[Editor note: The wording of Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 indicates that it was originally written as a poem or a song. Also, it seems to be written from the perspective of someone standing on the earth, rather than looking down from above – as ancient peoples knew no such viewpoint.]¹In the beginning, The God created the sky and the land. ²But the land was ugly and unfinished, Darkness covered its depth, And God’s Breath moved over its waters.³Then The God spoke, and He said: ‘May the light come to be.’ So, the light came to be, ⁴And God saw that the light was beautiful.Then The God brought a division Between the light and the darkness. ⁵He called the light the daytime And the darkness, the night. So came the evening and the morning Of the very first day.⁶And then the The God spoke, and He said:‘Let there be a firmament between all the waters... A division of the waters and the waters.’And that’s what thereafter happened. ⁷For God ordered a firmament between the waters That were under the firmament, From those that were over the firmament. ⁸Then God called the firmament the sky, And He saw that this too was beautiful. So came the evening and the morning Of [His] day number two.⁹Then The God said:‘Let the waters that are under the skies Be brought together so the land can be seen.’And that’s what thereafter happened. ¹⁰God called the dry space the land And the collected waters the seas… And God saw that this too was beautiful.¹¹Then The God spoke, and He said:‘Let the land sprout with pastures of grasses Which [each] bear seeds of its kind and appearance. And let there be fruit trees that bear fruit with seeds, [Each] of its kind [and appearance].’And that’s what thereafter happened. ¹²The ground sprouted with pastures of grasses That [each] bore seeds of its kind and appearance, And the fruit trees bore fruit with their seeds, [Each] of its kind [and appearance]. And God saw that this too was beautiful. ¹³So came the evening and the morning Of [His] day number three.¹⁴Then The God spoke, and He said:‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the skies To serve as light for the land, To make a division between day and night, And as signs for the days, years, and seasons. ¹⁵Let them serve as sources of lights in the firmament, So as to shine on the ground.’And that’s what thereafter happened. ¹⁶For God made the two huge [sources of] light; The greater light to rule over the days, And the lesser light and the stars To be rulers over the nights. ¹⁷Then God assigned them spaces [high] in the skies So as to shine on the earth… ¹⁸To dominate the days and the nights, And to make the division between light and darkness. Then God saw that it too was beautiful. ¹⁹So came the evening and the morning Of [His] day number four.²⁰Then The God spoke, and He said:‘Now, let the waters give birth, To living animals that slither, And [let there be] winged creatures to fly, Above the earth in the firmament of the skies.’And that’s what thereafter happened.²¹Then God created the great creatures That would live in the seas... Creatures that slither and live in the waters, Each according to their own kinds, And all the feathered flying creatures Each according to their own kinds. And God saw that this too was beautiful. ²²So God blest them all, and He said:‘Reproduce and multiply in the waters Until you fill up the seas, And let the winged creatures multiply on the earth.’²³So came the evening and the morning Of [His] day number five.²⁴Then The God spoke, and He said:‘Let the land give birth to living creatures, Each according to their own kinds… Those that travel on their four feet, Those that slither [and crawl] on the ground, And those that are wild on the earth, Each according to their own kinds.’And that’s what thereafter happened.²⁵So God made the wild creatures [that walk on] the ground, Each according to their own kinds… Along with those [that travel] in herds, Each according to their own kinds… And all that slither [and crawl] on the ground. Each according to their own kinds. And God saw that this too was beautiful. ²⁶Then The God spoke, and He said:‘Let us make a man in our image and like us, To rule over the creatures [that live] in the seas, The winged creatures [that fly] in the skies, The animals that travel in herds, And those that slither and crawl on the ground.’²⁷So then, God created mankind. He created mankind in the image of the Gods, As a male and female [He made them]. ²⁸Then The God blest them and said:‘Reproduce and now become many… Fill the whole earth and control it. Rule over those that [live in] the seas, The winged creatures that [live in] skies, The animals that [travel in] herds, The animals that slither and crawl on the ground, And [in fact], the whole earth.’²⁹Then The God said:‘Look! I’ve given you all the seed-bearing crops, That [you can plant] in the ground, As well as all the seed-bearing trees, [That you] can plant for your food.³⁰‘[I have given] the green-yellow plants As food for the wild ones [walking] on the ground, For all the winged creatures [flying in] the skies, And for all that slither and crawl on the ground… For all have the breath of life.’And that’s what thereafter happened.³¹Then The God viewed all that He’d made, And {Look!} it was all beautiful. So came the evening and the morning Of [His] day number six.

¹[At that], the skies and the lands were completed, As was the arranging of them. ²For on the sixth day, God finished His work, And on the seventh day, He rested From all the things He’d done. ³Then God blest the seventh day and declared it as holy, For He had completed [all of] the work That He’d set out to do.[Editor note: The rest of chapter 2 doesn’t appear to be part of the poem or song found in the first chapter, for it breaks into a narration of the things that followed.] ⁴This was the scroll of the origins of the skies and the lands, and of when they came to be in the day that The God spoke the sky and the land [into existence], ⁵as well as when all the greenish-yellow plants for it began on the ground, and all the grasses of the fields started growing from it.However, because Jehovah God had not yet provided rain on the earth and there were no men to cultivate it, ⁶springs poured from the ground and watered the entire surface of the land.⁷Then The God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life against his face, and he became a living creature.⁸Thereafter, God planted a Paradise east of Edem where He put the man whom he had formed... ⁹And it was there that God caused every tree that was attractive to look at and worthy as food to spring from the ground. [He also] put the Tree of Life in the middle of the Paradise, as well as the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.¹⁰There was also a river that flowed out of Edem to water the Paradise, and from there separated into the sources of four [rivers].¹¹• The name of the [first river] is Phison. It flows around the land of Evilat, where there’s gold, ¹²and the gold from that land is good. There’s also red gemstone and ornamental stone there.¹³• The name of the second river is Geon. It runs around the land of Kush.¹⁴• The third river is the Tigris. It flows over towards the Assyrians.• And the fourth river is the EuPhrates.¹⁵Then Jehovah God took the man whom He’d formed and put him in the Paradise of Delights so that He could cultivate it and take care of it. ¹⁶And Jehovah God gave these instructions to Adam:‘You may eat from all the trees of Paradise, ¹⁷but you must not eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For on whatever day you eat from it, your life will end and you’ll die.’¹⁸Then Jehovah God said:‘It isn’t good for the man to be alone, so let’s make a helper for him.’¹⁹Well, after God had made all the wild animals of the plains and all the winged creatures of the skies from the [dirt], He brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living animal was what its name became.²⁰So Adam named all the cattle, all the winged creatures of the skies, and all the wild animals of the plains. Yet, a suitable helper that was like Adam couldn’t be found.²¹God then put Adam into a trance, and while he was sleeping, He took one of his ribs and filled the place where it was with flesh. ²²Then The God built the rib that He took from Adam into a woman... And brought her to Adam.²³And Adam said:‘This is now bone from my bones, And flesh from my flesh.‘She will be called a woman, Because she was taken from a man.²⁴‘Because of this, a man will leave his father and mother And bond with his woman, And the two will become one flesh.’

¹[Well at the time], both of them (the man and the woman) were naked and unashamed.²Then the snake (which was the wiliest of the animals that Jehovah had made on the earth) asked the woman:‘Why did God tell you that you shouldn’t eat from all of the trees in the Paradise?’³And the woman replied to the snake:‘We can eat the fruit from the trees of Paradise, but God said that we shouldn’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of Paradise – that we shouldn’t even touch it – or we’ll die.’⁴Then the snake said to the woman:‘You won’t stop living and die, ⁵for God knows that on whatever day you eat from it your eyes will be opened wide and you’ll be like the gods knowing good and evil.’⁶Well, the woman saw that the tree was worthy as food, it was a pleasant sight to her eyes, and it was a beautiful thing to think about. So after picking its fruit, she ate it. Then she gave some to her man (who was with her), and they ate it [together]...⁷And thereafter, the eyes of both of them were opened wide and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made skirts to go around themselves.⁸But then, when they heard the voice of Jehovah God as He walked around in Paradise at dusk, Adam and his woman hid from the face of Jehovah God among the trees in the Paradise.⁹So Jehovah God called out to Adam, asking:‘Where are you Adam?’¹⁰And [Adam] replied to God:‘I heard Your voice as You were walking through the Paradise, but I was afraid because of my nakedness, so I hid myself.’¹¹Then The God asked him:‘If you haven’t eaten from the only tree about which I commanded you not to eat; then, who told you that you were naked?’¹²And Adam replied:‘It was this woman whom You gave to me as a companion… She gave me some [fruit] from the tree, and I ate it.’¹³Then Jehovah God asked the woman:‘Why did you do this?’And the woman replied:‘The snake seduced me, so I ate it.’¹⁴So Jehovah God said to the snake:‘Because you did this; among all the cattle and wild animals of the earth, you [alone] are doomed to be punished. Therefore, you’ll now travel on your chest and belly and you’ll have to eat from the ground all the days of your life.¹⁵‘I’m also going to create hatred between you and the woman, and between your descendant and her descendant. He will then watch for your head, and you will watch for his heel.’¹⁶And after that, He said to the woman:‘I’ll now make your sorrow and groaning [much] worse; for when you give birth to children, you’ll do so with groaning. You will also have to submit to your man and he will dominate you.’¹⁷Then He said to Adam:‘Because you listened to your woman’s voice and ate from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat (and from which you went ahead and ate); all the work that you will do on the ground will be cursed, and you’ll groan as you eat from it all the days of your life!¹⁸‘Briars and thistles will grow for you, and your food will be the grasses in the fields.¹⁹‘You will then eat your bread through the sweat on your face until you return to the ground from which you were taken… Yes, you were taken from the ground and that’s where you’ll return!’²⁰Well, thereafter, Adam called his woman’s name Life, because she was to be the mother of all [human] life.²¹Then Jehovah God made leather clothing for Adam and his woman, and He dressed them in it.²²And after that, The God said:‘Look, Adam has now become one of us in knowing good and evil!’Therefore, to keep him from reaching out to pick and eat from the Tree of Life so as to gain age-long life, ²³Jehovah God then put Adam outside of the Paradise of Delights, where he had to work the ground from which he was taken.²⁴Yes, He drove Adam out and made him live next to the Paradise of Delights. Then He stationed the [heavenly] cherubs with their flaming, spinning swords to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

¹Well thereafter, Adam had [sexual relations] with Eue, his woman, so she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. And she said:‘I have gained a man through God.’²Then she again gave birth to his brother, Abel.Abel [grew up to be] a herder of sheep, while Cain worked the ground.³Then after many days, Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground as an offering to Jehovah, ⁴while Abel brought the first-born of his sheep and his belongings.Well, God looked favorably upon Abel and his gifts, ⁵but He paid no attention to Cain and his sacrifices, which made Cain very sad, and his face [reflected] this. ⁶So Jehovah God asked Cain:‘Why are you so sad and why is your face so long? ⁷For even if you didn’t bring [your gifts] righteously, you didn’t sin by sharing. Overlook this, because [Abel] will submit to you and you’ll [rule] over him!’⁸But thereafter, Cain said to his brother Abel:‘Let’s go out into the fields.’Then, while they were in their fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.⁹And when Jehovah God asked Cain:‘Where is your brother?’He replied:‘I don’t know… I’m not my brother’s keeper!’¹⁰Then Jehovah God asked:‘What have you done?‘I hear the blood of your brother calling out to Me from the ground! ¹¹Therefore, you’ll now be cursed by the ground, which has opened her mouth wide to [drink] the blood of your brother from your hand.¹²‘So from here on, whenever you work the ground, it will [no longer] give you its strength, and you’ll groan and tremble on the earth.’¹³Then Cain said to Jehovah God:‘My crime is too great to be forgiven. ¹⁴So if you [drive me] away from Your face and the face of this land today, I’ll have to hide, groaning and trembling on the land… For anyone who finds me will kill me!’¹⁵And Jehovah God replied:‘That isn’t so! For whoever kills Cain will pay seven penalties.’Then Jehovah God put a mark on Cain so that nobody that found him would kill him. ¹⁶And thereafter, Cain left the presence of God and lived in Nod, which also borders Edem.¹⁷There, Cain [had sex] with his woman and she became pregnant, giving birth to Enoch. [Then Cain] built a city, which he named after his son, Enoch.¹⁸• Enoch fathered GaiDad, • GaiDad fathered MalaleEl, • MalaleEl fathered MethuSelah, and • MethuSelah fathered Lamech.¹⁹Then Lamech took two women; the first was Ada and the second was SelLa. ²⁰Ada gave birth to JoBel, who was the ancestor of those who lived in tents and herded cattle. ²¹He had a brother named JuBal, who invented the lute and the harp.²²SelLa also gave birth to ThoBel, who worked iron and brass. And he had a sister named NoEma.²³Then Lamech said this to his women (Ada and SelLa):‘Listen to me, [my] women and remember; I’ve killed a man who wounded me… A young man who whipped me. ²⁴So if the vengeance [for killing] Cain was seven punishments; Mine will be seven times that.’²⁵Well, Adam [again had sex with] his woman Eue and she became pregnant, giving birth to a son whom she named Seth. For she said:‘God has [provided me with] another son to replace Abel, who was murdered by Cain.’²⁶Then Seth had a son whom he named Enos, who hoped to call upon the Name of The God, Jehovah.

¹This was the scroll of the early [days] of mankind, when God fathered Adam, forming him in [His] image. ²He created the male and the female and He blest them. Then in the day that He created [the first man], He named him Adam.³Adam was 230 years old when he fathered a son who was just like him and looked like him, that he named Seth.⁴Then after fathering Seth, Adam lived on for 700 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ⁵So Adam was 930 years old when he died.⁶Now, Seth was 205 years old when he fathered Enos. ⁷And after fathering Enos, he lived on for 707 more years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ⁸So Seth was 912 years old when he died.⁹Enos was 190 years old when he fathered Kainan. ¹⁰Then after fathering Kainan, he lived on for another 715 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹¹So Enos was 905 years old when he died.¹²Kainan was 170 years old when he fathered MaleLeal. ¹³Then after fathering MaleLeal, he lived on for some 740 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁴So Kainan was 910 years old when he died.¹⁵MaleLeal was 165 years old when he fathered JaRed. ¹⁶And after fathering JaRed, he lived on for 730 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ¹⁷So MaleLeal was 895 years old when he died.¹⁸JaRed was 162 years old when he fathered Enoch. ¹⁹Then after fathering Enoch, he lived on for another 800 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁰So JaRed was 962 years old when he died.²¹Enoch was 165 years old when he fathered MethuSelah. ²²And it was after he fathered MethuSelah that God found Enoch to be righteous.So after he lived for 200 more years, and after he’d fathered other sons and daughters, ²³when he was 365 years old ²⁴(and because he had pleased God), God transported him and he disappeared.²⁵Well, MethuSelah was 187 years old when he fathered Lamech. ²⁶Then after fathering Lamech, he lived on for another 782 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ²⁷So MethuSelah was 969 years old when he died.²⁸Lamech was 188 years old when he fathered a son ²⁹whom he named Noah. And he said:‘He will stop us from doing all the [bad] things that we’re doing, as well as from working with our hands and from [living on] the ground that Jehovah has cursed.’³⁰Then, after he fathered Noah, [Lamech] lived on for some 565 years, as he fathered other sons and daughters. ³¹So Lamech was 753 years old when he died.³²Well, it was after Noah was 500 years old that he fathered three sons:• Shem, • Ham, and • JaPheth.

¹Now, as the population of men grew on the earth and they fathered daughters, ²the sons of The God noticed that the daughters of men were beautiful; so, they took all whom they chose as their women.³Then Jehovah God said:‘There’s no way that My Breath will stay with these men. They’re [just] flesh, so their [lives] will last just 120 [more] years.’⁴Well, there were giants on the earth back in those days; for after that, the sons of The God continued to [had sex] with the daughters of mankind and fathered [children] for themselves who became the giants and the famous men of that age.⁵Well, Jehovah God saw that the badness of the people on the earth was getting much worse… For the things that they conceived in their hearts every day was all twisted towards evil.⁶So God became disturbed that He had created humans on the earth… He shook His head ⁷and declared:‘I will wipe the humans that I made off the face of the earth… Yes, the people, the cattle, and the winged creatures of the skies, for I’m sorry that I made them.’⁸However, Noah found mercy in the eyes of The God, Jehovah.⁹This is the account of Noah’s origin:Noah was a righteous man… Perfect [when compared to] that generation, for Noah pleased God well. ¹⁰Then he fathered three sons:• Shem, • Ham, and • JaPheth.¹¹As God saw it, the land had become unclean and the earth was filled with unrighteousness. ¹²So when Jehovah God looked at the earth, all He saw was corruption, because all flesh had become corrupt in its ways.¹³Then Jehovah God told Noah:‘A season is now before me [that will lead to the end of] all mankind, because the earth is filled with their unrighteousness. Look! I’m going to lay waste to them and to the whole earth!¹⁴‘So [you must] make a chest of squared timbers for yourself and [divide the] chest into stalls, then cover both the inside and outside of it with tar.¹⁵‘This is how you should build the chest; [make it:]• 300 cubits [500 feet / 152m] long, • 50 cubits [80 feet / 24.4m] wide, and • 30 cubits [50 feet / 15.25m] tall.¹⁶‘You must also make a roof that’s about 1 cubit [~20in / ~50cm] thick, and put a door in the side of the chest… Make a bottom floor, a second floor, and a third floor.¹⁷‘[For after it’s completed], {Look!} I’m going to bring a downpour of water upon the ground to destroy all flesh under the skies that has the breath of life… So, all that’s on the ground will then come to an end. ¹⁸And after that, I’ll establish an agreement between you and Me.’¹⁹‘Therefore, [I want you to] bring all [types of] cattle, slithering creatures, and wild animals – all [types of] flesh – into the chest by pairs of males and females.‘Then, bring in enough food for them and for yourselves. ²⁰For they’ll all be eating there with you… All the winged creatures, all types of cattle, and all varieties of slithering animals that crawl on the ground (both the males and the females).²¹‘Yes, you must gather all types of food for yourselves so that you’ll each have something to eat.’²²And thereafter, Noah did everything that Jehovah God told him to do.

¹Then Jehovah God said to Noah:‘Now you and your family must enter the chest, because I’ve [only] found you to be righteous among this generation. ²Take 7 pairs (males and females) of [all the] clean cattle in with you, and take in [single] pairs (males and females) of [all the] unclean animals.³‘[Do the same with all] the winged creatures of the sky… Bring in 7 pairs (males and females) of the clean ones, and [just] pairs of all the unclean winged creatures, so that their descendants will remain on the earth.⁴‘For in just 7 days, I’ll bring rain to the ground [that will last for] 40 days and 40 nights, and I’ll blot every creature that I’ve made off of the face of the entire earth!’⁵And thereafter, Noah did everything that Jehovah God had commanded him to do.⁶Noah was 600 years old when the Downpour of waters started on the earth. ⁷Then Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives went into the chest with him (because of the downpour of water).⁸And the clean winged creatures, the unclean winged creatures, the clean cattle, the unclean cattle, and all the wild animals as well as all the things that crawled on the ground ⁹came to Noah and entered the chest in pairs of males and females, just as God had commanded Noah.¹⁰Then after 7 days, the waters of the Downpour started falling on the earth.¹¹It was in the 600th year of Noah’s life, on the 27th day of the 2nd month, that all the springs under the ground broke open, and the floodgates of the skies were opened. ¹²Then it rained on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.¹³It started on the very day that Noah, his wife, as well as Shem, Ham, JaPheth (the sons of Noah and his wife) and their three wives went into the chest with him.¹⁴Also, all the wild animals (each of its kind), all the cattle (each of its kind), all the slithering animals that move on the earth (each of its kind), ¹⁵and all the winged creatures (each of its kind) went inside the chest to Noah in pairs of males and females… Everything that had the breath of life. ¹⁶Males and females of all flesh went inside, just as God had commanded Noah... Then Jehovah God closed the chest from the outside.¹⁷Thereafter, the Downpour continued on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, and the water got so deep that it lifted the chest high above the ground.¹⁸The water dominated and totally covered the land, and the chest was carried along on top of the water. ¹⁹For the water dominated and covered even the tallest mountains under the whole sky… ²⁰It covered the highest mountains by at least 15 cubits [25 feet / 7.6m].²¹So everything that moved on the earth died… All the men, winged creatures, cattle, wild animals, and all the animals that slithered across the ground. ²²Everything that lived on the ground and had the breath of life, died.²³God blotted out all His creatures on the face of the earth… The men, the animals, the winged creatures, and the slithering animals. He blotted them all from the earth. The only ones who remained were Noah and those who were with him inside the chest.²⁴Altogether, the water covered the land for 150 days.

¹But God didn’t forget Noah or any of the wild animals, cattle, winged creatures, or crawling, slithering animals that were inside the chest. So God sent a wind to the earth that stopped the water… ²For the springs that were under the ground closed and the floodgates of the skies and the rain from the skies were held back.³Then the water level started to drop, flowing off the ground. And after 150 days, the water lowered, and the chest came to rest on Mount Ararat on the 27th day of the 7th month.⁴Well, the water levels kept dropping through the 10th month, ⁵and on the 1st day of the 10th month, they could see the mountaintops.⁶Then, after 40 days, Noah opened the window that he had made in the chest, and he sent out a crow, which left and didn’t return until the water had abated.⁷So it left and it didn’t return (until [later, when] the water had dried off the ground).⁸And after that, he sent out a dove to see if the earth was still flooded. ⁹But the dove couldn’t find a place to rest its feet, because the water was still covering all the ground, and it returned to the chest. So [Noah] stuck out his hand to take [the dove], and brought it to himself inside the chest.¹⁰Well, a week later, he sent the dove out from the chest once again. ¹¹And that evening, the dove returned to him with a stem and leaf from an olive tree in its beak. That’s when Noah knew [for sure] that the water had left the ground.¹²However, he continued to wait another week before he released the dove once more. And this time, it didn’t return at all.¹³So by the 601st year of Noah’s life, on the 1st day of the 1st month, the water had poured off the ground.Then Noah opened the roof that he had made for the chest, and he could finally see that the water had drained from the ground… ¹⁴And by the 22nd day of the 2nd month, the ground was dry.¹⁵Then Jehovah God spoke to Noah and said:¹⁶‘Come out of the chest… You, your wife, your sons, their wives who are with you, ¹⁷and all the wild animals that are with you.‘Bring out all the flesh that’s with you – the winged creatures, the cattle, and the slithering animals that move on the ground – [so that they can] reproduce and multiply on the earth.’¹⁸So Noah, his wife, his sons, and his son’s wives that were with him, came out. ¹⁹And all the wild animals, all the cattle, all the winged creatures, and all the slithering animals that crawl on the ground (according to their kinds) came out of the chest.²⁰Then Noah built an altar to Jehovah, and he took some of the clean animals, as well as some from among all the clean winged creatures, and offered them whole… Burning them on the altar.²¹And as Jehovah noticed the sweet smell, He thought about it and said:‘Never again will I curse the ground for the bad things that men do, because the imagination of men is totally bent towards doing bad things from the time they’re young. Also, will I never again [destroy] all living flesh as I have just done. ²²Then, during all the days of the earth, the seed [planting] time and harvesting, the heat and the cold, the spring and the summer, and the days and nights won’t ever be brought to an end.’

¹Thereafter, God blest Noah and his sons and told them:‘Now, reproduce and multiply… Fill the earth and rule over it. ²For all the wild animals of the earth, all the winged creatures in the skies, and everything that moves on the ground (including all the creatures in the seas) will have a dread and fear of you. So I have put you in charge over all of them!³‘Also, all the living and slithering animals can serve as meat for you… I’ve given them all to you as though they were green vegetation. ⁴But you must not eat their flesh with its blood of life, ⁵or I’ll require your blood at the hand of all those wild animals.‘I’ll also require a man’s life at the hands of his brothers… ⁶For, whoever spills the blood of mankind will also have his blood spilled, since I made mankind in the image of God.⁷‘Now, reproduce and multiply… Fill the earth and rule over it!’⁸Then The God spoke to Noah and his sons that were with him and said:⁹‘Look; I’m making an agreement between you and Me, [as well as] with your descendant [that will come] after you ¹⁰and with every living thing (the winged creatures, the [domesticated] animals, and all the wild animals of the earth)… With all who are with you and came out of the chest.¹¹‘This is My promise to you and to all flesh:‘I’ll never again send a downpour of water to kill all flesh, and I’ll never again send a downpour to destroy the whole earth.’¹²Then The God said to Noah:‘This is the sign of the Agreement that I have established between you and Me throughout ages of generations, as well as with every living creature that’s with you:¹³‘I have put My bow in the clouds, which will serve as the sign of the Agreement between the earth and Me, ¹⁴so that whenever I gather clouds over the earth, My bow will be seen in those clouds, ¹⁵and this will remind Me of My agreement between you and Me, and with every living creature and all flesh, that never again will I send a downpour of water that will blot out all flesh.¹⁶‘My bow will be there in the clouds, and when I see it, I’ll remember the age-long agreement between Me and the earth, as well as with every living creature among all the flesh that’s on the earth.’¹⁷And God said to Noah:‘Yes, this is the sign of the Agreement that I made with all flesh that is on the earth and Myself.’¹⁸Now, the sons of Noah who came out of the chest were [named] Shem, Ham, and JaPheth (Ham was the father of CanaAn). ¹⁹And it was from these three sons of Noah that all men came to be scattered over the whole earth.²⁰Thereafter, Noah took up farming and he planted some grapes. ²¹[Then, one day], Noah was drinking some wine while he was naked in his house, and he got drunk. ²²But then, Ham (CanaAn’s father) saw his father’s nakedness, and he went outside and told his brothers about it.²³So Shem and JaPheth grabbed a robe, put it over their backs, and walked backward to cover their father’s naked body. And because they were looking away, they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.²⁴Well, after Noah recovered from the wine, he realized what his youngest son [or grandson] had done to him. ²⁵So he said:‘The servant CanaAn is cursed, and he will be a slave to his brothers.’²⁶Then he added:‘May Jehovah, Shem’s God, bless him… But let CanaAn be his houseboy.²⁷‘Also, may God make room for JaPheth and allow him to live in the tents of Shem… And may CanaAn then become his also.’²⁸Well, after the Downpour, Noah lived on for another 350 years. ²⁹So he lived for 950 years, and then he died.

¹Now, these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and JaPheth. And these are the sons who were born to them after the Downpour.²JaPheth’s sons were:• Gamer, • Magog [the Scythians], • Madoi [the Medes], • Jovan, • EliSa, • ThoBel [of Tubal], • Mosoch [possibly Moscow of Russia], and • Thiras [Islands of the Aegean Sea].³Gamer’s sons were:• AshKenaz [Germans, Slavs], • RiPhath [of Northwestern Asia Minor], and • Thorgama [the Armenians].⁴Jovan’s sons were:• EliShah [of Tyre], • TarShish [of Spain], • Cetian [of Cypress], and • Rhodes [of Rhodes].⁵[They settled the] islands, which lands were divided by tribe and nation among the ethnics, each according to his own language.⁶Ham’s sons were:• Kush, • Mesrain [Egyptian tribes], • Phud [Libyans], and • CanaAn [Palestinians].⁷The sons of Kush were:• Saba [peoples of southern Africa], • Evilat, • SaBatha, • Rhegma, and • Sabathaca [East Africans].The sons of Rhegma were:• Saba [of 13 Arabian tribes], and • Dadan [part of Arabia].⁸Kush fathered NimRod, who became a giant on the earth. ⁹He was a gigantic hunter before Jehovah God, and that’s why people speak of NimRod as ‘the gigantic hunter before Jehovah.’ ¹⁰His kingdom started with Babylon and stretched to Orech, Archad, and ChalanNe, which were all in the land of Shinar.¹¹Then outside of that land, [he went to] Assyria and built Nineveh, the cities of RehobOth, Chalach, ¹²and Dase (between Nineveh, and Chalach), which is the great city.¹³Mesrain fathered:• The Lydim [Lydians], • the MaphTuhim [people of Memphis, Egypt], • the AnaMim [Libyans], • the Lehabim [people of Lower Egypt], ¹⁴• the Pathrusim [people of Upper Egypt], • the Casluhim [Cretans] (from whom the Philistines descended), and • the GaphThoriim [also from the area of Crete].¹⁵CanaAn’s first-born son was Sidon. Then there were:• The Hittites, ¹⁶• the Jebusites, • the Amorites, • the Girgashites, ¹⁷• the Hevites, • the Arukites, • the Sinites [Chinese?], • the Asenites, ¹⁸• the Aradians, • the Samarians [Northern Lebanon], and • the Hamathites.But the CanaAnites were scattered, ¹⁹so their territory stretched from Sidon to Gerar (near Gaza), to Sodom and GomorRah, to Adama, and to Seboim, as far as Dasa.²⁰So these were the descendants of Ham by tribe, country, language, and nation.²¹Shem, who was the elder brother of JaPheth and the ancestor of all the sons of Heber [the ancestor of the Israelites], also had children born to him.²²His sons were:• ElAm, • AsSur, • ArphaxAd, • Lud, • Aram, and • Kainan.²³Aram’s sons were:• Uz, • Ul, • Gater, and • Mosoch.²⁴ArphaxAd fathered [a son whom he named] Kainan, who fathered Sala, who fathered [a son whom he named] Heber. ²⁵This Heber had two sons. He named the first PhalEd (Division), because the land became divided in his day, and his brother’s name was JekTan.²⁶JekTan fathered:• ElModad, • Saleth, • SarMoth, • Jarach, ²⁷• OdorRha, • AiBel, • Decla, ²⁸• Eval, • AbiMaEl, • Saba, ²⁹• Uphir, • Evila, and • Jobab.These were all the sons of JekTan. ³⁰Their territory stretched from MasSe all the way to Saphera, which is a mountain in the east.³¹So these were the sons of Shem by tribe, language, country, and nation, ³²and these were the tribes of the sons of Noah by generations and nations. From them came the people of all the islands and nations that were scattered around the earth after the Downpour.

¹[At the time], the whole earth shared the same lips, because they all spoke the same language. ²And as they migrated from the east, they found a flat area of land in Shinar, and started living there.³Then one man said to his neighbor:‘Come on; let’s make some bricks and bake them in an oven.’So bricks became their ‘stone’ and tar served as their ‘mortar.’⁴And they said:‘Come on; let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches into the sky. And let’s create a name for ourselves, before we end up being scattered all over the face of the earth.’⁵Then Jehovah came down to see this city and its tower that the sons of men had built. ⁶And Jehovah said:‘Look; they’re all the same race and they share the same lips… And now they’ve started doing this. [Before long], they’ll be able to accomplish anything that they set out to do.⁷‘Therefore, let’s go down there and change their language so that no one will be able to understand the voice of his neighbor.’⁸So, Jehovah scattered them from there over the entire face of the earth, and they stopped building the city and its tower. ⁹That is why [the city] is named ‘Confusion,’ because, that’s where Jehovah confused all the languages of the earth and scattered them from there over all the face of the earth.¹⁰These are the generations of Shem:Shem was 100 years old when he became father to ArphaxAd in the 2nd year after the Downpour. ¹¹And after Shem became father to ArphaxAd, he lived 335 more years (fathering other sons and daughters), and then he died.¹²ArphaxAd was 135 years old when he became father to Kainan. ¹³And after ArphaxAd became the father to Kainan, he lived 330 years more (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.Kainan was 130 years old when he became father to Sala. And after he became father to Sala, he lived 330 years (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.¹⁴Sala was 130 years old when he became father to Heber. ¹⁵And after he became father to Heber, he lived 330 years more (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.¹⁶Heber was 134 years old when he became father to Phaleg. ¹⁷And after he became father to Phaleg, he lived 270 years (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.¹⁸Phaleg was 130 years old when he became father to Ragau. ¹⁹After he became father to Ragau, he lived 209 years (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.²⁰Ragau was 132 years old when he became father to Seruch. ²¹After he became father to Seruch, he lived 207 years (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.²²Seruch was 130 years old when he became father to NaHor. ²³And after he became father to NaHor, he lived 200 years (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.²⁴NaHor was 79 years old when he became father to Terah. ²⁵And after he became father to Terah, he lived 129 years (as he fathered other sons and daughters), and then he died.²⁶[After] Terah was 70 years old, he became father to:• Abram, • NaHor, and • Haran.²⁷These are the generations of Terah:Terah became father to Abram, NaHor, and Haran; and Haran became father to Lot.²⁸Haran died in the presence of Terah his father in the land where he was born, the country of the Chaldeans.²⁹Both Abram and NaHor then took women for themselves.Abram’s wife was named Sara, and NaHor’s wife was named Malcha. She was the daughter of Haran (the father of Malcha and Jescha). ³⁰However, Sara was sterile, so she didn’t have any children.³¹Then Terah took his son Abram, Abram’s wife Sara (his daughter-in-law), and his grandson Lot (son of Haran), and led them from the land of the Chaldeans towards the land of CanaAn. However, when they got to Haran, they started living there. ³²And thereafter, Terah continued living in the land of Haran for the next 205 years, and [that’s where] he died.

¹Then Jehovah said to Abram:‘Leave this land, as well as your family and your father’s home, and go to a land that I’ll show you, ²because I’m going to make a great nation of you. I will bless you, make your name famous, and you’ll become a blessing [to others].³‘I will bless those who praise you and curse those who curse you… All the tribes will be blest because of you.’⁴So Abram did just as Jehovah told him… And Lot went with him.Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran, ⁵taking along his wife Sara, his nephew Lot, all the many things that they owned, and all the souls that they had accumulated in Haran, as they traveled to the land of CanaAn. ⁶Abram traveled down through the land to a place called SheChem, where there was a tall tree. And at the time, the CanaAnites were living in the land.⁷Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said:‘I will give this land to your offspring.’So Abram built an altar there to the Lord that had appeared to him.⁸Then he moved on from there to a mountain that was east of BethEl, and he camped near BethEl, close to the sea, east of AgGai. There he built an altar to Jehovah and started calling on the Name of the Lord.⁹Thereafter, Abram left that place and camped in the desert.¹⁰Well, there came a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay, because the famine had devastated the land. ¹¹And as Abram was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sara:‘You’re a beautiful woman, ¹²[and I’m afraid] that when the Egyptians see you they’ll say, ‘[Look at] his wife!’, and they’ll kill me… But they’ll let you live.¹³‘So tell people that you’re my sister. That way, things will go well for me because of you, and my life will be safe because of you.’¹⁴And that’s what happened. When Abram entered Egypt and the Egyptians saw how beautiful his woman was, ¹⁵one of PharaOh’s princes praised her to PharaOh [possibly Pepi II] and brought her into PharaOh’s [Palace].¹⁶And because of her, PharaOh treated Abram very well. So he accumulated [many] sheep, calves, burros, male and female servants, mules, and camels.¹⁷However, God cursed PharaOh and his house with some very serious and difficult problems because of Sara (Abram’s wife).¹⁸So PharaOh called Abram and asked:‘What have you done to me? You didn’t tell me that she’s your wife. ¹⁹Why did you tell us that she’s your sister? Look, I’ve already taken her as mine!‘Now, there’s your wife standing before you… She’s yours, so take her and leave quickly!’²⁰Then PharaOh gave his men instructions about Abram, telling them to accompany him and his wife on their way, along with all the things that they owned.

¹So thereafter, Abram left Egypt and traveled into the desert along with his wife and with Lot, taking along everything that he owned ²(for by then, Abram had become very rich in cattle, silver, and gold).³So he returned to the place he’d come from (in the desert near BethEl, between BethEl and AgGai, where he’d previously camped), ⁴and to the place where he’d earlier built the altar and ⁵called on the Name of the Lord.⁶At the time, Lot (who had left [Egypt] along with Abram) had also accumulated many sheep, oxen, and tents; ⁷so the land just wasn’t large enough for both of them to live together, because of their many possessions. ⁸And since there wasn’t enough land to share, there were problems between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle, the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle, and with the CanaAnites and Pherezites who lived in that land. So Abram said to Lot:‘There shouldn’t be problems between you and me, or between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, because we are brothers.⁹‘Look! The whole land lies before you, so leave me and choose your own way. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; or if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.’¹⁰So Lot surveyed all the country around the JorDan and noticed that it had plenty of water (this was before God overthrew Sodom and GomorRah). It looked like the Paradise of Jehovah and like the land of Egypt up to Zogora. ¹¹So Lot chose all the country around the JorDan for himself and he traveled to the east, as the brothers parted ways.Now, as Abram took up living in the land of CanaAn, ¹²Lot [chose] to live in a city among neighbors; so he moved to Sodom. ¹³However, the men of Sodom were evil and they were extreme sinners before God.¹⁴Then The God said to Abram (after Lot had separated from him):‘Look around at this place where you’re standing… Look to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the sea. ¹⁵I’ll give all this land that you see before you to you and your offspring throughout the ages. ¹⁶And I’ll make your offspring as [numerous as] the dust of the ground.‘Why, if anyone is able to count all the dust of the earth, he should be able to count your offspring! ¹⁷So get up and walk across the land… Across its length and its breadth. I’m giving it all to you and to your offspring throughout the ages!’¹⁸Well after that, Abram packed up his tent and started living by the big tree [close to] MamRe in HebRon, and he built an altar there to Jehovah.

¹It was during the reign of AmarPhal (the king of Shinar) and AriOch (the king of ElLasar), that ChodolLogomor ²(the king of ElAm) and Thargal (the king of the Gentiles) went to war with:• BalLa (the king of Sodom), • BarSa (the king of GomorRah), • Sennaar (the king of Adama), • SymoBor (the king of Seboim), and • Balac (or Segor).³So they all agreed to meet together at the Salt Valley ([which is now] the Dead Sea). ⁴For they had served as vassals to ChodolLogomor for some 12 years, but in the 13th year they revolted.⁵So in the 14th year, ChodolLogomor and his allies attacked them, cutting the giants in AshtarOth CarNain to pieces, along with the strong nations that were their allies (the OmMeans in the city of Saue and ⁶the ChorRheans in the mountains of SeIr) all the way to the turpentine trees of Pharan (in the desert).⁷And on their return, they stopped at the Well of Judgment (that is, Cades), where they cut to pieces all the princes of Amalecites and the Amorites that were living in AsaSon/Thamar.⁸And then the kings of Sodom, GomorRah, Adama, Seboim, and Balac (or Segor) went out and set up battle lines against these other kings in the Salt Valley ⁹yes, against ChodolLogomor (king of ElAm), Thargal (king of the Gentiles), AmarPhal (king of Shinar), and AriOch (the king of ElLasar)... The four against five.¹⁰Now, there were slime pits in the Salt Valley, and the kings of Sodom and GomorRah fell into them as they were fleeing (and as the rest were retreating into the mountains). ¹¹So [the invaders] took all the horses and food in Sodom and GomorRah and they left, ¹²carrying away Abram’s nephew Lot (who lived in Sodom), along with all of his possessions.¹³Then one of those who’d been rescued went and told Abram (the Hebrew) [what had happened]. At the time, he was living by the large tree [that belonged to] MamRe ([who] was an Amorite, the brother of Eschol and AuNan (who were Abram’s allies). ¹⁴And when Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he gathered 318 of his personal home-born servants, and pursued them all the way to Dan.¹⁵Then when he and his servants caught up with them that night, he attacked them and pursued them all the way to Choba, which is to the left of Damascus.¹⁶So he recovered all the horses of Sodom, his nephew Lot, and all of his possessions and women, as well as the rest of the people.¹⁷Then after [Abram] returned from the slaughter of ChodolLogomor and the kings who were with him; the king of Sodom traveled to the valley of Saby (in the plain of the king) to meet with him. ¹⁸And there, MelchiZedek (the king of Salem) brought him some loaves [of bread] and some wine.This man was also the Priest of the Most High God, ¹⁹and he blest Abram there, saying:‘May Abram of the Most High God who made the heavens and the earth, be blest!²⁰‘And may the Most High God, who delivered your enemies into your hands, be praised!’Then Abram gave him 1/10th of everything [that he had captured].²¹And the king of Sodom said to Abram:‘Let me take all the men… You can keep the horses for yourself.’²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom:‘I swear by Jehovah, the Most High God who made the heavens and the earth, ²³that I won’t take anything from you – not so much as a piece of string or a shoe lace – so you won’t be able to say, I’m the one who made Abram wealthy.²⁴‘[I will take] nothing other than what the young men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me… Eschol, AuNan, and MamRe… They’ll each take a portion.’

¹Well after that, Jehovah sent word to Abram in a vision, saying:‘Don’t be afraid, Abram... For I am your shield, and you’ll receive a huge reward.’²Then Abram said:‘O Almighty Jehovah! What can You give me, since I’m about to die without a son? EliEzer of Damascus, the home-born son of my [slave girl] Masek of Damascus, is my heir.’³And Abram continued:‘I’m so very sad, because You haven’t given me a descendant, and the home-born [of my slave girl] will be my heir.’⁴Well, the Lord immediately replied, saying:‘He won’t be your heir… Another that comes from you will be your heir.’⁵Then He took him outside and said:‘Look up into the sky and count all the stars… That is, if you can come up with an accurate count.’And He said:‘This is how your offspring will be.’⁶So Abram believed The God, and his [faith] was counted to him as righteousness.⁷Then [God] said to him:‘I’m the God who brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans to give you this land as an inheritance.’⁸And [Abram] said:‘My Lord and Master, how can I know [for sure] that I’ll inherit it?’⁹And He replied:‘Collect for Me a 3-year-old heifer, a 3-year-old nanny goat, a 3-year-old billy goat, a dove, and a pigeon.’¹⁰So Abram brought all three of [the animals] to Him, cut them each into halves, and set [the halves] opposite each other… But he didn’t cut the winged creatures into halves.¹¹Well, birds then started landing on the bodies (the cut-up parts), as Abram sat there next to them.¹²Then, about sunset, Abram fell into a trance and {Look!} he had an ominous premonition. ¹³For Abram was told [by God]:‘You must know this for a fact; your offspring will have to live as aliens in a foreign land where they’ll be slaves who are treated badly and humbled for 400 years.¹⁴‘Then I’ll judge the nation that they are to serve; and following that, [your offspring] will return here with many possessions. ¹⁵However, you’ll go to your fathers [in the grave] well fed and in peace at a ripe old age.¹⁶‘Then the 4th generation will return here... Because, even up to this point, the sins of the Amorites haven’t reached their climax yet.’¹⁷Well, as the sun was setting, {look!} there was a flame that looked like a smoking furnace and like lamp fires that moved between the divided pieces [of the animals]!¹⁸This was the day that Jehovah made a Sacred Agreement with Abram. He said:‘I will give this land – from the [Nile] River of Egypt to the great EuPhrates River – to your offspring, ¹⁹along with:• The Kainites, • the Kenezites, • the KedMoneans, ²⁰• the Hittites, • the Pherezites, • the Raphaim, ²¹• the Amorites, • the CanaAnites, • the Hevites, • the Gergesites, and • the Jebusites.’

¹Well, Sara (Abram’s wife) hadn’t given him any children. However, she had an Egyptian handmaid whose name was Hagar. ²And so, Sara said to Abram:‘Look; Jehovah has kept me from getting pregnant; so, [sleep with] my maid that I might have my children through her.’Well, Abram accepted this offer from Sara, ³so Sara (Abram’s wife) took Hagar her Egyptian handmaid (this was after Abram had lived in the land of CanaAn for 10 years) and gave her to her man Abram as his woman.⁴Then [Abram] went in to [bed with] Hagar, and she became pregnant.However, after she realized that she was going to have a child, she started being disrespectful to her mistress.⁵So Sara said to Abram:‘I’ve really been hurt by you, for I gave you my handmaid [to sleep with], and when I saw that she was pregnant, she started treating me disrespectfully!‘So may Jehovah judge between you and me!’⁶Then Abram told Sara:‘Look, your handmaid is yours! Treat her any way that seems right to you!’So Sara started treating [Hagar] badly, and she ran away.⁷Then a [spirit] messenger from Jehovah found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the desert (the spring on the way to Sur). ⁸And Jehovah’s messenger said to her:‘Hagar, Sara’s maid! Where are you coming from and where are you going?’And she replied:‘I’m running away from my mistress, Sara.’⁹Then Jehovah’s messenger said:‘Return to your mistress and obey her.’¹⁰And the messenger of Jehovah told her:‘I will make your offspring grow, and they’ll become so many that they can’t be counted.’¹¹The messenger of Jehovah then went on to say:‘Look; you are pregnant with a child. You’ll give birth to a son, and you should name him IshMaEl (‘God has Noticed’), because Jehovah has noticed how you’ve been humiliated.¹²‘He will be a wild man, for his fists [will be lifted] against everyone, and everyone [will lift] their fists against him. However, he will live in the midst of all his brothers.’¹³Then she called upon the Name of the Lord God who was speaking to her, saying:‘You are the God who watches over me...’And she added:‘...because I openly saw the One who appeared to me.’¹⁴[So from that point on], she called that well, ‘The Well of The One Whom I Openly Saw.’ Look; it [still can be found] between Cades and BarAd.¹⁵Well after that, Hagar bore a son to Abram; and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore to him, IshMaEl. ¹⁶Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore IshMaEl.

¹Then, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him [again] and said:‘I am your God. So, if you’ll be pleasing before Me and not do anything for which you can be blamed, ²I’ll establish a Sacred Agreement between you and Me, and I will make you prosper greatly!’³Well at that, Abram fell with his face [to the ground]. Then The God spoke to him [again], saying:⁴‘Look!‘I am making My Sacred Agreement with you. Since you’ll become the father of many nations, your name will no longer be called Abram, but AbraHam... ⁵For I’ve made you the father of many nations.⁶‘I will make you grow tremendously, I’ll make nations come from you, and kings will descend from you.⁷‘I’ll also extend my Sacred Agreement between you and Me to the offspring that comes from you through its generations. It’s a Sacred Agreement throughout the ages that [I] will be your God and the God of the offspring that comes from you.⁸‘Also, I’ll give the land where you’re [now] living as an alien, to you and to your offspring. This includes the entire land of CanaAn… It’ll become yours throughout the ages, and I’ll be their God.’⁹Then The God told AbraHam:‘You must absolutely keep my Sacred Agreement… Both you and your offspring that descends from you through all their generations.¹⁰‘This is the Sacred Agreement between you and your offspring and Me through all its generations:‘All of your males must be circumcised… ¹¹The foreskin of their flesh must be circumcised, for this will be the sign of the Sacred Agreement between you and Me.¹²‘All of your male children must be circumcised by you when they’re 8-days old, throughout all your generations. [This includes all your] home-born servants and those who are bought with money (the sons of aliens that are not your offspring).¹³‘Those who are born in your house and those who are bought with money must surely be circumcised. So My Sacred Agreement will be in their flesh as [a sign of the] Sacred Agreement throughout the ages.¹⁴‘As for the uncircumcised males who aren’t circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin on the 8th day... Such individuals must be totally destroyed from among their families for breaking My Sacred Agreement!’¹⁵Then The God told AbraHam:‘Your wife Sara will no longer be called Sara… SarAh will be her name. ¹⁶For I’ll bless her and give you a son from her, whom I will also bless… nations and kings of nations will come from him!’¹⁷Well with that, AbraHam fell to his face and laughed, asking in his heart:‘Will a 100-year-old [man] father a child? And will SarAh –who’s 90 years old– give birth to it?’¹⁸Then AbraHam said to God:‘Please accept IshMaEl to [stand] before You.’¹⁹But God told AbraHam:‘Look; your wife SarAh will give birth to your son, and you should name him IsaAc [which means ‘Laughter’].‘I’ll make my Sacred Agreement [with you] firm through him… It’ll be an age-long Sacred Agreement that I’ll be his God and [the God] of his offspring that descends from him.²⁰‘As for IshMaEl; {Look!} I’ve heard you and I’ve blest him. I’ll make him grow and multiply tremendously, so he will become the father of 12 nations that I’ll make a great people.²¹‘However, My Sacred Agreement will be established with IsaAc, whom SarAh will bear to you at this time next year.’²²Then The God stopped talking to him, and He left AbraHam.²³Well thereafter, AbraHam took his son IshMaEl, all of his home-born servants, all of those whom he’d bought with money… All the males in AbraHam’s house, and circumcised their foreskins on that very day, just as God had told him.²⁴AbraHam was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, ²⁵and his son IshMaEl was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.²⁶Both AbraHam and his son IshMaEl were circumcised that very day, ²⁷along with all the men of his house… Those who were born there and the foreigners who were bought with money.

¹God [next] appeared to [AbraHam] around noon, as he was sitting at the entrance to his tent by the big tree close to MamRe. ²For when he looked up, he saw three men standing in front of him. And when he noticed them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them, bowing all the way to the ground.³Then he said:‘Lords,‘If I have indeed found favor in your sight, don’t pass your servant by. ⁴[I’ll have] water brought and [my servants] will wash your feet! You just rest here under this tree. ⁵I’ll also bring some bread for you to eat, and then you can continue your journey… Allow your servant to offer you some refreshment.’And they replied:‘You may do as you’ve said.’⁶So AbraHam ran back to SarAh (who was in the tent) and said to her:‘Hurry… Knead three scoops of fine flour and make [some bread].’⁷Then AbraHam ran to the pens, where he took a young calf (a nice, tender one) and gave it to his servant, who quickly prepared it.⁸Next, he got some butter, some milk, and the calf that he’d prepared, and set it all out before them… And they ate as he stood near them under the tree.⁹Then the Lord asked:‘Where is your woman SarAh?’And [AbraHam] replied:‘Look, she’s there in the tent!’¹⁰So the Lord said:‘I’ll return this way and come to see you during this season [next year], and your woman SarAh will have a son.’Well, SarAh overheard this as she stood behind him at the entrance of the tent. ¹¹And because AbraHam and SarAh were old, and SarAh was [well beyond the age of child bearing], she laughed inside herself, saying:¹²‘This hasn’t happened to me [in the past]… And now my lord is [too] old!’¹³And at that, the Lord asked AbraHam:‘Why is SarAh laughing inside herself and asking, ‘Will I give birth? I’m already old’?¹⁴‘Is there anything that’s impossible for Jehovah?‘I’ll return to you [next year] in this season, and SarAh will have a son!’¹⁵However, SarAh denied it, saying, ‘I didn’t laugh’ (she said this because she was afraid).And the Lord replied:‘Oh, but you did laugh.’¹⁶Then the men got up and headed towards Sodom and GomorRah, and AbraHam traveled along with them to assist in their journey.¹⁷So the Lord then asked:‘Shall I hide the things that I’m about to do from my servant AbraHam?¹⁸‘For AbraHam will become a great and highly populated nation through whom all the nations of the earth will be blest, ¹⁹because I know that he will order his sons and the house that is to come from him to keep the ways of Jehovah… To be righteous and just, so that Jehovah can bring all the things to AbraHam that He’s promised.’²⁰Then the Lord told him this:‘The cries that I’m hearing about Sodom and GomorRah keep growing, and their sins are very bad. ²¹So I’m going down to see if they’re as bad as the cries that I’m hearing have said.‘And if not, at least I’ll know [for sure].’²²And at that, the men headed towards Sodom.Meanwhile, AbraHam was still there in the Lord’s presence.²³So AbraHam went up to him and asked:‘Are you going to destroy the righteous along with the wicked, treating the righteous as though they were wicked? ²⁴If there are 50 righteous [people] in the city, will you destroy them? Wouldn’t you spare the whole place if there were 50 righteous [people] there?²⁵‘You would never do such a thing as to destroy the righteous along with the wicked and treat the righteous as though they were wicked… No way! Won’t you, the judge of the whole earth, do what’s right?’²⁶And the Lord said:‘If there are 50 righteous [people] in the city of Sodom, I’ll spare the whole city and the whole place for their sakes.’²⁷Then AbraHam continued:‘My Lord,‘Here I’m speaking to you, and all I am is dirt and ashes. ²⁸However, what if there weren’t 50 righteous [people] and there were only 45. Would you destroy the whole city because of the lack of 5?’And the Lord said:‘I won’t destroy it if I can find 45 there.’²⁹However, [AbraHam] just kept talking to him and said:‘What if there are only 40? ³⁰Would you not destroy it for the sake of the 40?’And he went on:‘Lord, please don’t hold it against me if I continue to speak; but, what if there are 30?’And the Lord replied:‘I won’t destroy it for the sake of 30.’³¹So he said:‘Since I’m allowed to speak to [my] Lord; what if you can only find 20?’And he said:‘I won’t destroy it if I can only find 20.’³²Finally, he said:‘Lord,‘Would you hold it against me if I were to say just one more thing? What if you were to find just 10 [righteous people]?’And he replied:‘I won’t destroy it for the sake of the 10.’³³Then the Lord stopped speaking to AbraHam and left, and AbraHam returned to his [tent].

¹Well, that evening, the two messengers [of God] finally arrived at Sodom, where they found Lot sitting by the [city] gate. And when Lot saw them, he got up [and went] to meet them, bowing low with his face to the ground. He said:²‘Look here, my lords; come to the house of your servant and rest from your journey. [Then you can] wash your feet and get up early in the morning to continue on your way.’However, they said:‘No, we’ll just sleep here in the street.’³But [Lot] kept insisting, so they went with him to his house. Then he baked flatbread and made a feast for them, which they ate.⁴[Well, that evening], before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom gathered around the house… All of them, from the young to the old, ⁵and they shouted for Lot, saying:‘Where are the men who came to your home this evening?‘Send them out to us, so we can [have sex] with them!’⁶Well, Lot went out on his porch, shut the door behind him, ⁷and said:‘Absolutely not, my brothers! Don’t do this wicked thing!⁸‘I have two daughters that have never [had sex] with a man. I’ll bring them out to you and you can do whatever you want with them. However, don’t harm these men! It was to avoid such a thing that [I brought them] under the shelter of my roof!’⁹But they replied:‘Get out of the way! You came here to live among us, and [now, do you think] have become our judge?‘We’re going to do more harm to you than we’ll do to them!’¹⁰So they started pushing Lot and were ready to break down his door. But the [messengers] reached out and grabbed Lot, dragged him back inside the house, and shut the door. ¹¹Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both the great and the small… Until they finally got tired of trying to find the door.¹²And the [messengers] said to Lot:‘If you have any sons, daughters, sons in law, or any friends in the city, you must take them away from this place, ¹³because we’re going to destroy it!‘A great cry has been raised against [this city] to Jehovah, and [He] has sent us to destroy it.’¹⁴So Lot went and spoke to his [future] sons-in-law that [were engaged to] his daughters, and said:‘Get up and leave this place, because Jehovah is going to destroy the city!’However, to his [future] sons-in-law, it seemed as though he was joking.¹⁵Then the next morning, the messengers started to hurry Lot along, saying:‘Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters and go, so you won’t be destroyed with the sins of this city!’¹⁶However, they were unsure. So the messengers grabbed the hands of Lot, his wife, and his two daughters… And that’s how Jehovah saved them.¹⁷Then, once they were outside [of the city], the [messengers] told them:‘Now, do whatever you must to save your own lives. You must not turn around and look back at the things that are behind you… And don’t stay anywhere in the countryside around here. Run to the mountains, so you won’t be [destroyed along] with the rest!’¹⁸But Lot said:‘I beg you, Lord,‘Your servant has been shown such mercy and you have shown such righteousness in the things that you’ve done for me to save my life. ¹⁹However, I won’t be able to make it to the mountains, because the [destruction] will likely catch up with me and kill me.²⁰‘Look, there’s a town nearby… A small one that I can escape to and be spared. Isn’t this just a small thing?‘If you [allow] this, you’ll save my life!’²¹And [the messenger] told him:‘Look; I’ll respect your wishes in this matter and I won’t destroy the town that you’re talking about. ²²But hurry and get out of here, because I won’t be able to do anything until you get there.’And from that point on, [Lot] referred to that town as Segor [meaning, ‘small’].²³Well, the sun was already up by the time that Lot arrived in Segor, and that’s when ²⁴Jehovah poured fire and sulfur from the sky upon Sodom and GomorRah, ²⁵which destroyed those cities, all the countryside around them and everyone who lived in the cities… Including even the plants that grew on the ground.²⁶However, [Lot’s] wife had turned and looked back, and she then became an upright block of salt.²⁷Well, that morning (as AbraHam arose early to go to the place where he’d stood before the Lord) ²⁸when he looked towards Sodom, GomorRah, and the surrounding countryside, he saw what looked like the flames and smoke of a furnace arising from that land!²⁹And this is how it all happened.However, when God destroyed all the cities around there, He remembered AbraHam and He brought Lot out of the midst of that destruction, when the Lord overthrew those cities where Lot had been living.³⁰Well after that, Lot and his daughters left Segor and they went to live in the mountains, because he was afraid to live in Segor. So he and his daughters went and lived in a cave.³¹[It was there that] the eldest [daughter] said to the younger:‘Our father is old, and no one on earth will come to us here where we’re living... ³²So let’s get our father drunk with wine and then we’ll sleep with him, so we can raise our father’s offspring.’³³Well, that night, they brought their father some wine to drink, and the eldest went in and laid down with him. However, he wasn’t aware of when he went to sleep or when he got up.³⁴Then the next day, the eldest said to the younger:‘Look; I slept with our father last night. Therefore, let’s get him some wine to drink again tonight, and then you go in and sleep with him, so we can raise offspring from our father.’³⁵Well, they got their father to drink wine again, and the younger went in and slept with her father that night… And he didn’t know when he went to sleep or when he got up.³⁶As a result, the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. ³⁷Then the eldest bore a son whom she called MoAb, saying:‘He’s of my father.’([MoAb] is the father of the MoAbites to this day).³⁸And the younger also bore a son whom she named AmMon, saying:‘He’s the son of my family.’([AmMon] is the father of the AmMonites to this day).

¹Well, sometime after that, AbraHam moved to the southern part of the country and took up living between Cades and Sur, staying for a while in GeraRa. ²And [there], AbraHam [again told the people] that his wife SarAh was his sister. He didn’t want to say, ‘She’s my wife,’ for fear that the men of that city would kill him because of her.So AbiMelech (the king of GeraRa) sent for SarAh and took her [to be his woman]. ³But God came to AbiMelech at night in a dream and told him:‘Look; you’re all going to die because of this woman you’ve taken, since she [already has] a husband!’⁴Well, AbiMelech hadn’t touched her [yet], so he replied:‘Lord, would you destroy a righteous nation that has sinned in ignorance?⁵‘Didn’t he tell me, She’s my sister?‘And didn’t she tell me, He’s my brother?‘I’ve done this with righteous hands and with a pure heart!’⁶Then The God replied to him in his [dream], saying:‘Yes, I know that you did this with a pure heart... That’s why I’ve spared you and [kept you from] sinning against Me, and that’s why I also kept you from touching her.⁷‘So return this man’s wife now, because he’s a Prophet. Then he will pray for you and you’ll continue to live.‘However, if you don’t return her, you and all that are yours will die.’⁸So early the next morning, AbiMelech got up and called all his servants in; then he told them everything that was said, which frightened them.⁹And thereafter, AbiMelech called AbraHam in and asked:‘What have you done to us? [What type of bad] have you seen in me that you should do such a thing? Have we sinned against you in some way so that you’d draw my whole kingdom and me into such a great sin?‘Why, you’ve done something to me that no one should ever do!’¹⁰And AbiMelech continued:‘What [bad] have you seen in me that you would do such a thing?’¹¹Then AbraHam replied:‘[I thought] that this surely couldn’t be a place of godly people, so they’ll kill me for my wife. ¹²[And in fact], she really is my sister by my father (but not by my mother), whom I took as my wife.¹³‘So when God took me from my father’s house, I told her:‘I have a righteous thing that I want you to do for me: Wherever we go, tell [people] that I’m your brother.’¹⁴Then AbiMelech returned his wife SarAh, along with 1,000 silver coins, as well as sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. ¹⁵And AbiMelech said to AbraHam:‘Look, my whole land lies before you. So now, go wherever you wish.’¹⁶Then he told SarAh:‘Look, I’ve given your brother 1,000 silver coins. These are yours as the price of your face and for all the women who are with you… But [in the future, you must] always tell the whole truth!’¹⁷So AbraHam prayed to God, and God healed AbiMelech. [He also healed AbiMelech’s] wife and his concubines, and they thereafter gave birth to children ¹⁸(since Jehovah had closed all the wombs in AbiMelech’s house due to AbraHam’s wife, SarAh).

¹Then the Lord visited SarAh and did as [He had promised] to her. ²She became pregnant and bore a son to AbraHam in his old age, at the exact time that the Lord had specified. ³And AbraHam named the son who was born to him through SarAh, IsaAc [meaning ‘Laughter’].⁴Then on the 8th day, AbraHam circumcised IsaAc, just as God had instructed him.⁵AbraHam was 100 years old when his son IsaAc was born. ⁶And SarAh said:‘Jehovah has created laughter for me, because everyone who hears [about this] will rejoice with me.’⁷Then she added:‘Who could tell AbraHam that I’m nursing a child, because I’ve given birth in my old age?’⁸Thereafter, the child grew; and on the day that he was weaned, AbraHam prepared a great feast. ⁹However, SarAh noticed Hagar’s son (the one who was born to AbraHam through the Egyptian [woman]) playfully making fun of their son IsaAc.¹⁰So she told AbraHam:‘Throw this slave woman and her son out, because I won’t have this slave’s son receive an inheritance with my son IsaAc!’¹¹Now, those words about his son were very difficult for AbraHam. ¹²But God said to AbraHam:‘Don’t allow this thing about your son and the slave woman to become too difficult for you. Listen to whatever SarAh tells you, because IsaAc will be the one who’s called your offspring. ¹³However, I’ll make a great nation of this slave woman’s son, because he’s also your offspring.’¹⁴So the next morning, AbraHam got up, gave Hagar some loaves [of bread] and a skin [bottle] of water, put her son on her shoulders, and sent her away. Then she left there and wandered in the desert near the Well of the Promise.¹⁵However, [before long], the skin [bottle] of water was empty. So she threw her child under a fir tree, ¹⁶where she left him, and then she sat some distance across from him (a bow-shot away). And she said:‘I can’t just watch my child die.’So she sat there across from him as her child bawled and cried.¹⁷Well, God heard the voice of the child from the place where He was, and a [spirit] messenger from God called to Hagar out of the sky, and asked:‘Why are you so concerned, Hagar?‘Don’t worry; for God has heard the child’s voice from where He is. ¹⁸So now, get up and take the child by his hand, because I’m going to make a great nation of him!’¹⁹Then The God opened her eyes and she saw a life [sustaining] well of water; so she went and filled the skin with water and gave the child a drink.²⁰God was with that child, so he grew up living in the desert and he became an archer. ²¹And while he was living there in the desert, his mother found a woman for him in Pharan, Egypt.²²Now, the time came when AbiMelech, OchoZath (his trusted friend), and Pichol (the head of his army) [came to] AbraHam and said:‘God is with you [and has blest] everything that you do. ²³So swear to me by God that you won’t harm me, my offspring, or my name; rather, you should deal with me in the same righteous way that I’ve dealt with you in this land in which you’re living.’²⁴And AbraHam said:‘I swear.’²⁵Then AbraHam complained to AbiMelech about some water wells that his servants had taken from him. ²⁶And AbiMelech replied:‘I don’t know who did this thing to you, nor did you tell me about it. Today is the first time I’ve heard of this.’²⁷And thereafter, AbraHam took some cattle and sheep and gave them to AbiMelech, and they made a treaty. ²⁸Then AbraHam set aside 7 female lambs. ²⁹And AbiMelech asked him:‘Why have you set those 7 female lambs aside?’³⁰And AbraHam replied:‘I’m giving my 7 female lambs to you as testimony to the fact that I dug this well.’³¹So thereafter, he named that place, ‘The Well of the Promise,’ because that’s where they swore their oath ³²and made their treaty. Then AbiMelech, his trusted friend OchoZath, and Pichol (the head of his army) got up and returned [home] to the land of the Philistines.³³Well, after that, AbraHam planted a field near The Well of the Promise and started calling on the Name of the God of the ages, Jehovah. ³⁴And he stayed there in the land of the Philistines for many days.

¹It was then that God put AbraHam to the test. He called to him, saying:‘AbraHam…‘AbraHam!’And [AbraHam] replied:‘Look! It’s me!’²Then [God] said:‘Take your beloved son (this one whom you so love, IsaAc) then go to the highlands and offer him there on one of the mountains that I’ll tell you about – as a burnt offering.’³So AbraHam got up in the morning, saddled his burro, and [prepared to] take two servants and his son IsaAc with him. Then, after splitting some wood for the offering, he got up and traveled towards the place that God had spoken to him about.⁴Well, it was on the 3rd day that AbraHam looked up and saw the place in the distance.⁵Then AbraHam said to his servants:‘Stay here with the burros; for my son and I will go over there… And after we bow low [before God], we’ll return to you.’⁶So AbraHam took the wood for the offering and laid it on his son IsaAc’s [shoulders], and the two went off together, with him carrying both the fire and the knife in his own hands.⁷Then IsaAc called out to his father (AbraHam) and said:‘Father!’And he replied:‘What is it, son?’And [IsaAc] continued:‘Look! [We have the] the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the offering?’⁸Then AbraHam said:‘God will provide His own sheep for the offering, son.’So they both traveled on, and they ⁹finally arrived at the place that God had spoken to him about... Then AbraHam built the altar there and laid the wood on it, and he tied his son IsaAc’s feet together and laid him on the wood on top of the altar!¹⁰And just as AbraHam was reaching for the knife to slaughter his son, ¹¹a [spirit] messenger of Jehovah called out to him from the sky, and said:‘AbraHam…‘AbraHam!’And he said:‘Look, it’s me!’¹²Then [the messenger] said:‘Don’t lay a hand on the child and don’t do anything to him!‘For now I know that you fear God, since you haven’t spared even your loved son for My sake!’¹³And when AbraHam looked up, he saw {Look!} a male goat that was caught by its horns on a bush in the thicket. So AbraHam went over and grabbed the male goat; [then he] offered it as a whole burnt offering instead of his son IsaAc.¹⁴Well, AbraHam thereafter named that place, ‘The Lord Was Seen.’ [He did that] so people today would say, ‘This is the mountain where the Lord was seen.’¹⁵Then a messenger of Jehovah called AbraHam a second time from the sky, saying:¹⁶‘This is what Jehovah has said:‘I’ve sworn [an oath] by Myself that, because you’ve done this thing (because you haven’t spared your loved son for Me); ¹⁷when it comes to blessings, I’ll bless you, and when it comes to multiplying, I’ll multiply your offspring like the stars in the skies and as the sands on the sea shores!‘Your offspring will inherit the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸and all the nations of the earth will be blest by your offspring, because you’ve listened to My voice!’¹⁹Well thereafter, AbraHam returned to his servants, and they all got up and traveled together to the Well of the Promise. Then AbraHam took up living there at the Well of the Promise.²⁰Then later on, AbraHam received this report:‘Look! Melcha has given birth to sons by your brother, NaHor!’²¹[They were:]• Uz (the first-born), • Baux his brother, • CamuEl ([who later became] the father of the Syrians), • Chazad, ²²• Azav, • Phaldes, • JelDaph, and • BathuEl (BathuEl [later] fathered RebecKa).²³Melcha bore these 8 sons to AbraHam’s brother NaHor.²⁴In addition, his concubine (named RheUma) also gave birth to:• TaBec, • TaAm, • Tochos, and • Mocha.

¹Well, SarAh lived to be 127 years old, ²and then [she] died in the city of ArBoc (HebRon in the land of CanaAn), which is located in a valley.So AbraHam went to SarAh to mourn for her. ³And as AbraHam stood before his dead [wife], he spoke to the sons of Ket, saying:⁴‘I’m just a visitor and a stranger among you; but [please] allow me to buy a burying-place among [your people], so I can bury my dead away from [my place].’⁵And the sons of Ket replied to AbraHam, saying:‘No Sir!⁶‘Listen; you may live among us, but you’re [really] a king from God! So bury your dead in our best tombs! None of us will ever withhold our tombs to keep you from burying your dead here!’⁷Then AbraHam arose and bowed low before the people of the land (the sons of Ket). ⁸And AbraHam said to them:‘If you approve of me burying my dead out of my sight; then, listen to what I have to say and [please] speak on my behalf to EphRon, son of SaAr...⁹‘[I want] him to give me the double cave that he owns, which is located in his field. I’ll [be happy to] pay whatever it’s worth for a burial-place among you.’¹⁰Now, EphRon happened to be sitting there in the midst of the children of Ket, and [he] answered AbraHam (speaking where he could be heard by all the sons of Ket and by all that were entering the city) saying:¹¹‘Pay attention to me, my lord; here before all my countrymen [I say]: Bury your dead!’¹²And at that, AbraHam bowed low before the people of the land, ¹³and he told EphRon (before the people of the land):‘Since you’re on my side, listen to me; accept the price of the field from me and I’ll bury my dead there.’¹⁴However, EphRon answered AbraHam, saying:¹⁵‘No, my lord! I’ve heard that the land [is worth] 400 silver coins, but what value is that between me and you? No, just bury your dead.’¹⁶And although AbraHam heard what EphRon had said, he still paid [him] the money, just as he had vowed before the sons of Ket – 400 silver coins that had been approved by the merchants.¹⁷So at that, the double cave that was in the field of EphRon opposite MamRe (the field, the cave that was in it, every tree in the field, and everything that was within its borders) was sold ¹⁸to AbraHam as his possession, there in front of the sons of Ket and everyone [who’ll be] entering the city.¹⁹There, AbraHam buried his woman SarAh inside the field’s double cave, which is opposite MamRe (HebRon in the land of CanaAn). ²⁰Yes, the field and its cave were sold to AbraHam as his burying place by the sons of Ket.

¹Well by then, AbraHam was very old, and Jehovah had blest AbraHam in everything. ²So AbraHam said to his servant (the elder of his house that was in charge of all his possessions):‘Put your hand under my thigh, ³because I want you to swear by Jehovah the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you won’t take a woman for my son IsaAc from the daughters of the CanaAnites… These [people] among whom I’m living.⁴‘Instead, I want you to go to my country – to the place I was born and to my people – to find a woman for my son IsaAc.’⁵And his servant replied:‘But if the woman isn’t happy and willing to return with me to this land, should I take your son back to that land from which you came?’⁶And AbraHam said to him:‘Make sure that you don’t take my son back there. ⁷For it was Jehovah (the God of heaven and the God of earth) who took me out of my father’s house and out of the land where I was born. He spoke to me and swore to me, saying:‘I’ll give this land to you and to your offspring.’‘[So I know that He] will send His messenger ahead of you… And you must take a woman for my son from there. ⁸However, if the woman isn’t willing to come with you into this land, you’ll be free from this oath. Just don’t take my son back there.’⁹At at that, the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master AbraHam and swore to him. ¹⁰Then the servant took 10 camels from his master’s herd and [some of] his master’s valuables, and he traveled through MesoPotamia to the city of NaHor.¹¹Well, it was towards evening that he [stopped and] rested his camels outside of the city, by the well where the young women went to draw water.¹²And he [prayed]:‘O Jehovah, the God of my master AbraHam!‘Bless what I’m doing today, and be merciful to my master AbraHam.¹³‘{Look!} Here I’m standing by the well where the daughters of those who live in this city come to draw water. ¹⁴And may it be that whichever virgin to whom I say:‘Bring down the water jar so that I may have a drink...’‘And she replies:‘Take a drink, and I’ll also [pour water] for your camels to drink until they’re satisfied...’‘I’ll know that this is the one You’ve prepared for Your servant IsaAc, and that You’ve been merciful to my master, AbraHam.’¹⁵Well, before he was even done speaking in his mind, {Look!} RebecKa, the daughter of BathuEl (son of Melcha, the woman of NaHor, AbraHam’s brother) came there carrying a water jug on her shoulders... ¹⁶This virgin was very beautiful, and she was in fact a virgin… No man ever had sexual relations with her. She went down to the well, filled her water jug, and [walked back] up.¹⁷Then [AbraHam’s] servant ran to meet her, and said:‘Give me a little water to drink from your pitcher.’¹⁸And she said:‘Have a drink, sir.’So she quickly removed the pitcher [from her head] and allowed him to drink until he was finished.¹⁹Then she said:‘I’ll also draw water for your camels, until they’ve all had enough to drink.’²⁰And she quickly emptied the water jug into the trough, and then she kept running to the well to draw, until she’d drawn enough water for all the camels.²¹Well, the man paid attention to this, but he didn’t say anything, because he wanted to know whether this was Jehovah’s blessing.²²Then, after all the camels were finished drinking, he gave her [two] gold earrings (each weighing about a drachma [1/8th of an ounce / 3.5g]), and he [put] two bracelets on her hands (they weighed about the same as 10 gold coins), ²³and he asked her:‘Whose daughter are you? Tell me!‘And is there room for us to lodge with your father?’²⁴Then she replied:‘I’m the daughter of BathuEl, who is the son of Melcha and whose father was NaHor.’²⁵And she added:‘We have straw, a lot of fodder, and a place for [you to] rest.’²⁶Well at that, the man (who was very happy) bowed low to Jehovah ²⁷and said:‘May Jehovah the God of my master AbraHam be praised, [because He] hasn’t allowed His righteousness or His truth to fail my master, since the Lord has led me right to the house of my lord’s brother!’²⁸Then the young maiden ran and reported what he said to the household of her mother.²⁹Now, RebecKa had a brother whose name was Laban; and Laban ran all the way to the well to meet the man. ³⁰For when he saw the earrings and the bracelets on his sister’s hands, and when he heard what his sister RebecKa said about what the man had told her, he went to the man as he was standing by the well with his camels ³¹and said to him:‘Come on in, you who are blest by Jehovah!‘Why are you standing outside? I’ve prepared the house and I’ve also made a place for your camels!’³²So the man went into the house, and [Laban] unloaded the camels, gave them straw and fodder, and he drew water to wash the feet [of AbraHam’s servant] as well as the feet of the men who were with him; ³³then he set loaves of bread before them to eat.However, [AbraHam’s servant] said:‘I’m not going to eat until I’ve told you the reason why I came here.’And [Laban] said:‘Then go ahead and speak.’³⁴So he said:‘I’m a servant of AbraHam, ³⁵and Jehovah has greatly blest my master.‘He’s highly respected and has been given sheep, cattle, silver, gold, male and female servants, camels, and burros... ³⁶And SarAh, my master’s wife, bore one son to my master after he’d grown old, to whom he’s given everything that he owns.³⁷‘Now, my master made me swear [an oath], saying:‘You must not take a woman for my son from among the daughters of the CanaAnites… These [people] I’m living among. ³⁸But you should go to the house of my father and to my tribe, and take a woman for my son from there!’³⁹‘Then I asked my master:‘What if the woman is unhappy about coming along?’⁴⁰‘And he replied:‘Jehovah God, who’s found me to be acceptable in His presence, will send His messenger along with you, and your journey will be blest.‘You should take a woman for my son from among my tribe and from the house of my father. ⁴¹Then you’ll be free from the curse [of your oath]... And if they won’t give her to you when you get to my tribe, you’ll be freed from your oath.⁴²‘So today I came to this well, and I [prayed]:‘O Jehovah, the God of my master AbraHam; If you’ll bless this journey that I’m now on, ⁴³{Look!} I’ll stand by this well where the daughters of the people of this city come to draw water. And whichever young woman to whom I’ll say:‘Give me a little water to drink out of your pitcher...’⁴⁴‘...and she replies:‘Take a drink, and I’ll also [pour water] for your camels to drink until they’re satisfied...’‘...this is the woman whom Jehovah has prepared for His servant IsaAc, and that’s how I’ll know that You’ve been merciful to my master, AbraHam.⁴⁵‘Well, before I had even finished speaking in my mind, RebecKa arrived with her pitcher on her shoulders. And [after] she went down to the well and drew water, I said to her:‘Give me a drink.’⁴⁶‘Then she quickly took the pitcher from her head, and said:‘Take a drink, and I’ll also give your camels [something to] drink.’‘So I drank, and then she watered the camels!⁴⁷‘Then I asked her:‘Whose daughter are you… Tell me!’‘And she replied:‘I’m the daughter of BathuEl, son of Melcha, and whose father was NaHor.’‘And that’s when I gave her the earrings and put the bracelets on her hands.⁴⁸‘Well, all of this made me so happy that I bowed low and praised Jehovah, the God of my master AbraHam, who has truly blest me in such a way that I might take the daughter of my master’s own brother for his son.⁴⁹‘Now, tell me whether you’ll be merciful and just with my lord, so I can know which way to turn.’⁵⁰And at this, Laban and BathuEl answered, saying:‘Since this thing has come from Jehovah, we can’t answer you in either a bad way or a good way!⁵¹‘Look! There is RebecKa standing before you… Take her and go! Let her be the wife of your master’s son, just as Jehovah has said.’⁵²And when AbraHam’s servant heard these words, he bowed to the ground to Jehovah. ⁵³Then he brought out silver and gold jewelry, as well as clothing, and gave it to RebecKa. He also gave gifts to her brother and to her mother. ⁵⁴And afterward, both he and the men who were with him ate and drank; then they went to sleep.Well, when he got up in the morning, he said to them:‘Now allow me to leave, so I can return to my master.’⁵⁵And her brothers and mother said:‘Let the virgin stay here with us for 10 more days, and then she can go.’⁵⁶But he replied to them:‘Don’t hold me back, because Jehovah has blest my journey. Send me away now, so I can return to my master!’⁵⁷And they said:‘Let’s call the girl and ask [her what she wants to do].’⁵⁸So they called RebecKa and asked:‘Will you go with this man?’And she replied:‘I’ll go.’⁵⁹So they [agreed to] send their sister RebecKa and all her possessions along with AbraHam’s servant and his attendants. ⁶⁰Then they [gave] RebecKa a blessing, saying to her:‘You are our sister; now become ten thousands of thousands, and may your offspring own the cities of their enemies.’⁶¹Thereafter, RebecKa and her female attendants mounted the camels and went along with the man. And the servant, once having received RebecKa, departed.⁶²Meanwhile, IsaAc had traveled through the desert towards the Well of the Vision, and he took up living in the southern portion of that land. ⁶³It was towards evening that IsaAc had gone out into the plains to think (because he was discouraged). And when he looked up, he saw camels coming.⁶⁴It was then that RebecKa looked up and saw IsaAc. So she quickly dismounted the camel ⁶⁵and asked the servant:‘Who is the man who is walking across the plains to meet us?’And the servant said:‘This is my master.’So she took her veil and covered herself.⁶⁶Thereafter, the servant told IsaAc everything that he’d done. ⁶⁷And IsaAc went to the house of his mother and took RebecKa, so she became his wife… And he loved her… And IsaAc was given comfort for [the death of] his mother, SarAh.

¹Well, after that, AbraHam took a wife again, whose name was KetTura. ²She bore to him:• ZomBran, • JeZan, • Madal, • MidiAn, • JesBoc, and • SoYe.³JeZan fathered:• Saba, and • DeDan.The sons of DeDan were the AsShurites, the Latusians, and the Laomim.⁴The sons of MidiAn were:• Gephar, • Aphir, • Enoch, • Abida, and • ElDaAh.These were all the sons of KetTura.⁵However, AbraHam had given all of his possessions to his son IsaAc. ⁶He just gave gifts to the sons of his concubines, then he sent them away from his son IsaAc, to a country in the east.⁷AbraHam lived to be 175 years old. ⁸But AbraHam [eventually found himself in] failing health and he died at a ripe old age… An old man who’d lived a full life; and he was [buried] with his family.⁹His sons, IsaAc and IshMaEl buried him in the double cave that was in the field of EphRon (son of SaAr the Kettite), which is across from MamRe. ¹⁰So AbraHam and his wife SarAh [were both buried] in that field, inside the cave that AbraHam bought from the sons of Ket.¹¹Well, after AbraHam died, God blest his son IsaAc. And IsaAc went to live by the Well of the Vision.¹²These are the generations of IshMaEl, son of AbraHam, whom Hagar (SarAh’s Egyptian handmaid) had born to AbraHam, ¹³and these are the names of IshMaEl’s sons by each of their generations:• NabaiOth (the firstborn of IshMaEl), then • Kedar, • NabDeEl, • MasSam, ¹⁴• MasMa, • Duma, • MasSe, ¹⁵• ChodDan, • ThaEman, • Jetur, • Naphes, and • Kedma.¹⁶Those are all IshMaEl’s sons, whose names are on their tents and dwellings… 12 princes of their nations. ¹⁷And this is how long IshMaEl lived: 137 years. Thereafter, [his health started to] fail and he died and was [buried with] his family.¹⁸[IshMaEl] and all his descendants lived [in the area] from Evilat [in the northeast] to Sur [in the southwest], and from Assyria to just across from Egypt.¹⁹And these are the generations of IsaAc, son of AbraHam:²⁰AbraHam fathered IsaAc. And when IsaAc was 40 years old, he took RebecKa (the daughter of BathuEl, the Syrian of Syrian MesoPotamia, the sister of Laban the Syrian) as his wife.²¹Then IsaAc prayed to Jehovah about his wife RebecKa, because she was sterile, and Jehovah heard him... So his wife (RebecKa) got pregnant.²²And [one day], the babies that were inside her jumped. And she asked:‘Why did this happen to me?’So she went to ask Jehovah, ²³and He told her:‘There are two nations in your womb, and two races will be separated from your belly. One race will become greater than the other, and the older one will serve the younger.’²⁴Well, when it came time for her to deliver, she [found that] she indeed had twins in her womb!²⁵The first came out red and covered with hair all over his skin; and she named him Esau.²⁶Then his brother was born while holding onto the heel of Esau with his hand, so she named him Jacob [meaning, ‘Snatcher of the Heel’].IsaAc was 60 years old when RebecKa bore them.²⁷Well, after the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter who lived in the country, while Jacob was a simple man who lived in a house. ²⁸And although IsaAc loved Esau (because he enjoyed venison), RebecKa loved Jacob.²⁹Then [one day], while Jacob was cooking up some stew, Esau came in from the plains tired and weak, ³⁰he said to Jacob:‘Let me have a taste of that red stew, because I’m weak.’(That’s when he started to be called Edom [or Red]).³¹And Jacob replied to Esau:‘Then, sell me your right [as firstborn]… Right now!’³²So Esau said:‘Look, I’m about to die! What good does this right [of the firstborn] mean to me?’³³And Jacob said to him:‘Swear to me right now!’So then he swore to him, and that’s when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.³⁴Thereafter, Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew, which he ate and then he drank, and he got up and left. This is how [little regard] Esau [had] his birthright.

¹Thereafter, a famine came upon the land that was greater than past famines that had happened in the time of AbraHam. So IsaAc went to GeraRa to see AbiMelech, the king of the Philistines.²And there the Lord appeared to him and said:‘Don’t go to Egypt! Rather, live in the land that I’m going to tell you about. ³Stay in this land and I’ll be with you and bless you!‘I’m going to give all of this land to you and to your offspring, for now I’ll fulfill the oath that I swore to your father AbraHam.⁴‘I will increase your offspring as the stars in the skies, I’ll give all of this land to your offspring, and all the nations of the earth will be blest by your offspring, ⁵because AbraHam (your father) listened to My voice and did as I said… He obeyed My commandments, rules, and laws.’⁶So thereafter, IsaAc started living there in GeraRa.⁷Well, when the men in GeraRa asked him about RebecKa (his wife), he told them that she was his sister, because he was afraid to tell them that she was his wife, as she was very pretty and [he feared that] the men there would kill him for RebecKa.⁸Then, after he’d lived there a long time, AbiMelech (the king of GeraRa) happened to lean over to look out his window, and he saw IsaAc playing with RebecKa, his wife.⁹So AbiMelech called IsaAc and asked him:‘Is she your wife? [And if so, then] why did you say she’s your sister?’And IsaAc replied:‘Well, I said this so that I wouldn’t be killed for her.’¹⁰And AbiMelech said:‘Why would you do such a thing to us?‘Before long, one of my relatives would have had [sex] with your wife, and you would have brought a sin upon us in our ignorance!’¹¹So, AbiMelech gave a command to all his people, that said:‘Any man who touches this man or his wife will die!’¹²Then IsaAc planted grain in the land; and that year, the barley produced 100 times [more than what he’d planted], for Jehovah was blessing him. ¹³So he became highly regarded and very wealthy, as he continued to prosper. ¹⁴For he owned many sheep, cattle, and tillable lands. But as a result, the Philistines [started to] envy him, ¹⁵and [they] stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in his time, filling them in with dirt.¹⁶Then AbiMelech told IsaAc:‘[I want you to] leave us, because you’ve become much greater than us.’¹⁷So IsaAc left there, stopping to rest in the valley of GeraRa, where [he decided to] live.¹⁸And once more, IsaAc dug the [same type of] wells that his father’s servants had dug (which the Philistines had stopped up after AbraHam’s death). And he gave them each names, using the same names as his father had used.¹⁹Then when IsaAc’s servants dug in the valley of GeraRa, they found a live well of water. ²⁰However, the shepherds of GeraRa argued with IsaAc’s shepherds, claiming that the water was theirs. So they named the well Injury, because [they claimed] injury over this matter.²¹As a result, he left that place and dug another well. [But then the people] started claiming [that it was theirs also]. So he named it Hatred. ²²And he left that place and dug another well, which no one else claimed to be theirs; so he named it Expanse, saying:‘Jehovah has made space for us and He’s prospered us in the land.’²³Then he traveled to the Well of the Promise, ²⁴where the Lord appeared to him that evening and said:‘I am the God of your father AbraHam!‘Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Because of your father AbraHam, I’ll bless you and your offspring will increase.’²⁵So he built an altar there, and he named it Jehovah.Then he set up camp, and IsaAc’s servants dug another well there in the valley of GeraRa.²⁶However, later, AbiMelech came to him from [the City of] GeraRa with his trusted friend OchoZath and with Phichol, the commander of his army.²⁷And IsaAc asked them:‘Why have you come to me here, now that you’ve shown your hatred for me and driven me away?’²⁸And they replied:‘We’ve seen that the Lord is surely with you. So we said:‘Let us swear an oath between him and us.’‘Yes, we want to make an agreement with you, ²⁹that you won’t do any wrong to us, and we won’t show any more hatred towards you. After all, isn’t it because we treated you well by sending you away peacefully that you’re now being blest by Jehovah?’³⁰So, [IsaAc] prepared a feast for them, and they all ate and drank. ³¹And when they got up the next morning, they each swore [an oath] to their neighbors. Then IsaAc sent them away, and they left him in safety.³²However, that very same day, IsaAc’s servants came and [gave him news about] the well that they were digging. They said:‘We’ve found water!’³³So he named it and the city, ‘The Oath.’ This is why that city is called ‘The Well of the Promise‘ [BeerSheba] to this day.³⁴Then when Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of BeOch the Kettite, and BaseMath (the daughter of Helon the Kettite) [as wives]. ³⁵And [these women] made life very difficult for IsaAc and RebecKa.

¹Well, after IsaAc grew old, his eyes became so dim that he couldn’t see. Then he called Esau, his eldest son, and said to him:‘Son!’And [Esau] replied:‘Look, here I am!’²And [IsaAc] said:‘{Look!} I’m old and I don’t know [how much longer I will live]. ³So, go get your weapons, both your bow and your quiver, and go into the plains to get me some venison. ⁴Then prepare the meat for me just the way I like it and bring it to me, so I can eat it.‘Thereafter, I’ll pass my blessing upon your life before I die.’⁵However, RebecKa overheard IsaAc speaking to his son Esau. And after Esau had gone out to the plains to get some venison for his father, ⁶RebecKa said to her younger son Jacob:‘{Look!} I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esau. And he told him ⁷to bring him some venison and prepare the meat so he could eat it; then he would bless him in front of Jehovah, before he dies.⁸‘Now, listen my son and do what I tell you!⁹‘Go out to the animals and bring two young goats to me ([make sure they’re] tender and good), and I’ll prepare the meat for your father just the way he likes it... ¹⁰Then you must take it to your father, so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.’¹¹But Jacob said to his mother RebecKa:‘My brother Esau is covered with hair, while [my body] is smooth. ¹²So if my father should [reach out] and feel me, it will look like I’m doing a bad thing to him, and that would bring a curse on me, not a blessing!’¹³However, his mother said to him:‘May I receive your curses, my son. Just listen to what I’ve told you to do and bring [the young goats] to me.’¹⁴So he went out and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared the meat just the way his father liked it. ¹⁵Then RebecKa took some of her eldest son Esau’s finest clothes that she had there in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob, ¹⁶and she also covered his arms and the bare parts of his neck with the skins of the young goats.¹⁷Thereafter, she put the meat and the bread that she’d prepared into the hands of Jacob, ¹⁸and he brought it in to his father.He said:‘Father.’And [IsaAc] replied:‘Look, it’s me! Who are you, son?’¹⁹And Jacob said to his father:‘It’s me, Esau your first-born!‘I’ve done what you told me to do; so, sit up and eat my venison… Then you can pass your blessings on my life.’²⁰But IsaAc asked his son:‘How did you find [the meat] so quickly?’And he replied:‘Jehovah your God set it before me.’²¹Then IsaAc told Jacob:‘Come close to me so I can feel you, [to see] whether you’re truly my son Esau!’²²And Jacob drew close to his father, so IsaAc could feel him, and he said:‘Your voice is that of Jacob, but your hands are the hands of Esau.’²³Therefore, he didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy like the hands of his brother Esau… And this is how [IsaAc] came to bless [Jacob].²⁴Well after that, [IsaAc] again asked:‘Are you my son Esau?’And [Jacob] replied:‘It’s me.’²⁵So he said:‘Then, bring your venison over here and I’ll eat it, son, and I’ll pass my blessings on to your life.’So he brought [the food] to him and he ate it, along with some wine, which he drank.²⁶Thereafter, IsaAc (his father) said to him:‘Come close and kiss me, son.’²⁷So [Jacob] went over and kissed him; and [IsaAc] then sniffed the odor of his clothes and blest him, saying:‘{Look!} This is the odor of my son. It has the smell of a wonderful field that has been blest by Jehovah... ²⁸So may God give you the dew of the skies, the fatness of the land, and plenty of grain and wine.²⁹‘May the gentiles serve you, and may their princes bow low before you. May you be the lord of your brother, and may your father’s [other] sons show you respect.‘May anyone who curses you be cursed, and may all that praise you be blest.’³⁰Well, right after IsaAc had blest his son Jacob (immediately after Jacob had left the presence of IsaAc his father), his brother Esau returned from his hunt. ³¹He’d also prepared some meat and brought it in to his father, and he said:‘Get up father! Sit up and eat some of your son’s venison, so you can pass your blessings on my life.’³²But his father IsaAc asked:‘Who are you?’And he said:‘I’m your first-born son, Esau!’³³Well, IsaAc was shocked, and asked:‘Then, who was it that [just] got the venison and brought it to me? I ate it all before you got here, and I blest him… So he’s the one who’ll be blest!’³⁴And when Esau heard what his father IsaAc said, he shouted loudly and bitterly:‘I beg you, father! Bless me too!’³⁵And [IsaAc] told him:‘Your brother slyly took your blessing.’³⁶Then [Esau] said:‘He is well-named Jacob, because {Look!} this is the second time that has he’s taken what was mine! First he took my right as the firstborn, and now he’s taken my blessing!’And again, Esau asked his father:‘Don’t you have a blessing left for me, father?’³⁷Then IsaAc said to Esau:‘I’ve already made him your lord and all of your brothers his servants. I’ve also empowered him with the wine and grain… So what more can I give you, my son?’³⁸But Esau asked his father:‘Don’t you have just one blessing father? I beg you father, bless me too!’Well, this really bothered IsaAc, because Esau was shouting and crying. ³⁹So (his father) IsaAc answered and said:‘Look; your home will be in the fatness of the ground and in the dew of the skies up above... ⁴⁰You’ll indeed live by your sword and you’ll serve your brother. However, the time will come when you’ll loosen and break his yoke from your neck.’⁴¹Well, Esau was very angry with Jacob over the blessing that his father had given to him. So Esau thought about it and then he said:‘May the days of mourning my father come quickly, so I can kill my brother Jacob!’⁴²Then when these words of Esau (her eldest son) were reported to RebecKa, she sent for her younger son Jacob, and said to him:‘{Look!} Your brother Esau has threatened to kill you!⁴³‘So now, listen to me, my son: Get up and quickly leave for MesoPotamia… Go to my brother Laban in Haran ⁴⁴and live with him until all of your brother’s anger ⁴⁵and rage against you has passed and he forgets what you’ve done to him... Then I’ll send for you and bring you back. For I don’t want to be saddened over [the death] of both you [and your father] on the same day!’⁴⁶Then [later], RebecKa said [to IsaAc]:‘I’m so tired of my life because of the daughters of the sons of Chet. And if Jacob were [also] to take a wife from the daughters of this land, where would I live?’

¹So IsaAc called for Jacob… He blest him and said to him:‘You must not take a woman from among the daughters of the CanaAnites. ²Rather, get up quickly and travel to MesoPotamia, to the house of my father-in-law BathuEl, and find yourself a woman among the daughters of your mother’s brother Laban.³‘May my God bless you, prosper you, and make you increase; for you’ll indeed become a gathering of nations. ⁴May He give the blessings of my father AbraHam to you and to your offspring that comes after you, so that you’ll inherit this land in which you’re living and which God had given to AbraHam.’⁵So thereafter, IsaAc sent Jacob away, and he went to [stay with] Laban, son of BathuEl the Syrian, who was the brother of RebecKa (the mother of Jacob and Esau) in MesoPotamia.⁶Now, Esau knew that IsaAc had blest Jacob and that after he blest him, he’d sent him away to find a wife in Syrian MesoPotamia. [And he also knew that he told Jacob] not to take a woman from the daughters of the CanaAnites… ⁷And that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother by going off to Syrian MesoPotamia. ⁸For Esau recognized that his father IsaAc viewed the daughters of the CanaAnites as evil.⁹As a result, he went to see IshMaEl (son of AbraHam) and he took MaEleth (IshMaEl’s daughter and NabeOth’s sister) to be another one of his wives.¹⁰Meanwhile, Jacob had left the Well of the Promise and traveled to Haran. ¹¹And when he reached a certain place, he decided to sleep there, since the sun had gone down... So he chose a stone and placed it under his head, then he went to sleep in that place ¹²and he started to dream.Well, {Look!} [in the dream] there was a stairway fastened to the ground that reached all the way into the heavens… And the messengers of God were ascending and descending upon it!¹³Then [he saw] Jehovah standing at the top of it, who said this to him:‘I am the God of your father AbraHam and the God of IsaAc.‘Don’t be afraid, for I’ll give the land where you’re now lying to you and to your offspring. ¹⁴For your offspring will become as many as the sands of the earth… They’ll spread from the sea to the north, south, and the east. And through you and your offspring all the tribes of the earth will be blest.¹⁵‘Look; I am with you! [I’ll] always keep you safe no matter where you may go… And then i will return you to this land. I will never leave you until I’ve done everything that I said I’ll do for you.’¹⁶And when Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said:‘Jehovah is here and I didn’t realize it.’¹⁷Well, this frightened him, and he said:‘What a fearful place! For this is nothing other than the House of God and the Gate to Heaven!’¹⁸So after Jacob got up in the morning, he took the stone on which he’d laid his head and erected it as a pillar. Then he anointed it with oil, ¹⁹and he named that place, The House of God (BethEl). (Before that, the city had been called UlamLuz.)²⁰There Jacob made a vow to Jehovah, saying:‘If You’ll be with me and guard me throughout this journey, giving me enough bread to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹and then You bring me back safely to the house of my father; you will be my God.²²‘Also, this stone that I’ve erected as a pillar will be a House of God to me, and I’ll return 1/10th of everything that You give to me.’

¹So thereafter, Jacob [resumed his journey] eastward towards the land of Laban… To the son of BathuEl the Syrian and the brother of RebecKa (the mother of Jacob and Esau).²{Look!} [Jacob] then spied a well in the plains where there were three flocks of sheep resting. It was a well that they used to water the flocks, and there was a large stone covering it.³You see, after all the flocks had gathered there, they used to roll the stone away from the mouth of the well to provide water for the [animals], then they’d push it back over the mouth of the well to cover it again.⁴So Jacob asked [those nearby]:‘Brothers, where are you from?’And they replied:‘We’re from Haran.’⁵Then he asked:‘Do you know Laban, son of NaHor?’And they answered:‘We do!’⁶And he asked:‘Is he doing well?’Then they replied:‘He’s well. Look, here comes his daughter RachEl with his sheep!’⁷And Jacob said:‘It’s still mid-day… It isn’t time for the flocks to be gathered yet. So, why don’t you just water the flocks, then take them back out to graze?’⁸But they said:‘We can’t do that until all the shepherds arrive. They’ll roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and then we’ll all water our flocks.’⁹Well, while he was still speaking to them, {Look!} Laban’s daughter RachEl arrived with her father’s sheep, because she was in charge of grazing them. ¹⁰And when Jacob saw RachEl (the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother) and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered Laban’s sheep.¹¹Thereafter, Jacob kissed RachEl and shouted loudly, as he [started to] cry… ¹²For he explained to RachEl that he was a close relative of her father, and that he was RebecKa’s son.So she ran and told her father what he said. ¹³And when Laban heard the name of Jacob (his sister’s son), he ran to meet him… He hugged and kissed him, then he led him into his house.Then after [Jacob] explained to Laban [all that had happened to him], ¹⁴Laban said to him:‘You are my own flesh and bones!’Well, after [Jacob] had stayed with [Laban] for a full month, ¹⁵Laban said to Jacob:‘Surely you aren’t going to serve me for nothing, for you’re my brother! Tell me how I can reward you!’¹⁶Well, Laban had two daughters. The name of the eldest was called LeAh, and the younger was called RachEl. ¹⁷Although LeAh had weak eyes, RachEl was beautiful and had a very pretty face.¹⁸And because Jacob loved RachEl, he replied:‘I will serve you 7 years for your younger daughter, RachEl.’¹⁹So Laban said to him:‘It’s better for me to give her to you than to some other man. Come and live with me!’²⁰Well, Jacob served [Laban] 7 years for RachEl, but to him it seemed like just a few days, because he loved her so much.²¹Then Jacob told Laban:‘Now, give me my wife, because I’ve served my time.’²²So Laban assembled all the people and prepared a wedding banquet. ²³Then that evening, he took his daughter LeAh and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob [had sex] with her. ²⁴Laban also gave his servant ZelPha to his daughter LeAh, to be her handmaid.²⁵Well, it was [the next] morning before [Jacob realized] that it was LeAh. So Jacob [went to] Laban and asked:‘What have you done to me?‘Didn’t I serve you for RachEl? Why have you deceived me?’²⁶And Laban answered:‘In our country, it isn’t proper to give the younger before the eldest. ²⁷Serve me for 7 [more years] and I’ll give her to you also, in return for your labor of 7 more years.’²⁸So, that’s what Jacob did… He served for 7 [more years].Then Laban also gave his daughter RachEl to be his wife. ²⁹And Laban gave his servant BalLa to be his daughter’s handmaid.³⁰Thereafter, [Jacob had sex with] RachEl, and he loved RachEl more than LeAh… And this is why [he had been willing] to serve him for 7 more years.³¹Well, when Jehovah God saw that [Jacob] wasn’t attracted to LeAh, He opened her womb, while RachEl remained barren. ³²So LeAh got pregnant and bore a son to Jacob, whom she named ReuBen [meaning, ‘See, a Son!’].For she said:‘Jehovah has seen my humiliation and given me a son, so that now my husband will love me.’³³Then she got pregnant again and bore a second son to Jacob.[This time] she said:‘Because Jehovah has heard that I’m hated, He’s also given me this one.’So she named him SimeOn [meaning, ‘He Has Heard’].³⁴Then she got pregnant a third time and bore a son, and said:‘Now my husband will stay with me, because I’ve born three sons to him.’So she named him Levi [meaning, ‘He Is Mine’].³⁵Thereafter, she got pregnant again and bore a [fourth] son. And she said:‘I give thanks to Jehovah once more.’So she named him Judah [meaning, ‘Praised’]. And after that, she stopped having children.

¹Well, when RachEl realized that she wasn’t bearing children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister, and she said to Jacob:‘Give me children… For if you don’t, I’ll die!’²This made Jacob very angry with RachEl, so he asked:‘Am I in the position of God, who’s deprived you of the fruit of your womb?’³Then RachEl told Jacob:‘Look, here’s my handmaid BalLa... [Sleep] with her, and she will give birth [to children] on my knees…‘I’ll have children by her.’⁴So she gave him BalLa her handmaid to be his woman, and Jacob went in [and slept with] her. ⁵As a result, BalLa (RachEl’s handmaid) got pregnant and bore a son to Jacob.⁶Then RachEl said:‘God has given me justice and listened to my voice, for He’s given me a son.’So she named him Dan [meaning, ‘Justice’].⁷Thereafter, BalLa (RachEl’s handmaid) got pregnant again and bore a second son to Jacob. ⁸And RachEl said:‘God has helped me… I fought with my sister and won.’So she named him NaphTali [meaning, ‘Struggle’].⁹Well when LeAh saw that she was no longer bearing children, she took ZelPha her handmaid and gave her to Jacob as his woman, and he went in to [sleep with] her. ¹⁰So ZelPha, LeAh’s handmaid, got pregnant and bore Jacob a son.¹¹And LeAh said:‘[Now I’m] happy!’So she named him Gad [meaning, ‘Happiness’].¹²Then ZelPha, LeAh’s handmaid, got pregnant again and bore Jacob a second son.¹³This time LeAh said:‘I am blest, because the women will call me blest.’So she named him Asher [meaning, ‘Blessings’].¹⁴Well, when it came time to harvest the barley, ReuBen went out to the field and found some mandrake apples [growing] there, and he brought them to his mother LeAh.Then RachEl said to her sister:‘Give me some of your son’s mandrakes!’¹⁵And LeAh replied:‘Isn’t it enough that you’ve taken my husband… Would you also take my son’s mandrakes?’And RachEl said:‘[I’ll] allow you to [sleep] with [Jacob] tonight [in exchange] for your son’s mandrakes.’¹⁶So that evening, when Jacob came in from the field, LeAh went out to meet him and said:‘You’ll [sleep] with me tonight, because I’ve hired you for my son’s mandrakes.’So he slept with her that night, ¹⁷and God listened to LeAh, so she got pregnant and bore a 5th son to Jacob.¹⁸And LeAh said:‘God has rewarded me for giving my handmaid to my man.’So she named him IshSachar [meaning, ‘Reward’].¹⁹Then LeAh got pregnant again and bore a 6th son to Jacob.²⁰And LeAh said:‘God has given me a fine gift this time. For my man will choose me, since I’ve given him 6 sons.’So she named him ZebuLon [meaning, ‘Gift’].²¹And after that, she gave birth to a daughter whom she named DinAh [meaning, ‘Justified’].²²Then The God remembered RachEl… He heard her and opened her womb, ²³so she got pregnant and bore Jacob a son.And RachEl said:‘Jehovah has removed my disgrace.’²⁴So she named him JoSeph [meaning, ‘Jehovah Will Increase’], saying:‘May God give me another son.’²⁵Well, after RachEl had given birth to JoSeph, Jacob said to Laban:‘[Allow] me to leave now, so I may return to my country and my home.²⁶‘Free my women and children for whom I served you, so I can go… And don’t forget all the services that I’ve provided for you.’²⁷Then Laban replied:‘If I’ve found favor in your eyes, it’s a good sign for me, because Jehovah has blest me by sending you here.²⁸‘Now, tell me how much I owe you and I’ll pay it.’²⁹And Jacob said:‘You know how many ways I’ve served you and how many of your cattle I’m [responsible for]… ³⁰You didn’t have many before I came here, and now there are many! So Jehovah God has blest you since I arrived.‘Now, help me to establish my own house.’³¹Then Laban asked:‘What should I give you?’And Jacob replied:‘Don’t give me anything… Just do this one thing for me:‘I will continue to watch over your flocks and tend them, ³²and as your sheep pass by each day, let me set aside the dark sheep and the speckled and spotted goats as my reward.³³‘So by tomorrow, my righteousness will answer for me, because this will be my reward from you. You can steal back any goats that aren’t spotted or speckled, or any sheep that aren’t dark.’³⁴Well at that, Laban agreed, saying:‘May it be as you’ve said.’³⁵However, that same day, [Laban craftily] separated the spotted and speckled billy goats and nanny goats, and all the dark sheep from those that were white, and he gave them to his sons. ³⁶Then he sent [them away] on a 3-day journey, while Jacob was tending the animals that were left behind.³⁷However, Jacob gathered some green rods from storax, walnut, and sycamore trees, and peeled them alternately [to create the look of] white and green stripes, which gave a [spotted] appearance to the rods... ³⁸Then he laid the rods he’d peeled at the bottom of the watering troughs, so that when the cattle came to drink, they’d see the rods and mate there in front of the rods.³⁹And [that’s what happened]… The cattle did get pregnant at the rods and gave birth to [young with] speckles, streaks, and ash-colored spots!⁴⁰Then Jacob separated the lambs, setting aside the speckled goats and lambs for himself away from Laban’s sheep.⁴¹Thereafter, Jacob [continued] to put the rods in the troughs before the cattle, so they’d mate in front of the rods. ⁴²And when the cattle gave birth, [he would give] the unmarked ones to Laban, but he set aside the marked ones as his. ⁴³And [before long], he became very rich with many cattle, oxen, male and female servants, camels, and burros.

¹However, Jacob happened to overhear Laban’s sons saying:‘Jacob has taken everything that belongs to our father and all our father’s property… All of his glory!’²So Jacob realized that Laban [wasn’t happy to see him anymore].³Then the Lord said to Jacob:‘Now, return to your family and to your father’s land, and I’ll be with you.’⁴So Jacob sent for LeAh and RachEl, [who were] out in the plains with the flocks, ⁵and he said to them:‘I know that your father is no longer [happy to see me]. However, the God of my father is still with me. ⁶For even though I’ve served your father with all my might, ⁷and he deceived me by changing what he owed me to [just] 10 lambs… God hasn’t allowed him to [wrong me]. ⁸Because, if he would’ve said:‘The speckled will be your reward...’‘...then all the cattle would give birth to the speckled. And if he would’ve said:‘The white ones will be your reward...’‘...then all the cattle would’ve been born white.⁹‘Therefore, it was God who’s taken all these cattle from your father and given them to me! ¹⁰For during the time that the cattle were pregnant with their young, I fell asleep and {Look!} I dreamed that I saw billy goats and rams jumping on the nanny goats and sheep that were all speckled, striped, and spotted with ash-colored spots.¹¹‘Then a messenger from God called to me in that dream, shouting:‘Jacob!’‘And I said,‘What is it?’¹²‘And he said:[‘Jehovah says:]‘Look up and see the billy goats and rams jumping on the nanny goats and sheep… They are all speckled, striped, and spotted with ash-colored spots. I’ve seen all things that Laban did to you... ¹³For I’m the God who appeared to you at BethEl where you poured oil out on a pillar to Me and [where you] swore an oath to Me.‘So now, get up and leave this land. Return to the land of your birth, and I’ll be with you!’¹⁴Then RachEl and LeAh asked:‘And what about our inheritances in the house of our father?¹⁵‘Does he now consider us strangers?‘He sold us and then he spent our money!¹⁶‘Therefore, all the wealth and glory that God has taken from our father also belongs to us and to our children. So you should do whatever God has told you to do!’¹⁷Well at that, Jacob got up and mounted his women and children on their camels, ¹⁸along with all the possessions and provisions he’d obtained in MesoPotamia and all [the servants and animals] that belonged to him, so he could return to his father (IsaAc) in the land of CanaAn, ¹⁹as Laban was off shearing his sheep.But then, RachEl also stole her father’s idols.²⁰Meanwhile, Jacob didn’t let Laban the Syrian know that he was running away… ²¹He and all who were his just left, crossing the river and traveling on to Mount GileAd.²²Well, it was three days later that Laban the Syrian was finally told that Jacob was gone... ²³So he gathered his brothers and he chased after them, catching up with them after 7 days at Mount GileAd!²⁴However, God came to Laban the Syrian in his sleep that night and said to him:‘Be very careful not to say anything bad about Jacob.’²⁵So when Laban caught up with Jacob (Jacob had camped on the mountain, and Laban had stationed his brothers all around the mountain), ²⁶he asked Jacob:‘What have you done? Why did you run away secretly, then steal from me and use swords to take my daughters as captives?²⁷‘If you had just told me first, I’d have happily sent you away with singing, tambourines, and harps!²⁸‘Didn’t you consider me worthy to hug my children and my daughters before you did such a foolish thing?²⁹‘And now, even though I have enough power in my hands to harm you, the God of your father spoke to me yesterday and said:‘Be very careful to never say anything bad about Jacob.’³⁰‘So go on, because you really wanted to return to the house of your father.‘However, why did you steal my gods?’³¹And Jacob replied to Laban:‘[I left secretly] because I was afraid that you’d take your daughters and all my possessions away from me!’³²And he added:‘But whoever you find that has [stolen] your gods won’t [be allowed to] live in the presence of our family. Just look around for anything I might have that’s yours and take it back!’[Well, Laban searched], but he couldn’t find anything (Jacob didn’t realize that his wife RachEl had stolen [the idols]). ³³Laban went in and searched LeAh’s tent, then Jacob’s tent, and then the tent of the two female servants, and he found nothing.Lastly, he entered RachEl’s tent. ³⁴However, RachEl had hidden the idols among the camel’s packs and she was sitting on them. ³⁵[And when her father asked to check her camel], she told him:‘Don’t be impudent, sir! I can’t get up and stand before you, because it isn’t my way and it isn’t customary for women!’Well, Laban searched throughout the [camp] and he couldn’t find the idols, ³⁶which made Jacob very angry... So he argued with Laban and asked him:‘What wrong have I done to you and what’s my sin that caused you to chase after me ³⁷and then search all the furnishings in my [tents]?‘What have you found [that] came from your home? Lay it out here between your relatives and mine, and let them decide!³⁸‘I’ve been with you for 20 years, and during all that time, your sheep and nanny goats didn’t fail to give birth… And I didn’t eat any of the rams from your herds. ³⁹All that I ever took was the wild animals that I didn’t bring to you!‘I [even paid] for anything that was stolen during the day or night, ⁴⁰as I was dried out with the heat of the day, [chilled] by frost in the night… And I seldom ever got much sleep!⁴¹‘During those 20 years that I stayed in your house, I served you for 14 years for your two daughters. [Then I spent the next] 6 years among your sheep… Just to have you fraudulently set my wages as 10 lambs!⁴²‘So if it weren’t for the God of my father AbraHam and for the fact that [you’re] afraid of IsaAc’s [God], you’d have even sent me away empty-handed!‘Yet, it was because God saw how I was humiliated and how hard I’ve worked for you, that He [scolded you] last night!’⁴³Then Laban replied:‘These are my daughters and my sons… Yes, the cattle are mine, and everything that you see belongs to my daughters and me!‘But, what should I do to them today, or to their children?⁴⁴‘Come on, let’s conclude a treaty between you and me that will serve as a witness between us. And although nobody else is here, {Look!} God will serve as the witness between you and me.’⁴⁵So then, Jacob found a [large] stone and he erected it as a pillar. ⁴⁶And Jacob told his family to gather some stones. So they brought stones and made a pile, then they [shared bread] on top of the pile.And thereafter, Laban said:‘This [pile of stones] will serve as the witnesses between you and me today.’⁴⁷So Laban called it ‘The [Stone] Pile of Testimony,’ while Jacob referred to it as ‘The Witness [Stone] Pile.'⁴⁸And Laban said to Jacob:‘Look at this pile and pillar that I’ve erected between you and me… This Witness [Stone] Pile and this [Stone] Pile of Testimony. We’ll call them, The [Stone] Pile Witnesses.’⁴⁹And thereafter, [Laban] referred to this place as The Watchtower, for he said:‘May God keep watch over you and me, because we’re about to leave each other. ⁵⁰But if you should humble my daughters by taking other women in addition to them, you’ll see that someone who’s with us is watching… For God is the witness between you and me.’⁵¹Then Laban continued:‘Look! This pile of stones and this pillar are the witnesses ⁵²that I won’t come beyond this pillar to do anything bad to you, and you won’t come [beyond this pillar] to me.⁵³‘May the God of AbraHam and the God of NaHor judge between us!’Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father IsaAc, ⁵⁴and he offered a sacrifice on the mountain. He called his family together and they ate and drank, then they all went to sleep on the mountain.⁵⁵And when Laban got up in the morning, he kissed his daughters and [their] sons and blest them, and then Laban turned around and went back to his home.

¹Well, just as Jacob [was about to] continue on his journey, he looked up and he saw the camp of the army of God, and a messenger of God [coming to] meet him. ²So when Jacob saw this, he said:‘This [place] is the campground of God!’So he named that place MahaNahim [meaning, The Campgrounds].³Then Jacob sent messengers in front of him to his brother Esau in the land of SeIr and the country of the Edomites. ⁴He told them to say to Esau:‘Lord, this is what your servant Jacob has said:‘I have visited with Laban and stayed there until now. ⁵And [during this time], oxen, burros, sheep, and male and female servants were born to me.‘Now I’ve sent [my messengers] to beg you, my lord Esau, to help your servant find favor in your eyes.’⁶Then when the messengers returned to Jacob, they told him:‘We found your brother Esau, and {Look!} now he’s coming to meet you with 400 men!’⁷Well, Jacob was upset and terrified by this! So he divided the people who were with him, as well as the cattle, camels, and sheep, into two camps. ⁸And Jacob said:‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the other camp will survive.’⁹Then Jacob [prayed]:‘O Jehovah, the God of my father AbraHam and the God of my father IsaAc!‘You’re the One who told me to get up and return to the land where I was born, and that You’d treat me well. ¹⁰So, please remember all the justice and truth that You’ve brought about through Your servant.‘Now, with this walking stick of mine, I’ve crossed the JorDan [River] divided into two camps. ¹¹So, please save me from the hands of my brother – from the hands of Esau – because I’m afraid of him, since [he may] enjoy coming here to strike me down with the mothers and the children.¹²‘[Don't forget that] you said You’d treat me well and make my offspring like the sands of the seas… So many that they can’t be counted.’¹³Well, after sleeping there that night, [Jacob selected] gifts to be carried to his brother Esau. ¹⁴[He sent] 200 nanny goats, 20 billy goats, 200 sheep, 20 rams, ¹⁵30 milk camels and their foals, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 burros, and 10 colts.¹⁶He gave them to his servants and said to them:‘Go ahead of me… And leave a space between each of the herds.’¹⁷Then he told the first group:‘If you meet my brother Esau, and he asks:‘Who sent you, where are you headed, and whose animals are [being herded] in front of you?’¹⁸’You should say:‘[We were sent by] your servant Jacob. He’s sending these as gifts to his lord Esau… {Look!} he’s [traveling] behind us.’¹⁹Then he gave the same instructions to the 2nd group and then to the 3rd… To everyone who traveled ahead of him (following the herds).He said:‘This is what you should tell Esau when you find him:²⁰‘Look! Your servant Jacob is following behind us.’‘For I want to impress Esau with the gifts that [are being sent] ahead of me, so I can see him face to face and hope that he will accept me.’²¹So the gifts were then sent out ahead of him, as he spent [part of] the night there in the camp.²²But then, during the night, he got up and took his two wives, the two female servants, and his 11 children, and they all crossed the Jaboch River… ²³He led them and all his possessions through that raging river.²⁴It was there that, while Jacob was all by himself, a ‘man’ came up and wrestled with him until the next morning... ²⁵[And when the ‘man’] saw that he wasn’t going to win, he touched the upper part of Jacob’s thigh, which became numb as they wrestled.²⁶Then [the ‘man’] told [Jacob]:‘Let me go, because the sun is coming up!’But [Jacob] said:‘I’m not going to let you go until you give me a blessing!’²⁷So [the ‘man’] asked:‘What’s your name?’And he answered:‘Jacob.’²⁸And [the ‘man’] said to him:‘Your name will no longer be Jacob. Rather, IsraEl will be your name... For you’ve grown stronger with God and mightier with men.’²⁹Then Jacob said:‘Tell me your name.’And he said:‘Why do you [have to] ask my name?’So He blest him there, ³⁰and Jacob named that place, PeniEl [meaning, Face of God]... For he said:‘I’ve now seen God face to face and survived.’³¹Well, the sun was up by the time he left PeniEl (the place where he’d been stopped by his thigh). ³²And this is why, to this very day, the children of IsraEl will never eat the part of meat that’s on the thigh… Because, that was the place on Jacob’s thigh that [God’s messenger] had numbed.

¹Well, when Jacob looked up, {Look!} he saw his brother Esau coming with 400 men! So Jacob divided the children between LeAh, RachEl, and the two female servants.²Then he put the two female servants and their children out in front, followed by LeAh and her children, then RachEl, and [finally, himself] at the rear… ³But then Jacob stepped out ahead of them all and bowed to the ground 7 times, as he approached his brother...⁴Well at that, Esau ran up to meet him! He hugged him, fell around his neck and kissed him… And they both started crying.⁵Then when Esau noticed the women and children, he asked:‘What are they to you?’And Jacob replied:‘They’re the children with which God has so mercifully blest your servant.’⁶Then the female servants and their children came up and bowed low, ⁷followed by LeAh and her children who also came up and bowed low.And finally, RachEl [arrived] and bowed down next to JoSeph.⁸So [Esau] asked:‘Then, what did all those groups that I met along the way have to do with you?’And [Jacob] replied:‘This was done so that your servant might find favor in your eyes, my lord.’⁹Then Esau said:‘But I [already own] much, my brother. Keep what’s yours!’¹⁰And Jacob said:‘If I’ve found favor in your eyes, take the gifts from my hands. For, seeing your face is like seeing the face of God! If you’re happy with me, ¹¹take the blessings that I’ve brought to you, because God has been merciful to me, and I have everything.’And he kept insisting, so [Esau] took them. ¹²Then he said:‘Now, let’s head back.’¹³But [Jacob] said:‘My lord,‘You know that the children are frail, and the flocks and herds that I’ve brought also have [many] young ones. So if I drive them hard today, these cattle will die.¹⁴‘Therefore, my lord, go on ahead of your servant… I’ll take it easy along the way, so [I’ll have] enough strength [to make the long journey] that’s still ahead of me, and so that the children will have enough strength.‘Then I’ll [meet up with] my lord at SeIr.’¹⁵And Esau said:‘Then, let me leave some of my men with you.’And [Jacob] asked:‘Why? It’s enough that I’ve found your favor, my lord!’¹⁶So Esau returned to SeIr that day, ¹⁷and Jacob returned to the tents that he had set up to live in… And he also built pens for his cattle. Then he named that place, SucCoth [meaning, The Pens].¹⁸Finally, Jacob arrived at Salem (SheChem’s city) in the land of CanaAn, after traveling all the way from MesoPotamia of Syria. So he went to [the city gate] ¹⁹and bought the field where he’d camped from Hamor (the father of SheChem) for 100 lambs... ²⁰And there he erected an altar, where he called upon his (IsraEl’s) God.

¹Well, DinAh, the daughter whom LeAh had born to Jacob, went to see the daughters of the local people. ²And SheChem, son of Hamor the Tent Dweller (and the ruler of the land), noticed her. Then he humiliated her by taking her and [having sex] with her.³Yet, he was deeply drawn to the person of DinAh, Jacob’s daughter… He loved the girl and spoke kindly to her.⁴So SheChem told his father Hamor:‘Take this girl for me to be my wife.’⁵Well when Jacob heard that Hamor’s son had violated his daughter DinAh, he sent for his sons who were out in the fields with his cattle... And Jacob didn’t say a word until they all got there. ⁶Then Hamor, SheChem’s father, went over to talk to Jacob, ⁷arriving there just as Jacob’s sons were returning from the fields.Well, when [Jacob’s sons] heard [what had happened], they were very upset! It really hurt them, because he’d made a joke of IsraEl by [having sex] with Jacob’s daughter… It just shouldn’t have happened.⁸But Hamor spoke to them and said:‘My son SheChem has decided in his heart to marry your daughter. So give her to him to be his woman… ⁹Come and marry among us. Give us your daughters, and take our daughters for your sons… ¹⁰Come live among us!‘Look, there’s plenty of room for you, so live here in this land… Trade [with us] and prosper here!’¹¹Then SheChem said to [DinAh’s] father and brothers:‘I’ll do whatever I must to find your favor, and we’ll give you whatever you ask. ¹²Raise the bride price several times and I’ll pay whatever you say. Just give me this girl to be my woman!’¹³However, Jacob’s sons answered SheChem and his father Hamor cunningly, because he’d violated their sister DinAh. ¹⁴DinAh’s brothers (SimeOn and Levi) said to them:‘We won’t be able to give our sister to someone who isn’t circumcised, because that would dishonor us.¹⁵‘The only way we can do what you say and live among you, is if you’ll become as we are… All your males must be circumcised. ¹⁶Then we’ll give our daughters to you and take your daughters as our women and live with you as one race.¹⁷‘But if you refuse to listen and won’t get circumcised, we’ll just take our [sister] and leave.’¹⁸Well, what they said was agreeable to Hamor and his son SheChem. ¹⁹And the young man didn’t delay when it came to doing this thing, because he was really attached to Jacob’s daughter.He was indeed the most honorable person in his father’s house.²⁰So then, Hamor and his son SheChem walked out to the city gate and they said to the men who were there:²¹‘These are peaceable people, so let them live with us here in our land and trade in it.‘Look! There’s a lot of land before them... So, we’ll take their daughters to be our women, and we’ll give them our daughters. ²²The only thing that they require to live among us as one people, is that all our males must be circumcised, just as they are circumcised. ²³And then, won’t their cattle, their herds, and their possessions be ours?‘So, let’s do what they say and then they will live among us!’²⁴Well, everyone who was there at the city gate listened to Hamor and his son SheChem, and thereafter, the foreskins of all the males were circumcised.²⁵But on the 3rd day, while they were all aching in pain, Jacob’s two sons (DinAh’s brothers, SimeOn and Levi) each took their swords and crept into the city, then they killed every male… ²⁶They killed Hamor and his son SheChem with their swords, and then they took DinAh from SheChem’s house and left.²⁷Thereafter, when Jacob’s [other] sons came upon those who were wounded, they ravaged the city where DinAh (their sister) had been violated… ²⁸They took all the sheep, oxen, burros, and everything in the city, as well as everything that was in their fields.²⁹Then they took all the people as captives (all their provisions and all their women) and they looted whatever was left in their city and in their homes!³⁰Well afterward, Jacob said to SimeOn and Levi:‘You’ve made me an evil and hated [person] among the people who live in this land… All the CanaAnites and the Pherezites!‘And now, since there are only a few of us, they’ll band against me and cut me to pieces, destroying both me and my house!’³¹And they replied:‘Not so! Would [you rather] have them treat our sister as a whore?’

¹Then The God told Jacob:‘You must get up and go to the place [you named] BethEl, and live there. And then you must build an altar to the God who appeared to you there when you were running from your brother Esau.’²So Jacob told his family and everyone who lived with him:‘You must get rid of any strange gods that you may have, then wash yourselves, change your clothes, ³and get ready, because we’re going up to BethEl, where we’ll build an altar to the God who listened to me, was with me, and kept me safe through my journeys and trials.’⁴So they gave Jacob all the strange gods that they owned and the earrings in their ears, and Jacob buried [these things] under a turpentine tree at SheChem, where they’ve remained destroyed down to this day.⁵Then IsraEl left SheChem, and because the cities around them had the fear of The God in them, they didn’t chase after the children of IsraEl.⁶Well, Jacob and all the people who were with him finally arrived at Luza in the land of CanaAn, which [he’d earlier named] BethEl... ⁷For it was there that he’d built an altar and called it ‘the House of God,’ since that’s the place where God appeared to him as he was running from his brother Esau.⁸Well thereafter, RebecKa’s nurse DeborAh died, and she was buried under an oak tree in BethEl that Jacob then named, AlLon-BaCuth [meaning, Oak Tree of Mourning].⁹It was at Luza that God appeared to Jacob again as he was on his way back from MesoPotamia of Syria, and that’s when God blest him ¹⁰and told him:‘You’ll no longer be called Jacob... Your name will be IsraEl.’So that’s when [God] first referred to him as IsraEl.¹¹Then The God said to him:‘I am your God, so prosper and grow… Nations and groups of nations will descend from you, and kings will come from your loins. ¹²I’m now giving this land that I gave to AbraHam and IsaAc to you, as well as to the offspring that descends from you.’¹³Then The God left him there in that place where He spoke to him. ¹⁴And Jacob erected a [stone] pillar [to honor] the place where he’d been spoken to by God, pouring a drink offering and oil upon it.¹⁵And that’s when Jacob actually named this place where God spoke to him, BethEl [meaning, House of God].¹⁶[Well, after DeborAh died], Jacob left BethEl and camped beyond the tower of Gader. And as they were getting close to ChabRatha, on their way to EphRatha, RachEl had birth pains and then she went into hard labor. ¹⁷It was while she was in hard labor that the midwife told her:‘Don’t worry, you’re going to have this son!’¹⁸Then, as she was giving up her life (she was dying), she named him BenOni [meaning, Son of My Pain]. However, his father named him BenJamin [meaning, Son of My Right Hand].¹⁹So RachEl died there and was buried along the road to EphRatha (BethLehem), ²⁰and Jacob erected a pillar over her tomb, [which is referred to as] The Pillar of RachEl’s Tomb to this day.²¹It was while IsraEl was living in this land that ReuBen went and [had sex] with BalLa, Jacob’s (his father’s) concubine. And when IsraEl heard about this, it really upset him.²²Now, there were 12 sons of Jacob.²³LeAh’s sons were:• ReuBen (Jacob’s first-born), then • SimeOn, • Levi, • Judah, • IshSachar, and • ZebuLon.²⁴RachEl’s sons were:• JoSeph, and • BenJamin.²⁵RachEl’s handmaid BalLa’s sons were:• Dan, and • NaphTali.²⁶And LeAh’s handmaid ZelPha’s sons were:• Gad, and • Asher.These sons were born to Jacob in MesoPotamia of Syria.²⁷Then Jacob returned to his father IsaAc in MamRe, to a city of the plains [called] HebRon (in the land of CanaAn), where AbraHam and IsaAc had stayed. ²⁸For IsaAc had lived 180 years ²⁹before he stopped breathing and died.Then his sons Esau and Jacob buried him beside his family, after he’d lived a long and full life.

¹And these are the generations of Esau ([who] is [also known as] Edom):²Esau took these women from the daughters of the CanaAnites.There was:• Ada (the daughter of AiLom the Kettite), • OliBema (the daughter of Ana, son of SebeGon the Hivite), and ³• BaseMath (the daughter of IshMaEl, the sister of NabaiOth).⁴Ada bore EliPhas to [Esau], BaseMath bore RaguEl, ⁵and OliBema bore JeUs, JegLom, and CoRe. These were Esau’s sons that were born to him in the land of CanaAn.⁶Then Esau took his women, his sons, his daughters, and everyone in his house, along with all his possessions, all his cattle… Yes, everything that he owned and absolutely everything that he’d acquired in the land of CanaAn, and he left the land of CanaAn [to get away from] his brother Jacob, ⁷because they’d both acquired so much that they couldn’t live close to each other anymore... For the land where they were staying couldn’t hold them, since they had so much.⁸So Esau [went to live] at Mount SeIr (Esau is Edom).⁹These are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites, when [he lived at] Mount SeIr, ¹⁰and these are the names of Esau’s [grand]sons through EliPhas (Ada’s son) and RaguEl (BaseMath’s son).¹¹The [grand]sons of Ada through EliPhas were:• ThaEman, • Omar, • Sophar, • Gothom, and • Kenez.¹²Also, ThamNa (EliPhas’ concubine) bore Amalec to him.¹³The [grand]sons of BaseMath through RaguEl were:• NachOth, • ZaRe, • SoMe, and • MoZe.¹⁴These are the sons of Esau’s woman OliBema (the daughter of Ana, son of SebeGon), she bore to Esau:• JeUs, • JegLom, and • CoRe.¹⁵These are the chiefs of EliPhas, the first-born of Esau:• Chief ThaEman, • Chief Omar, • Chief Sophar, • Chief Kenez, ¹⁶• Chief CoRe, • Chief Gothom, and • Chief Amalec.They’re the chiefs of [the family of] EliPhas (the sons of Ada), in the land of Edom.¹⁷And these are the chiefs of RaguEl, son of Esau:• Chief NachOth, • Chief ZaRe, • Chief SoMe, and • Chief MoZe.They’re the chiefs of [the family of] RaguEl (the sons of BaseMath) in the land of Edom.¹⁸And these are the chiefs of OliBema (the daughter of Ana), Esau’s woman:• Chief JeUs, • Chief JegLom, and • Chief CoRe.¹⁹These were the sons of Esau. They’re [all] chiefs, and they’re [all] the sons of Edom.²⁰These are the sons of SeIr the ChorRhite who lived in the land:• LoTan, • SoBal, • SebeGon, • Ana, ²¹• DeSon, • Asar, and • Rison.These were the chiefs of SeIr the ChorRhite, in the land of Edom:²²The sons of LoTan and his sister ThamNa were:• ChorRhi, and • HaEman.²³The sons of SoBal were:• GoLam, • ManaChath, • GaEbel, • Sophar, and • Omar.²⁴The sons of SebeGon were:• Aie, and • Ana (this is the same Ana that found JaMin in the desert when he was tending his father SebeGon’s animals).²⁵Ana’s children were:• DeSon (his son), and • OliBema (his daughter).²⁶DeSon’s sons were:• Amada, • AsBan, • IthRan, and • CharRhan.²⁷Asar’s sons were:• BalaAm, • ZuCam, and • JuCam.²⁸Rison’s sons were:•Hos, and • Aran.²⁹These are the chiefs of the ChorRites:• Chief LoTan, • Chief SoBal, • Chief SebeGon, • Chief Ana, ³⁰• Chief DeSon, • Chief Asar, and • Chief Rison.They’re the chiefs of the ChorRites in their own principalities in the land of Edom.³¹These are the kings who reigned in Edom before [the time of] the kings of IsraEl:³²• Balac (son of BeOr) reigned in Edom, and his [capital] city was DenNaba. ³³• After Balac died, Jobab (son of ZaRa from BosorRha) reigned in his stead. ³⁴• After Jobab died, Asom (from the land of the ThaEmanites) reigned in his stead. ³⁵• After Asom died, Adad (son of BarAd, who cut off MidiAn in the plain of MoAb) reigned in his stead. And his [capital] city was GetThaim. ³⁶• After Adad died, SaMada of MasSecca reigned in his stead. ³⁷• After SaMada died, Saul of RhoObOth by the River reigned in his stead. ³⁸• After Saul died, BalLenon (son of AchObor) reigned in his stead. ³⁹• After BalLenon died, Arad (son of BarAd) reigned in his stead. The name of his [capital] city was PhoGor, and the name of his woman was MeteBeel (the daughter of MatraIth, son of MaiZoOb).⁴⁰These are the names of the tribal chiefs of Esau in their areas, countries, and nations:• Chief ThamNa, • Chief Gola, • Chief JeTher, ⁴¹• Chief OliBema, • Chief Helas, • Chief PhiNon, ⁴²• Chief Kenez, • Chief ThaEman, • Chief Mazar, ⁴³• Chief MagediEl, and • Chief ZaphoIn.They’re the chiefs of Edom in the areas where they dwell and in the lands that they own.And this is Esau, the father of [all] Edom.

¹Now, Jacob lived in the land where his father stayed, the land of CanaAn.²And these are the origins of Jacob:When JoSeph was 17 years old (and because he was so young), he was accompanied by his brothers (the sons of his father’s women BalLa and ZelPha) as he grazed the sheep. And [at the time], they’d been speaking about their father IsraEl in an evil way because of JoSeph, ³since Jacob loved JoSeph more than the rest of his sons (he was the son of his old age).And because [Jacob] had just made a multi-colored coat for him, ⁴his brothers could see that their father loved him more, so they hated [Jacob] and they never spoke to him in a peaceful way.⁵Then JoSeph had a dream, and he told his brothers about it.⁶He said:‘Listen to what I dreamed:⁷‘I saw you bundling stalks of grain in the middle of the field; and then suddenly my bundle stood straight up, and your bundles turned around and bowed low before mine.’⁸So his brothers asked:‘[Does this mean] that you’re going to rule over us and you’re going to be our master?’Well, this dream and the things he said made them hate him even more!⁹Then [JoSeph] had another dream, and he told his father and brothers about it, saying:‘{Look!} I had another dream in which the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowed low before me.’¹⁰Well, his father scolded him over this, and he asked:‘What kind of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, brothers, and I are going to come and bow to the ground before you?’¹¹Nevertheless, although his brothers were jealous of him, his father still paid attention to the things that he was saying.¹²Well, one day, JoSeph’s brothers went to SheChem to graze their father’s sheep.¹³And IsraEl said to JoSeph:‘Your brothers are grazing the flocks at SheChem and I want you to go to them.’And he replied:‘Look, here I am.’¹⁴So IsraEl said:‘Go there to see if your brothers and the sheep are doing well, then come back and report to me.’So he sent him from the HebRon Valley to SheChem.¹⁵Well, a man later found JoSeph wandering in the fields and asked him:‘What are you looking for?’¹⁶And he said:‘I’m looking for my brothers. Tell me where they’re grazing [their flocks].’¹⁷And the man said:‘They’ve left here. I heard them say, Let’s go to Dothaim.’So JoSeph went after his brothers, and he found them in Dothaim. ¹⁸However, they had spotted him in the distance before he got there, so they got together and wickedly started talking about killing him!¹⁹They were saying to each other:‘Look, here comes the dreamer! ²⁰Come on, let’s kill him and then throw his [body] into a ravine. We can say, An evil wild animal ate him… Then let’s see what his dreams amount to!’²¹But when ReuBen heard this, he saved [JoSeph] from them by saying:‘Let’s not kill him.’²²Then [he suggested]:‘Don’t shed [his] blood; let’s throw him into one of these deep crevices in the desert… But don’t lay a hand on him.’([ReuBen] said this so that he could save [JoSeph] from them and return him safely to his father).²³Well, when JoSeph reached his brothers, they took off the multi-colored coat that he was wearing, ²⁴then they threw him into a deep crevice that was empty and didn’t have any water.²⁵And after that, they sat down to eat some bread.Thereafter, when they looked up, they noticed {Look!} an IshMaElite caravan that was coming from GileAd (their camels were loaded down with spices, resin, and myrrh that they were carrying to Egypt).²⁶And Judah said to his brothers:‘What profit would it bring us if we kill our brother and just cover it up? ²⁷Let’s sell him to these IshMaElites instead. We don’t want to lay a hand on him, because he’s our brother and our own flesh.’Well, his brothers listened to this. ²⁸So, as the merchants of MidiAn were traveling by, [his brothers] pulled JoSeph out of the crevice and sold him to the IshMaElites for 20 gold coins… And [the IshMaElites] took JoSeph [with them] down to Egypt.²⁹Then when ReuBen later returned to the crevice and saw that JoSeph wasn’t there, he started ripping his clothes!³⁰So he went to his brothers and said:‘The boy isn’t [there]… Where do I have to go [to find him]?’³¹Well after that, the men killed a young goat and dipped JoSeph’s coat in its blood. ³²Then they took JoSeph’s multi-colored coat to their father and said:‘We found this… Do you recognize it as your son’s coat or not?’³³Well, he recognized it and said:‘It’s my son’s coat! An evil wild animal has surely eaten him… A wild animal has carried off JoSeph!’³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes and covered the lower part of his body with sackcloth; and thereafter, he spent a long time mourning over his son. ³⁵Although all of his sons and daughters went there to comfort him, he didn’t want to be comforted. He said:‘I’ll go to my grave mourning my son!’And his father kept crying over him.³⁶Well, when they got to Egypt, the MidiAnites sold JoSeph to Potiphar, PharaOh’s councilor and captain of the guard.

¹Then Judah left his brothers and he traveled for some distance, arriving [at the home] of an OdolLamite named Iras...²While he was there, Judah found the daughter of a CanaAnite man named Sava. He took her [as his wife] and [slept] with her, ³and she got pregnant. Then she gave birth to a son whom she named Er. ⁴And after that, she got pregnant again and gave birth to a [second] son whom she named AuNan. ⁵Then she gave birth to a [third] son whom she named SeLom (she was living in Chasbi when she gave birth to them).⁶[Well, sometime later], Judah took a woman named Tamar to be the wife of his first-born son, Er. ⁷But Er was wicked before Jehovah, so God killed him.⁸Then Judah told AuNan:‘You must go and [have sex] with your brother’s [widow]… Since you’re her brother-in-law, you must take her so [she can] raise a child for your brother.’⁹However, AuNan knew that the child wouldn’t be [counted as] his. So when he [had sex with] his brother’s [widow], he discharged [his semen] on the ground, so he wouldn’t give his brother a child. ¹⁰And his doing this appeared evil to God, so He killed him also.¹¹Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar:‘Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son SeLom grows up… For I don’t want him to die like his brothers.’So Tamar left and went to stay in her father’s home.¹²Well, after several years, Judah’s woman Sava died... So while Judah was looking for comfort, he went to see his sheep shearers at ThamNa, along with his Shepherd, Iras the OdolLamite. ¹³And when his daughter-in-law Tamar was told:‘{Look!} Your father-in-law is going up to ThamNa to shear his sheep...’¹⁴...she took off her widow’s clothes, put on a veil and made up her face, and she went to sit by the gate of [the town of] AiNan, along the road that leads to ThamNa.
She did this because [Judah’s son] SeLom had already grown up and [Judah] hadn’t given [Tamar] to be his son’s woman.¹⁵Well, when Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, because she’d her face covered and he didn’t recognize her. ¹⁶So he stopped and said to her (not knowing that she was his daughter-in-law):‘Let me [have sex with] you.’And she asked:‘What will you give to [have sex] with me?’¹⁷And he said:‘I’ll send you a young goat from my flock.’But she told him:‘You must provide me some assurance that you’ll send it.’¹⁸So he asked:‘What kind of assurance can I give you?’And she said:‘Give me your ring, your bracelet, and the walking stick you’re holding.’So he gave them to her, [had sex with] her, and she got pregnant by him. ¹⁹Then afterward, she got up and took off her veil, put her widow’s clothes back on, and left that place.²⁰Well later, Judah sent the young goat with his shepherd (the OdolLamite), to get back the things that he’d left with the woman… But he couldn’t find her. ²¹So he asked the local men:‘Where’s that prostitute that used to sit by the road [here at] AiNan?’And they replied:‘There was no prostitute here.’²²So he returned to Judah and said:‘I couldn’t find her, and the local men say there wasn’t any prostitute there.’²³Then Judah told him:‘Let her have [those things]. Although I sent the young goat, you couldn’t find her; so, let’s not leave ourselves open to ridicule.’²⁴Well after three months, Judah was told:‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the whore! And now look – she’s pregnant by her whoring!’So Judah said:‘Then drag her out and have her burned!’²⁵But as they were dragging her out, she called out to her father-in-law, and said:‘I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things… Just whose ring, bracelet, and walking stick are these?’²⁶Well, Judah recognized them [as his] and said:‘Tamar is innocent… But not me, because I didn’t give her to my son SeLom.’And that was the last time [Judah had sex] with her.²⁷Then when she went into labor, it was found that she had twins in her womb... ²⁸And as they were being born, one pushed his hand out. So the midwife took hold of the hand and tied some scarlet [thread around it], and said:‘This is the firstborn.’²⁹But then he drew his hand back and his brother came out immediately thereafter.And she asked:‘Why have you broken the barrier between you?’So she named him Phares [meaning, Breach].³⁰It was then that his brother (around whose hand the scarlet thread was tied) was born. And she named him ZaRa [meaning, Scarlet].

¹Meanwhile, JoSeph was down in Egypt where he’d been bought by an Egyptian named Potiphar (PharaOh’s advisor and captain of the guard), who had purchased him from the IshMaElites that carried him there.²But Jehovah was with JoSeph and He blest him as he was living in the house of his Egyptian master.³Even [Potiphar] recognized that Jehovah was with [JoSeph] and that He was blessing everything he did; ⁴so JoSeph was treated kindly by him, and [JoSeph did everything he could to] please his master well.Then before long, the man put JoSeph in charge of his whole house… He was appointed to be in charge of everything that [his master] owned... ⁵And because he’d put JoSeph in charge of his house and over everything that he owned, Jehovah blest the Egyptian’s house for JoSeph’s sake. He blest everything that the man had in his house and in his fields, ⁶because he’d entrusted everything he owned into JoSeph’s hands.So the man didn’t even know what belonged to him, other than the bread that he ate!Well, JoSeph was extremely attractive… He had an excellent body and a very handsome face. ⁷And so, after he’d been [put in charge of the house], his master’s wife eyed JoSeph and said:‘Sleep with me!’⁸However, he wouldn’t. For he told his master’s wife:‘Look, it’s because of me that my master doesn’t even know what’s going on in his own house! He has put everything that he owns into my hands.⁹‘Nobody in this house is over me, nor has anything been withheld from me, except you… And you’re his wife! So, how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’¹⁰Still, she pleaded with JoSeph every day… But he wouldn’t listen to her requests to sleep with her.¹¹Then one day, as JoSeph entered the house to do his work, he found that none of the household staff were around... ¹²That’s when she grabbed him by his clothes and said:‘[Have sex] with me!’But JoSeph just left his clothes there in her hands and ran from the house!¹³Well, when she saw that he’d left his clothes in her hands and ran away, ¹⁴the woman called [the family in] and said:‘You see – He’s brought in a Hebrew slave to make fun of us!‘Why, he came in and told me that he wanted to sleep with me, but I screamed...¹⁵And when he heard me scream, he left his clothes here and ran out of the house!’¹⁶So she kept the clothes nearby, and when [her husband] got back home, ¹⁷she said to him:‘This Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came here to make fun of me! He said to me:‘I’m going to sleep with you!’¹⁸‘But after he heard me scream, he left his clothes with me and ran out of the house.’¹⁹Well, when his master heard everything his woman said, he proclaimed:‘Then he did it to me!’²⁰And because he was so angry, his master took JoSeph and had him thrown in prison… Into the place where the king’s prisoners were kept.²¹Nevertheless, Jehovah was with JoSeph and He was very merciful to him. So He helped him find favor in the eyes of the prison’s warden. ²²And therefore, the warden put JoSeph in charge of the prison along with all the prisoners that were there and everything that they did.²³So the warden was unaware of what was going on there, because everything was in JoSeph’s hands. And Jehovah continued to bless all that he was doing.

¹It was some time after this that the king’s chief cupbearer and his chief baker had wronged their lord, the king of Egypt. ²PharaOh was furious with his two eunuchs (his chief cupbearer and his chief baker), ³so he had them locked up in prison… In the same place where JoSeph was kept, ⁴and the prison warden left them with JoSeph, who was to guard them.Well, after they’d spent some time in the prison, ⁵they both had a dream one night. Each man had his own dream and each dream had its own interpretation.⁶Then the next morning when JoSeph went in to see them, they were both quite disturbed... ⁷So he asked PharaOh’s eunuchs (who were there in the prison with him):‘Why are you so sad today?’⁸And they replied:‘We [both] had dreams, but don’t know what they mean.’So JoSeph said:‘Doesn’t the interpretation of [dreams come] through God? Tell [me what you saw]!’⁹And the chief cupbearer told JoSeph his dream. He said:‘In my dream [I saw] a vine ¹⁰that had three stems, which budded and put out blossoms; then [it formed] clusters of grapes that ripened.¹¹‘Then after that, [I found] PharaOh’s cup in my hands. So I took the grapes and squeezed them into the cup, and I gave the cup to PharaOh.’¹²Well at that, JoSeph said to him:‘This is what [the dream] means:‘The three stems are three days. ¹³So in three days, PharaOh will remember what you did and he will give you back your position as chief cupbearer!‘Therefore, you’ll [once again] put PharaOh’s cup in his hands, holding the same high position that you once had as his cupbearer.’¹⁴[Then he continued]:‘Now, remember me when things are going well for you… Be merciful to me and mention me to PharaOh, so that I can be released from this dungeon!¹⁵‘You see, I was stolen from the land of the Hebrews. And although I’ve done nothing wrong here, I was thrown into this hole.’¹⁶Well, when the chief baker saw that he’d given [the first man] the right interpretation, he said to JoSeph:‘I also had a dream. I remember looking up, and I found three baskets of bakery goods on top of my head... ¹⁷In the top basket, there were all the kinds of things that PharaOh enjoys. But birds in the sky came and ate them out of the basket that was on my head.’¹⁸Then JoSeph told him:‘This is what it means:‘The three baskets are three days. ¹⁹So in three days, PharaOh will cut off your head and hang you on a tree, where the birds of the sky will eat your flesh.’²⁰Well, three days later, it was PharaOh’s birthday when he held a banquet for all his servants. It was then that he remembered the offices that the cupbearer and the baker once held among them.²¹So he restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and once again he put PharaOh’s cup into his hands. ²²However, he hanged the chief baker, just as JoSeph foretold... ²³But thereafter, the chief cupbearer soon forgot about JoSeph.

¹It was a full 2 years later that PharaOh [likely AmenemHat 1] also had a dream:He dreamed that he was standing next to a river, ²then {Look!} he saw 7 fat and good-looking cows come up out of the water to feed at the river’s edge. ³And after that, 7 more cows, which were skinny and ugly, came up out of the river to feed along its banks.⁴Then the 7 skinny, ugly cows ate the 7 fat and good-looking cows… And that’s when PharaOh woke up.⁵Then he had another dream.{Look!} There were 7 large and good-looking [heads] of grain that grew on a single stalk. ⁶And {Look!} they were followed by [a stalk] with 7 thin and windblown [heads] that grew up alongside them.⁷Then the [stalk] with the 7 thin and windblown [heads] ate the ones with the 7 large, good-looking [heads]… And that’s when PharaOh woke up… And it was just a dream.⁸Well the next morning, he was deeply disturbed [by the dreams], so he sent for all the [dream] interpreters of Egypt and all the wise men. PharaOh told them of his dreams, but no one could tell him what they meant.⁹And that’s when PharaOh’s chief cupbearer told him:‘I just remembered something that I’m responsible for... ¹⁰[You were once] quite angry with your servants and you had us imprisoned in the house of the captain of the guard… Both the chief baker and me. ¹¹Each of us had a dream in that same night (both him and me)… But we each had our own dream.¹²‘And there was a young man with us, a Hebrew servant of the captain of the guard, to whom we told [our dreams], and he interpreted [them] to us.¹³‘Well, everything that he said would happen, came true… I was restored to my office and [the baker] was hanged!’¹⁴So, PharaOh sent for JoSeph… They took him from the prison, shaved him and changed his clothes; then he went in to PharaOh.¹⁵And PharaOh said to JoSeph:‘I had a vision that no one can interpret, and I’ve heard that you’ve listened to dreams and interpreted them.’¹⁶But JoSeph answered PharaOh, saying:‘Without God, [I couldn’t] give a safe answer to PharaOh.’¹⁷Then PharaOh told JoSeph:‘In my dream, I was standing by the bank of the river. ¹⁸Then out of the river came 7 fat and good-looking cows that fed along the river’s edge. ¹⁹And after that, {Look!} 7 more cows came up out of the river that were evil, skinny, and ugly… I’ve never seen worse in the entire land of Egypt!²⁰‘Then the 7 skinny, ugly cows ate the 7 fat and good-looking cows… ²¹They swallowed them down whole; yet, I couldn’t see that they had gone into their stomachs, because they still looked as ugly as they did before.‘And after I woke up, I went to sleep again. ²²Then I saw what looked like 7 large, good-looking [heads] of grain growing from a single stalk. ²³And [after that, I saw] 7 more [heads] that were thin and windblown, coming up next to them. ²⁴Then the 7 thin and wind-blown [heads] ate the 7 large, good-looking [heads].‘Now, I told all this to the [dream] interpreters, but none of them could explain it to me.’²⁵So JoSeph told PharaOh:‘Both of your dreams are the same, for The God has shown PharaOh what He’s going to do!²⁶‘The 7 good-looking cows mean 7 years, and the 7 good-looking [grain heads] mean 7 years… So PharaOh’s dreams are both the same!²⁷‘Also, the 7 skinny cattle that came up after them mean 7 years, and the 7 thin and windblown [heads] mean 7 years… Therefore, there’ll be 7 years of famine.²⁸‘Now, what I’m telling PharaOh is that it’s God’s purpose to show you what He’s going to do... ²⁹And look! 7 years are coming when there’ll be a great abundance throughout the land of Egypt; ³⁰but these will be followed by 7 years of famine, which will be so bad that the abundance Egypt had will be forgotten, and famine will consume the land.³¹‘Yes, the abundance in the land will be gone because of the famine that will follow, since it’s going to be an extremely bad time... ³²And the fact that PharaOh saw the dream twice, proves that the things I’m telling you (which will come from The God) are true; for, God will cause it to happen very soon!³³‘Therefore, search for a wise and discerning man, and put him in charge over the land of Egypt. ³⁴Also, PharaOh should appoint local governors over the land that must collect 1/5 of all the produce in the land of Egypt during the 7 abundant years.³⁵‘They must gather all the food that will come in during the 7 good years, and have all the grain gathered into the hands of PharaOh… And you must store the food in each city.³⁶‘This stored food will then [protect] the land during the 7 years of famine that are coming upon Egypt, so [the country] won’t be totally destroyed by the famine.’³⁷Well, what [JoSeph] said appeared good to PharaOh and to all of his servants.
³⁸So [he] asked his servants:‘Where can we find such a man as this… Someone who has the Breath of God in him?’³⁹Then PharaOh said to JoSeph:‘Since God has shown all of these things to you; is there a man who is wiser or more discerning than you?⁴⁰‘I’ll appoint you to be over my house, and then all of my people must do whatever you say… Only I will be greater than you on the throne.’⁴¹Then PharaOh told JoSeph:‘{Look!} Today, I’m putting you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.’⁴²And at that, PharaOh took the ring off of his hand and put it on JoSeph’s hand, [he had him dressed in] a robe of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck... ⁴³Then he mounted [JoSeph] on his second-best chariot and had a herald walk in front of him to proclaim that [JoSeph] had been appointed over the whole land of Egypt.⁴⁴And PharaOh said to JoSeph:‘Although I am the PharaOh; nobody will lift his hand anywhere in the land of Egypt without [your permission].’⁴⁵Thereafter, PharaOh started calling JoSeph, Zaphnath-Paaneah [meaning either, Revealer of Secrets, or Savior of the Age], and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Petephre, the priest of HelioPolis [Greek for City of the Sun], to be his wife.⁴⁶Well, JoSeph was 30 years old when he stood before PharaOh, the king of Egypt.So thereafter, JoSeph left the presence of PharaOh and he traveled throughout the land of Egypt.⁴⁷And After that, the land did in fact produce well during the 7 years of abundance… By the heaping handfuls! ⁴⁸So, during those 7 years he gathered much food, because there was such abundance in the land, and he stored it away in each of the cities. He took the food that grew in the fields around each city and stored it in them.⁴⁹So the grain that JoSeph stored away became like the sands of the seas… So much that it couldn’t be calculated.⁵⁰Meanwhile, JoSeph had two sons born to him prior to the 7 years of famine, by Asenath (the daughter of Petephre, the priest of HelioPolis). ⁵¹And JoSeph named his firstborn ManasSeh [meaning, Forgotten], for he said:‘God has made me forget all my hard work, and even the house of my father.’⁵²Then he named his second son Ephraim [meaning, Double Fruitfulness]; for he said:‘God has caused me to grow in the land where I was humiliated.’⁵³Well, the 7 years of abundance in the land of Egypt soon passed, ⁵⁴and then the 7 years of famine began, just as JoSeph had foretold. However, even though there was a famine throughout the entire [known] earth, there was still plenty [in Egypt]!⁵⁵Then, when the people of Egypt finally got hungry, they called out to PharaOh for bread, and PharaOh said to [them]:‘Go to JoSeph and do whatever he tells you to do.’⁵⁶Well, before long, the famine covered the entire land; so JoSeph opened all the granaries and sold [the stored grain] to the Egyptians.⁵⁷Then [people from] all the regions roundabout started coming to Egypt to buy [food] from JoSeph, because the famine had become [so great].

¹Now, Jacob had noticed that they were still selling [grain] down in Egypt.So he said to his sons:‘Why don’t you do something?²‘Look; I’ve heard that there’s grain in Egypt. Go there and buy us a little food, so we don’t starve to death.’³Therefore, JoSeph’s 10 brothers went down to Egypt to purchase grain. ⁴However, JoSeph’s brother BenJamin wasn’t sent along with his brothers, ‘So he doesn’t get sick,’ Jacob said.⁵Of course, the sons of IsraEl [traveled along with] many others to buy [grain], because the famine had affected the entire land of CanaAn.⁶Well, since JoSeph was the ruler of the land, he’s the one who actually sold [the food] to all the people who were coming from these lands; so, JoSeph’s brothers came to him and had to bow with their faces to the ground before him.⁷But when JoSeph saw his brothers (because he recognized them), he hid himself in front of them and spoke harshly to them, asking:‘Where are you coming from?’And they replied:‘[We came from] the land of CanaAn to buy food.’⁸Well, although JoSeph recognized his brothers, they didn’t recognize him... ⁹Then JoSeph remembered his dreams and the things that he saw, and he said to them:‘You are spies! You’ve come here to spy in our land!’¹⁰But they said:‘No Sir; we’re just your servants that have come to buy food! ¹¹We’re all the sons of one man and we’re peace loving… Your servants aren’t spies!’¹²And he said to them:‘No! You’ve come to spy [in our] land!’¹³Then they replied:‘Your servants were once 12 brothers from the land of CanaAn. The youngest [of us] is with our father right now… But the other one is no more.’¹⁴Then JoSeph argued:‘It’s just as I said; you’re spies!¹⁵‘Here’s how I’ll prove it: By the health of PharaOh, you aren’t going to leave until your younger brother comes here!¹⁶‘One of you can go to get your brother, but the rest of you’ll stay in jail until what you’ve said can be [proven]… Whether you’re telling the truth or not... And if not, then by the health of PharaOh, you really are spies!’¹⁷So he had them all locked up in jail for three days!¹⁸Then on the 3rd day, he said:‘Do this and you’ll live, because I fear The God:¹⁹‘If you really are peace loving, I’ll allow just one of your brothers to be held in jail. So now, go and carry the grain that you bought [back to your home]... ²⁰Then bring your younger brother to me, and I’ll believe what you said.‘But if you don’t, you’ll all die!’And that’s what they did.²¹Well, each one was saying to his brother:‘Yes, we are to blame when it comes to our brother... We didn’t pay attention to the anguish that he was going through, and when he looked to us, we didn’t listen to him.‘That’s why this bad thing is happening to us!’²²Then ReuBen said:‘Didn’t I tell you not to harm the boy? But you wouldn’t listen to me! Now look… His blood is [being avenged]!’²³However, they didn’t realize that JoSeph was standing right there in front of them, because an interpreter stood between them.²⁴Well at that, JoSeph left them and started crying. Then he returned and spoke to them, and he took SimeOn and had him bound before their eyes.²⁵And thereafter, JoSeph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to return the money to each one’s bag before giving them permission to leave. And that’s what happened… ²⁶The grain was loaded on their burros, and then they left.²⁷Well, when they stopped somewhere to rest, one of them opened his bag to feed the burros, and that’s when he saw his bundle of money lying in the top of his bag!²⁸So he said to his brothers:‘They’ve returned my money. Look, it’s all here in my container!’Well, they were all dumbfounded and sick at heart... And they asked each other:‘What has God done to us?’²⁹And when they got back to their father Jacob (in the land of CanaAn), they told him everything that had happened to them, saying:³⁰‘This man, who is the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us and had us put in jail as spies! ³¹But we told him that we’re peaceful men… We aren’t spies. ³²We said that we’re 12 brothers, the sons of our father. One [of us] is no more, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of CanaAn.³³‘However, this man who’s the lord of the land said to us:‘Here’s how I’ll know that you’re peaceful: Leave one of your brothers here with me and take the grain you bought, then return to your family ³⁴and bring your younger brother to me so I’ll know that you aren’t spies, but men of peace...‘Then you can have your brother back and you can trade in this land.’³⁵‘But, as we were emptying our bags, each man found his bundle of money inside his bag.’So they [showed] their father their bundles of money, and they were all frightened.³⁶Then their father (Jacob) said to them:‘Now you’ve made me very sad, for JoSeph is no more and neither is SimeOn. So are you going to take BenJamin away also?‘[Why have] all these [bad] things come upon me?’³⁷Then ReuBen said to his father:‘You can kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you. Give him to me, and I’ll bring him back!’³⁸But [Jacob] said:‘I won’t allow my son to go with you, because his brother is already dead, and he’s the only one left...‘What if something happens to him on the way? This would bring such sorrow upon me in my old age that it would lead me to my grave!’

¹However, the famine continued in the land. ²And so, after they had finished eating the grain that they’d brought from Egypt, their father told them:‘Go there to buy us a little food again.’³But Judah said to him:‘That man who’s the lord of the land absolutely warned us, saying:‘You may not see my face again unless you have your younger brother with you.’⁴‘So if you’ll send our brother with us, we’ll go and buy you food. ⁵But if you won’t send our brother with us, we won’t go.’⁶Then IsraEl asked:‘Why did you do so much harm to me by telling the man that you had a brother?’⁷And they replied:‘The man asked a lot of questions about our family. He asked, Is your father still alive? and, Do you have a brother? All we did was answer his questions!‘How could we know that he would tell us to bring our brother?’⁸Then Judah said to his father IsraEl:‘Send the boy with me and we’ll go… So we don’t all [starve] to death!⁹‘I’ll be responsible for him, and you can hold me to blame if anything happens to him... If I don’t return him and stand him before you, I’ll be guilty before you throughout the age.¹⁰‘If we hadn’t been delaying, we could could have already have gone there a second time!’¹¹And their father IsraEl said to them:‘If that’s the case, then do this:‘Take along the fruit of the land in your bags. Carry gifts of gum, honey, frankincense, oil of myrrh, turpentine, and walnuts to the man.¹²‘Also, carry twice as much money – in addition to the money that was put back in your bags – just in case that was a mistake.¹³‘Then take your brother along and go down to the man. ¹⁴May my God allow you to find favor in the eyes of that man, so he sends you home with your other brother and BenJamin. For I’ve been saddened, and I’m very sad now.’¹⁵So the men loaded up their gifts and took twice as much money, as well as BenJamin, and headed down to Egypt, where they soon stood before JoSeph.¹⁶Well, when JoSeph saw them and his brother BenJamin (who was born to the same mother), he told his house manager:‘Bring the men into [my] house, then butcher some animals and prepare them, because these men are to eat bread with me at noon.’¹⁷So the man did just as JoSeph said, and he brought them into JoSeph’s house.¹⁸Well, when the men realized that they had been taken to the house of JoSeph, they said:‘We’ve been brought here because of the money that was returned to our bags the first time. [This is being done] so witnesses can be called and we can be charged [with a crime]… Then they’ll confiscate our burros and take us as slaves!’¹⁹So they went up to the man who was in charge of JoSeph’s house and spoke to him out on the porch.²⁰They said:‘We’re begging you, sir… We just came the first time to buy food. ²¹But, as we were unloading and opening our bags, [we found] this money in each bag.‘We have the full amount of money in our hands [and we wish] to return it.²²‘We’ve also brought more money along with which to buy the food… We don’t know who put the money [back] in our bags!’²³And [the man] replied:‘May God be merciful with you. Don’t be afraid, for it was your God and the God of your ancestors who put the treasures in your bags.‘I have enough of your good money!’Then he brought SimeOn out to them… ²⁴Along with some water to wash their feet, and some fodder for their burros.²⁵It was then that they started preparing their gifts for JoSeph’s arrival at noon, because they heard that he was going to dine there. ²⁶So when JoSeph came home, they brought him the gifts that they’d carried into the house… And afterward, they bowed with their faces to the ground.²⁷Well, he asked them:‘How are you? Is your father, the old man whom you spoke of, well? Is he still living?’²⁸And they replied:‘Our father, your servant, is well. And yes, he’s still alive.’Then JoSeph said:‘May that man of God be blest!’And at that, they all bowed low to show him respect.²⁹It was then that JoSeph looked up and saw his brother BenJamin (who was born to the same mother). And he asked:‘Is this the younger brother whom you said you’d bring to me?’Then he added:‘May God have mercy on you, my son.’³⁰Well, JoSeph’s emotions overcame him, because he missed his brother so much, and he wanted to cry. So he walked to his inner room and cried there.³¹Thereafter, he washed his face and regained his composure, and came out and said:‘Now, bring on the bread!’³²So they set out bread for JoSeph, for his servants, and for the Egyptians that were eating with him, but not for [his brothers], because the Egyptians considered it dishonorable to eat bread with Hebrews.³³They just sat there in front of him (in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest), as the brothers looked at each other in astonishment... ³⁴But then, JoSeph gave them their portions to eat by themselves. However, BenJamin received five times as much as did the rest. They also drank with him until each one was full.

¹Then JoSeph gave instructions to his house manager. He said:‘Now, fill the men’s bags with as much food as they can carry, and put each one’s money in the top of his bag. ²Also, put my silver cup in the bag that belongs to the youngest, along with the price of his grain.’So he did exactly as JoSeph said. ³Then the next morning, the men and their burros were sent away.⁴Well, after they left the city (but before they had traveled very far), JoSeph said to his house manager:‘Now, get up and chase after those men; and when you catch up with them, ask:‘Why have you returned evil for good… ⁵why have you stolen my silver cup? Isn’t this the [cup] that our lord drinks from and the one which he uses to foretell the future?‘You’ve done an evil thing!’⁶So when he caught up with them, he said what [JoSeph] had told him to say.⁷And they replied:‘Why is our lord saying such things? Your servants wouldn’t do anything like that!⁸‘If we returned the money to you which we found in our bags all the way from the land of CanaAn, why would we steal silver or gold from the house of your lord? ⁹May whichever of your servants that you find with the cup die, and then we’ll all be our lord’s slaves!’¹⁰So, [JoSeph’s house manager] told them:‘May it be just as you’ve said. But just the one who is found with the cup will be my slave… The rest of you can go free.’¹¹Then each man quickly took down his bag and put it on the ground, and opened their bags, ¹²and the man began his search, starting from the eldest to the youngest… And then he found the cup in BenJamin’s bag.¹³Well at that, they all started ripping their clothes. So each man loaded his bag back on his burro, and they all returned to the city, ¹⁴where Judah and his brothers were taken to see JoSeph, who was [still at home].There they fell to the ground before him, ¹⁵and JoSeph asked them:‘What have you done? Didn’t you realize that a man like me can see the future?’¹⁶And Judah replied:‘What can we say to you, our lord? What can we say that will justify us? God has uncovered the unrighteousness of your servants.‘Look! We’re now our lord’s slaves… Both us and the one who was found with your cup!’¹⁷But JoSeph said:‘I wouldn’t do anything like that… Just the man who was found with my cup will be my slave. [The rest of you] may return home safely to your father.’¹⁸Then Judah came up to him and said:‘I beg you, sir,‘Allow your servant to say something to you, and don’t get angry, because you’re next to PharaOh.¹⁹‘Sir, you once asked your servants whether we have a father or a brother, ²⁰and we replied:‘Yes Lord, we have a father who is an old man, and he has a young son of his old age. [Since this boy’s] brother is now dead, he’s the only one left that came from his mother, and his father loves him.’²¹‘Then you said to your servants:‘Bring him down here to me, and I’ll take care of him.’²²‘And we said to our lord:‘The child can’t leave his father, because if he leaves his father, [his father] will die.’²³‘But you told your servants:‘Unless your younger brother comes down with you, you won’t see my face again.’²⁴‘And so, when we went up to your servant our father, we told him what our lord said.²⁵‘Then, when our father said:‘Return and buy a little food for us...’²⁶‘...we said:‘We can’t return, unless our younger brother goes with us. We can go there, but we won’t be able to see the man unless we bring our younger brother along!’²⁷‘And your servant (our father) said to us:‘You know that my woman gave birth to two [sons] for me. ²⁸Now, one [of the two] is gone from me. For you told me that wild animals ate him, and I haven’t seen him since. ²⁹So if you take this one away from me also and something should happen to him along the road, the sorrow will bring me to the grave in my old age!’³⁰‘Therefore, if I should return to your servant (our father) and the boy doesn’t return with us (remember that his life depends on this [boy’s] life)... ³¹Well, when he sees that the boy isn’t with us, he will die!‘And then your servants [will be responsible for] bringing your servant (our elderly father) to his grave in his sorrow... ³²For when I (your servant) took the boy from his father, I said:‘If I don’t return him to you and stand him before you, I’ll be guilty before my father throughout the age.’³³‘Now, may I stay here as your slave instead of the boy! I’ll work in my lord’s house; but, let the boy [return home] with his brothers... ³⁴For how could I return to my father without the boy and cause evil things to happen to him?’

¹However, JoSeph couldn’t restrain himself when they were all standing there with him; so he said:‘Everyone else is dismissed!’As a result, nobody [from his servants were with] JoSeph when he told his brothers who he was… ²And as he spoke, he was crying.Well, soon all the Egyptians heard about this [anyway], and it was reported to the house of PharaOh. ³For JoSeph said to his brothers:‘I’m JoSeph! Is my father still alive?’However, his brothers couldn’t answer him, because they were in shock!⁴Then JoSeph told his brothers:‘Come closer to me...’...and they all came up to him.And he said:‘I... Am your brother JoSeph whom you sold into Egypt.⁵‘But, don’t be upset and don’t feel guilty that you sold me here, because [it was] God who sent me ahead of you, so you could live.⁶‘For this [is just] the 2nd year of the famine on the earth, and there are still 5 years to come when there’ll be no plowing or reaping!⁷‘It was God who sent me ahead of you so that some of you’d survive on the earth to feed the rest of your crowd. ⁸Therefore, you didn’t send me here, God did! And now He’s made me like a father to PharaOh… The master of his whole house and the ruler of the entire land of Egypt!⁹‘So hurry and return to my father, and tell him that this is what your son JoSeph has said:‘God has made me the lord of the entire land of Egypt. So come here to me, and don’t delay! ¹⁰You’ll live in the land of Gesem in [the Egyptian province of] Arabia [in Lower Egypt], where you’ll be closer to me… You, your sons, your grandsons, your sheep, your cattle, and everything that’s yours.¹¹‘I’ll feed you there, because the famine is going to last for 5 more years. This way, nothing that you own will be lost… Not your sons or any of your possessions!’¹²‘Look at me and see!‘And [you], my brother BenJamin... Use your eyes [and recognize] that it’s my mouth speaking to you!¹³‘So report to my father about all the glory that I have in Egypt, and about everything that you’ve seen. Then hurry and bring my father down here.’¹⁴[Well, after that], he fell on his brother BenJamin’s neck and cried, and BenJamin cried on his neck. ¹⁵Then he kissed all his brothers and cried over them, and his brothers [were finally able to] speak to him.¹⁶Well, the report of this was carried back to the house of PharaOh, for he was told:‘JoSeph’s brothers have come.’And this made PharaOh and his household very happy.¹⁷Then PharaOh said to JoSeph:‘Tell your brothers to [get] wagons and return to the land of CanaAn ¹⁸to get their father and all their possessions, and then come here to me.‘I’ll give them all the good things of Egypt, and they’ll eat from the [best] of our land!¹⁹‘Now, you must give them these instructions:‘Tell them to take wagons from the land of Egypt to get their wives, their children, and their father, and come here. ²⁰[Tell them] not to worry about their possessions, because all the good things of Egypt will be theirs.’²¹So that’s what the children of IsraEl did.... JoSeph gave them wagons, just as PharaOh the king had said, and he gave them the things that they’d need for their journey.²²He also gave each of them two suits of clothes… But he gave BenJamin 5 suits of clothes, plus 300 gold coins. ²³And he sent the same gifts to his father, plus 10 burros that carried a sampling of all the good things of Egypt, along with 10 mules that carried [provisions] for their journey.²⁴So he dismissed his brothers and they left.But before they left, he told them:‘Don’t go away angry.’²⁵Then they left Egypt and returned to the land of CanaAn and to their father, Jacob. ²⁶There they reported everything to him, saying:‘Your son JoSeph is alive! And he’s now the ruler of the entire land of Egypt!’Well, this was so amazing to Jacob that he didn’t believe them. ²⁷But they told him everything that JoSeph said, no matter what it was that he said to them.It was then that [Jacob] noticed the chariots that JoSeph had sent to pick him up, and that’s when the spirit of their father Jacob was restored.²⁸And IsraEl said:‘If my son JoSeph is still alive, that’s wonderful! I want to go see him before I die!’

¹So IsraEl left with everything that he owned. And when he got to the Well of the Promise [BeerSheba], he offered a sacrifice to the God of his father IsaAc.²Then The God spoke to IsraEl in a vision that night.He said:‘Jacob! Jacob!’And [Jacob] asked:‘What is it?’³Then [God] said to him:‘I am the God of your ancestors.'Don’t be afraid to go down to Egypt, because I’ll make a great nation of you there.⁴‘I will be going down to Egypt with you and I’ll be bringing you back… For it’ll be JoSeph who’ll lay his hands over your eyes.’⁵Well after that, Jacob left the Well of the Promise, and IsraEl’s sons carried their father, their baggage, and their women on the wagons that JoSeph had sent to them.⁶They also brought along the goods and things that they had obtained in the land of CanaAn, and they went to the land of Egypt (Jacob and all his descendants – ⁷his sons, his grandsons, his daughters, and his granddaughters)… He brought all of his offspring with him down to Egypt.⁸These are the names of the grandsons of IsraEl who went to Egypt with their father Jacob:The sons of Jacob’s first-born, ReuBen, were:⁹• Enoch, • PhalLus, • AsRon, and • CharMi.¹⁰The sons of SimeOn were:• JemuEl, • JaMin, • Aod, • Achin, • SaAr, and • Saul (the son of a CanaAnite woman).¹¹The sons of Levi were:• GedSon, • CaAth, and • MeraRi.¹²The sons of Judah were:• Er, • AuNan (who died in the land of CanaAn), • SeLom, • Phares, • ZaRa, and • Er.¹³Phares’ sons were:• EsRon, and • JemuEl.The sons of IshSachar were:• Thola, • Phua, • Asum, and • SamBran.¹⁴The sons of ZebuLun were:• Sered, • AlLon, and • AchoEl.¹⁵These were the sons that LeAh gave birth to (for Jacob) in MesoPotamia of Syria, and those of his daughter Dina. Altogether, the sons and daughters numbered 33.¹⁶The sons of Gad were:• Saphon, • Angis, • SanNis, • ThasoBan, • Aedis, • AroEdis, and • AreElis.¹⁷The sons of Asher were:• JemNa, • JesShua, • JeUl, • BariJa, and • SarAh (their sister).BariJa’s sons were:• Chobor, and • MelchiEl.¹⁸These were the sons that ZelPha (whom Laban had given to his daughter LeAh) gave birth to for Jacob – 16 people.¹⁹The sons of Jacob’s woman RachEl were:• JoSeph, and • BenJamin.²⁰And the sons that were born to JoSeph in the land of Egypt through Asenath (the daughter of Petephre, the priest of HelioPolis) were:• ManasSeh, and • Ephraim.The son who was born to ManasSeh by his Syrian concubine was MachIr. Then MachIr fathered GalaAd.Ephraim’s sons were:• SutalaAm, and • TaAm.SutalaAm’s son was Edom.²¹The sons of BenJamin were:• Bala, • Bochor, and • AsBel.Bala’s sons were:• Gera, • NoEman, • Anchis, • Ros, and • Mamphim.Then Gera fathered Arad.²²These were the sons whom RachEl gave birth to for Jacob. Altogether, there were 18 people.²³The son of Dan was Hushim.²⁴NaphTali’s sons were:• AsiEl, • Goni, • IshSaar, and • SolLem.²⁵These were the sons that BalLa (whom Laban had given to his daughter RachEl) gave birth to for Jacob. [Altogether], there were 7 people.²⁶Therefore, all the descendants of Jacob that came with him to Egypt (those – except his son’s women – that came from his loins) totaled 66. ²⁷And the sons of JoSeph that were born in the land of Egypt totaled 9.So all the people of the house of Jacob that were with JoSeph in Egypt totaled 75.²⁸Now, [Jacob] had sent Judah ahead of him to JoSeph, who told him to meet them at the City of HroOn [possibly Mit El-Harun] in the land of RaMesse. ²⁹So JoSeph got his chariots ready and went to meet his father IsraEl at the City of HroOn. And when he got there, [JoSeph] fell on [Jacob’s] neck and cried profusely.³⁰Then IsraEl said to JoSeph:‘Now that I’ve seen your face I can die happy, because you’re still alive!’³¹And JoSeph told his brothers:‘I’ll go to PharaOh and tell him that my brothers and my father’s household have arrived from the land of CanaAn. ³²I’ll also tell him that you’re shepherds and cattlemen, and that you’ve brought along your cattle, herds, and all of your belongings.³³‘So if PharaOh calls for you and asks you what you do for a living, ³⁴you must say:‘Your servants have been shepherds since our youth… Both our fathers and us.’‘[You must say this], so you can live in the land of Gesem in [the Egyptian province of] Arabia [in Lower Egypt], because shepherds are looked down on by the Egyptians.’

¹So then, JoSeph went and told PharaOh that his father and brothers had arrived from the land of CanaAn with their cattle, oxen, and all their possessions, and that they’d be staying in the land of Gesem.²He also took 5 of his brothers and brought them before PharaOh.³And when PharaOh asked them:‘What’s your occupation?’They replied:‘Your servants (we and our fathers) are shepherds.’⁴Then they said to PharaOh:‘We’ve come to stay in [your] land. And since there are no pastures for your servant’s flocks here, and because there’s a famine in the land of CanaAn, please allow us to live in the land of Gesem.’And PharaOh told JoSeph:‘Then, may they live in the land of Gesem. And if you know any among them who are more capable, put them in charge of my cattle also.’So that’s how Jacob and his sons came to JoSeph in Egypt. And after PharaOh (the king of Egypt) learned about this, ⁵he told JoSeph:‘[Now that] your father and brothers have come to you, ⁶{Look!} the whole land of Egypt is before you... So, choose the very best land as a place for your father and brothers to settle!’⁷Then later, JoSeph brought his father Jacob in and stood him before PharaOh, and Jacob blest PharaOh.⁸Then PharaOh asked Jacob:‘How old are you?’⁹And Jacob replied to PharaOh:‘I’ve lived 130 years of my life.‘These years have been too few and too troubled, for I haven’t reached the age that my ancestors [achieved], back in the days when they lived.’¹⁰And after that, Jacob [again] blest PharaOh, and left.¹¹So, just as PharaOh commanded, JoSeph gave his father and brothers a tract of land as their possession and settled them in the land of Egypt, on the best ground in the land of RaMesse.¹²And thereafter, JoSeph provided grain for his father, brothers, and his father’s entire household.¹³However, there was no grain [growing on] the land at the time, so the famine was terrible. For both in the land of Egypt and in the land of CanaAn, people were weak from the famine. ¹⁴As a result, JoSeph collected all the money that there was in the land of Egypt and in the land of CanaAn, because the people had spent all that they had for the grain that they were buying… And he took it all to the house of PharaOh.¹⁵So before long, there was no more money left in the land of Egypt or in the land of CanaAn. And because of this, all the Egyptians came to JoSeph and said:‘Give us bread! Do you want us to die here before you? All our money is gone!’¹⁶And JoSeph replied to them:‘If all your money is gone, then bring me your cattle, and I’ll give you bread in exchange for them.’¹⁷So they brought their cattle to JoSeph, and he gave them bread in exchange for their horses, sheep, oxen, and burros.And JoSeph kept the people alive with bread that year in exchange for their cattle.¹⁸But after that year had passed, they came to him the 2nd year and said:‘Must we be consumed before you, our lord?‘For all our money is gone, and since we’ve brought all our possessions and our cattle to you, our lord, we don’t have anything left other than our bodies and our land!¹⁹‘Therefore, so that we won’t die before you, and so that our land isn’t devastated, please buy us and our land for bread, so that we and our land will become PharaOh’s servants... Give us seeds to grow so we can live and not die, and so that our land won’t be devastated!’²⁰As a result, JoSeph bought all the land of the Egyptians for PharaOh… They sold it all to PharaOh, because the famine was so bad. And therefore, the entire land became PharaOh’s, ²¹and the people became his servants from one end of Egypt to the other… ²²That is, except for the land of the priests – JoSeph didn’t buy [their land], because PharaOh gave [grain] as gifts to the priests. So they ate what PharaOh gave them, and they didn’t have to sell their land.²³Then JoSeph told all the Egyptians:‘{Look!} Today I’ve purchased both you and your land for PharaOh. So now, take the seeds and plant the land. ²⁴Then, when it produces, you must give 1/5 of its produce to PharaOh!‘You may keep the rest for yourselves as seeds for planting and as food for you and for all that are in your homes.’²⁵And they said:‘You have saved us! We’ve found favor before you, our lord, and we’ll be PharaOh’s servants!’²⁶As a result, JoSeph passed a law that we still have today:A fifth part [of the produce of the land of Egypt] is to be [given to] PharaOh. The only exception is the land of the priests (that doesn’t belong to PharaOh).²⁷Well thereafter, the IsraElites lived in the land of Gesem in Egypt and they owned an allotment [of land] there… So the [family] grew rapidly and profusely.²⁸Jacob also lived for 17 more years there in the land of Egypt, until he was 147 years old.²⁹Then, as the time for IsraEl to die drew near, he called his son JoSeph and said this to him:‘If I’ve found favor before you, put your hand under my thigh and [swear] to me mercifully and truthfully that you won’t bury me in Egypt, ³⁰but that I’ll sleep with my ancestors!‘[Swear that] you’ll carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their tomb.’And JoSeph said:‘I will do as you’ve asked.’³¹But [Jacob] said:‘Swear to me!’And he swore to him.Then IsraEl bowed low, as he leaned on his cane.

¹Well, sometime after that, this report came to JoSeph:‘{Look!} Your father is ill!’So he took his two sons, ManasSeh and Ephraim, and they went to [see] Jacob.²Then when Jacob was told that his son JoSeph had come to see him, IsraEl straightened himself and sat up on his bed.³And [he] said this to JoSeph:‘My God appeared to me in Luza in the land of CanaAn and blest me.⁴‘Then He said to me:‘{Look!} I’ll make you grow and increase, and I’ll make many nations come from you. I’ll also give this land to you and to your offspring that comes after you as an inheritance throughout the ages.’⁵‘Now, your two sons (Ephraim and ManasSeh) who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came here, are my [sons] the same as ReuBen and SimeOn are my [sons]... ⁶And any children that you have from this point on will share in the names of their brothers; so, [the lands that they’ll] inherit will be named after them!⁷‘As for me... After I left Assyrian MesoPotamia, your mother RachEl died in the land of CanaAn during the evening, near the ChabRatha racetrack while we were coming to EphRatha (or BethLehem).‘So I buried her beside the road at the racetrack of BethLehem.’⁸Then, when IsraEl noticed JoSeph’s sons, he asked:‘Who are they?’⁹And JoSeph replied to his father:‘They’re the sons that God has given to me here.’And Jacob said:‘Bring them here to me, so that I can bless them.’¹⁰Now, IsraEl’s eyes were weak due to his age, so he couldn’t see. But he drew them close, and he hugged and kissed them both.¹¹Then IsraEl said to JoSeph:‘Look! I haven’t been deprived of seeing your face, and now {Look!} God has also shown me your offspring.’¹²So at that, JoSeph brought them out from [between] his [father’s] knees, and they bowed to [IsraEl] with their faces to the ground.¹³Then JoSeph took his two sons, with Ephraim at his right hand (but on the left of IsraEl), and ManasSeh at his left hand (but on the right of IsraEl), and led them near to him again.¹⁴However, IsraEl stuck out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head (he was the younger), and he put his left hand on ManasSeh’s head, with his arms crossed.¹⁵Then he blest them, saying:‘May the God who found my fathers AbraHam and IsaAc pleasing (the God who fed me from my youth until now ¹⁶and the [spirit] messenger who protects me from all that’s evil) bless these boys… And may they be called by my name and by the name of my fathers, AbraHam and IsaAc...‘Let them grow to be a vast number on the ground!’¹⁷Well, when JoSeph noticed that his father had put his right hand on Ephraim’s head, that seemed wrong to him. So JoSeph took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to ManasSeh’s head.¹⁸And JoSeph said:‘Father! This is the first-born... Lay your right hand on his head!’¹⁹But Jacob wouldn’t. He said:‘I know, son, I know. [Your eldest son] will be a [tribe of] people, and he will be important. However, his younger brother will be greater, and his offspring will become many nations.’²⁰So he blest them that day. And he said [to JoSeph]:‘In your name, IsraEl will pronounce this blessing:‘May God make you like Ephraim and ManasSeh!’...and he put Ephraim before ManasSeh.²¹Then IsraEl said to JoSeph:‘Look, I’m dying! But my God will be with you, and He will return you to the land of your fathers.²²‘I am giving you SheChem (a better portion than that of your brothers), which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.’

¹Then Jacob called the rest of his sons in and said to them:²‘Gather here so I can tell you what will happen to you in later years. Gather and listen to me, sons of Jacob. Listen to IsraEl… Listen to your father!³‘ReuBen:‘You’re my firstborn and my strength. You’re the first of my children, but you’re hard to endure, [pig headed], ⁴and you’re as unruly as water… Bring an end to your violence!‘For you even climbed up on your father’s bed and dirtied the couch that you climbed on!⁵‘SimeOn and Levi:‘You are brothers who are good at the injustices that separated you. ⁶May my inner person pay no attention to the things that you say, and may my feelings never have any part in your conspiracies. For you’ve killed men in anger, and in your passion you’ve cut off the feet of bulls!⁷‘May your anger be cursed, because it’s willful and cruel. So I’ll separate you in [the land of] Jacob and scatter you in IsraEl!⁸‘Judah:‘Your brothers have spoken well of you, so your hands will stay on the backs of your enemies, and your father’s sons will bow before you… ⁹For Judah is the cub of a lion.‘My son: you’ve grown from the tender plant [you once were], and now you’re a young lion. So by whom can you ever be beaten?¹⁰‘There’ll always be a ruler from Judah, And princes will come from his loins Until the one we’re awaiting arrives… The one who’s the hope of the nations.¹¹‘[He’ll] tie his foal to a vine… The foal of his burro to a branch, And he’ll wash his robes in [fine] wine… In the blood of grapes, he will wash his clothes; ¹²His eyes will be more cheerful than wine, And his teeth [will be] whiter than milk.¹³‘ZebuLun:‘You’ll live on the coast near a shipping port that reaches to Sidon.¹⁴‘IshSachar:‘You’ve desired the best thing… To rest among the [other] inheritances. ¹⁵So [when you find] a good resting place and fertile land, you’ll put your shoulders to work and become a farmer.¹⁶‘Dan:‘You’ll judge your people as a single tribe in IsraEl.¹⁷‘Dan will be a snake on the road that blocks the path and bites at the hooves of horses to cause their riders to fall, ¹⁸while he awaits the salvation of Jehovah.¹⁹‘Gad:‘You’ll be looted by plunderers… But then you’ll also follow and plunder them.²⁰‘Asher:‘You’ll have plenty of bread, and you’ll provide delicious things to princes.²¹‘NaphTali:‘You’re a spreading vine [that will bear] beautiful fruit.²²‘JoSeph:‘My son who has now grown [into a man]; My dearly-loved son who’s been increased; My younger son who has been returned...²³‘You’re the one whom the evil have spoken against; The one against whom they’ve plotted And whom the archers [have tried to shoot down].²⁴‘But their bows and arrows were quickly destroyed By the hand of Jacob’s Almighty God, Who then weakened the might of their arms…‘You’re the one who thereafter brought strength From the God of IsraEl, to his father.²⁵‘My God has helped you and blest you With the blessings that come from above.‘They’re the blessings of the ground that owns all… They’re the blessings of the breasts and the womb.²⁶‘They’re the blessings of your father and mother, Which last longer than the blessings on the mountains, And [longer than] the hills of the ages.‘These [blessings] will be upon JoSeph’s head, And on the heads of the brothers Over whom he will now take the lead.²⁷‘BenJamin:‘You're a hungry wolf who’ll eat all morning long, but also provide food in the evening.’²⁸All these are the 12 sons of Jacob, and that’s what their father said to them. He blest them… He blest each of them by the blessings that they’d receive.²⁹Then he said to them:‘Now I’m going to my people [in death]; so, bury me with my ancestors in the cave that’s in the field of EphRon the Kettite.³⁰‘It’s the double cave across from MamRe in the land of CanaAn that AbraHam bought as a tomb from EphRon the Kettite, ³¹and it’s where they buried AbraHam and his wife SarAh, IsaAc and his wives RebecKa and LeAh, ³²in that part of the field where the caves of the sons of Ket are located.’³³Then Jacob stopped giving instructions to his sons, and he lifted his feet on the bed and died… Then he was buried with his people.

¹Well at that, JoSeph fell over his father’s face, cried over him, and kissed him.²Then JoSeph told his servants (the embalmers) to [take charge of] his father’s body, and the embalmers mummified IsraEl. ³The process took 40 days, because that’s how long it took to mummify someone. And all of Egypt mourned for him during the next 70 days.⁴Then when the days of mourning were completed, JoSeph spoke to the PharaOh’s mighty ones and said:‘If I’ve found favor in your eyes, talk to PharaOh for me and tell him that ⁵my father made me swear, saying:‘I want you to bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of CanaAn.’‘So I wish to go there and bury my father… And then I’ll return.’⁶And PharaOh said to JoSeph:‘Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear.’⁷So JoSeph went up [to the land of CanaAn] to bury his father; and all of PharaOh’s servants and elders of his house, as well as all the elders of the land of Egypt traveled with him ⁸and the households of JoSeph and his brothers, as well as the household of his father and his relatives.However, they left the sheep and oxen behind in the land of Gesem… ⁹The entourage also included many chariots and horsemen, and a large crowd of others.¹⁰Then, upon arriving at the threshing-floor of Atad (which is across the JorDan), they wailed for [Jacob] with a very deep grief, and they mourned there for [JoSeph’s] father for the next 7 days.¹¹Well, when the people of the land of CanaAn saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said:‘This is a huge mourning to the Egyptians!’So after that, they named the place The Mourning of Egypt Beyond the JorDan.¹²Yes, that’s what his sons did for him.¹³His sons carried him up into the land of CanaAn and buried him in the double cave that AbraHam bought as his own burying place from EphRon the Kettite, which is across from MamRe.¹⁴Then JoSeph and his brothers returned to Egypt, along with all those who had come with him to bury his father.¹⁵Well, after JoSeph’s brothers saw that their father had died, they said:‘Let’s not forget that JoSeph can decide to get even with us and pay us back for all the evil things that we did to him at any time!’¹⁶So they went to JoSeph and said:‘Before his death, your father made us swear. He instructed us ¹⁷to tell JoSeph to forgive us for the bad things we’ve done and for our sins, because we’ve really done some evil things to you.‘Therefore, please forgive the injustice of the servants of the God of your father.’Well, JoSeph started to weep while they were talking to him. ¹⁸Then they came up to him and said:‘We are your servants!’¹⁹And JoSeph said:‘Don’t be afraid, for I [belong to] God. ²⁰And even though you once met and talked about doing evil things to me, God made what you said about me [turn out] for the good.‘And that’s why things happened as they have today… So that many people might be fed.’²¹Then he said to them:‘Don’t be afraid... I’ll take care of you and your families.’And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.²²Well, JoSeph continued to live in Egypt along with his brothers and his father’s family for 110 years. ²³JoSeph [lived to] see Ephraim’s children through to the third generation, and the sons of MachIr (ManasSeh’s son) were born at his side.²⁴Then JoSeph told his [family]:‘I’m dying. But, God will surely come to you and take you from this land into the land that God swore to give to our ancestors, AbraHam, IsaAc, and Jacob.’²⁵Then JoSeph made the Sons of IsraEl swear, saying:‘When God comes for you, you must carry my bones back with you.’²⁶So JoSeph died at the age of 110 [c. 1879 BCE], and they prepared his body, then they placed it in a [tomb] in Egypt.