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Genesis 37:12-30
/RSS FeedGenesis 37:12-30
12 Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem.
13 Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied.
14 Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem,
15 a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”
16 “I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”
17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another.
20 “Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said.
22 “Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the robe of many colors he was wearing—
24 and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.
25 And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.
26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.
28 So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,
30 returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?” -
Genesis 37:1-11
/RSS FeedGenesis 37:1-11
1 Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.
4 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
5 Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:
7 We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”
8 “Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements.
9 Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”
11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said. -
Genesis 31:1-21
/RSS FeedGenesis 31:1-21
1 Now Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father and built all this wealth at our father’s expense.”
2 And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,
5 and he told them, “I can see from your father’s countenance that his attitude toward me has changed; but the God of my father has been with me.
6 You know that I have served your father with all my strength.
7 And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.
8 If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore speckled offspring. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore streaked offspring.
9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.
10 When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.
11 In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’
12 ‘Look up,’ he said, ‘and see that all the males that are mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, or speckled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”
14 And Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?
15 Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? Not only has he sold us, but he has certainly squandered what was paid for us.
16 Surely all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you.”
17 Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels,
18 and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.
19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.
21 So he fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for the hill country of Gilead. -
Genesis 28:10-22
/RSS FeedGenesis 28:10-22
10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
11 On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
12 And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.
13 And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
15 Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob woke up, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.”
17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”
18 Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,
19 and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,
21 so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.
22 And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.” -
Genesis 20:1-18
/RSS FeedGenesis 20:1-18
1 Now Abraham journeyed from there to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,
2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
3 One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?
5 Didn’t Abraham tell me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”
6 Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
7 Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet; he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, be aware that you will surely die—you and all who belong to you.”
8 Early the next morning Abimelech got up and summoned all his servants; and when he described to them all that had happened, the men were terrified.
9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked, “What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such tremendous guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done.”
10 Abimelech also asked Abraham, “What prompted you to do such a thing?”
11 Abraham replied, “I thought to myself, ‘Surely there is no fear of God in this place. They will kill me on account of my wife.’
12 Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father—though not the daughter of my mother—and she became my wife.
13 So when God had me journey from my father’s house, I said to Sarah, ‘This is how you can show your loyalty to me: Wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
14 So Abimelech brought sheep and cattle, menservants and maidservants, and he gave them to Abraham and restored his wife Sarah to him.
15 And Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Settle wherever you please.”
16 And he said to Sarah, “See, I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is your vindication before all who are with you; you are completely cleared.”
17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they could again bear children—
18 for on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah, the LORD had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household.
