn |
| Exodus 8:16 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “Early in the morning present yourself to Pharaoh, as he is coming out to the water, and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: Let My people go that they may worship Me. |
| Exodus 8:17 |
For if you do not let My people go, I will let loose swarms of insects against you and your courtiers and your people and your houses; the houses of the Egyptians, and the very ground they stand on, shall be filled with swarms of insects. |
| Exodus 8:18 |
But on that day I will set apart the region of Goshen, where My people dwell, so that no swarms of insects shall be there, that you may know that I the LORD am in the midst of the land. |
| Exodus 8:19 |
And I will make a distinction between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall come to pass.’” |
| Exodus 8:20 |
And the LORD did so. Heavy swarms of insects invaded Pharaoh’s palace and the houses of his courtiers; throughout the country of Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of insects. |
| Exodus 8:21 |
Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Go and sacrifice to your God within the land.” |
| Exodus 8:22 |
But Moses replied, “It would not be right to do this, for what we sacrifice to the LORD our God is untouchable to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice that which is untouchable to the Egyptians before their very eyes, will they not stone us! |
| Exodus 8:23 |
So we must go a distance of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He may command us.” |
| Exodus 8:24 |
Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; but do not go very far. Plead, then, for me.” |
| Exodus 8:25 |
And Moses said, “When I leave your presence, I will plead with the LORD that the swarms of insects depart tomorrow from Pharaoh and his courtiers and his people; but let not Pharaoh again act deceitfully, not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.” |
| Exodus 8:26 |
So Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and pleaded with the LORD. |
| Exodus 8:27 |
And the LORD did as Moses asked: He removed the swarms of insects from Pharaoh, from his courtiers, and from his people; not one remained. |
| Exodus 8:28 |
But Pharaoh became stubborn this time also, and would not let the people go. |
| Exodus 9:1 |
The LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let My people go to worship Me. |
| Exodus 9:2 |
For if you refuse to let them go, and continue to hold them, |
| Exodus 9:3 |
then the hand of the LORD will strike your livestock in the fields—the horses, the asses, the camels, the cattle, and the sheep—with a very severe pestilence. |
| Exodus 9:4 |
But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of the Egyptians, so that nothing shall die of all that belongs to the Israelites. |
| Exodus 9:5 |
The LORD has fixed the time: tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.’” |
| Exodus 9:6 |
And the LORD did so the next day: all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but of the livestock of the Israelites not a beast died. |
| Exodus 9:7 |
When Pharaoh inquired, he found that not a head of the livestock of Israel had died; yet Pharaoh remained stubborn, and he would not let the people go. |
| Exodus 9:13 |
The LORD said to Moses, “Early in the morning present yourself to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let My people go to worship Me. |
| Exodus 9:14 |
For this time I will send all My plagues upon your person, and your courtiers, and your people, in order that you may know that there is none like Me in all the world. |
| Exodus 9:15 |
I could have stretched forth My hand and stricken you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been effaced from the earth. |
| Exodus 9:16 |
Nevertheless I have spared you for this purpose: in order to show you My power, and in order that My fame may resound throughout the world. |
| Exodus 9:17 |
Yet you continue to thwart My people, and do not let them go! |
| Exodus 9:18 |
This time tomorrow I will rain down a very heavy hail, such as has not been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. |
| Exodus 9:19 |
Therefore, order your livestock and everything you have in the open brought under shelter; every man and beast that is found outside, not having been brought indoors, shall perish when the hail comes down upon them!’” |
| Exodus 9:20 |
Those among Pharaoh’s courtiers who feared the LORD’s word brought their slaves and livestock indoors to safety; |
| Exodus 9:21 |
but those who paid no regard to the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the open. |
| Exodus 9:23* |
and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire streamed down to the ground, as the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt. |
| Exodus 9:24* |
very heavy, such as had not fallen on the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. |
| Exodus 9:26 |
Only in the region of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail. |
| Exodus 9:27 |
Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I stand guilty this time. The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. |
| Exodus 9:28 |
Plead with the LORD that there may be an end of God’s thunder and of hail. I will let you go; you need stay no longer.” |
| Exodus 9:29 |
Moses said to him, “As I go out of the city, I shall spread out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease and the hail will fall no more, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. |
| Exodus 9:30 |
But I know that you and your courtiers do not yet fear the LORD God.”— |
| Exodus 9:33 |
Leaving Pharaoh, Moses went outside the city and spread out his hands to the LORD: the thunder and the hail ceased, and no rain came pouring down upon the earth. |
| Exodus 9:34 |
But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he became stubborn and reverted to his guilty ways, as did his courtiers. |
| Exodus 10:1 |
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers, in order that I may display these My signs among them, |
| Exodus 10:2 |
and that you may recount in the hearing of your child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am the LORD.” |
| Exodus 10:3 |
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go that they may worship Me. |
| Exodus 10:4 |
For if you refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory. |
| Exodus 10:5 |
They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land. They shall devour the surviving remnant that was left to you after the hail; and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field. |
| Exodus 10:6 |
Moreover, they shall fill your palaces and the houses of all your courtiers and of all the Egyptians—something that neither your fathers nor fathers’ fathers have seen from the day they appeared on earth to this day.’” With that he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence. |
| Exodus 10:7 |
Pharaoh’s courtiers said to him, “How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let the men go to worship the LORD their God! Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?” |
| Exodus 10:8 |
So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh and he said to them, “Go, worship the LORD your God! Who are the ones to go?” |
| Exodus 10:9 |
Moses replied, “We will all go, young and old: we will go with our sons and daughters, our flocks and herds; for we must observe the LORD’s festival.” |
| Exodus 10:10 |
But he said to them, “The LORD be with you—the same as I mean to let your children go with you! Clearly, you are bent on mischief. |
| Exodus 10:11 |
No! You menfolk go and worship the LORD, since that is what you want.” And they were expelled from Pharaoh’s presence. |
| Exodus 10:13* |
and the LORD drove an east wind over the land all that day and all night; and when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. |
| Exodus 10:14* |
[They] settled within all the territory of Egypt in a thick mass; never before had there been so many, nor will there ever be so many again. |
| Exodus 10:15* |
They hid all the land from view, and the land was darkened; |
| Exodus 10:16 |
Pharaoh hurriedly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I stand guilty before the LORD your God and before you. |
| Exodus 10:17 |
Forgive my offense just this once, and plead with the LORD your God that He but remove this death from me.” |
| Exodus 10:18 |
So he left Pharaoh’s presence and pleaded with the LORD. |
| Exodus 10:19 |
The LORD caused a shift to a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and hurled them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt. |
| Exodus 10:24 |
Pharaoh then summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the LORD! Only your flocks and your herds shall be left behind; even your children may go with you.” |
| Exodus 10:25 |
But Moses said, “You yourself must provide us with sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer up to the LORD our God; |
| Exodus 10:26 |
our own livestock, too, shall go along with us—not a hoof shall remain behind: for we must select from it for the worship of the LORD our God; and we shall not know with what we are to worship the LORD until we arrive there.” |
| Exodus 10:28 |
Pharaoh said to him, “Be gone from me! Take care not to see me again, for the moment you look upon my face you shall die.” |
| Exodus 10:29 |
And Moses replied, “You have spoken rightly. I shall not see your face again!” |
| Exodus 11:1 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring but one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; after that he shall let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you out of here one and all. |
| Exodus 11:4 |
Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: Toward midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians, |
| Exodus 11:5 |
and every first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the first-born of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; and all the first-born of the cattle. |
| Exodus 11:6 |
And there shall be a loud cry in all the land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again; |
| Exodus 11:7 |
but not a dog shall snarl at any of the Israelites, at man or beast—in order that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. |
| Exodus 11:8 |
Then all these courtiers of yours shall come down to me and bow low to me, saying, ‘Depart, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will depart.” And he left Pharaoh’s presence in hot anger. |
| Exodus 12:21* |
Moses then summoned all the elders of Israel |
| Exodus 12:27* |
The people then bowed low in homage. |
| Exodus 12:29 |
In the middle of the night the LORD struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the first-born of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of the cattle. |
| Exodus 12:30 |
And Pharaoh arose in the night, with all his courtiers and all the Egyptians—because there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead. |
| Exodus 12:31 |
He summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, “Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you! Go, worship the LORD as you said! |
| Exodus 12:32 |
Take also your flocks and your herds, as you said, and begone! And may you bring a blessing upon me also!” |
| Exodus 12:33 |
The Egyptians urged the people on, impatient to have them leave the country, for they said, “We shall all be dead.” |
| Exodus 12:34 |
So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks upon their shoulders. |
| Exodus 12:35 |
The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver and gold, and clothing. |
| Exodus 12:36 |
And the LORD had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request; thus they stripped the Egyptians. |
| Exodus 12:37* |
about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. |
| Exodus 12:38 |
Moreover, a mixed multitude went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. |
| Exodus 12:39 |
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had taken out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, since they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay; nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves. |
| Exodus 13:17 |
Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.” |
| Exodus 13:18* |
So God led the people round about, by way of the wilderness at the Sea of Reeds. |
| Exodus 13:21 |
The LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, that they might travel day and night. |
| Exodus 13:22 |
The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. |
| Exodus 14:5 |
When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his courtiers had a change of heart about the people and said, “What is this we have done, releasing Israel from our service?” |
| Exodus 14:6 |
He ordered his chariot and took his men with him; |
| Exodus 14:7 |
he took six hundred of his picked chariots, and the rest of the chariots of Egypt, with officers in all of them. |
| Exodus 14:10 |
As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites caught sight of the Egyptians advancing upon them. Greatly frightened, the Israelites cried out to the LORD. |
| Exodus 14:11 |
And they said to Moses, “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt? |
| Exodus 14:12 |
Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us be, and we will serve the Egyptians, for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’?” |
| Exodus 14:13 |
But Moses said to the people, “Have no fear! Stand by, and witness the deliverance which the LORD will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. |
| Exodus 14:14 |
The LORD will battle for you; you hold your peace!” |
| Exodus 14:19 |
The angel of God, who had been going ahead of the Israelite army, now moved and followed behind them; and the pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them, |
| Exodus 14:20 |
and it came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. Thus there was the cloud with the darkness, and it cast a spell upon the night, so that the one could not come near the other all through the night. |
| Exodus 14:21* |
and the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind all that night, and turned the sea into dry ground. |
| Exodus 14:24 |
At the morning watch, the LORD looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. |
| Exodus 14:25 |
He locked the wheels of their chariots so that they moved forward with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.” |
| Exodus 14:27* |
and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state, and the Egyptians fled at its approach. But the LORD hurled the Egyptians into the sea. |
| Exodus 14:30 |
Thus the LORD delivered Israel that day from the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea. |
| Exodus 14:31 |
And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the LORD had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD; they had faith in the LORD and His servant Moses. |
| Exodus 15:1 |
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD. They said:/I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously;/Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea. |
| Exodus 15:2 |
The LORD Him;/The God of my father, and I will exalt Him. |
| Exodus 15:3 |
The LORD, the Warrior—/LORD is His name! |
| Exodus 15:4 |
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army/He has cast into the sea;/And the pick of his officers/Are drowned in the Sea of Reeds. |
| Exodus 15:5 |
The deeps covered them;/They went down into the depths like a stone. |
| Exodus 15:6 |
Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power,/Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the foe! |
| Exodus 15:7 |
In Your great triumph You break Your opponents;/You send forth Your fury, it consumes them like straw. |
| Exodus 15:8 |
At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up,/The floods stood straight like a wall;/The deeps froze in the heart of the sea. |
| Exodus 15:9 |
The foe said,/“I will pursue, I will overtake,/I will divide the spoil;/My desire shall have its fill of them./I will bare my sword—/My hand shall subdue them.” |
| Exodus 15:10 |
You made Your wind blow, the sea covered them;/They sank like lead in the majestic waters./ |
| Exodus 15:11 |
Who is like You, O LORD, among the celestials;/Who is like You, majestic in holiness,/Awesome in splendor, working wonders! |
| Exodus 15:12 |
You put out Your right hand,/The earth swallowed them. |
| Exodus 15:13 |
In Your love You lead the people You redeemed;/In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode. |
| Exodus 15:14 |
The peoples hear, they tremble;/Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia. |
| Exodus 15:15 |
Now are the clans of Edom dismayed;/The tribes of Moab—trembling grips them;/All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast. |
| Exodus 15:16 |
Terror and dread descend upon them;/Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone—/Till Your people cross over, O LORD,/Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed./ |
| Exodus 15:17 |
You will bring them and plant them in Your own mountain,/The place You made to dwell in, O LORD,/The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands established. |
| Exodus 15:18 |
The LORD will reign for ever and ever! |
| Exodus 15:19 |
For the horses of Pharaoh, with his chariots and horsemen, went into the sea; and the LORD turned back on them the waters of the sea; but the Israelites marched on dry ground in the midst of the sea. |
| Exodus 15:22* |
Then Moses caused Israel to set out from the Sea of Reeds. They went on into the wilderness of Shur; |
| Exodus 15:23 |
They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; that is why it was named Marah. |
| Exodus 15:24 |
And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” |
| Exodus 15:25 |
So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and the water became sweet./There He made for them a fixed rule, and there He put them to the test. |
| Exodus 15:26 |
He said, “If you will heed the LORD your God diligently, doing what is upright in His sight, giving ear to His commandments and keeping all His laws, then I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I the LORD am your healer.” |
| Exodus 16:4 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the sky, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not. |
| Exodus 16:5 |
But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.” |
| Exodus 16:26 |
Six days you shall gather it; on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” |
| Exodus 16:27 |
Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing. |
| Exodus 16:28 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you all refuse to obey My commandments and My teachings? |
| Exodus 16:29 |
Mark that the LORD has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you two days’ food on the sixth day. Let everyone remain where he is: let no one leave his place on the seventh day.” |
| Exodus 16:30 |
So the people remained inactive on the seventh day. |
| Exodus 17:1* |
and there was no water for the people to drink. |
| Exodus 17:2 |
The people quarreled with Moses. “Give us water to drink,” they said; and Moses replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you try the LORD?” |
| Exodus 17:3 |
But the people thirsted there for water; and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” |
| Exodus 17:4 |
Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do with this people? Before long they will be stoning me!” |
| Exodus 17:5 |
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel, and take along the rod with which you struck the Nile, and set out. |
| Exodus 17:6 |
I will be standing there before you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock and water will issue from it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. |
| Exodus 17:7 |
The place was named Massah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD present among us or not?” |
| Exodus 19:9* |
Then Moses reported the people’s words to the LORD, |
| Exodus 19:10 |
and the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and warn them to stay pure today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes. |
| Exodus 19:11 |
Let them be ready for the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down, in the sight of all the people, on Mount Sinai. |
| Exodus 19:12 |
You shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, ‘Beware of going up the mountain or touching the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death: |
| Exodus 19:13 |
no hand shall touch him, but he shall be either stoned or shot; beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.” |
| Exodus 19:14* |
[Moses [went] × to the people and warned the people to stay pure, and they washed their clothes.] |
| Exodus 19:15 |
And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day: do not go near a woman.” |
| Exodus 19:16* |
On the third day, as morning dawned, |
| Exodus 19:20 |
The LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. |
| Exodus 19:21 |
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people not to break through to the LORD to gaze, lest many of them perish. |
| Exodus 19:22 |
The priests also, who come near the LORD, must stay pure, lest the LORD break out against them.” |
| Exodus 19:23 |
But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it.’” |
| Exodus 19:24 |
So the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come back together with Aaron; but let not the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.” |
| Exodus 19:25 |
And Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. |
| Exodus 24:1 |
Then He said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD, with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow low from afar. |
| Exodus 24:2 |
Moses alone shall come near the LORD; but the others shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.” |
| Exodus 24:9 |
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended; |
| Exodus 24:10 |
and they saw the God of Israel: under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity. |
| Exodus 24:11* |
Yet He did not raise His hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they beheld God, |
| Exodus 33:1 |
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Set out from here, you and the people that you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring will I give it’— |
| Exodus 33:3 |
a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go in your midst, since you are a stiffnecked people, lest I destroy you on the way.” |
| Exodus 33:4 |
When the people heard this harsh word, they went into mourning, and none put on his finery. |
| Exodus 33:5 |
The LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelite people, ‘You are a stiffnecked people. If I were to go in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now, then, leave off your finery, and I will consider what to do to you.’” |
| Exodus 33:6* |
So the Israelites remained stripped of their finery |
| Exodus 33:12 |
Moses said to the LORD, “See, You say to me, ‘Lead this people forward,’ but You have not made known to me whom You will send with me. Further, You have said, ‘I have singled you out by name, and you have, indeed, gained My favor.’ |
| Exodus 33:13 |
Now, if I have truly gained Your favor, pray let me know Your ways, that I may know You and continue in Your favor. Consider, too, that this nation is Your people.” |
| Exodus 33:14 |
And He said, “I will go in the lead and will lighten your burden.” |
| Exodus 33:15 |
And he said to Him, “Unless You go in the lead, do not make us leave this place. |
| Exodus 33:16 |
For how shall it be known that Your people have gained Your favor unless You go with us, so that we may be distinguished, Your people and I, from every people on the face of the earth?” |
| Exodus 33:17 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked; for you have truly gained My favor and I have singled you out by name.” |
| Exodus 33:18 |
He said, “Oh, let me behold Your Presence!” |
| Exodus 33:19 |
And He answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name LORD, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. |
| Exodus 33:20 |
But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for man may not see Me and live.” |
| Exodus 33:21 |
And the LORD said, “See, there is a place near Me. Station yourself on the rock |
| Exodus 33:22 |
and, as My Presence passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with My hand until I have passed by. |
| Exodus 33:23 |
Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen.” |
| Exodus 34:3 |
No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain.” |
| Exodus 34:4* |
[So Moses rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as YHWH had commanded him] |
| Exodus 34:5* |
He stood with him there, and proclaimed the name LORD. |
| Exodus 34:6 |
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed: “The LORD! the LORD! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, |
| Exodus 34:7 |
extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.” |
| Exodus 34:8 |
Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, |
| Exodus 34:9 |
and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, let the Lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!” |
| Exodus 34:10 |
He said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will work such wonders as have not been wrought on all the earth or in any nation; and all the people who are with you shall see how awesome are the LORD’s deeds which I will perform for you. |
| Exodus 34:11 |
Mark well what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. |
| Exodus 34:12 |
Beware of making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are advancing, lest they be a snare in your midst. |
| Exodus 34:13 |
No, you must tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred posts; |
| Exodus 34:14 |
for you must not worship any other god, because the LORD, whose name is Impassioned, is an impassioned God. |
| Exodus 34:15 |
You must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for they will lust after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and invite you, and you will eat of their sacrifices. |
| Exodus 34:16 |
And when you take wives from among their daughters for your sons, their daughters will lust after their gods and will cause your sons to lust after their gods. |
| Exodus 34:27 |
And the LORD said to Moses: Write down these commandments, for in accordance with these commandments I make a covenant with you and with Israel. |
| Exodus 34:28* |
[And he wrote down the words of the covenant.] |
| Numbers 10:29 |
Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD has said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will be generous with you; for the LORD has promised to be generous to Israel.” |
| Numbers 10:30 |
“I will not go,” he replied to him, “but will return to my native land.” |
| Numbers 10:31 |
He said, “Please do not leave us, inasmuch as you know where we should camp in the wilderness and can be our guide. |
| Numbers 10:32 |
So if you come with us, we will extend to you the same bounty that the LORD grants us.” |
| Numbers 10:33 |
They marched from the mountain of the LORD a distance of three days. The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD traveled in front of them on that three days’ journey to seek out a resting place for them; |
| Numbers 10:34 |
and the LORD’s cloud kept above them by day, as they moved on from camp. |
| Numbers 11:1 |
The people took to complaining bitterly before the LORD. The LORD heard and was incensed: a fire of the LORD broke out against them, ravaging the outskirts of the camp. |
| Numbers 11:2 |
The people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. |
| Numbers 11:3 |
That place was named Taberah, because a fire of the LORD had broken out against them. |
| Numbers 11:4 |
The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! |
| Numbers 11:5 |
We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. |
| Numbers 11:6 |
Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” |
| Numbers 11:7 |
Now the manna was like coriander seed, and in color it was like bdellium. |
| Numbers 11:8 |
The people would go about and gather it, grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, boil it in a pot, and make it into cakes. It tasted like rich cream. |
| Numbers 11:9 |
When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall upon it. |
| Numbers 11:10 |
Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, each person at the entrance of his tent. The LORD was very angry, and Moses was distressed. |
| Numbers 11:11* |
And Moses said to the LORD, |
| Numbers 11:13 |
Where am I to get meat to give to all this people, when they whine before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ |
| Numbers 11:18 |
And say to the people: Purify yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have kept whining before the LORD and saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Indeed, we were better off in Egypt!’ The LORD will give you meat and you shall eat. |
| Numbers 11:19 |
You shall eat not one day, not two, not even five days or ten or twenty, |
| Numbers 11:20 |
but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the LORD who is among you, by whining before Him and saying, ‘Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!’” |
| Numbers 11:21 |
But Moses said, “The people who are with me number six hundred thousand men; yet You say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month.’ |
| Numbers 11:22 |
Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?” |
| Numbers 11:23 |
And the LORD answered Moses, “Is there a limit to the LORD’s power? You shall soon see whether what I have said happens to you or not!” |
| Numbers 11:24* |
Moses went out and reported the words of the LORD to the people. |
| Numbers 11:31 |
A wind from the LORD started up, swept quail from the sea and strewed them over the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and some two cubits deep on the ground. |
| Numbers 11:32 |
The people set to gathering quail all that day and night and all the next day—even he who gathered least had ten <i>ḥomer</i>s—and they spread them out all around the camp. |
| Numbers 11:33 |
The meat was still between their teeth, not yet chewed, when the anger of the LORD blazed forth against the people and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague. |
| Numbers 11:34 |
That place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because the people who had the craving were buried there. |
| Numbers 11:35 |
Then the people set out from Kibroth-hattaavah for Hazeroth./When they were in Hazeroth, |
| Numbers 13:17* |
he said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb and on into the hill country, |
| Numbers 13:18 |
and see what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? |
| Numbers 13:19 |
Is the country in which they dwell good or bad? Are the towns they live in open or fortified? |
| Numbers 13:20 |
Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not? And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.”—Now it happened to be the season of the first ripe grapes. |
| Numbers 13:22 |
They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron, where lived Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites.—Now Hebron was founded seven years before Zoan of Egypt.— |
| Numbers 13:23 |
They reached the wadi Eshcol, and there they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes—it had to be borne on a carrying frame by two of them—and some pomegranates and figs. |
| Numbers 13:24 |
That place was named the wadi Eshcol because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down there. |
| Numbers 13:26* |
and they made their report to them and to the whole community, as they showed them the fruit of the land. |
| Numbers 13:27 |
This is what they told him: “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. |
| Numbers 13:28 |
However, the people who inhabit the country are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the Anakites there. |
| Numbers 13:29 |
Amalekites dwell in the Negeb region; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites inhabit the hill country; and Canaanites dwell by the Sea and along the Jordan.” |
| Numbers 13:30 |
Caleb hushed the people before Moses and said, “Let us by all means go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.” |
| Numbers 13:31 |
But the men who had gone up with him said, “We cannot attack that people, for it is stronger than we.” |
| Numbers 13:33 |
we saw the Nephilim there—the Anakites are part of the Nephilim—and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we must have looked to them.” |
| Numbers 14:1* |
and the people wept that night. |
| Numbers 14:11 |
And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me, and how long will they have no faith in Me despite all the signs that I have performed in their midst? |
| Numbers 14:12 |
I will strike them with pestilence and disown them, and I will make of you a nation far more numerous than they!” |
| Numbers 14:13 |
But Moses said to the LORD, “When the Egyptians, from whose midst You brought up this people in Your might, hear the news, |
| Numbers 14:14 |
they will tell it to the inhabitants of that land. Now they have heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people; that You, O LORD, appear in plain sight when Your cloud rests over them and when You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. |
| Numbers 14:15 |
If then You slay this people to a man, the nations who have heard Your fame will say, |
| Numbers 14:16 |
‘It must be because the LORD was powerless to bring that people into the land He had promised them on oath that He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ |
| Numbers 14:17 |
Therefore, I pray, let my Lord’s forbearance be great, as You have declared, saying, |
| Numbers 14:18 |
‘The LORD! slow to anger and abounding in kindness; forgiving iniquity and transgression; yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children, upon the third and fourth generations.’ |
| Numbers 14:19 |
Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to Your great kindness, as You have forgiven this people ever since Egypt.” |
| Numbers 14:20 |
And the LORD said, “I pardon, as you have asked. |
| Numbers 14:21 |
Nevertheless, as I live and as the LORD’s Presence fills the whole world, |
| Numbers 14:22 |
none of the men who have seen My Presence and the signs that I have performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and who have tried Me these many times and have disobeyed Me, |
| Numbers 14:23 |
shall see the land that I promised on oath to their fathers; none of those who spurn Me shall see it. |
| Numbers 14:24 |
But My servant Caleb, because he was imbued with a different spirit and remained loyal to Me—him will I bring into the land that he entered, and his offspring shall hold it as a possession. |
| Numbers 14:25 |
Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites occupy the valleys. Start out, then, tomorrow and march into the wilderness by way of the Sea of Reeds.” |
| Numbers 14:39 |
When Moses repeated these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome by grief. |
| Numbers 14:40 |
Early next morning they set out toward the crest of the hill country, saying, “We are prepared to go up to the place that the LORD has spoken of, for we were wrong.” |
| Numbers 14:41 |
But Moses said, “Why do you transgress the LORD’s command? This will not succeed. |
| Numbers 14:42 |
Do not go up, lest you be routed by your enemies, for the LORD is not in your midst. |
| Numbers 14:43 |
For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there to face you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have turned from following the LORD and the LORD will not be with you.” |
| Numbers 14:44 |
Yet defiantly they marched toward the crest of the hill country, though neither the LORD’s Ark of the Covenant nor Moses stirred from the camp. |
| Numbers 14:45 |
And the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that hill country came down and dealt them a shattering blow at Hormah. |
| Numbers 21:1 |
When the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negeb, learned that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he engaged Israel in battle and took some of them captive. |
| Numbers 21:2 |
Then Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You deliver this people into our hand, we will proscribe their towns.” |
| Numbers 21:3 |
The LORD heeded Israel’s plea and delivered up the Canaanites; and they and their cities were proscribed. So that place was named Hormah. |
| Numbers 21:4* |
by way of the Sea of Reeds |
| Numbers 21:18* |
And from Midbar to Mattanah, |
| Numbers 21:19 |
and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, |
| Numbers 21:20 |
and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the country of Moab, at the peak of Pisgah, overlooking the wasteland. |
| Numbers 22:2 |
Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. |
| Numbers 22:3 |
Moab was alarmed because that people was so numerous. Moab dreaded the Israelites, |
| Numbers 22:4 |
and Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this horde will lick clean all that is about us as an ox licks up the grass of the field.”/Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, |
| Numbers 22:5 |
sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor in Pethor, which is by the Euphrates, in the land of his kinsfolk, to invite him, saying, “There is a people that came out of Egypt; it hides the earth from view, and it is settled next to me. |
| Numbers 22:6 |
Come then, put a curse upon this people for me, since they are too numerous for me; perhaps I can thus defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that he whom you bless is blessed indeed, and he whom you curse is cursed.” |
| Numbers 22:7 |
The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, versed in divination, set out. They came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message. |
| Numbers 22:8 |
He said to them, “Spend the night here, and I shall reply to you as the LORD may instruct me.” So the Moabite dignitaries stayed with Balaam. |
| Numbers 22:9 |
God came to Balaam and said, “What do these people want of you?” |
| Numbers 22:10 |
Balaam said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me this message: |
| Numbers 22:11 |
Here is a people that came out from Egypt and hides the earth from view. Come now and curse them for me; perhaps I can engage them in battle and drive them off.” |
| Numbers 22:12 |
But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not curse that people, for they are blessed.” |
| Numbers 22:13 |
Balaam arose in the morning and said to Balak’s dignitaries, “Go back to your own country, for the LORD will not let me go with you.” |
| Numbers 22:14 |
The Moabite dignitaries left, and they came to Balak and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.” |
| Numbers 22:15 |
Then Balak sent other dignitaries, more numerous and distinguished than the first. |
| Numbers 22:16 |
They came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak son of Zippor: Please do not refuse to come to me. |
| Numbers 22:17 |
I will reward you richly and I will do anything you ask of me. Only come and damn this people for me.” |
| Numbers 22:18 |
Balaam replied to Balak’s officials, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, big or little, contrary to the command of the LORD my God. |
| Numbers 22:19 |
So you, too, stay here overnight, and let me find out what else the LORD may say to me.” |
| Numbers 22:20 |
That night God came to Balaam and said to him, “If these men have come to invite you, you may go with them. But whatever I command you, that you shall do.” |
| Numbers 22:21 |
When he arose in the morning, Balaam saddled his ass and departed with the Moabite dignitaries. |
| Numbers 22:22 |
But God was incensed at his going; so an angel of the LORD placed himself in his way as an adversary./He was riding on his she-ass, with his two servants alongside, |
| Numbers 22:23 |
when the ass caught sight of the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. The ass swerved from the road and went into the fields; and Balaam beat the ass to turn her back onto the road. |
| Numbers 22:24 |
The angel of the LORD then stationed himself in a lane between the vineyards, with a fence on either side. |
| Numbers 22:25 |
The ass, seeing the angel of the LORD, pressed herself against the wall and squeezed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he beat her again. |
| Numbers 22:26 |
Once more the angel of the LORD moved forward and stationed himself on a spot so narrow that there was no room to swerve right or left. |
| Numbers 22:27 |
When the ass now saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam; and Balaam was furious and beat the ass with his stick. |
| Numbers 22:28 |
Then the LORD opened the ass’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?” |
| Numbers 22:29 |
Balaam said to the ass, “You have made a mockery of me! If I had a sword with me, I’d kill you.” |
| Numbers 22:30 |
The ass said to Balaam, “Look, I am the ass that you have been riding all along until this day! Have I been in the habit of doing thus to you?” And he answered, “No.” |
| Numbers 22:31 |
Then the LORD uncovered Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, his drawn sword in his hand; thereupon he bowed right down to the ground. |
| Numbers 22:32 |
The angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you beaten your ass these three times? It is I who came out as an adversary, for the errand is obnoxious to me. |
| Numbers 22:33 |
And when the ass saw me, she shied away because of me those three times. If she had not shied away from me, you are the one I should have killed, while sparing her.” |
| Numbers 22:34 |
Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I erred because I did not know that you were standing in my way. If you still disapprove, I will turn back.” |
| Numbers 22:35 |
But the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men. But you must say nothing except what I tell you.” So Balaam went on with Balak’s dignitaries. |
| Numbers 22:36 |
When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at Ir-moab, which is on the Arnon border, at its farthest point. |
| Numbers 22:37 |
Balak said to Balaam, “When I first sent to invite you, why didn’t you come to me? Am I really unable to reward you?” |
| Numbers 22:38 |
But Balaam said to Balak, “And now that I have come to you, have I the power to speak freely? I can utter only the word that God puts into my mouth.” |
| Numbers 22:39 |
Balaam went with Balak and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. |
| Numbers 22:40 |
Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and had them served to Balaam and the dignitaries with him. |
| Numbers 22:41 |
In the morning Balak took Balaam up to Bamoth-baal. From there he could see a portion of the people. |
| Numbers 23:1 |
Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and have seven bulls and seven rams ready here for me.” |
| Numbers 23:2 |
Balak did as Balaam directed; and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. |
| Numbers 23:3 |
Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offerings while I am gone. Perhaps the LORD will grant me a manifestation, and whatever He reveals to me I will tell you.” And he went off alone. |
| Numbers 23:4 |
God manifested Himself to Balaam, who said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” |
| Numbers 23:5 |
And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and speak thus.” |
| Numbers 23:6 |
So he returned to him and found him standing beside his offerings, and all the Moabite dignitaries with him. |
| Numbers 23:7 |
He took up his theme, and said:/From Aram has Balak brought me,/Moab’s king from the hills of the East:/Come, curse me Jacob,/Come, tell Israel’s doom! |
| Numbers 23:8 |
How can I damn whom God has not damned,/How doom when the LORD has not doomed? |
| Numbers 23:9 |
As I see them from the mountain tops,/Gaze on them from the heights,/There is a people that dwells apart,/Not reckoned among the nations, |
| Numbers 23:10 |
Who can count the dust/May my fate be like theirs! |
| Numbers 23:11 |
Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? Here I brought you to damn my enemies, and instead you have blessed them!” |
| Numbers 23:12 |
He replied, “I can only repeat faithfully what the LORD puts in my mouth.” |
| Numbers 23:13 |
Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place from which you can see them—you will see only a portion of them; you will not see all of them—and damn them for me from there.” |
| Numbers 23:14 |
With that, he took him to Sedehzophim, on the summit of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. |
| Numbers 23:15 |
And [Balaam] said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offerings, while I seek a manifestation yonder.” |
| Numbers 23:16 |
The LORD manifested Himself to Balaam and put a word in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak thus.” |
| Numbers 23:17 |
He went to him and found him standing beside his offerings, and the Moabite dignitaries with him. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?” |
| Numbers 23:18 |
And he took up his theme, and said:/Up, Balak, attend,/Give ear unto me, son of Zippor! |
| Numbers 23:19 |
God is not man to be capricious,/Or mortal to change His mind./Would He speak and not act,/Promise and not fulfill? |
| Numbers 23:20 |
My message was to bless:/When He blesses, I cannot reverse it. |
| Numbers 23:21 |
No harm is in sight for Jacob,/No woe in view for Israel./The LORD their God is with them,/And their King’s acclaim in their midst. |
| Numbers 23:22 |
God who freed them from Egypt/Is for them like the horns of the wild ox. |
| Numbers 23:23 |
Lo, there is no augury in Jacob,/No divining in Israel: |
| Numbers 23:24 |
Lo, a people that rises like a lion,/Leaps up like the king of beasts,/Rests not till it has feasted on prey/And drunk the blood of the slain. |
| Numbers 23:25 |
Thereupon Balak said to Balaam, “Don’t curse them and don’t bless them!” |
| Numbers 23:26 |
In reply, Balaam said to Balak, “But I told you: Whatever the LORD says, that I must do.” |
| Numbers 23:27 |
Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps God will deem it right that you damn them for me there.” |
| Numbers 23:28 |
Balak took Balaam to the peak of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. |
| Numbers 23:29 |
Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and have seven bulls and seven rams ready for me here.” |
| Numbers 23:30 |
Balak did as Balaam said: he offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. |
| Numbers 24:1 |
Now Balaam, seeing that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, did not, as on previous occasions, go in search of omens, but turned his face toward the wilderness. |
| Numbers 24:2 |
As Balaam looked up and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the spirit of God came upon him. |
| Numbers 24:3 |
Taking up his theme, he said:/ |
| Numbers 24:4 |
Word of him who hears God’s speech,/Who beholds visions from the Almighty,/Prostrate, but with eyes unveiled: |
| Numbers 24:5 |
How fair are your tents, O Jacob,/Your dwellings, O Israel! |
| Numbers 24:6 |
Like palm-groves that stretch out,/Like gardens beside a river,/Like aloes planted by the LORD,/Like cedars beside the water; |
| Numbers 24:7 |
Their boughs drip with moisture,/Their roots have abundant water./Their king shall rise above Agag,/Their kingdom shall be exalted. |
| Numbers 24:8 |
God who freed them from Egypt/Is for them like the horns of the wild ox./They shall devour enemy nations,/Crush their bones,/And smash their arrows. |
| Numbers 24:9 |
They crouch, they lie down like a lion,/Like the king of beasts; who dare rouse them?/Blessed are they who bless you,/Accursed they who curse you! |
| Numbers 24:10 |
Enraged at Balaam, Balak struck his hands together. “I called you,” Balak said to Balaam, “to damn my enemies, and instead you have blessed them these three times! |
| Numbers 24:11 |
Back with you at once to your own place! I was going to reward you richly, but the LORD has denied you the reward.” |
| Numbers 24:12 |
Balaam replied to Balak, “But I even told the messengers you sent to me, |
| Numbers 24:13 |
‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not of my own accord do anything good or bad contrary to the LORD’s command. What the LORD says, that I must say.’ |
| Numbers 24:14 |
And now, as I go back to my people, let me inform you of what this people will do to your people in days to come.” |
| Numbers 24:15 |
He took up his theme, and said:/Word of Balaam son of Beor,/Word of the man whose eye is true, |
| Numbers 24:16 |
Word of him who hears God’s speech,/Who obtains knowledge from the Most High,/And beholds visions from the Almighty,/Prostrate, but with eyes unveiled: |
| Numbers 24:17 |
What I see for them is not yet,/What I behold will not be soon:/A star rises from Jacob,/A scepter comes forth from Israel;/It smashes the brow of Moab,/The foundation of all children of Seth. |
| Numbers 24:18 |
Edom becomes a possession,/Yea, Seir a possession of its enemies;/But Israel is triumphant. |
| Numbers 24:19 |
A victor issues from Jacob/To wipe out what is left of Ir. |
| Numbers 24:20 |
He saw Amalek and, taking up his theme, he said:/A leading nation is Amalek;/But its fate is to perish forever. |
| Numbers 24:25 |
Then Balaam set out on his journey back home; and Balak also went his way. |
| Numbers 25:1* |
the people profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, |
| Numbers 25:2 |
who invited the people to the sacrifices for their god. The people partook of them and worshiped that god. |
| Numbers 25:3* |
and the LORD was incensed with Israel. |
| Numbers 25:4 |
The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the ringleaders impaled before the LORD, so that the LORD’s wrath may turn away from Israel.” |
| Deuteronomy 34:1* |
[Moses ascended to the summit of Pisgah. Yhwh showed him all the land.] |
| Deuteronomy 34:4 |
And the LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘I will assign it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there.” |
| Deuteronomy 34:5* |
[Moses died.] |