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Genesis 39:13-23
/RSS FeedGenesis 39:13-23
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,
14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, but I screamed as loud as I could.
15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
16 So Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s cloak beside her until his master came home.
17 Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me,
18 but when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” he burned with anger.
20 So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison,
21 the LORD was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
22 And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison.
23 The warden did not concern himself with anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. -
Genesis 34:1-12
/RSS FeedGenesis 34:1-12
1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.
2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.
3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.
4 So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.”
5 Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned.
6 Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.
7 When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel (*) by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.
9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourselves.
10 You may settle among us, and the land will be open to you. Live here, move about freely, and acquire your own property.”
11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask.
12 Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!” -
Genesis 31:22-42
/RSS FeedGenesis 31:22-42
22 On the third day Laban was informed that Jacob had fled.
23 So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
25 Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there as well.
26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and carried off my daughters like captives of war!
27 Why did you run away secretly and deceive me, without even telling me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and harps.
28 But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.
29 I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’
30 Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my gods?”
31 “I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.
32 If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.
33 So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.
35 Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
36 Then Jacob became incensed and challenged Laban. “What is my crime?” he said. “For what sin of mine have you so hotly pursued me?
37 You have searched all my goods! Have you found anything that belongs to you? Put it here before my brothers and yours, that they may judge between the two of us.
38 I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.
39 I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night.
40 As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
41 Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!
42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.” -
Genesis 30:1-8
/RSS FeedGenesis 30:1-8
1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.
2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”
3 Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, so that through her I too can build a family.”
4 So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,
5 and Bilhah conceived and bore him a son.
6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son.” So she named him Dan.
7 And Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8 Then Rachel said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him Naphtali. -
Genesis 27:30-46
/RSS FeedGenesis 27:30-46
30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt.
31 He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, “My father, sit up and eat of your son’s game, so that you may bless me.”
32 But his father Isaac replied, “Who are you?” “I am Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered.
33 Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”
34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”
35 But Isaac replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
36 So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37 But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.
39 His father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above.
40 You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.
43 So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.
44 Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—
45 until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?” -
Genesis 4:1-16
/RSS FeedGenesis 4:1-16
1 And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man,” she said.
2 Later she gave birth to Cain’s brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, while Cain was a tiller of the soil.
3 So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD,
4 while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
6 “Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”
8 Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
9 And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 “What have you done?” replied the LORD. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
13 But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”
15 “Not so!” replied the LORD. “If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold.” And the LORD placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him.
16 So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. -
Revelation 14:6-13
/RSS FeedRevelation 14:6-13
6 Then I saw another angel flying overhead, with the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation and tribe and tongue and people.
7 And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”
8 Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”
9 And a third angel followed them, calling out in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
12 Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.” -
John 2:12-25
/RSS FeedJohn 2:12-25
12 After this, He went down to Capernaum with His mother and brothers and His disciples, and they stayed there a few days.
13 When the Jewish Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables.
15 So He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
16 To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”
18 On account of this, the Jews demanded, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do these things?”
19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
20 “This temple took forty-six years to build,” the Jews replied, “and You are going to raise it up in three days?”
21 But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body.
22 After He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
23 While He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the signs He was doing and believed in His name.
24 But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew them all.
25 He did not need any testimony about man, for He knew what was in a man.
