Jan 8 - Genesis 32-38

¹Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.²When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim.³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.⁴He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.⁵I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'"⁶When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."⁷In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.⁸He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape."⁹Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,'¹⁰I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.¹¹Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.¹²But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"¹³He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,¹⁵thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.¹⁶He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds."¹⁷He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?'¹⁸then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'"¹⁹He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.²⁰And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me."²¹So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.²²That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.²³After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.²⁴So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.²⁵When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.²⁶Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."²⁷The man asked him, "What is your name?Jacob," he answered.²⁸Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."²⁹Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.³⁰So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."³¹The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.³²Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

Chapter 33

¹Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants.²He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.³He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.⁴But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.⁵Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. "Who are these with you?" he asked. Jacob answered, "They are the children God has graciously given your servant."⁶Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down.⁷Next, Leah and her children came and bowed down. Last of all came Joseph and Rachel, and they too bowed down.⁸Esau asked, "What do you mean by all these droves I met?To find favor in your eyes, my lord," he said.⁹But Esau said, "I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself."¹⁰"No, please!" said Jacob. "If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.¹¹Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need." And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.¹²Then Esau said, "Let us be on our way; I'll accompany you."¹³But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die.¹⁴So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir."¹⁵Esau said, "Then let me leave some of my men with you.But why do that?" Jacob asked. "Just let me find favor in the eyes of my lord."¹⁶So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir.¹⁷Jacob, however, went to Succoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Succoth.¹⁸After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.¹⁹For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent.²⁰There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.

Chapter 34

¹Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.³His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her.⁴And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife."⁵When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.⁶Then Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.⁷Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter-a thing that should not be done.⁸But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.⁹Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.¹⁰You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it."¹¹Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask.¹²Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife."¹³Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.¹⁴They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.¹⁵We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.¹⁶Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you.¹⁷But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we'll take our sister and go."¹⁸Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.¹⁹The young man, who was the most honored of all his father's household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter.²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen.²¹"These men are friendly toward us," they said. "Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.²²But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are.²³Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us."²⁴All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.²⁵Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.²⁶They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.²⁷The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.²⁸They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields.²⁹They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed."³¹But they replied, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"

Chapter 35

¹Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."²So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.³Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."⁴So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.⁵Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.⁶Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.⁷There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.⁸Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.⁹After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.¹⁰God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. "So he named him Israel.¹¹And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.¹²The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."¹³Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.¹⁴Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it.¹⁵Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.¹⁶Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.¹⁷And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son."¹⁸As she breathed her last-for she was dying-she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).²⁰Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel's tomb.²¹Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.²²While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. Jacob had twelve sons:²³The sons of Leah: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.²⁵The sons of Rachel's maidservant Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.²⁶The sons of Leah's maidservant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.²⁷Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.²⁸Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years.²⁹Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Chapter 36

¹This is the account of Esau (that is, Edom).²Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite-³also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.⁴Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel,⁵and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.⁶Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob.⁷Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock.⁸So Esau (that is, Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir.⁹This is the account of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.¹⁰These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath.¹¹The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz.¹²Esau's son Eliphaz also had a concubine named Timna, who bore him Amalek. These were grandsons of Esau's wife Adah.¹³The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were grandsons of Esau's wife Basemath.¹⁴The sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau: Jeush, Jalam and Korah.¹⁵These were the chiefs among Esau's descendants: The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,¹⁶Korah, Gatam and Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in Edom; they were grandsons of Adah.¹⁷The sons of Esau's son Reuel: Chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the chiefs descended from Reuel in Edom; they were grandsons of Esau's wife Basemath.¹⁸The sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Chiefs Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the chiefs descended from Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.¹⁹These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.²⁰These were the sons of Seir the Horite, who were living in the region: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,²¹Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These sons of Seir in Edom were Horite chiefs.²²The sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. Timna was Lotan's sister.²³The sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho and Onam.²⁴The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.²⁵The children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah daughter of Anah.²⁶The sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Keran.²⁷The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.²⁸The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.²⁹These were the Horite chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,³⁰Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These were the Horite chiefs, according to their divisions, in the land of Seir.³¹These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned:³²Bela son of Beor became king of Edom. His city was named Dinhabah.³³When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah succeeded him as king.³⁴When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites succeeded him as king.³⁵When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, succeeded him as king. His city was named Avith.³⁶When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah succeeded him as king.³⁷When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth on the river succeeded him as king.³⁸When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan son of Acbor succeeded him as king.³⁹When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad succeeded him as king. His city was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.⁴⁰These were the chiefs descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,⁴³Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied. This was Esau the father of the Edomites.

Chapter 37

¹Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.²This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.⁴When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.⁵Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.⁶He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:⁷We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."⁸His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.⁹Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."¹⁰When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"¹¹His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.¹²Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem,¹³and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.Very well," he replied.¹⁴So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,¹⁵a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"¹⁶He replied, "I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?"¹⁷"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.¹⁸But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.¹⁹"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other.²⁰"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.²²"Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe-the richly ornamented robe he was wearing-²⁴and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.²⁵As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.²⁶Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?²⁷Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.²⁸So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.²⁹When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.³⁰He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?"³¹Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.³²They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."³³He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.³⁵All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

Chapter 38

¹At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.²There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her;³she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.⁴She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.⁵She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.⁶Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.⁷But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.⁸Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother."⁹But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.¹⁰What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.¹¹Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.¹²After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.¹³When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,"¹⁴she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.¹⁶Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you.And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked.¹⁷"I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked.¹⁸He said, "What pledge should I give you?Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.¹⁹After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.²⁰Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her.²¹He asked the men who lived there, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here," they said.²²So he went back to Judah and said, "I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, 'There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.'"²³Then Judah said, "Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her."²⁴About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death!"²⁵As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."²⁶Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.²⁷When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.²⁸As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first."²⁹But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out!" And he was named Perez.³⁰Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.