The Book of Genesis

Chapter 1
1 In a beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.
2 As for the earth, it came to be a chaos and vacant, and darkness was over the surface of the abyss. And the spirit of Elohim was vibrating over the surface of the waters.
3 And Elohim said: Let light come to be! And light came to be.
4 Elohim saw the light that it was good. Then Elohim separated the light from the darkness.
5 And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And evening came to be, and morning came to be: day one.
6 And Elohim said: Let an atmosphere come to be in the midst of the waters, that it may be separating waters from waters. And it came to be so.
7 Elohim made the atmosphere and separated the waters under the atmosphere from the waters above the atmosphere.
8 And Elohim called the atmosphere Heavens. And evening came to be, and morning came to be: the second day.
9 And Elohim said: Let the waters under the heavens flow together into one confluence, that the dry ground may appear. And it came to be so.
10 And Elohim called the dry ground Land, and the confluence of the waters He called Seas. And Elohim saw that it was good.
11 And Elohim said: Let the land become verdant with vegetation: with herbage yielding seed on the land and the fruit tree bearing fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in it. And it came to be so.
12 The land brought forth vegetation: herbage yielding seed according to its kind, and the fruit tree bearing fruit, whose seed is in it, according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.
13 And evening came to be, and morning came to be: the third day.
14 And Elohim said: Let luminaries come to be in the atmosphere of the heavens to separate between the day and the night, that they may be for signs, for appointed seasons, for days and years.
15 Let them be for luminaries in the atmosphere of the heavens to give light on the earth. And it came to be so.
16 Elohim made two great luminaries, the greater luminary for ruling the day and the smaller luminary for ruling the night, and also the stars.
17 Elohim placed them in the atmosphere of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 to rule the day and the night, and to separate between the light and the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good.
19 And evening came to be, and morning came to be: the fourth day.
20 And Elohim said: Let the waters swarm with the swarming thing, the living soul, and let the flyer fly above the earth on the face of the atmosphere of the heavens. And it came to be so.
21 Elohim created the great sea monsters and every moving, living soul with which the waters swarm according to their kind, and every winged flyer according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.
22 And Elohim blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and increase; fill the waters in the seas, and let the flyer increase on earth.
23 And evening came to be, and morning came to be: the fifth day.
24 And Elohim said: Let the earth bring forth the living soul, each according to its kind: domestic beast, creeper and land animal, each according to its kind. And it came to be so.
25 Elohim made the land animal according to its kind, the domestic beast according to its kind, and every creeper of the ground according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.
26 And Elohim said: Let Us make humanity in Our image and according to Our likeness. Let them hold sway over the fish of the sea and over the flyer of the heavens, over the domestic beast, over every land animal and over every creeper that is creeping on the earth.
27 So Elohim created humanity in His image; in the image of Elohim He created it: male and female He created them.
28 Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said to them: Be fruitful and increase; fill the earth and subdue it. Hold sway over the fish of the sea and over the flyer of the heavens, over every domestic beast, over all the earth and over every animal that is moving on the earth.
29 And Elohim said: Since I have given you all seed-yielding herbage that is on the face of the entire earth, and every tree on which there is the fruit of a seed-yielding tree, it shall be yours for food.
30 And to every animal of the earth, to every flyer of the heavens, and to every creeper on the earth in which there is a living soul, I have given all green herbage for food. And it came to be so.
31 And Elohim saw all that He had made; and behold, it was very good. And evening came to be, and morning came to be: the sixth day.

Chapter 2
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host.
2 On the sixth day Elohim finished His work that He had made; and He ceased on the seventh day from all His work that He had made.
3 And Elohim blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, for in it He ceased from all His work that Elohim had created by making it.
4 These are the chronological records of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh Elohim made earth and heavens.
5 As for any shrub of the field, it had not yet come into being on earth, nor had any herbage of the field yet been sprouting, for Yahweh Elohim had not made it rain on the earth, and there was no human to serve the ground.
6 But mist, it ascended from the earth and irrigated the whole surface of the ground.
7 Yahweh Elohim formed the human out of soil from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living soul.
8 Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the human whom He had formed.
9 So Yahweh Elohim made sprout from the ground every tree desirable to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A stream was flowing forth from Eden to irrigate the garden; from there it parted and became four headstreams.
11 The name of the first one is Pishon; it is the one surrounding the whole land of Havilah where the gold is.
12 The gold of that land is very good; the pearl is there and the onyx stone.
13 The name of the second stream is Gihon; it is the one surrounding the whole land of Cush.
14 The name of the third stream is Hiddekel; it is the one going east of Asshur; and the fourth stream, it is the Euphrates.
15 Then Yahweh Elohim took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to serve it and to keep it.
16 And Yahweh Elohim instructed the human, saying: From every tree of the garden you may eat, yea eat.
17 But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you must not eat from it; for on the day you eat from it, to die you shall be dying.
18 And Yahweh Elohim said: It is not good for the human to be alone by himself. I shall make for him a helper as his complement.
19 Yahweh Elohim had formed from the ground every animal of the field and every flyer of the heavens; and He brought each one to the human to see what he would call it. And whatever the human would call it, each living soul, that was its name.
20 So the human was calling the names of every domestic beast, of every flyer of the heavens and of every animal of the field; yet for the human no helper was available as his complement.
21 Then Yahweh Elohim caused a stupor to fall on the human. While he was sleeping, He took one of his angular organs and closed up the flesh over its place.
22 Yahweh Elohim built the angular organ that He had taken from the human into a woman and brought her to the human.
23 The human said: This time, it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called woman, for this was taken from her man.
24 Therefore a man shall forsake his father and his mother; he will cling to his wife, and both of them will be one flesh.
25 Both of them were naked, the human and his wife; yet they were not ashamed.

Chapter 3
1 Now the serpent, it became more crafty than any other animal of the field that Yahweh Elohim had made. The serpent said to the woman: Indeed did Elohim say, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?
2 The woman replied to the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 yet of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden Elohim said, You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it lest you should die.
4 But the serpent said to the woman: Not to die shall you be dying;
5 for Elohim knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will be unclosed, and you will become like Elohim, knowing good and evil.
6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it brought a yearning to the eyes and that the tree was desirable for gaining insight. So she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were unclosed, and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made girdle skirts for themselves.
8 Then they heard the sound of Yahweh Elohim walking about in the garden in the windy part of the day, and the human hid himself with his wife from the face of Yahweh Elohim among the trees of the garden.
9 Yahweh Elohim called to the human and said to him: Adam, where are you?
10 He replied to Him: I heard the sound of You walking in the garden, and I was fearful because I was naked; so I hid.
11 Then He asked: Who told you that you are naked unless you have eaten from the only tree that I instructed you by no means to eat from it?
12 The human replied: The woman whom You have given to be with me she gave me of that tree, and I ate.
13 Yahweh Elohim said to the woman: What is this you have done? The woman replied: The serpent he lured me, and I ate.
14 Then Yahweh Elohim said to the serpent: Because you have done this, Cursed shall you be away from every domestic beast And from every animal of the field! On your torso shall you crawl, And soil shall you eat all the days of your life.
15 And I shall set enmity between you and the woman And between your seed and her Seed. He shall hurt you in the head, And you shall hurt Him in the heel.
16 And to the woman He said: I shall increase, yea increase your grief And the groanings of your pregnancy. In grief shall you bear children; Yet by your husband is your restoration. And he shall rule over you.
17 And to Adam He said: Because you hearkened to your wife’s voice and ate from the only tree that I instructed you, saying you must not eat from it, Cursed is the ground on your account; In grief shall you eat of it all the days of your life.
18 Thorn and weed shall it sprout for you, And you will eat the herbage of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread, Until you return to the ground, for from it were you taken. For soil you are, and to soil you shall return.
20 The human called his wife’s name Eve, for she would become the mother of all the living.
21 And Yahweh Elohim made for Adam and his wife tunics of skin and clothed them.
22 Then Yahweh Elohim said: Behold, man has become like one of Us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he should stretch out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for the eon .
23 So Yahweh Elohim sent him out of the garden of Eden to serve the ground from where he was taken.
24 After He drove the human out, He made him tabernacle at the east of the garden of Eden, and He set the cherubim and the flame of the revolving sword to guard the way to the tree of life.

Chapter 4
1 Now the human knew Eve his wife. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain, saying: I have acquired a man through Yahweh.
2 Then she proceeded to give birth to his brother Abel. Abel became a shepherd of the flock, while Cain was serving the ground.
3 And it came to be at the end of a year’s days that Cain brought an approach present to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground.
4 As for Abel however, he brought some firstlings of his flock and their fat portions. And Yahweh gave heed to Abel and his approach present.
5 But to Cain and his approach present He did not give heed; so Cain’s anger grew very hot, and his face fell.
6 Then Yahweh said to Cain: Why is your anger hot? And why is your face fallen?
7 If you had done what is well, would you not lift up your face? But since you have not done well, at the portal there is a sin offering, a recliner; And for you is restoration in his sacrifice; You are ruling over him.
8 Cain said to his brother Abel: Let us go into the field. Now it came to pass while they were in the field that Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
9 So Yahweh said to Cain: Where is your brother Abel? And he replied: I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?
10 Then He said: What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.
11 Now you are cursed, away from the ground which has opened wide its mouth to take your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 When you serve the ground, it shall not continue to give its vigor to you. A rover and a wanderer shall you become on earth.
13 Cain replied to Yahweh: Too great is my depravity to bear.
14 Since You drive me out today, off the surface of the ground, and since I shall be concealed from Your presence and will become a rover and a wanderer on earth, it will come to be that anyone finding me shall kill me.
15 Yet Yahweh said to him: Not so; anyone killing Cain, sevenfold shall he be avenged. So Yahweh placed a sign for Cain, by no means to smite him, should anyone find him.
16 Then Cain went forth from the presence of Yahweh, and he dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
17 Cain knew his wife; she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Then he engaged in building a city, and he called the city’s name by the name of his son Enoch.
18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech.
19 Lamech took to himself two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah.
20 Then Adah gave birth to Jabal; he became the father of the tent dwellers and the cattlemen.
21 And the name of his brother was Jubal; he became the father of all who handle the harp and the shepherd’s pipe.
22 As for Zillah, she too gave birth to Tubal-cain who forged every artifact of copper and iron. Tubal-cain’s sister was Naamah.
23 Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice! Wives of Lamech, give ear to my saying! Truly a man I have killed for my injury, And a boy for my welt.
24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.
25 Adam knew Eve his wife again. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She called his name Seth, saying: Truly Elohim has set for me another seed instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.
26 As for Seth, to him too a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then this one was wounded; yet he called on the Name of Yahweh.

Chapter 5
1 This is the scroll of the genealogical records of Adam. On the day Elohim created Adam, in the likeness of Elohim He made him.
2 Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and called their name Human on the day they were created.
3 Adam lived two hundred thirty years and begot a son in his likeness and after his image; he called his name Seth.
4 And the days of Adam, after his begetting Seth, came to be seven hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters.
5 So all the days of Adam which he lived came to be nine hundred thirty years; then he died.
6 Seth lived two hundred five years and begot Enosh.
7 After his begetting Enosh, Seth lived seven hundred seven years and begot sons and daughters.
8 So all the days of Seth came to be nine hundred twelve years; then he died.
9 Enosh lived a hundred ninety years and begot Cainan.
10 After his begetting Cainan, Enosh lived seven hundred fifteen years and begot sons and daughters.
11 So all the days of Enosh came to be nine hundred five years; then he died.
12 Cainan lived a hundred seventy years and begot Mahalalel.
13 After his begetting Mahalalel, Cainan lived seven hundred forty years and begot sons and daughters.
14 So all the days of Cainan came to be nine hundred ten years; then he died.
15 Mahalalel lived a hundred sixty-five years and begot Jared.
16 After his begetting Jared, Mahalalel lived seven hundred thirty years and begot sons and daughters.
17 So all the days of Mahalalel came to be eight hundred ninety-five years; then he died.
18 Jared lived a hundred sixty-two years and begot Enoch.
19 After his begetting Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years and begot sons and daughters.
20 So all the days of Jared came to be nine hundred sixty-two years; then he died.
21 Enoch lived a hundred sixty-five years and begot Methuselah.
22 Enoch walked with the One, Elohim. After his begetting Methuselah, he lived two hundred years and begot sons and daughters.
23 So all the days of Enoch came to be three hundred sixty-five years,
24 while Enoch was walking with the One, Elohim. Then he was not found, for Elohim took him away.
25 Methuselah lived a hundred eighty-seven years and begot Lamech.
26 After his begetting Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred eighty-two years and begot sons and daughters.
27 So all the days of Methuselah came to be nine hundred sixty-nine years; then he died.
28 Lamech lived a hundred eighty-eight years and begot a son.
29 He called his name Noah, saying: This one shall console us because of our doings, and because of the grief of our hands resulting from the ground that Yahweh has cursed.
30 After his begetting Noah, Lamech lived five hundred sixty-five years and begot sons and daughters.
31 So all the days of Lamech came to be seven hundred fifty-three years; then he died.
32 Noah came to be five hundred years old; Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Chapter 6
1 Now it had occurred when humanity had started to increase on the surface of the ground and daughters had been born to them,
2 the sons of the elohim saw the daughters of the human that they were good-looking. So they took wives for themselves from any whom they chose.
3 Then Yahweh said: My spirit shall not abide in the human for the eon, in that he too is flesh. So his days will continue a hundred twenty years.
4 As for the distinguished, they were on earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of the elohim were coming to the daughters of the human, and they bore them offspring. They were the masterful ones, who were from the eon, mortals of renown.
5 Yahweh saw that the evil of humanity was multiplying on earth, and every form of the devisings of its heart was surely evil all the day.
6 Yahweh regretted that He had made humanity on earth, and He grieved in His heart.
7 So Yahweh said: I shall wipe out humanity that I have created, off the surface of the ground, from human unto beast, unto the creeper and unto the flyer of the heavens; for I regret that I have made them.
8 Yet Noah, he found grace in the eyes of Yahweh.
9 These are the genealogical records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man; he became flawless in his generations; with the One, Elohim, Noah walked.
10 Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was ruined before the One, Elohim, and the earth was full of violence.
12 Yahweh Elohim saw the earth, and behold, it was ruined, for all flesh had ruined its ways on the earth.
13 So Yahweh Elohim said to Noah: The era of the end of all human flesh has come before Me, for the earth is full of violence because of their presence. Now behold, I am about to ruin them with the earth.
14 Make for yourself an ark of sulphur wood; with nests shall you make the ark, and you will shelter it from the inside and from the outside with a sheltering coat.
15 This is how you shall make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its rise.
16 Narrowing from its middle shall you make it, and to a cubit shall you finish it from above. You shall place the entrance opening of the ark in its side and make lower, second and third decks.
17 Now behold, I Myself am about to bring a deluge of water on the earth to wreck all flesh under the heavens which has the spirit of life in it. All that is in the earth, it shall decease.
18 Yet I will set up My covenant with you, and you must come into the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
19 Of every living creature, of all flesh, you shall bring pairs from all into the ark to stay alive with you; they shall be male and female.
20 Of the flyer according to its kind, of the beast according to its kind, and of every creeper of the ground according to its kind, from all shall they come in pairs to you to stay alive.
21 As for you, take for yourself from every food which is to be eaten; you will gather it up for yourself, so that it will come to be food for you and for them.
22 Then Noah did according to all that Yahweh Elohim had instructed him; he did just so.

Chapter 7
1 Then Yahweh Elohim said to Noah: Come, you and all your household, into the ark, for I have seen you righteous before Me in this generation.
2 Of every clean beast you shall take with you seven by seven, the sire and his dam, and of the beast that is not clean, of them pairs, the sire and his dam.
3 Also, of the clean flyer of the heavens seven by seven, male and female, and of the flyer that is not clean, of them pairs, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of the entire earth.
4 For in seven days further I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out, off the surface of the entire ground, everyone who has risen, whom I have made.
5 Noah did according to all that Yahweh Elohim had instructed him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the deluge of waters came to be on the earth.
7 So Noah came into the ark, and with him his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives, because of the waters of the deluge.
8 Of the clean beast and of the beast that is not clean, and of the flyer and of everything that is moving on the ground,
9 pair by pair they came to Noah into the ark, male and female, just as Elohim had instructed Noah.
10 It occurred after the seven days that the waters of the deluge, they came upon the earth,
11 in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month on the twenty-seventh day of the month. On this day all the springs of the vast abyss broke forth, and the crevices of the heavens were opened,
12 and the downpour was coming on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On this very day Noah came into the ark with Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them,
14 they and every wild animal according to its kind, and every domestic beast according to its kind, and every creeper that was creeping on the earth according to its kind, and every flyer according to its kind, every bird, every winged thing.
15 They were coming to Noah into the ark, pair by pair of all flesh which has the spirit of life in it.
16 And those entering, male and female of all flesh, came just as Elohim had instructed him. Then Yahweh Elohim closed the ark about him.
17 Now the deluge was coming forty days and forty nights on the earth, and the waters were increasing. They lifted up the ark so that it was high above the earth.
18 While the waters were gaining the mastery over the earth and were exceedingly increasing, the ark was floating on the surface of the waters.
19 Exceeding exceedingly, the waters, they gained the mastery over the earth, and all the lofty mountains under the entire heavens were covered.
20 At fifteen cubits upward, the waters had gained the mastery, so that all the lofty mountains were covered.
21 All flesh that had been moving on the earth had deceased, of the flyer, of the domestic beast, of the wild animal, of every swarming thing swarming on the earth, and every human.
22 Everyone who had the breath of the spirit of life in his nostrils, everything that had been in the drained area, they all died.
23 Thus He had wiped out everyone who had risen on the surface of the ground, from human unto domestic beast, unto the creeper and unto the flyer of the heavens; they were wiped off the earth; only Noah remained and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters had the mastery over the earth for a hundred fifty days.

Chapter 8
1 Yet Elohim was mindful of Noah and of every wild animal and of every domestic beast that was with him in the ark. So Elohim caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
2 The springs of the abyss and the crevices of the heavens were held in check, and the downpour from the heavens was shut up.
3 The waters were returning off the earth, going and returning, and at the end of a hundred fifty days the waters were abating.
4 Then in the seventh month on the twenty-seventh day of the month the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.
5 The waters continued to go and to abate until the tenth month. In the eleventh month, on day one of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.
6 It was at the end of forty days that Noah opened a porthole of the ark that he had made
7 and sent out a raven to see if the waters were slight. And it was faring forth to fare forth and to turn about until the waters had dried off the land.
8 Then he sent out from him a dove to see if the waters were slight above the surface of the ground.
9 Yet the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot and returned to him to the ark, for there was water on the surface of the entire earth. So he stretched out his hand and took her and brought her to him into the ark.
10 He then waited still another seven days and proceeded to send out the dove from the ark.
11 When the dove came back to him at eventide, behold, a torn-off olive leaf was in her beak. Then Noah knew that the waters were slight above the earth.
12 So he waited still another seven days and once more sent out the dove; yet not anymore did she return to him again.
13 It occurred in the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, in the first month on day one of the month, that the waters had drained off the land. When Noah took off the covering of the ark, he saw, and behold, the surface of the ground had drained.
14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the land was dry.
15 Yahweh Elohim spoke to Noah, saying:
16 Come forth from the ark, you and your wife, your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
17 Every wild animal that is with you, some of all flesh among the flyer and the domestic beast, also every creeper that is creeping on the earth, bring them forth with you, so they can swarm in the earth and be fruitful and increase on the earth.
18 So Noah came forth, and with him his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives.
19 Every wild animal, every creeper and every flyer, everything moving on the earth, they came forth from the ark by their families.
20 Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh; he took some of every clean domestic beast and some of every clean flyer and offered up ascent offerings on the altar.
21 Yahweh Elohim smelled the fragrant smell, and Yahweh Elohim said in His heart: Not anymore will I maledict again the ground on account of humanity, for the bent of the human heart is evil from its youth. And not anymore will I smite again every living flesh, just as I have done.
22 In the future, for all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and warmth, summer and winter, day and night, they shall not cease.

Chapter 9
1 Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth and subdue it.
2 The fear of you and the dismay due to you shall come on every animal of the earth and on every flyer of the heavens, on everything that is moving on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand.
3 Every moving animal that is alive, shall be yours for food; as with the green herbage, I give to you everything.
4 Only flesh with its soul, its blood, you must not eat.
5 However I shall require your blood for your souls; from the hand of every animal I shall require it, and from the hand of humanity. From the hand of each man, as regards his fellow man, I shall require the soul of a human.
6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human his blood shall be shed; for in the image of Elohim He has made humanity.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase, swarm in the earth and hold sway over it.
8 Then Elohim said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying:
9 And as for Me, now I am setting up My covenant with you and with your seed after you,
10 with every living soul that was with you, flyer, domestic beast and every wild animal of the earth that was with you, all that came forth from the ark, every animal of the earth.
11 And I will confirm My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a deluge, and never again shall there be a deluge to wreck the entire earth.
12 Elohim further said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving, between Me and you and every living soul that was with you, for eonian generations.
13 My bow I have set in a cloud, and it will be for a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
14 And it will occur when I make the sky cloudy over the earth with clouds and My bow appears in a cloud,
15 then I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living soul among all flesh, so that never again shall the waters become a deluge to wreck all flesh.
16 When My bow comes to be in the cloud, I will see it to remember the eonian covenant between Elohim and every living soul among all flesh which is on the earth.
17 So Elohim said to Noah: This is the sign of the covenant that I have set up between Me and all flesh which is on the earth.
18 The sons of Noah who came forth from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (As for Ham, he became the father of Canaan.)
19 These three were Noah’s sons, and from these the entire earth became inhabited.
20 Noah, a man of the ground, started to plant a vineyard.
21 When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and exposed himself inside his tent.
22 When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, he came forth and told his two brothers outside.
23 Then Shem and Japheth took raiment, placed it against both their backs, and, walking in backward, they covered the nakedness of their father. While their faces were turned away, they did not see the nakedness of their father.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and realized what his youngest son had done to him,
25 he said: Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he become for his brothers.
26 And he added: Blessed be Yahweh, the Elohim of Shem, and let Canaan become a slave for him.
27 May Elohim make room for Japheth; may he tabernacle in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan become a slave for him.
28 Noah lived after the deluge three hundred fifty years.
29 So all the days of Noah came to be nine hundred fifty years; then he died.

Chapter 10
1 These are the genealogical records of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the deluge:
2 Japheth’s sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech and Tiras.
3 Gomer’s sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
4 Javan’s sons: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and Rodanim.
5 From these the nations of the coastlands parted, in their lands each with its spoken language by their families, in their nations.
6 Ham’s sons: Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan.
7 Cush’s sons: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteca. Raamah’s sons: Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush begot Nimrod. He started to become a master in the earth;
9 he was a master hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, Like Nimrod, the master hunter before Yahweh.
10 The principal cities of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in the land of Shinar. (
11 From this land Asshur came forth; and he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah
12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that is the great city.)
13 Mizraim begot the Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from where the Philistines came forth) and Caphtorim.
15 Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth,
16 and the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,
17 the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,
18 the Arvadite, the Zemarite and the Hamathite. Afterward the Canaanite families scattered;
19 so the Canaanite boundary came to be from Sidon as you come toward Gerar as far as Gaza as you come toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim as far as Lasha.
20 These are Ham’s sons, by their families, by their spoken languages, in their lands, in their nations.
21 As for Shem (father of all the sons of Eber and the oldest brother of Japheth), to him also sons were born.
22 Shem’s sons: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.
23 Aram’s sons: Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash.
24 Arphaxad begot Cainan, Cainan begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber.
25 To Eber were born two sons; the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the land was distributed. His brother’s name was Joktan.
26 Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
30 Their dwelling place came to be from Mesha as far as you come toward Sephar, the hill country of the east.
31 These are Shem’s sons by their families, by their spoken languages, in their lands, by their nations.
32 These are the families of Noah’s sons by their genealogical records, in their nations; and from these the nations parted over the earth after the deluge.

Chapter 11
1 Now the entire earth continued to have one language and the same words for all of them.
2 It came to pass when they journeyed from the east, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
3 They said, each man to his associate: Grant attention! Do let us mold bricks, and do let us burn them with a burning process. So the brick served as stone for them, and asphalt served as mortar for them.
4 And they said: Grant attention! Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the surface of the entire earth.
5 Then Yahweh descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of humanity had built.
6 Yahweh said: Behold, they are one people with one language for all of them; and this is what they start to do. Now anything they plan to do will not be restricted for them.
7 Grant attention! Do let us descend, and do let us disintegrate their language there, so that each man may not hearken to the language of his associate.
8 Then Yahweh scattered them from there over the surface of the entire earth, and they left off building the city and the tower.
9 Therefore one called its name Babel, because there Yahweh disintegrated the language of the entire earth, and Yahweh scattered them from there over the surface of the entire earth.
10 These are the genealogical records of Shem. Two years after the deluge, when Shem was a hundred years old, he begot Arphaxad.
11 After his begetting Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years and begot sons and daughters.
12 As for Arphaxad, when he had lived a hundred thirty-five years, he begot Cainan.
13 After his begetting Cainan, Arphaxad lived four hundred three years and begot sons and daughters. As for Cainan, when he had lived a hundred thirty years, he begot Shelah. After his begetting Shelah, Cainan lived three hundred thirty years and begot sons and daughters. Then he died.
14 As for Shelah, when he had lived a hundred thirty years, he begot Eber.
15 After his begetting Eber, Shelah lived three hundred thirty years and begot sons and daughters.
16 Eber lived a hundred thirty-four years and begot Peleg.
17 After his begetting Peleg, Eber lived two hundred seventy years and begot sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived a hundred thirty years and begot Reu.
19 After his begetting Reu, Peleg lived two hundred nine years and begot sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived a hundred thirty-two years and begot Serug.
21 After his begetting Serug, Reu lived two hundred seven years and begot sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived a hundred thirty years and begot Nahor.
23 After his begetting Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and begot sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived seventy-nine years and begot Terah.
25 After his begetting Terah, Nahor lived a hundred twenty-nine years and begot sons and daughters.
26 Terah lived seventy years and begot Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 These are the genealogical records of Terah. Terah, he had begotten Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran, he had begotten Lot.
28 Then Haran died in the presence of his father Terah, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29 Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, while the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took his son Abram, and his son’s son, Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and he went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. When they came as far as Charan, they dwelt there.
32 The days of Terah came to be two hundred five years. Then Terah died in Charan.

Chapter 12
1 Yahweh said to Abram: Go by yourself from your land, from your kindred and from your father’s house to the land that I shall show you.
2 I shall make you into a great nation, And I shall bless you; I shall indeed make your name great, And you will indeed be a blessing;
3 I shall indeed bless those blessing you, And I shall curse the one maledicting you. In you all the families of the ground will be blessed.
4 So Abram went just as Yahweh had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Charan.
5 And Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all their goods that they had gotten and every soul they had acquired in Charan; they went forth to go to the land of Canaan, and they entered to the land of Canaan.
6 Then Abram passed through the land as far as the place of Shechem to the high oak. The Canaanite was then in the land.
7 Yet Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him: To your seed I shall give this land. Then Abram built there an altar to Yahweh Who had appeared to him.
8 From there he shifted toward the hill country to the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar there to Yahweh and called on the Name of Yahweh.
9 Then Abram decamped to go in stages toward the Negeb.
10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was heavy in the land.
11 And it came to be just as Abram got near to enter Egypt that he said to his wife Sarai: Behold now, I know that you are a woman, lovely of appearance.
12 So it will occur when the Egyptian men see you, they will say, This is his wife. Then they will kill me, but keep you alive.
13 Please say that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me for your sake, and my soul will remain alive owing to you.
14 It came to be when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptian men saw the woman that she was very lovely.
15 Also Pharaoh’s chief officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s house.
16 On account of her it went well with Abram; and it came to be that he had a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, and donkeys, menservants and maidservants, jennies and camels.
17 Then Yahweh touched Pharaoh and his household with great and evil contagions on account of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said: What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she is your wife?
19 Why did you say, She is my sister, so that I was about to take her for me as a wife? Now here is your wife; take her and go.
20 And Pharaoh instructed men to oversee him, and they sent away him and his wife and all that he had, and Lot went with him.

Chapter 13
1 Then Abram went up from Egypt toward the Negeb, he and his wife and all that he had; and Lot went with him.
2 Abram was very heavily stocked with cattle, with silver and with gold.
3 So he went his way by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the start, between Bethel and Ai,
4 to the place of the altar that he had formerly made there. And there Abram called on the Name of Yahweh.
5 Lot too, who was going along with Abram, he came to have a flock of sheep and a herd of cattle and tents.
6 But the land would not sustain them while dwelling together, for their goods had become so abundant that they were not able to dwell together.
7 There was dispute between the shepherds of Abram’s cattle and the shepherds of Lot’s cattle; and besides the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land.
8 So Abram said to Lot: Please, let there be no argument between me and you, and between my shepherds and your shepherds, for we are men that are brothers.
9 Is not all the land open before you? Please part from me. If it is to the left, I shall indeed go to the right. And if it is to the right, then I shall indeed go to the left.
10 Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole Jordan basin, as you come to Zoar: It was like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt; for all of it was well irrigated before Yahweh wrecked Sodom and Gomorrah.
11 So Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan basin; and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they parted, as a man from his brother.
12 Abram, he dwelt in the land of Canaan, while Lot, he dwelt among the cities of the basin and moved his tent toward Sodom.
13 But the men of Sodom were vicious and intense sinners against Yahweh.
14 Then Yahweh, He said to Abram after Lot had parted from him: Now lift up your eyes and see from the place where you are, northward and to the Negeb, eastward and to the sea.
15 For all the land that you are seeing, I shall give it to you and to your seed unto the eon.
16 And I will make your seed like the soil grains of the land, so that, if a man were able to count the soil grains of the land, then your seed too might be counted.
17 Rise, walk about in the land throughout its length and its width, for I shall give it to you and to your seed, unto the eon.
18 So Abram moved his tent and came to dwell among the oaks of Mamre at Hebron; then he built an altar there to Yahweh.

Chapter 14
1 It came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim,
2 that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar.
3 All these, they joined forces and came to the vale of Siddim, that is, the Salt Sea.
4 For twelve years they had served Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they revolted.
5 In the fourteenth year Kedorlaomer came and the kings who were allied with him. They smote the Rephaim at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim at Shaveh-kiriathaim,
6 the Horites in the mountains of Seir as far as the terebinth of Paran, which is by the wilderness.
7 When they turned back, they came to En-mishpat, that is, Kadesh. They smote all the chiefs of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazezon-tamar.
8 Then the king of Sodom marched forth with the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar. They drew up in battle array against them in the vale of Siddim,
9 against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar, four kings against five.
10 Now the vale of Siddim had wells upon wells of asphalt, and when the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the remainder fled into the hill country.
11 The invaders took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and went away.
12 They also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, and his goods, before they went along; for he had been dwelling in Sodom.
13 Then one who was delivered came and told Abram the Hebrew. He was tabernacling among the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner who had entered into a covenant as Abram’s confederates.
14 When Abram heard that his brother had been taken captive, he emptied out his dedicated men, three hundred eighteen born in his household, and he pursued them as far as Dan.
15 At night he and his menservants split up against them. He smote them and pursued them as far as Hobah which is to the left of Damascus.
16 He brought back all the goods, and he also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, and the women and the people too.
17 In the vale of Shaveh, that is, the king’s vale, the king of Sodom came forth to meet him after he returned from smiting Kedorlaomer and the kings who were allied with him.
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem, he brought forth bread and wine, for he was a priest for El Supreme;
19 he blessed him and said: Blessed be Abram by El Supreme, Owner of the heavens and the earth.
20 And blessed be El Supreme, Who has awarded your foes into your hand. And Abram gave him a tenth of all the booty.
21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the souls and take the goods for yourself.
22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, I raise my hand high to swear to Yahweh El Supreme, Owner of the heavens and the earth:
23 I shall assuredly not take anything from all that belongs to you, from a thread to a sandal lacing, so that you should not say, It is I who made Abram rich.
24 Nothing for me, but what my retainers have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol and Mamre; they should take their portion.

Chapter 15
1 After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying: You must not be fearing, Abram! I am your Shield, your exceedingly increased Reward.
2 Abram replied: My Lord Yahweh, what shall You give to me? I am going heirless, and the successor to my house he will be Damascus Eliezer.
3 And Abram added: Behold, You have given no seed to me; and now a son of my household will take over from me.
4 Yet here the word of Yahweh came to him saying: Not this one shall take over from you, but rather the one who shall come forth from your internal parts, he shall take over from you.
5 Then He brought him forth outside and said: Now look up toward the heavens and count off the stars if you can number them. And He promised him: Thus shall become your seed.
6 Now Abram believed on Elohim, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness.
7 He also said to him: I am Yahweh, Who brought you forth from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to tenant it.
8 Yet he replied: My Lord Yahweh, whereby shall I know that I shall enjoy its tenancy?
9 Now He said to him: Do take for Me a heifer in her third year, a goat in her third year, a ram in his third year, a turtledove and a fledgling.
10 So he procured all these for Him and sundered them through the middle and put each sundered part to meet its corresponding part; yet the birds he did not sunder.
11 Birds of prey descended on the severed corpses, but Abram turned them back.
12 When the sun was about to set, a stupor fell on Abram, and behold, the dread of a towering darkness was falling on him.
13 Then He said to Abram: You shall know, yea know, that your seed shall become a sojourner in a land which is not theirs; and they will serve them, and these will do evil to them and humiliate them for four hundred years.
14 But I will indeed adjudicate the nation which they shall serve, and afterward they shall come forth with a great many goods.
15 As for you, you shall come to your fathers in peace; you shall be entombed at a good greyhaired age.
16 And in the fourth generation they shall return here, for hitherto the depravity of the Amorite is not yet total.
17 It came to pass when the sun had set and the darkening came, behold, a smoking stove and a fiery torch passed between these severed parts.
18 On that day Yahweh contracted a covenant with Abram, saying: To your seed I give this land, from the stream of Egypt as far as the Great Stream, the stream Euphrates:
19 the Kenite, the Kenezite, the Kadmonite,
20 the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Girgashite and the Jebusite.

Chapter 16
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, she had borne him no children; yet she had an Egyptian maid, and her name was Hagar.
2 So Sarai said to Abram: Behold now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing children. Please come to my maid. Perhaps I shall be built up through her. And Abram hearkened to Sarai’s voice.
3 Thus, at the end of ten years that Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took her Egyptian maid Hagar and gave her to her husband Abram as wife for him.
4 So he came to Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress was lightly esteemed in her eyes.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram: My wrong is on you. I gave my maid into your bosom. Now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lightly esteemed in her eyes. May Yahweh judge between me and you.
6 Abram replied to Sarai: Behold, your maid is in your hands; do to her what is good in your eyes. So Sarai humbled her, and she ran away from her face.
7 A messenger of Yahweh found her at a spring of water in the wilderness; it was the spring on the way to Shur.
8 He said: Hagar maid of Sarai, from where have you come, and where are you going? She replied: I have been running away from the face of Sarai, my mistress.
9 Then the messenger of Yahweh told her: Return to your mistress and humble yourself under her hands.
10 Besides, the messenger of Yahweh spoke to her: I shall increase, yea increase your seed so that it cannot be numbered for multitude.
11 Again the messenger of Yahweh spoke to her: Behold, you are now pregnant and shall bear a son. You will call his name Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard of your humiliation.
12 And he shall become a man like an onager: his hand against all, and the hand of all against him, and against the face of all his brothers he shall tabernacle.
13 Hagar called the Name of Yahweh Who had spoken to her: You are an El-of-Seeing, for she said: Have I indeed seen here after the One Who sees me?
14 Therefore one called this well: Well of the living One Who sees me. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore for him, Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael for Abram.

Chapter 17
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him: I am El Who-Suffices; walk before Me and become flawless.
2 I am determined to give My covenant between Me and you. I shall increase you exceedingly, exceedingly.
3 Then Abram fell on his face. And Elohim spoke to him, saying:
4 As for Me, behold, this is My covenant with you: You will become the father of a throng of nations.
5 So your name shall no longer be called Abram; but your name will become Abraham, for a father of a throng of nations have I appointed you.
6 I will cause you to be exceedingly, exceedingly fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you.
7 I have set up My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you, throughout their generations, as an eonian covenant, to be Elohim to you and to your seed after you.
8 And I give to you and to your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, as an eonian holding; and I will be Elohim to them.
9 Then Elohim spoke to Abraham: As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you, throughout their generations.
10 This is My covenant that you shall keep between Me and yourselves and your seed after you: Every male among you is to be circumcised.
11 Namely you will be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin; and this will be the covenant sign between Me and yourselves.
12 Throughout your generations, every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, anyone born in the household or acquired with money from any foreigner’s son who is not of your seed.
13 He shall be circumcised, yea circumcised, the manservant born in your household or acquired with your money. Thus will My covenant be marked in your flesh as an eonian covenant.
14 As for the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, this soul will be cut off from his people; he has annulled My covenant.
15 Elohim spoke further to Abraham: As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her name Sarai; for Sarah will be her name.
16 I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. And I will bless him. She will give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.
17 Then Abraham fell on his face; he laughed and said in his heart: Can a child be born to one who is a hundred years old? Or could Sarah, a ninety-year-old, possibly bear a child?
18 So Abraham said to the One, Elohim: O that Ishmael should live before You!
19 Elohim replied: Nevertheless, your wife Sarah will be bearing a son for you, and you will call his name Isaac. I will set up My covenant with him as an eonian covenant for his seed after him.
20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and increase him exceedingly, exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make a great nation of him.
21 But My covenant I shall set up with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear for you in the next year at this appointed time.
22 When He had finished speaking with him, Elohim ascended from Abraham.
23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household and all those acquired with his money, every male among the people of Abraham’s household, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on this very day, just as Elohim had spoken to him.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised.
25 And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he had the flesh of his foreskin circumcised.
26 On this very day Abraham was circumcised and also his son Ishmael;
27 and all the men of his household, the homeborn and those acquired with money from a foreigner’s son, they were circumcised with him.

Chapter 18
1 Yahweh appeared to him among the oaks of Mamre as he was sitting at the opening of the tent when the day was brightly warm.
2 When he lifted up his eyes, behold, he saw three men standing by over against him. As he saw them, he ran from the opening of the tent to meet them and bowed down toward the earth.
3 He said: My Lord, if now I have found grace in Your eyes, please do not pass by Your servant.
4 Let a little water now be taken, then wash your feet and lean back under the tree.
5 Let me take a morsel of bread and brace your heart. Afterward you may pass on; for on this account you have passed by your servant. They replied: You shall do so, just as you said.
6 Abraham hastened toward the tent to Sarah and said: Take quickly three seah measures of meal flour; knead it and make ember cakes.
7 Next Abraham ran out to the herd and took a bull calf of the herd, tender and good, and gave it to the lad who hastened to prepare it.
8 Then he took clotted cream and milk and the bull calf of the herd that he had had prepared; he set it before them and was standing by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They asked him: Where is your wife Sarah? He replied: Behold, in the tent.
10 Now He said: I shall return, yea return to you; according to the season of life, behold, your wife Sarah will have a son. Yet Sarah had been hearing at the opening of the tent, and she was behind Him.
11 Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in days; and the path in accord with women was halted to continue for Sarah.
12 So Sarah laughed within herself, saying: After I have become worn out, will luxury occur to me while my lord is old?
13 Then Yahweh said to Abraham: Why was this that Sarah laughed, saying: Shall I indeed truly bear a child, when I am old?
14 Is anything too difficult for Yahweh? At the appointed time I shall return to you, and according to the season of life, Sarah will have a son.
15 Yet Sarah dissimulated, saying: I did not laugh for she stood in fear. He replied: No, but you did laugh.
16 When the men arose from there, they gazed down overlooking Sodom. And Abraham went with them to send them off.
17 Then Yahweh said: Shall I keep covered from Abraham what I will do?
18 Abraham, he shall become, yea become a great and staunch nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
19 For I have become acquainted with him in order that he may enjoin on his sons and on his household after him to keep the way of Yahweh to do what is right and duly just, so that Yahweh may bring on Abraham all that He has promised concerning him.
20 Then Yahweh said: The outcry over Sodom and Gomorrah is great indeed, and their sin, it is exceedingly grave indeed.
21 I shall now descend and see whether they have acted altogether according to the outcry over it that has come to Me, and if not, I will know.
22 From there the men turned around and went toward Sodom. Yet Yahweh, He was still standing before Abraham.
23 So Abraham came close and said: Will You indeed sweep off the righteous with the wicked?
24 Perhaps there are fifty righteous in the midst of the city; will You indeed sweep off and not bear with the entire place on account of the fifty righteous who are within it?
25 Far be it from You to act in this manner, to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so that it would occur with the righteous as with the wicked. Far be it from You; the Judge of the entire earth, would He not execute right judgment?
26 Yahweh replied: If I should find in Sodom fifty righteous in the midst of the city, then I will bear with the entire place for their sake.
27 Abraham answered and said: Behold, now, I have ventured to speak to Yahweh, though I am soil and ashes.
28 Perhaps the fifty righteous lack five. Will You ruin the entire city because of five? And He replied: I will not ruin it if I should find there forty-five.
29 Yet he again proceeded to speak to Him and said: Perhaps forty shall be found there. And He replied: I will not do it, for the sake of the forty.
30 Yet he said: Now my Lord must not be angry, but let me speak; perhaps thirty shall be found there. And He replied: I will not do it if I should find there thirty.
31 Yet he said: Behold, now, I have ventured to speak to my Lord; perhaps twenty shall be found there. And He replied: I will not ruin it, for the sake of the twenty.
32 Yet he said: Now my Lord must not be angry, but let me speak only this once; perhaps ten shall be found there. And He replied: I will not ruin it for the sake of the ten.
33 As soon as Yahweh had finished speaking with Abraham, He went away; and Abraham returned to his place.

Chapter 19
1 The two messengers came to Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he arose to meet them, and he bowed down with his brow toward the earth.
2 And he said: Behold, now, my lords, please turn in and lodge at the house of your servant and wash your feet. Then you can rise early and go on your way. Yet they said: No, for we shall lodge in the square.
3 But he urged them so intensely that they turned in with him and entered his house. He made a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 They had not yet lain down when the men of the city, men of Sodom that they were, surrounded the house, from youth even to old man, all the people without exception.
5 They called out to Lot and said to him: Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them forth to us, and let us know them.
6 So Lot went forth to them, toward the portal, and closed the door after him.
7 He said to them: Oh do not do such evil, my brothers.
8 Oh behold, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Oh let me bring them forth to you. Do to them as is good in your eyes. But do not do anything to these men; for on this account they have come under the shadow of my rafters.
9 But they replied: Come close, yonder! And they added: This one came to sojourn here as an alien, yet he is judging, yea judging. Now we shall do more evil to you than to them. And they urged intensely against the man, against Lot, and they came close to break the door.
10 Then the two men stretched out their hands and brought Lot in to them, into the house, and closed the door.
11 As for the men who were at the portal of the house, they smote them with a dazzled perception, from the small unto the great, so they tired of finding the portal.
12 The two men said to Lot: Do you have anyone else here? Son-in-law and your sons and your daughters and all who are yours in the city, bring them forth from the place.
13 For we are about to bring this place to ruin, because great is the outcry over them before the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh has sent us to wreck it.
14 So Lot went forth and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to take his daughters, and he said: Get up, go forth from this place, for Yahweh is about to bring the city to ruin. But in the eyes of his sons-in-law he was as if one making fun.
15 As dawn came up, the messengers rushed Lot on, saying: Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are found here, and come out, lest you be swept off in the depravity of the city.
16 Yet he was dallying, and so, with a fast grip, the men took him by the hand, and his wife by the hand, and his two daughters by the hand, for Yahweh was sparing him; and they brought him forth and let him rest outside the city.
17 It came to pass when they had brought them forth outside that one of them said: Escape for your soul; do not look behind you; and do not stand still anywhere in the basin; escape to the mountainous area lest you be swept off.
18 Yet Lot said to them: Oh certainly not, my lords!
19 Oh behold, your servant has found grace in your eyes, and you have magnified your kindness that you have shown me in preserving my soul alive. But I, I cannot escape to the mountainous area, lest evil cling to me and I die.
20 Oh behold, this city is near enough to flee there; and it is inferior. Oh let me escape there! Is it not inferior? Let my soul live!
21 He replied to him, Behold, I will lift up your face even in this matter by my not overturning the city that you speak of.
22 Hasten! Escape there, for I cannot do anything until you have come there. Therefore one calls the name of the city Zoar.
23 The sun, it came forth over the earth when Lot, he came to Zoar.
24 Then Yahweh, He caused sulphur to rain on Sodom and on Gomorrah, and fire from Yahweh from the heavens.
25 Thus He overturned these cities and the entire basin and all those dwelling in the cities, and everything sprouting from the ground.
26 Yet his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a monument of salt.
27 Abraham rose early in the morning to go to the place where he had stood before the face of Yahweh.
28 And he gazed down on the surface of Sodom and Gomorrah and on the entire surface of the basin area, and behold, he saw that the fumes ascended from the land like the fumes of a limekiln.
29 So it came to pass when Elohim wrecked the cities of the basin that Elohim was mindful of Abraham and sent Lot off from the midst of the overturning, as He overturned the cities in which Lot had dwelt.
30 Now Lot went up from Zoar and dwelt in the hill country, and his two daughters were with him, for he was fearful to dwell in Zoar. So he was dwelling in a cave, he and his two daughters with him.
31 The firstborn said to the junior sister: Our father, he is old, and there is no man in the area to come on us according to the way of all the earth.
32 Do go, let us give our father wine to drink; then do let us lie with him and keep seed alive from our father.
33 So they gave their father wine to drink that night. Then the firstborn came and lay with her father. Yet he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 It came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said to the junior sister: Behold, I lay with our father yesternight. Let us give him wine to drink tonight also; then come and lie with him, that we may keep seed alive from our father.
35 So they again gave their father wine to drink that night; and the junior sister got up and lay with him. Yet he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
36 Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab, saying, From my father. He is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
38 As for the junior sister, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi, saying, Son of my kinsman. He is the father of the sons of Ammon unto this day.

Chapter 20
1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negeb area and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur. While he sojourned as an alien in Gerar,
2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, She is my sister, for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest the men of the city kill him on account of her. Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
3 But Elohim came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him: Behold, you are to die on account of the woman whom you have taken, for she is the spouse of a possessor.
4 Now Abimelech, he had not gone near her, and he said: My Lord, are You going to kill even an unknowing and righteous nation?
5 Did not he himself say to me, She is my sister? And moreover, did not she herself say, He is my brother? In the sincerity of my heart and in the innocence of my palms have I done this.
6 The One, Elohim, replied to him in the dream: I too know that you have done this in the sincerity of your heart, and I was also keeping you back from sinning against Me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch her.
7 Now restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet that he may pray about you, so that you may live! But if you are not restoring her, know that you shall die, yea die, you and all who are yours.
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and reported all these things before their ears. And all the men became exceedingly fearful.
9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him: What have you done to us? And wherein have I sinned against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom so great a sin? You have done to me things that should not be done.
10 And Abimelech said to Abraham: What did you have in view that you did this thing?
11 Abraham replied: Because I said to myself, there is surely no fear of Elohim in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.
12 And besides, she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife.
13 It came to pass, when Elohim made me stray from my father’s house, that I said to her: This is your kindness that you should show me; at every place where we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
14 Then Abimelech took a thousand shekels of silver and a flock and a herd, menservants and maidservants, and gave them to Abraham; he also restored his wife Sarah to him.
15 And Abimelech said to Abraham, Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it is good in your eyes.
16 To Sarah he said, Behold, I have given a thousand shekels of silver to your brother. Now this will serve you as a covering of eyes before all who are with you. So in all respects you are now publicly vindicated.
17 Then Abraham prayed to the One, Elohim, and Elohim healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they could bear again;
18 for Yahweh had restrained, yea restrained tightly every womb in Abimelech’s household on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah.

Chapter 21
1 Now Yahweh, He took note of Sarah, just as He had said; and Yahweh did for Sarah what He had promised.
2 So Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which Elohim had spoken to him.
3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore for him, Isaac.
4 Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, just as Elohim had instructed him.
5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said: Elohim has prepared laughter for me; everyone who hears it, is laughing with me.
7 And she added: Who would have declared to Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons! Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.
8 The boy grew up and was weaned. And Abraham prepared a great feast on the day when Isaac was weaned.
9 Now Sarah observed the son whom the Egyptian woman Hagar had borne to Abraham, making fun about her son Isaac.
10 So she said to Abraham: Drive out this maidservant and her son; for this maidservant’s son shall not take over from you with my son, with Isaac!
11 This request was very displeasing in Abraham’s eyes on account of his son.
12 Yet Elohim spoke to Abraham: Let it not be displeasing in your eyes about the lad and about your maidservant. In all that Sarah said to you, hearken to her voice; for it is through Isaac that seed shall be called for you.
13 As for the son of the maidservant, I shall also constitute him a great nation; for he too is your seed.
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning; he took bread and a flask of water and gave them to Hagar, placing them over her shoulder, and gave her the boy. Then he dismissed her, and she went and strayed in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 When the water from the flask was finished, she flung the boy under one of the shrubs.
16 And she went and sat down by herself, aloof from him, as far off as a bow shot; for she said, Let me not stare on the boy’s death. So she sat there aloof from him; and she lifted up her voice and lamented.
17 Elohim heard the voice of the lad, and a messenger of Elohim called to Hagar from the heavens and said to her: What troubles you, Hagar? You must not fear; for Elohim has hearkened to the lad’s voice where he is.
18 Arise! Lift up the lad and take a fast grip on him with your hand; for I shall constitute him a great nation.
19 Then Elohim focused her eyes, and she saw a well of living water. She went and filled the flask with water and gave the lad to drink.
20 Elohim was with the lad; he grew up and dwelt in the wilderness and became a great bowman.
21 He dwelt in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
22 It came to pass at that time that Abimelech, with Phicol the chief of his military host, spoke to Abraham, saying: Elohim is with you in all that you are doing.
23 So do swear now to me here by Elohim that you shall assuredly not deal falsely with me or my progeny or my posterity. According to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall deal with me and with the land in which you sojourn.
24 And Abraham said: I swear it.
25 Then Abraham reproved Abimelech on account of the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had snatched.
26 But Abimelech replied to him: I do not know who has done this thing; and moreover, you did not tell me; and besides I had not heard of it until today.
27 Then Abraham took a flock of sheep and a herd of cattle and gave them to Abimelech; and the two of them contracted a covenant.
28 When Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock aside by themselves,
29 Abimelech said to Abraham: What is the meaning here of these seven ewe lambs that you have set aside by themselves?
30 Abraham replied: You must take the seven ewe lambs from my hand in order that it may be a testimony for me that I have delved this well.
31 Therefore one called this place Beer-sheba because there the two of them had sworn an oath.
32 When they had contracted the covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech got up with Phicol the chief of his military host, and they returned to Philistine land.
33 Then Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba and called there on the Name of Yahweh, the eonian El.
34 Abraham sojourned many days as an alien in Philistine land.

Chapter 22
1 It came to pass after these things that the One, Elohim, He probed Abraham and said to him: Abraham! And he answered: Here I am.
2 Then He said: Take now your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go by yourself to the land of Moriah and offer him up there as an ascent offering on one of the mountains which I shall indicate to you.
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took his two lads and his son Isaac with him. When he had split the wood for the ascent offering, he set out and went to the place which the One, Elohim, had indicated to him.
4 It was on the third day that Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
5 Then Abraham said to his lads: You sit here with the donkey while I and the youth shall indeed go thus far; there we shall worship, and we shall indeed return to you.
6 Now Abraham took the wood for the ascent offering and placed it on his son Isaac while he took the fire and the knife in his hand; and the two of them went along together.
7 Then Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham: My father! And he replied: Here I am, my son. Now he said: Behold the fire and the wood; yet where is the flockling for the ascent offering?
8 Abraham answered: Elohim, He shall see for Himself as to the flockling for the ascent offering, my son. And the two of them walked on together.
9 They came to the place that the One, Elohim, had indicated to him. Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He trussed up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar above the wood.
10 Then Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son,
11 when the messenger of Yahweh called to him from the heavens and said: Abraham! Abraham! And he replied: Here I am.
12 He continued: Do not stretch out your hand on the youth, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear Elohim, since you have not kept back your son, your only one, from Me.
13 When Abraham lifted up his eyes, he observed, behold, there was one ram, held back in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as an ascent offering instead of his son Isaac.
14 Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh-yireh, of which is it said today: On the Mount of Yahweh, He is seeing to it.
15 The messenger of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from the heavens.
16 He said: By Myself have I sworn, averring is Yahweh, that because you have done this thing and have not kept back your son, your only one, from Me,
17 I shall bless, yea bless you, and increase, yea increase your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. Your seed shall take over the gateway of its enemies,
18 and all the nations of the earth will bless themselves in your seed, inasmuch as you have hearkened to My voice.
19 Then Abraham returned to his lads; they set out and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt in Beer-sheba.
20 It came to pass after these things that Abraham was told, saying: Behold Milcah, she too has borne sons to your brother Nahor:
21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Yidlaph and Bethuel.
23 And Bethuel begot Rebecca. These eight sons Milcah bore to Abraham’s brother Nahor.
24 And his concubine ( her name was Reumah), she also gave birth: to Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.

Chapter 23
1 Sarah’s life came to be a hundred twenty-seven years; these were the years of Sarah’s life.
2 Sarah died in Kiriath-arba which is in the vale. It is now Hebron in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to bewail Sarah and to lament over her.
3 Then Abraham arose from beside his dead. He spoke to the sons of Heth, saying:
4 Although I am a sojourner and an alien settler among you, give me a holding for a tomb among you, and let me entomb my dead from before me.
5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying: Suppose
6 you hear us, my lord: You are a prince of Elohim in our midst. Entomb your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us shall prevent you from entombing your dead in his tomb.
7 Then Abraham arose and bowed down to the people of the land, to the sons of Heth.
8 Abraham spoke to them, saying: If there is consent in your soul to let me entomb my dead from before me, so hear me and intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite,
9 that he give me the cave of Machpelah which is his, which is at the end of his field; at the full current price let him give it to me as a holding for a tomb in your midst.
10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham before the ears of the sons of Heth, all those who had come to the gateway of his city, saying:
11 No, my lord, hear me! I give the field to you, and the cave that is in it, I give it to you; before the eyes of the sons of my people I give it to you. Entomb your dead.
12 Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land
13 and spoke to Ephron before the ears of the people of the land, saying: Suppose you would hear me! I will give silver shekels for the field. Take them from me, and let me entomb my dead there.
14 Ephron answered Abraham, saying: Suppose
15 you hear me, my lord; a piece of land at four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? Entomb your dead.
16 Abraham hearkened to Ephron. Then Abraham weighed out for Ephron the money that he had named before the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver at the rate current among the merchants.
17 Thus the field of Ephron at Machpelah that is adjoining Mamre, the field and the cave that is in it, and all the trees that are in the field, within all its boundary round about, became confirmed
18 to Abraham as his acquisition before the eyes of the sons of Heth, all those who had come to the gateway of his city.
19 After this Abraham entombed his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah that is adjoining Mamre. It is now Hebron in the land of Canaan.
20 Thus the field and the cave in it became confirmed to Abraham by the sons of Heth as a holding for a tomb.

Chapter 24
1 Abraham was now old; he was advanced in days, and Yahweh, He had blessed Abraham in all things.
2 Abraham said to his servant, the eldest of his household, who was ruling over all that he had: Put your hand please under my thigh.
3 I shall make you swear by Yahweh, Elohim of the heavens and Elohim of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son, for Isaac, from the daughters of the Canaanite among whom I am dwelling.
4 Rather you shall go to my land whence I came, and to my kindred, and that you will take a wife for my son, for Isaac, from there.
5 The servant said to him: Perhaps the woman shall not be willing to come following me to this land. Shall I bring back, yea bring back your son to the land from where you came forth?
6 Abraham replied to him: Be on your guard lest you bring my son back there.
7 Yahweh Elohim of the heavens and Elohim of the earth Who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred whence I came, and Who spoke to me and Who swore to me saying: To you and to your seed shall I give this land, He shall send His messenger before you, and you will take a wife for my son, for Isaac, from there.
8 But if the woman should not be willing to come following you to this land, then you will be absolved of this my oath; but you shall not bring my son back there.
9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his lord, and swore to him concerning this matter.
10 Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his lord, and with gifts from all the goods of his lord under his hand, he set out and left for Aram-naharaim, for the city of Nahor.
11 There he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at eventide, at the time when the women go out to draw forth water.
12 And he said: O Yahweh Elohim of my lord Abraham, I pray, let it happen before me today, and show benignity to my lord Abraham.
13 Behold me standing by at the spring of water, and the daughters of the people of the city are going out to draw forth water.
14 So let it come to pass that the maiden to whom I say, Please lower your jar that I may drink, and she says to me, Drink, and I shall also give your camels to drink until they finish drinking let her be the one You have made ready beforehand for your servant, for Isaac. Thereby I shall know that You have shown benignity to my lord Abraham.
15 This came to pass ere he had finished speaking in his heart; and behold, Rebecca was coming forth, who had been born to Bethuel son of Milcah, wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, and her jar was on her shoulder.
16 The maiden was of very good appearance, a virgin; no man had known her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.
17 The servant ran to meet her and said, Please, let me sip a little water from your jar.
18 She replied, Drink, my lord. And she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and gave him to drink.
19 When she had finished letting him drink, she said, Also for your camels I shall draw forth until they finish drinking.
20 And she quickly emptied out her jar into the trough, ran again to the well to draw forth water, and drew forth for all his camels.
21 And the man was gazing wonderingly at her, silently waiting to know whether or not Yahweh had prospered his way.
22 Then it came to pass, just as the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden nose pendant, a beka in weight, and two bracelets, ten gold shekels in weight, for her wrists.
23 Then he asked her and said, Whose daughter are you? Tell me please, is there room in your father’s house for us to lodge for the night?
24 She replied to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah whom she bore to Nahor.
25 She further said to him, Besides we have enough crushed straw and provender as well as room to lodge for the night.
26 Then the man bowed his head and worshipped Yahweh.
27 He said: Blessed be Yahweh Elohim of my lord Abraham, Who has not forsaken His benignity and His faithfulness with my lord. As for me, Yahweh has guided me in the way to the house of my lord’s brothers.
28 The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.
29 Now Rebecca had a brother, and his name was Laban. And Laban ran to the man outside at the spring.
30 This came to pass as soon as he had seen the nose pendant and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and as he had heard the words of his sister Rebecca, saying, Thus the man spoke to me. So Laban came to the man, and behold, he was still standing by the camels at the spring.
31 He said to him, Come in, blessed one of Yahweh. Why should you stand outside, when I myself have cleared out the house and a place for the camels?
32 Then the man came to the house; one unharnessed the camels and gave crushed straw and provender to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
33 Yet when bread to eat was placed before him, he said, I shall not eat until I have spoken my words. He replied, Speak.
34 Then he said: I am Abraham’s servant.
35 Yahweh, He has blessed my lord exceedingly, and he has become great; He has given him a flock of sheep and a herd of cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.
36 Sarah, my lord’s wife, bore one son for my lord after she had grown old; and he has given him everything he has.
37 My lord made me swear, saying: You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanite in whose land I am dwelling.
38 But rather you shall go to my father’s house and to my family, and you will take a wife for my son from there.
39 And I said to my lord: Perhaps the woman shall not come following me.
40 He replied to me: Yahweh Elohim, before Whom I walk, He Himself shall send His messenger along with you, and He will prosper your way, and you will take a wife for my son from my family, and from my father’s house.
41 Then you shall be absolved of my oath of imprecation; when you come to my family, and they should not give her to you, then you will be absolved of my oath of imprecation.
42 When I came today to the spring, I said: Yahweh Elohim of my lord Abraham, I pray, if You are prospering my way on which I am now going,
43 behold me standing by at the spring of water, where the daughters of the people of the city are going out to draw forth water. So let it come to pass that the damsel who is coming forth to draw forth water, and to whom I say, Please let me drink a little water from your jar,
44 and she says to me: Drink, even you, and I shall also draw forth water for your camels let her be the woman whom Yahweh has made ready beforehand for my lord’s son. Thereby I shall know that You have shown benignity to my lord Abraham.
45 Ere I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebecca was coming forth, and her jar was on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew forth water. And I said to her: Please let me drink a little water from your jar.
46 So she quickly let down her jar upon her hand and replied: Drink, and also your camels I shall give to drink. Then I drank, and she gave the camels to drink also.
47 I asked her and said, Whose daughter are you? She replied, The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore for him. Then I put the pendant on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.
48 And I bowed my head and worshipped Yahweh and blessed Yahweh Elohim of my lord Abraham, Who has guided me in the reliable way, to take the daughter of my lord’s brother for his son.
49 And now, if you really mean to show kindness and faithfulness to my lord, tell me, and if not, tell me, that I may turn around to the right or to the left.
50 Laban and Bethuel answered and said: This matter comes forth from Yahweh. We are unable to speak evil or good to you.
51 Here is Rebecca before you. Take her and go, that she may become the wife of your lord’s son just as Yahweh has spoken.
52 And it came to pass, just as Abraham’s servant heard their words, that he bowed in worship toward the earth before Yahweh.
53 Then the servant brought forth articles of silver and articles of gold and garments, and he gave them to Rebecca; and he gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.
54 Then they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him; and they lodged there for the night. When they arose in the morning, he said: Dismiss me, and let me go to my lord.
55 But her brother and her mother said: Let the maiden abide with us a few days or even ten. And afterward you may go.
56 He replied to them: Do not delay me, since Yahweh, He has prospered my way. Dismiss me, and do let me go to my lord.
57 And they said: We shall call the maiden; do let us ask her at her mouth.
58 So they called Rebecca and said to her: Will you go with this man? And she replied, I will go.
59 Then they dismissed their sister Rebecca with her wetnurse, and Abraham’s servant with his men.
60 They blessed their sister Rebecca and said to her: You, our sister, may you give rise to thousands of myriads, and may your seed take over the gate of those who are hating it.
61 Then Rebecca and her maidens got up and rode on the camels and went after the man. Thus the servant took Rebecca and went his way.
62 Now Isaac, he had come back from having set out to the well Lahai-roi; for he was dwelling in the Negeb area.
63 Isaac went forth to meditate in the field before the evening. When he lifted up his eyes, behold, he saw camels coming.
64 When Rebecca lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, she swooped down, off the camel,
65 and said to the servant: Who is this man there who is walking in the field to meet us? The servant replied, He is my lord. So she took her veil and covered herself.
66 And the servant related to Isaac all the things that he had done.
67 Isaac then brought her to the tent of Sarah his mother. Thus he took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he was loving her. Now Isaac was comforted after the loss of his mother.

Chapter 25
1 Abraham again took a wife; her name was Keturah.
2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuach.
3 Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan became the Asshurim and the Letushim and the Leummim.
4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were Keturah’s sons.
5 Abraham had given everything he had, to his son Isaac.
6 But to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and while he was still alive sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.
7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life that he had lived, a hundred seventy-five years.
8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good and greyhaired age, old and satisfied with days, and was gathered to his people.
9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael entombed him in the cave of Machpelah, adjoining Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite,
10 the field that Abraham had bought from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was entombed, and also his wife Sarah.
11 And it came to pass after the death of Abraham that Elohim blessed Isaac his son. Isaac was dwelling by the well Lahai-roi.
12 These are the genealogical records of Abraham’s son Ishmael whom Sarah’s Egyptian maidservant Hagar bore to Abraham.
13 These are the names of Ishmael’s sons, their names in accord with their genealogical records: Ishmael’s firstborn, Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel and Mibsam,
14 Mishma, Dumah and Massa,
15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah.
16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their hamlets and by their nomadic domiciles: twelve princes according to their clans.
17 And these are the years of Ishmael’s life, a hundred thirty-seven years; then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people.
18 They tabernacled from Havilah as far as Shur, which is adjoining Egypt, as you come to Assyria. He fell in against the face of all his brothers.
19 These are the genealogical records of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham begot Isaac.
20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took as his wife Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-Syria, the sister of Laban the Syrian.
21 Isaac entreated Yahweh on behalf of his wife; for she was barren. And Yahweh granted his entreaty, and his wife Rebecca became pregnant.
22 When the sons buffeted each other within her, she said: If so, why has this happened to me? So she went to inquire of Yahweh.
23 And Yahweh said to her: Two nations are in your belly, Two folk shall part from your internal organs. But one folk shall be more resolute than the other folk, And the senior shall serve the junior.
24 When her days were fulfilled to give birth, behold, there were twins in her belly.
25 The first came forth ruddy, all of him like a hairy mantle; so they called his name Esau.
26 And afterward his brother came forth, and his hand was holding Esau’s heel; so they called his name Jacob. Now Isaac was sixty years old when Rebecca bore them.
27 As the lads grew up, Esau became a man knowing how to hunt, a man of the open field; yet Jacob was an unsullied man, dwelling in tents.
28 And Isaac loved Esau, for it meant game in his mouth. Yet Rebecca was loving Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob had a stew simmering, Esau came from the field, and he was faint with hunger.
30 Esau said to Jacob: Let me glut now from the red, this red stew, for I am faint therefore one called his name Edom also.
31 Jacob replied to Esau: Do sell me, as of today, your birthright.
32 And Esau said: Behold, I am going to die anyhow. What good then is a birthright to me?
33 Jacob replied to him: Do swear to me, as of today! So he swore to him. Thus Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; he ate and drank, got up and went away. Thus did Esau despise the birthright.

Chapter 26
1 There came to be a famine in the land aside from the former famine that occurred in the days of Abraham and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2 Then Yahweh appeared to him and said: You must not go down to Egypt. Tabernacle in the land of which I apprise you.
3 Sojourn in this land, and I shall be with you and bless you. For to you and to your seed am I giving all these lands. And I will carry out the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
4 I will increase your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I will give to your seed all these lands. All nations of the earth will bless themselves in your seed,
5 inasmuch as your father Abraham hearkened to My voice and kept My charge, My instructions, My statutes and My laws.
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 When the men of the place were asking about Rebecca, his wife, he said, She is my sister, for he feared to say, She is my wife, lest the men of the place kill him on account of Rebecca, for she was of good appearance.
8 It came to be, when he had been there long days, that Abimelech king of the Philistines was gazing out through his window, and behold, he saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebecca.
9 So Abimelech called Isaac and said to him: Behold, she is surely your wife; and how could you say, She is my sister? Isaac replied to him: Because I thought, otherwise I might die on her account.
10 Then Abimelech said: What is this that you have done to us? Quite easily someone of my people might have lain with your wife, and so you would have brought guilt upon us!
11 Abimelech then gave instruction to all his people, saying: Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death, yea death.
12 Isaac sowed in that land and found the barley yield in that year to be a hundredfold, for Yahweh was blessing him.
13 Thus the man became great and went on getting greater until he became very great.
14 It came to pass when he had a stock of flocks, a stock of herds and many servants, that the Philistines were envious of him.
15 As for all the wells which his father’s servants had delved in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines had obstructed them and had filled them with soil.
16 Abimelech then said to Isaac: Go away from our people, for you are very much stauncher than we are.
17 So Isaac went away from there and encamped in the wadi of Gerar and dwelt there.
18 Isaac again delved the water wells which the servants of his father Abraham had delved; but the Philistines had obstructed them after the death of Abraham. And he called their names by the same names that his father had called them.
19 When Isaac’s servants delved in the wadi of Gerar, they found there a well of living water.
20 But the shepherds of Gerar contended with Isaac’s shepherds, saying: Ours is the water. So he called the name of the well Esek, for they had annoyed him there.
21 When Isaac shifted from there and they delved another well, they contended again over it. So he called its name Sitnah.
22 When he shifted from there and they delved another well, they did not contend over it. So he called its name Rehoboth and said: Because now Yahweh has given us wide spaces, and we will be fruitful in the land.
23 From there he went up to Beer-sheba.
24 That night Yahweh appeared to him and said: I am the Elohim of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you! I will bless you and increase your seed for the sake of My servant Abraham.
25 And he built an altar there and called on the Name of Yahweh. Then he pitched his tent there, and Isaac’s servants dug a well there.
26 As for Abimelech, he came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his associate and Phicol the chief of his military host.
27 So Isaac said to them: For what reason have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?
28 They replied: We have seen, yea seen, that Yahweh is with you. And we said, Let there be an oath of imprecation between our two sides, between us and you. Do let us contract a covenant with you,
29 that you shall assuredly do us no evil, just as we have not touched you, just as we have done you only good and let you go in peace. You are now the blessed of Yahweh.
30 So he made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
31 They rose early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac let them go, and they went from him in peace.
32 It came to pass that same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him concerning the well that they had delved, and they said to him: We have found water.
33 So he called it Shebah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba until this day.
34 Esau was forty years old when he took as wife Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hivite.
35 And they gave rise to an embitterment of spirit for Isaac and Rebecca.

Chapter 27
1 It came to be when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, My son. He answered him, Here I am.
2 And he said: Behold now, I am old, and I do not know the day of my death.
3 So now, please take up your gear, your arrow holder and your bow; go out to the field and hunt some game for me.
4 Prepare for me a tasty dish, just as I like. Do bring it to me and let me eat, in order that my soul may bless you ere I die.
5 Now Rebecca had heard Isaac speaking to his son Esau. When Esau had gone into the field to hunt game for his father,
6 Rebecca said to her junior son Jacob, saying: Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying,
7 Do bring me some game and prepare a tasty dish for me. Let me eat that I may bless you before Yahweh, before my death.
8 And now, my son, hearken to my voice in what I am instructing you.
9 Go now to the flock, and take for me from there two kids of the goats, tender and good, and I shall prepare them as a tasty dish for your father just as he likes.
10 You must bring it to your father, and he will eat in order that he may bless you before his death.
11 Yet Jacob said to his mother Rebecca: Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am a smooth-skinned man.
12 Perhaps my father may feel me; and I will become in his eyes like one leading him astray. Then I would bring on me a malediction and not a blessing.
13 His mother replied to him: Upon me be your malediction, my son. Only hearken to my voice. Now go, take them for me.
14 So he went and took them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared a tasty dish just as his father liked.
15 Then Rebecca took her elder son Esau’s festal garments that were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.
16 And with the skins of the goats’ kids she clothed his hands and the smooth-skinned part of his neck.
17 Then she gave the tasty dish and the bread she had made into the hand of her son Jacob.
18 So he came to his father and said, My father! And he replied, Here I am. Who are you, my son?
19 Jacob said to his father: I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done just as you told me. Arise now, do sit up and do eat of my game in order that your soul may bless me.
20 Isaac asked his son: How is this that you found it so quickly, my son? And he answered, Because Yahweh your Elohim had it happen before me.
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob: Do come close, please, so that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.
22 So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, and he felt him and said: The voice is Jacob’s voice, yet the hands are Esau’s hands.
23 He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like the hands of his brother Esau. And so he blessed him.
24 He asked again, Are you really my son Esau? And he replied, I am.
25 Then he said: Do bring it close to me, and let me eat of the game, my son, that my soul may bless you. So he brought it close to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him: Do come close now and do kiss me, my son.
27 So he came close and kissed him. When he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said: See, the smell of my son Is like the smell of the full field that Yahweh has blessed.
28 So may the One, Elohim, give you Of the dew of the heavens, Of the fertile soils of the earth, And abundance of grain and grape juice.
29 Peoples shall serve you, And folk shall bow down to you. Be master over your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those cursing you, And blessed be those blessing you.
30 Now it came to pass, just as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, it came to pass as Jacob had scarcely gone out to come forth from the presence of his father Isaac, that his brother Esau came back from his hunt.
31 He too prepared a tasty dish and brought it to his father. And he said to his father: May my father arise and eat of his son’s game in order that your soul may bless me.
32 His father Isaac asked him, Who are you? And he answered, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.
33 Then, in great trembling, Isaac trembled unto excess and said: Who was he, indeed, who hunted for game and brought it to me? I have already eaten it all ere you came in. I blessed him, and indeed, he shall remain blessed.
34 And it came to pass as Esau heard his father’s words, he cried with a loud outcry, bitter unto excess; and he said to his father, Bless me too, my father.
35 Yet he said to him: Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.
36 And he replied: He rightly calls his name Jacob, since he has circumvented me this twice; he took my birthright, and behold, now he has taken my blessing. Then he asked: Have you not laid a blessing aside for me?
37 Isaac answered and said to Esau: Behold, I have appointed him master over you, and all his brothers I have given him as servants. I have supported him with grain and grape juice. Indeed, what, then, shall I do for you, my son?
38 Esau replied to his father: Have you only this one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father! Yet Isaac was still. Then Esau lifted up his voice and lamented.
39 His father Isaac answered and said to him: Behold, far from the fertile soils of the earth shall be your dwelling, And far from the dew of the heavens above.
40 By your sword shall you live, And you shall serve your brother. But it will come to pass, as you hold sway, You will break off his yoke from your neck.
41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob on account of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart: The days of mourning for my father are approaching. I am determined to kill my brother Jacob.
42 When Rebecca was told the words of her elder son Esau, she sent and called her junior son Jacob and said to him: Behold, your brother Esau is comforting himself with regard to you, intending to kill you.
43 Now, my son, hearken to my voice. Get up! You have to run away to my brother Laban, to Charan.
44 You must dwell with him several days until your brother’s fury is relenting,
45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he has forgotten what you have done to him. Then I will send word and take you away from there. Why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?
46 Then Rebecca said to Isaac: I am irritated in my life because of the daughters of the sons of Heth. If Jacob should take a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of this land, of what good is life to me?

Chapter 28
1 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him; he instructed him and said to him: You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
2 Get up; go to Padan-Syria to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father; and from there take yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
3 May El Who-Suffices bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you become an assembly of peoples.
4 May He give to you the blessing of my father Abraham, to you and to your seed with you, so that you may tenant the land of your sojournings that Elohim gave to Abraham.
5 Then Isaac sent Jacob off; and he went to Padan-Syria, to Laban son of Bethuel the Syrian, brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him off to Padan-Syria to take from there a wife for himself, and that while blessing him he had enjoined on him, saying: You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,
7 and that Jacob had hearkened to his father and to his mother and had gone to Padan-Syria,
8 then Esau realized how displeasing the daughters of Canaan were in the eyes of his father Isaac.
9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took as wife Mahalath, a daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, a sister of Nebaioth, in addition to his wives he already had.
10 Jacob went forth from Beer-sheba and kept going toward Charan.
11 He came upon a certain place and lodged there for the night, for the sun had already set. He took one of the stones of the place, put it as his headrest and lay down in that place.
12 He dreamed, and behold, there was a stairway set earthward, with its top touching the heavens. And behold, messengers of Elohim were ascending and descending on it.
13 And behold, Yahweh was standing up over him and said: I am Yahweh Elohim of your father Abraham and the Elohim of Isaac. Do not fear! The land on which you are lying down, to you I shall give it and to your seed.
14 And your seed will become like the soil grains of the land. You will breach forth westward and eastward, northward and southward. All the families of the ground will be blessed in you and in your seed.
15 And behold, I am with you; I will keep you in all the way you are going, and I will bring you back to this ground, for I shall not forsake you until I should have done all that I have spoken to you.
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said: Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not realize it.
17 He was fearful and said: How fear inspiring is this place; this is none other than the house of Elohim, and this is the gateway of the heavens.
18 And Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put there as his headrest, set it up as a monument and poured oil on its top.
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel, howbeit the name of the city was Luz formerly.
20 Then Jacob vowed a vow, saying: If Elohim is with me and keeps me in this way which I am going, and gives me bread to eat and a garment to put on,
21 and I return in peace to my father’s house, then Yahweh will be my Elohim.
22 And this stone that I have set up as a monument, it shall become a house of Elohim for me. All that You give me, I shall tithe, yea tithe it for You.

Chapter 29
1 Jacob lifted up his feet and went toward the land of the sons of the east, to Laban son of Bethuel the Syrian; brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
2 And behold, he saw a well in the field. And behold, there were three droves of small cattle reclining beside it, for from that well they gave the droves to drink. And the customary great stone lay on the mouth of the well.
3 When all the shepherds were gathered there, they would roll the stone off the mouth of the well, give the small cattle to drink, and then restore the stone to its place on the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob said to them, My brothers, from where are you? They replied, We are from Charan.
5 He asked them, Do you know Laban son of Nahor? They replied, We know him.
6 And he said to them, Does he fare well? They answered, He fares well. Now behold, his daughter Rachel is coming with the flock.
7 Jacob said to them: Behold, it is still great daylight, and it is not yet time to gather the cattle. Why don’t you give the flock to drink and go and graze them?
8 They replied: We cannot until all the shepherds are gathered, and they roll the stone off the mouth of the well. Then we will give the flock to drink.
9 While he was speaking with them, Rachel herself came with the flock that was her father’s, for she was the shepherdess of her father’s flock.
10 Now it came to pass as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the flock of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob came close and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and gave his mother’s brother Laban’s flock to drink.
11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept.
12 Jacob told Rachel that he was a nephew of her father and that he was a son of Rebecca. So she ran and told her father these things.
13 It came to pass as soon as Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, embraced him, kissed him and brought him to his house. He related to Laban all these things;
14 and Laban said to him: Surely my bone and my flesh are you. When he had dwelt with him a month of days,
15 Laban said to Jacob: Just because you are my nephew, should you serve me gratuitously? Do tell me what shall be your hire.
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
17 Leah’s eyes were tender; Rachel, she was of lovely shape and was lovely in appearance.
18 Jacob was loving Rachel, and he said: I shall serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.
19 Laban replied to him: It is better that I give her to you than that I give her to another man. Do dwell with me.
20 So Jacob served for Rachel seven years; and they came to be in his eyes like several days because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban: Do grant me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, and do let me come to her.
22 Then Laban gathered all the men of the place and gave a feast.
23 And it came to pass in the evening that Laban took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he came to her.
24 Laban had given his maidservant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a handmaid for her.
25 And it came to pass in the morning, and behold, it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban: What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why did you deceive me?
26 Laban replied: It is not done this way in our place to give the junior before the firstborn.
27 Fulfill the week with this one, and I shall indeed give you that one too for the service that you can serve with me yet another seven years.
28 Jacob did so and fulfilled the week with this one; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.
29 Laban had given his maidservant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a handmaid for her.
30 Then he came to Rachel too; and he was loving Rachel as well, more than Leah; and he served with him yet another seven years.
31 Yahweh saw that Leah was disliked, and He opened her womb; yet Rachel was barren.
32 Leah became pregnant and bore a son for Jacob. She called his name Reuben, for she said: It is because Yahweh has seen my humiliation; and so He has given me a son; now my husband shall love me.
33 Then Leah became pregnant again and bore a second son for Jacob. She said: It is because Yahweh has heard that I am disliked; and so He has given me this one also. And she called his name Simeon.
34 Then she became pregnant again and bore a son. She said: Now at last my husband shall be obligated to me, for I have borne him three sons. Therefore she called his name Levi.
35 Then she became pregnant again and bore a son. She said: Now this time I shall acclaim Yahweh. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stayed from bearing.

Chapter 30
1 When Rachel saw that she did not bear children for Jacob, Rachel became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob: Grant me sons; and should there be none, I shall die.
2 Jacob’s anger grew hot at Rachel, and he said to her: Am I in the place of Elohim Who has withheld from you the fruit of the belly?
3 So Rachel said to Jacob: Behold my maidservant Bilhah; come to her that she may give birth on my knees and that I, even I, may be built up through her.
4 And she gave him her handmaid Bilhah as wife; and Jacob came to her.
5 Bilhah became pregnant and bore a son for Jacob;
6 and Rachel said: Elohim has adjudicated for me, and, moreover, He has heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan.
7 Rachel’s handmaid Bilhah became pregnant again and bore a second son for Jacob;
8 and Rachel said: Twistings of Elohim I have twisted with my sister; and, moreover, I have prevailed. So she called his name Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she stayed from bearing, she took her handmaid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as wife; and Jacob came to her.
10 Leah’s handmaid Zilpah became pregnant and bore a son for Jacob;
11 and Leah said: A raid is coming; so she called his name Gad.
12 Then Leah’s handmaid Zilpah became pregnant again and bore a second son for Jacob;
13 and Leah said: Happiness is mine; for daughters will call me happy. So she called his name Asher.
14 In the days of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah: Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.
15 Yet Leah said to her: Is it a little thing that you have taken my husband? Will you also take my son’s mandrakes? Rachel replied: Not so! He shall lie with you this night in return for your son’s mandrakes.
16 When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went forth to meet him and said: To me are you coming tonight; for I hired, yea hired you with my son’s mandrakes. And so he lay with her in that night.
17 Elohim hearkened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore for Jacob a fifth son;
18 and Leah said: Elohim has given me my reward because I gave my handmaid to my husband. So she called his name Issachar.
19 Then Leah became pregnant again and bore for Jacob a sixth son;
20 and Leah said: Elohim has endowed me, yes me, with a bountiful dowry. Now at last my husband shall prefer me, for I have borne him six sons. So she called his name Zebulun.
21 And afterward she bore a daughter; she called her name Dinah.
22 Elohim remembered Rachel; Elohim hearkened to her and opened her womb.
23 She became pregnant and bore a son for Jacob; and Rachel said: Elohim has gathered up my reproach.
24 She called his name Joseph, saying: May Yahweh add to me another son.
25 It came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban: Dismiss me, and do let me go to my place and to my land.
26 Do give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and do let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.
27 Laban said to him: If now I have found grace in your eyes I have practiced augury and know that Yahweh has blessed me owing to you.
28 And he added: Do specify your hire to me. I am determined to give it.
29 Jacob replied to him: You yourself know how I have served you and what has become of your cattle under me.
30 For only a few were yours before my coming; now they have unfolded abundantly, since Yahweh has blessed you at my footsteps. Yet now, when shall I also provide for my own household?
31 Then Laban said to him: What shall I give you? Jacob replied: Not shall you give me anything. But if you will do this thing for me, I shall again indeed, graze and guard your flock.
32 I shall pass today among all your flock taking away from there every speckled or flecked flockling, and every brown flockling among the sheep, and every flecked or speckled among the goats; that will be my hire.
33 My righteousness will answer for me, on the morrow day, when you come on my hire before you: Everyone that is not speckled or flecked among the goats and brown among the sheep, that one shall count with me as stolen.
34 And Laban said: Behold, agreed; let it be according to your word.
35 But on that day he took away the striped and flecked bucks and all the speckled and flecked she-goats, everyone that had white on it, and every brown one among the sheep; and he gave them over into the hands of his sons.
36 Then he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was grazing the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Then Jacob took for his use sappy staves of white poplar and hazel and plane trees. He peeled in them white strips of peelings, laying bare the white on the staves.
38 And he put the staves which he had peeled in the gutters (in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink), before the flocks; for they mated when they came to drink.
39 So the flocks mated by the staves, and the flocks gave birth to striped, speckled and flecked young.
40 Jacob kept the sheep apart, and he put the faces of the flocks toward the striped ram and all the brown among Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own droves aside; he set them for himself alone and not with Laban’s flocks.
41 So it came to be in every season when the sinewy of the flocks were about to conceive, that Jacob set the staves in the gutters before the eyes of the flocks that they might mate by the staves.
42 But he did not set them when the flocks were drooping. So the drooping came to be Laban’s, and the sinewy Jacob’s.
43 Thus the man unfolded more and more, and many flocks and herds came to be his, also maidservants and menservants, camels and donkeys.

Chapter 31
1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying: Jacob has taken all that belonged to our father; and from what was our father’s, he has established all this massive wealth.
2 And Jacob saw Laban’s face, and behold, it was not with him as heretofore.
3 Then Yahweh said to Jacob: Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred. I shall be with you.
4 So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah out into the field to his flocks.
5 He said to them: I have seen your father’s face that it is not toward me as heretofore. But the Elohim of my father, He has been with me.
6 And you yourselves know that I have served your father with all my vigor.
7 And your father, he has cheated me and changed my hire ten times. Yet Elohim did not allow him to bring evil on me.
8 If he said thus: The speckled shall become your hire, then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young. But if he said thus: The striped shall become your hire, then all the flocks gave birth to striped young.
9 So Elohim has despoiled your father of his cattle and given them to me.
10 It occurred in the mating season of the flocks that I lifted up my eyes, and behold, I saw in a dream that the he-goats and the rams mounting up on the small cattle were striped, speckled and dappled.
11 And a messenger of the One, Elohim, said to me in the dream: Jacob! And I replied: Here I am.
12 Then he said: Lift up your eyes now and see that all the he-goats and the rams mounting up on the small cattle are striped, speckled and dappled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.
13 I am the One, El, Who appeared to you at Bethel, where you anointed the monument and where you vowed a vow to Me. Now get up, go forth from this land and return to the land of your kindred. I shall be with you.
14 Rachel and Leah answered and said to him: Have we still any portion or allotment in the household of our father?
15 Are we not reckoned as foreigners by him? For he has sold us and, moreover, has devoured, yea devoured the money he got for us!
16 For all the riches of which Elohim despoiled our father, they belong to us and to our sons. And now, all that Elohim has said to you, do it.
17 So Jacob got up and lifted his children and his wives on the camels.
18 He drove off all his cattle and all his goods he had gotten, the cattle of his acquisition that he had gotten in Padan-Syria to set out to his father Isaac, toward the land of Canaan.
19 Now when Laban had gone to shear his flock, Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father.
20 And Jacob stole the heart of Laban the Syrian by not telling him that he was running away.
21 So he ran away, he with all he had; he got up and crossed the Stream and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
22 Laban the Syrian was told on the third day that Jacob had run away.
23 He took with him all his brothers and pursued after him for a distance of seven days’ journey; he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
24 But Elohim came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him: Be on your guard lest you speak with Jacob good or evil.
25 Then Laban overtook Jacob when Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country; and Laban too pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead.
26 Laban said to Jacob: What have you done that you stole my heart and led away my daughters like captives taken by the sword!
27 Why did you have to hide and stealthily run away from me and not tell me, that I might see you off with rejoicing and songs, with tambourine and harp!
28 And you did not let me kiss my sons and my daughters. Now, you acted unwisely.
29 My hand would have the disposition to inflict evil on you. But yesternight the Elohim of your father, He spoke to me saying: Be on your guard not to speak with Jacob good or evil.
30 Yet now, you left to go, since you longingly longed for your father’s house. But why have you stolen my elohim?
31 Jacob answered and said to Laban: Indeed, I was fearful. I thought, otherwise you might snatch your daughters away from me and all that is mine.
32 Yet with whomsoever you should find your elohim, he shall not live. In front of our brothers identify for yourself what is with me, and take what belongs to you. But Jacob did not know that Rachel, she had stolen them.
33 So Laban came into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the two maidservants’ tent, but he did not find it. He came forth from Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle basket. She was sitting on them while Laban went feeling over all the tent, and he found nothing.
35 She said to her father: Do not let there be anger in the eyes of my lord, that I am not able to rise in your presence; for the way of women is on me. So Laban searched in all the tent, but did not find the household idols.
36 So Jacob grew angry and contended with Laban. Jacob retorted and said to Laban: What is my transgression? What is my sin that you dashed after me?
37 Now that you went feeling over all my furnishings, what of all the furnishing of your house have you found? Put it thus in front of my brothers and your brothers, and let them arbitrate between us two.
38 Now, for twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your she-goats have not miscarried. I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
39 I have not brought to you any animal torn to pieces; I expiated for it. You sought to exact it from my hand, be it stolen by day or stolen by night.
40 I have been where the scorching heat devoured me by day, and the ice by night; and my sleep would flit from my eyes.
41 Now, for twenty years I have been in your household; I have served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks; and you have changed my hire ten times.
42 Unless the Elohim of my father, the Elohim of Abraham, and the Awe Inspiring One of Isaac had been with me, you would now have sent me away emptyhanded. But Elohim saw my humiliation and the weariness of my palms, and He reproved you yesternight.
43 Laban answered and said to Jacob: The daughters are my daughters, and the sons my sons; the flocks are my flocks, and all that you are seeing here, it belongs to me! As for my daughters, what could I do today for them or for their sons that they have borne?
44 Now do come; do let us contract a covenant, I and you; it will be a witness between me and you. Yet Jacob said to him: Behold, there is no one with us; see, Elohim is Witness.
45 And Jacob took a stone and raised it up as a monument.
46 And Jacob said to his brothers: Pick up stones! So they took stones and made a mound. And they were going to eat there by the mound.
47 Laban called it Yegar-sahadutha, and Jacob, he called it Gal-ed.
48 Then Laban said to Jacob: This mound is witness between me and you today. Therefore he called its name Gal-ed,
49 and Mizpah; because he said: May Yahweh keep watch between me and you when we are concealed, each man from his associate.
50 If you humiliate my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters there is no one with us. See, Elohim is witness between me and you.
51 And Laban said to Jacob: Behold this mound, and behold the monument that I directed to be set up between me and you;
52 witness is this mound, and witness is the monument that I should not pass beyond this mound to you, and that you should not pass beyond this mound and this monument to me to do evil.
53 The Elohim of Abraham and the Elohim of Nahor, the Elohim of their father, shall judge between us. So Jacob swore by the Awe Inspiring One of his father Isaac.
54 And Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the hill, and he called his brothers to eat bread. So they ate bread and lodged by night on the hill.
55 Laban rose early in the morning; he kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban went and returned to his place.

Chapter 32
1 As for Jacob, he too went his way; and messengers of Elohim came upon him.
2 And Jacob said as he saw them: This is the camp of Elohim. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
3 Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.
4 And he instructed them saying: Thus you shall say to my lord, to Esau: Thus speaks your servant Jacob: With Laban I have sojourned, and I have remained there until now.
5 Bulls became mine and donkeys and flocks, also menservants and maidservants. So I am sending word to tell my lord that your servant may find grace in your eyes.
6 And the messengers returned to Jacob and said: We came to your brother, to Esau; and he is already coming to meet you, and four hundred men with him.
7 Jacob was very fearful, and it was distressing to him. So he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, the herd and the camels, into two camps.
8 He thought: If Esau should come to the one camp and smite it, then the remaining camp would come to be delivered.
9 Then Jacob said: O Elohim of my father Abraham and Elohim of my father Isaac, O Yahweh Who told me: Return to your land and to your kindred, and I shall do good to you!
10 I am less than worthy of all the benignities and of all the faithfulness that You have shown to Your servant. For with only my stave I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.
11 Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I am fearful of him lest he come and smite me, and the mother with the sons.
12 Yet You Yourself have said: I shall do good, yea good to you, and I will make your seed like the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 So he lodged there for that night. And from what came to his hand, he took an approach present for his brother Esau:
14 two hundred she-goats and twenty bucks, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15 thirty milch camels with their foals, forty young cows and ten young bulls, twenty jennies and ten colts.
16 He put them under the hand of his servants, drove after drove by itself alone. And he said to his servants: Pass along before me and leave an interval between drove and drove.
17 Then he instructed the first, saying: In case my brother Esau should encounter you and ask you, saying: To whom do you belong? Whither are you going, and to whom do these before you belong?
18 so you say: To your servant, to Jacob. It is an approach present, sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he himself is coming behind us.
19 Thus he instructed also the second and the third as well as all those going after the droves, saying: According to this word you shall speak to Esau when you come upon him;
20 and you must also say: Behold, your servant Jacob is coming along behind us. For he thought, I am determined to appease his face with the approach present going before me. And afterward I shall see his face; perhaps he will lift up my face.
21 So the approach present passed along, ahead of his face; yet he himself lodged for that night in the camp.
22 In that night he got up and took his two wives and his two maidservants and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and let them pass through the wadi; he also sent across all that he had.
24 When Jacob was left alone by himself, a Man wrestled with him until the dawn ascended.
25 Then He saw that He did not prevail against him. He touched the palm of his thighbone; and the palm of Jacob’s thighbone was strained in his wrestling with Him.
26 Then He said: Let Me go, for the dawn has ascended. Yet he said: I shall not let You go unless You first bless me.
27 Yet He said to him: What is your name? And he replied: Jacob.
28 And He said to him: No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but rather Israel; for upright are you with Elohim and with men, and you are prevailing.
29 Then Jacob asked and said: Do tell me, I pray, Your name. Yet He said: Why is this that you are asking for My name? And He blessed him there.
30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. For I have seen Elohim face to face, and my soul was rescued.
31 And the sun rose on him as he passed by Penuel. And he was limping on account of his thigh.
32 Therefore the sons of Israel are not eating the sinew of the thigh nerve, which is on the palm of the thighbone, until this day; for He had touched the palm of Jacob’s thighbone at the sinew of the thigh nerve.

Chapter 33
1 Jacob lifted up his eyes, and behold, he saw his brother Esau coming, and with him four hundred men. So Jacob divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants.
2 Then he put the maidservants and their children first, and Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last.
3 He himself passed on before them, and he bowed down toward the earth seven times until he came close to his brother.
4 Yet Esau ran to meet him; he embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him; and they wept.
5 Then he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children; and he asked: Who are these with you? He replied: The children whom Elohim has graciously given to your servant.
6 Then the maidservants came close, they and their children, and bowed down.
7 Leah also came close with her children, and they bowed down. And afterward Joseph and Rachel came close, and they bowed down.
8 Now he asked: What is all this camp to you that I have encountered? And he replied: To find grace in the eyes of my lord.
9 Yet Esau said: I have much, my brother. Let what is yours be yours.
10 But Jacob replied: Oh no! If now I have found grace in your eyes, then you must take my approach present from my hand because I have seen your face as one sees the face of Elohim, and you are benevolent toward me.
11 Please take my blessing gift that I have brought to you, for Elohim has been gracious to me, and because I have everything. So he urged him, and he took it.
12 Then he said: Do let us journey, and do let us go. And I shall indeed go in front of you.
13 But he replied to him: My lord knows that the children are of tender age, and that the flock and the herd, recently freshened, are under my care. If I drive them hard a single day, all the small cattle shall die.
14 So let my lord, please, pass on before his servant. But may I myself conduct them gently, according to the pace of the property before me, and the pace of the children until I come to my lord at Seir.
15 Then Esau said: Let me now put with you some of the people who are with me. Yet he replied: Why this? Only let me find grace in the eyes of my lord.
16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house there. And for his cattle he made booths. Therefore he called the name of the place Succoth.
18 Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, after he had come back from Padan-Syria; and he encamped before the city.
19 Then he acquired the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitahs.
20 And he set up there an altar and called on the Elohim of Israel.

Chapter 34
1 Dinah, the daughter of Leah whom she had borne for Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land.
2 Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her; he took her, and lay with her and humiliated her.
3 His soul was clinging to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he was loving the maiden and spoke to the heart of the maiden.
4 So Shechem said to his father Hamor, saying: Take this girl as wife for me.
5 Now Jacob, he heard that the son of Hamor had defiled his daughter Dinah, but his sons, they were with his cattle in the field. So Jacob kept silent until they came back.
6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor came forth to Jacob to speak with him.
7 As for Jacob’s sons, they came from the field as they heard of it; and the men were grieved. Their anger grew exceedingly hot because he had committed an outrage against Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter. And they said: Such a thing ought not to be done.
8 Yet Hamor spoke with them, saying: As for my son Shechem, his soul is attached to your daughter. Give her, please, to him as wife,
9 and intermarry with us. You give your daughters to us, and you take our daughters for your sons.
10 And you may dwell with us; the land shall become open before you. Dwell and go as merchants on it, and have holdings in it.
11 Then Shechem said to her father and to her brothers: Let me find grace in your eyes, and whatever you tell me I shall give it.
12 Impose on me very much as bride-price and gift; and I intend to give whatever you tell me; only give me the maiden as wife.
13 Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit; and they spoke so because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
14 Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, said to them: We can not do this thing, to give our sister to a man who has a foreskin; for this is a reproach to us.
15 Only on this condition shall we consent to you and dwell with you, if you become like us and have every male among you circumcised.
16 Then we will give our daughters to you, and we shall take your daughters for us as wives. We will dwell with you and become one people.
17 Yet if you do not hearken to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.
18 Their words seemed good in the eyes of Hamor and in the eyes of Shechem son of Hamor.
19 The youth did not delay to do this thing, for he delighted in Jacob’s daughter; he was the most illustrious of all his father’s household.
20 So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gateway of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying:
21 These men, they are peaceable toward us, so they may dwell in the land and go as merchants on it. Behold, the land is wide enough on either side before them. We can take their daughters as wives for ourselves, and we can give our daughters to them.
22 Only on this condition shall the men consent to us so as to dwell with us and to become one people, that every male of ours be circumcised just as they are circumcised.
23 Their cattle and their acquisitions and all their beasts, will they not be ours? Only do let us consent to them, and they shall dwell with us.
24 And they hearkened to Hamor and his son Shechem, all those who went out of the gateway of his city. And they were circumcised, every male, in the flesh of their foreskin.
25 It came to pass on the third day when they were in pain that the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came upon the city unawares and killed every male.
26 They also killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house and went out.
27 Then the sons of Jacob, they came upon the slain and plundered the city because they had defiled their sister Dinah.
28 And they took their flocks, their herds and their donkeys, all that were in the city and that were in the field.
29 They captured all their estate, all their little ones and their wives; and they plundered even everything in the houses.
30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have brought trouble on me by making me stink among the dwellers of the land, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, while my men are few in number; if they are gathered against me, they will smite me; and I will be exterminated, I and my household.
31 Yet they replied: Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?

Chapter 35
1 Elohim said to Jacob: Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar there to El Who appeared to you when you ran away from the face of your brother Esau.
2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him: Put away the foreign elohim that are in your midst. Clean yourselves, and change your raiments.
3 Then do let us arise, and do let us go up to Bethel. I intend to make an altar there to El Who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me on the way that I have gone.
4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign elohim that were in their hands and the pendants that were in their ears; and Jacob buried them under the terebinth which was near Shechem.
5 As they journeyed, the dismay of Elohim came on the cities round about them; and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
6 And Jacob came to Luz in the land of Canaan (that is Bethel), he and all the people that were with him.
7 Then he built an altar there and called the place: El of Bethel; for there the One, Elohim, had been revealed to him when he ran away from the face of his brother Esau.
8 And Deborah, Rebecca’s wetnurse, died and was entombed below Bethel under the oak. And Jacob called its name Allon-bacuth.
9 Elohim appeared to Jacob again in Luz during his coming back from Padan-Syria, and Elohim blessed him.
10 Elohim said to him: Your name is Jacob; yet your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but rather Israel, it shall be your name. Thus He called his name Israel.
11 And Elohim said to him: I am El Who-Suffices; be fruitful and multiply. A nation and an assembly of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from your loins.
12 And the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, I shall give it to you, and to your seed after you I shall give the land.
13 Then Elohim ascended from him in the place where He had spoken with him.
14 And Jacob set up a monument in the place where He had spoken with him, a monument of stone, and he libated a libation on it and poured oil on it.
15 Jacob called the name of the place where Elohim had spoken with him, Bethel.
16 As they journeyed from Bethel, while there was still some distance of land before coming to Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had a hard time in giving birth.
17 It came to pass when she had it hard in giving birth, that the midwife said to her: You must not fear, for this one too shall be a son for you.
18 And it came to pass when her soul was going out (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni; yet his father, he called him Benjamin.
19 So Rachel died and was entombed on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
20 And Jacob set up a monument over her tomb. This is the monument of Rachel’s tomb until today.
21 Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-eder.
22 It came to pass while Israel was tabernacling in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine. Israel heard of it, and it was evil in his eyes. So there came to be twelve sons of Jacob.
23 The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.
24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
25 The sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.
26 And the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan-Syria.
27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac, to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.
28 And the days of Isaac came to be a hundred eighty years.
29 Then Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and satisfied with days. And his sons Esau and Jacob entombed him.

Chapter 36
1 These are the genealogical records of Esau (that is, Edom).
2 Esau had taken his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Horite,
3 and Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
4 Adah bore for Esau Eliphaz, Basemath bore Reuel,
5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born for him in the land of Canaan.
6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters and all the souls of his household, his cattle, all his beasts and all his acquisitions that he had gotten in the land of Canaan; and he went to a land away from the face of his brother Jacob.
7 For their goods had become too great for dwelling together; the land of their sojournings could not sustain them because of the multitude of their cattle.
8 So Esau was dwelling in the hill country of Seir (Esau, that is, Edom).
9 These are the genealogical records of Esau, father of Edom, in the hill country of Seir.
10 And these are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, son of Esau’s wife Adah; Reuel, son of Esau’s wife Basemath.
11 The sons of Eliphaz came to be Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz.
12 Timna became the concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz; she bore for Eliphaz Amalek. These are the grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah.
13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These became the grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath.
14 And these came to be the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah son of Zibeon: She bore for Esau Jeush, Jalam and Korah.
15 These are the sheiks of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn: sheik Teman, sheik Omar, sheik Zepho, sheik Kenaz,
16 sheik Korah, sheik Gatam, sheik Amalek. These are the sheiks of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. These are the grandsons by Adah.
17 And these are the sons of Esau’s son Reuel: sheik Nahath, sheik Zerah, sheik Shammah, sheik Mizzah. These are the sheiks of Reuel in the land of Edom. These are the grandsons by Esau’s wife Basemath.
18 And these are the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: sheik Jeush, sheik Jalem, sheik Korah. These are the sheiks of Esau’s wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.
19 These are the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these are their sheiks.
20 And these are the sons of Seir the Horite, the dwellers of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon and Anah,
21 Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These are the sheiks of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.
22 The sons of Lotan came to be Hori and Hemam; Timna was Lotan’s sister.
23 And these are the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho and Onam.
24 And these are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. He is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness while he was grazing the donkeys for Zibeon his father.
25 And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah daughter of Anah.
26 And these are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Cheran.
27 These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.
28 These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
29 These are the sheiks of the Horites: sheik Lotan, sheik Shobal, sheik Zibeon, sheik Anah,
30 sheik Dishon, sheik Ezer, sheik Dishan. These are the sheiks of the Horites according to their sheiks in the land of Seir.
31 And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before a king reigned over the sons of Israel.
32 Bela son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
33 When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his stead.
34 When Jobab died, Husham from the Temanite land reigned in his stead.
35 When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead; and the name of his city was Avith.
36 When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah reigned in his stead.
37 When Samlah died, Saul from Rehoboth by the Stream reigned in his stead.
38 When Saul died, Baal-hanan son of Achbor reigned in his stead.
39 When Baal-hanan son of Achbor died, Hadad son of Bered reigned in his stead; and the name of his city was Pau. The name of his wife was Mehetabel daughter of Matred daughter of Me-zahab.
40 So these are the names of the sheiks of Esau according to their families, according to their places, by their names: the sheik of Timna, the sheik of Alvah, the sheik of Jetheth,
41 the sheik of Oholibamah, the sheik of Elah, the sheik of Pinon,
42 the sheik of Kenaz, the sheik of Teman, the sheik of Mibzar,
43 the sheik of Magdiel, the sheik of Iram. These are the sheiks of Edom according to their dwelling places in the land of their holding; (that is, Esau father of Edom).

Chapter 37
1 Now Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.
2 These are the chronological records of Jacob. Joseph, seventeen years old, came to be grazing the flock with his brothers (since he was but a young lad), with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought their evil muttering to their father.
3 Now Israel, he loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a distinctive tunic.
4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his other sons, they hated him so they could not speak peaceably with him.
5 Once Joseph dreamed a dream; when he told it to his brothers, they hated him still more.
6 He said to them: Do hear this dream that I have dreamed.
7 Behold, we were binding together grain-sheaves in the midst of the field, and behold, my grain-sheaf got up and stood upright. And behold, your grain-sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my grain-sheaf.
8 His brothers replied to him: Are you going to reign, yea reign over us? Or shall you rule, yea rule over us? And they hated him still more on account of his dreams and his words.
9 Then he dreamed still another dream and related it to his father and to his brothers. He said: Behold, I have again dreamed a dream. Behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
10 When he related it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him: What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we come, yea come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow down to the earth before you?
11 So his brothers were jealous of him; yet his father, he observed the word.
12 Once his brothers went to graze their father’s flock at Shechem.
13 So Israel said to Joseph: Are not your brothers grazing at Shechem? Do go! I shall send you to them. And he replied to him: Here I am.
14 Then Israel said to him: Go now and see about the well-being of your brothers and about the well-being of the flock, and bring me back word. So he sent him off from the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
15 A man found him, behold, straying in the fields, and the man asked him, saying: What are you seeking?
16 He replied: I am seeking my brothers. Do tell me, please, where they are grazing.
17 The man said: They decamped from here; for I heard them saying: Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 They saw him from afar; and ere he came near to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.
19 And they said, each to his brother: Behold, this dreamy person there is coming.
20 Come now, let us kill him and fling him into one of the cisterns; and we will say: A wild animal, it has devoured him. Then we shall see what will come of his dreams.
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. He said: Let us not smite his soul.
22 Reuben further said to them: You must not shed blood. Fling him into this cistern that is in the wilderness. But you must not lay a hand on him. He said this that he might rescue him from their hands in order to restore him to his father.
23 So it came about, that as soon as Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the distinctive tunic that he had on him.
24 And they took him and flung him into the cistern. Yet the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 Then they sat down to eat bread. When they lifted up their eyes, behold, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying tragacanth gum, balm and labdanum; they were going to bring it down to Egypt.
26 Now Judah said to his brothers: What is to be gained if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
27 Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites. Do not let our hand be upon him; for our brother, our own flesh is he. And his brothers acquiesced.
28 When the men, the Midianite merchants passed by, they drew and brought Joseph up from the cistern and sold Joseph for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites who brought Joseph to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the cistern, behold, Joseph was not in the cistern. He tore his clothes,
30 returned to his brothers and said: The boy! He is no longer there! And I whither am I now going?
31 Then they took Joseph’s tunic, slew a hairy goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood.
32 They sent the distinctive tunic and had it brought to their father, and said: This we have found. Do identify it; is it your son’s tunic or not?
33 He recognized it and said: The tunic of my son! A wild animal, it has devoured him! Joseph was torn to pieces, yea torn to pieces!
34 Then Jacob tore his raiments and put sackcloth on his waist and mourned over his son many days.
35 All his sons and all his daughters got up and came to console him; yet he refused to be consoled and said: For I shall go down mourning to my son, to the unseen. Thus his father lamented over him.
36 Meanwhile the Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt, to Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh and chief of the bodyguard.

Chapter 38
1 It came to pass at that time that Judah went down away from his brothers and pitched his tent near an Adullamite man; his name was Hirah.
2 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man ( his name was Shua). He took her as wife and came to her.
3 She became pregnant and bore a son, and she called his name Er.
4 She became pregnant again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan.
5 And yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. She was at Kezib when she gave birth to him.
6 Judah took a wife for his firstborn, Er; her name was Tamar.
7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in Yahweh’s eyes; and Yahweh put him to death.
8 So Judah said to Onan: Come to your brother’s wife, perform the levirate for her, and raise seed for your brother.
9 But Onan knew that the seed would not become his. And it occurred, when he came to his brother’s wife, that he spilled the semen on the earth so as not to give seed to his brother.
10 What he did was evil in Yahweh’s eyes, and He put him to death also.
11 Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law: Dwell as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah has grown up; for he said to himself: Lest he die too as his brothers did. So Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.
12 After many days had passed, Shuah’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. When Judah was consoled, he went up to Timnah to the shearers of his flock of sheep, he and his shepherd Hirah the Adullamite.
13 And Tamar was told, saying: Behold, your husband’s father is going up to Timnah to shear his flock.
14 So she took off the clothes of her widowhood from her, covered herself with a veil, bedecked herself and sat down at the entrance opening of Enaim which is on the road to Timnah; for she realized that Shelah had grown up; and yet she had not been given to him as a wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he accounted her a prostitute; for she had covered her face, and he did not recognize her.
16 So he turned aside to her by the roadside and said: Do grant me that I come to you! For he did not realize that she was his daughter-in-law. She asked: What shall you give me that you may come to me?
17 He replied: I shall send you a kid of the goats from the flock. And she said: If you give me a surety until you send it to me.
18 He replied: What is the surety that I should give you? She answered: Your seal with your twist and your staff that is in your hand. He gave them to her and came to her; and she became pregnant by him.
19 Then she got up and went away; she took off her veil from her and put on the clothes of her widowhood.
20 Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his shepherd the Adullamite in order to procure the surety from the hand of the woman; but he did not find her.
21 He asked the men of her place, saying: Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim by the roadside? Yet they replied: No cult prostitute has been in this place.
22 So he returned to Judah and said: I have not found her, and moreover, the men of the place said: No cult prostitute has been in this place.
23 Then Judah said: She may take them for herself, lest we become despised. Behold, I sent this kid, but you did not find her.
24 About three months later it occurred that Judah was told, saying: Your daughter-in-law Tamar has committed prostitution; and moreover, behold, she is pregnant by prostitution. Judah said: Bring her forth that she may be burned.
25 As she was brought forth, she sent word to her husband’s father, saying: By the man to whom these belong I am pregnant. She further said: Do identify to whom these belong, the seal with the twist and the staff.
26 Judah recognized them and said: Tamar is more righteous than I, for the reason that I did not give her to my son Shelah. But he did not know her again anymore.
27 When the time came for her to give birth, behold, twins were in her belly.
28 And it happened while she was giving birth that one put out a hand. The midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying: This one came forth first.
29 Then it happened as soon as he retracted his hand that, behold, his brother came forth. And she said: How have you breached a breach for yourself? So she called his name Perez.
30 Afterward his brother came forth on whose hand was the scarlet thread. And she called his name Zerah.

Chapter 39
1 As for Joseph, he had been brought down to Egypt. And an Egyptian man, Potiphar, a court official of Pharaoh and chief of the bodyguard, had bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
2 Yahweh was with Joseph, so that he became a man who prospered; and he remained in the house of his lord, the Egyptian.
3 When his lord saw that Yahweh was with him and that Yahweh was prospering under his hand everything he was doing,
4 then Joseph found grace in his eyes, and he ministered to him. Then he made him supervisor over his household, and all that he had, he gave into his hand.
5 And it came to be that, when he had made him supervisor of his household and over all that he had, from then on, owing to Joseph, Yahweh blessed the household of the Egyptian. Yahweh’s blessing was on all that he had in the house and in the field.
6 So he left all that was his in Joseph’s hand. He gave no thought about anything concerning himself, except the bread he was eating. Now Joseph was well-favored in shape as well as well-favored to the sight.
7 It came about after these things that the wife of his lord lifted up her eyes to Joseph and said: Do lie with me!
8 But he refused and said to his lord’s wife: Behold, with me around, my lord gives no thought about anything in the house; and all that he has, he has given into my hand.
9 He is no greater in this house than I am; and he has not kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How should I do this great evil and sin against Elohim?
10 And it came to pass as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he would not hearken to her to lie beside her, to be with her.
11 One day like this it occurred when Joseph came to the house to do his work, that there were none of the men of the household there in the house.
12 So she grasped him by his cloak, saying: Do lie with me! But he left his cloak in her hand and fled and went out, outdoors.
13 And it came to pass when she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had fled outdoors,
14 that she called the men of her household and spoke to them saying: See! He brought us a Hebrew man to make fun of us. He came to me to lie with me; but I called out with a loud voice.
15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I raised my voice high and was calling, that he left his cloak beside me and fled and went out, outdoors.
16 She kept his cloak laid up beside her until his lord came to his house.
17 Then she spoke to him according to these words, saying: The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came to me to make fun of me; and he said to me, Lie with me!
18 And it came to pass when I raised my voice high and called out that he left his cloak beside me and fled outdoors.
19 Now it came about when his lord heard his wife’s words which she spoke to him, saying: In this manner your slave has treated me, that his anger grew hot.
20 So Joseph’s lord took him and put him into the round-house, the place where the king’s prisoners lay bound. And there he remained in the round-house.
21 Yet Yahweh was with Joseph and stretched out kindness to him in that He granted him grace in the eyes of the warden of the round-house.
22 And the warden of the round-house gave over into the hand of Joseph all the prisoners who were in the round-house, so that he was instituting everything they were doing there.
23 The warden of the round-house was not supervising anything whatsoever under his hand, because Yahweh was with him, and all that he was doing, Yahweh would cause to prosper.

Chapter 40
1 It came to pass after these things that the chief cupbearer of the king of Egypt and the chief baker sinned against their lord the king of Egypt.
2 Pharaoh was wrathful over his two court officials, over the chief of the cupbearers and over the chief of the bakers;
3 and he put them under guard in the house of the chief of the bodyguard, at the round-house, the place where Joseph lay bound.
4 The chief of the bodyguard assigned Joseph to look after them; and so he ministered to them while they were under guard for some days.
5 Both of them dreamed a dream, each man his own dream in the same night, each man his dream with its own interpretation, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker of the king of Egypt who both lay bound in the round-house.
6 When Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, behold, they were languid.
7 So he asked Pharaoh’s court officials who were under guard with him, in his lord’s house, saying: For what reason are your faces troubled today?
8 They replied to him: We dreamed a dream, yet there is no one to interpret it. Joseph said to them: Do not interpretations belong to Elohim? Relate it to me, please.
9 So the chief of the cupbearers related his dream to Joseph and said to him: In my dream, behold, there was a vine before me.
10 And on the vine were three intertwining branches; as soon as it was budding, its blossoms came up, and its clusters ripened their grapes.
11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and put the cup in Pharaoh’s palm.
12 Then Joseph said to him: This is its interpretation. The three intertwined branches, they are three days.
13 In another three days Pharaoh shall lift up your head, and he will restore you to your post; and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, according to the former custom when you were his cupbearer.
14 So if you still remember me being here with you, as soon as it should go well with you, then, I pray, you do me the kindness and mention me to Pharaoh and bring me forth from this house.
15 For I was stolen, yea stolen from the land of the Hebrews; and even here I have not done anything that they should put me in this confinement.
16 When the chief of the bakers saw how well he had interpreted, he said to Joseph: I too was in my dream, and behold, there were three wicker trays on my head,
17 and in the uppermost tray there were some of every sort of Pharaoh’s food, handiwork of the baker; and the flyers were eating them out of the tray over my head.
18 Joseph answered and said to him, This is its interpretation: The three trays, they are three days.
19 In another three days Pharaoh shall lift up your head off you, and he will hang you on a tree. And the flyers will eat your flesh off your bones.
20 It came to pass on the third day, the birthday of Pharaoh, that he gave a feast for all his officials; and he lifted up the head of the chief of the cupbearers and the head of the chief of the bakers in the presence of his officials.
21 He restored the chief of the cupbearers to his cupbearing, so that he again put the cup in Pharaoh’s palm.
22 As for the chief of the bakers, he hanged him just as Joseph had interpreted for them.
23 Yet the chief of the cupbearers did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

Chapter 41
1 It came about at the end of two full years that Pharaoh was dreaming. And behold, he was standing by the waterway,
2 when, behold, seven young cows, lovely in appearance and plump of flesh, were coming up from the waterway and grazed in the marsh grass.
3 And behold, seven other young cows, ugly in appearance and thin of flesh, were coming up after them from the waterway; and they stood beside the other young cows on the ridge of the waterway.
4 Then the seven young cows, ugly in appearance and thin of flesh, ate the seven young cows that were lovely in appearance and plump. At this Pharaoh awoke.
5 He fell asleep again and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were coming up on one stalk.
6 And behold, seven other ears of grain, thin and blasted by the east wind, were sprouting after them.
7 Then the seven thin ears of grain swallowed up the seven plump and full ears of grain. At this Pharaoh awoke; and behold, it had been a dream.
8 It occurred in the morning when his spirit was agitated, that he sent and called all the sacred scribes of Egypt and all her wise men. And Pharaoh related his dream to them; but there was no one to interpret them for Pharaoh.
9 Then the chief of the cupbearers spoke to Pharaoh, saying: I am reminded of my faults today.
10 Once Pharaoh was wrathful over his officials and put me under guard in the house of the chief of the bodyguard, me and the chief of the bakers.
11 We dreamed a dream in the same night, both I and he. We dreamed, each one his dream with its own interpretation.
12 And there, with us, was a Hebrew lad, a servant of the chief of the bodyguard. We related them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; he interpreted for each one according to his dream.
13 And it came about just as he had interpreted for us, so it happened. For me it was restoring to my post, and for him it was hanging.
14 So Pharaoh sent and called Joseph. They brought him rapidly from the confinement; when he had shaved and changed his raiments, he came to Pharaoh.
15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph: I dreamed a dream, yet there is no one to interpret it. Now I myself have heard it said about you, when you hear a dream, you are able to interpret it.
16 Joseph answered to Pharaoh, saying: It is not in me. Elohim, He shall answer for the well-being of Pharaoh.
17 Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph: In my dream, behold, I was standing on the ridge of the waterway.
18 And behold, from the waterway seven young cows, plump of flesh and lovely in shape, were coming up, and they grazed in the marsh grass.
19 And behold, from the waterway seven other young cows, poor and very ugly in shape and scrawny of flesh, were coming up after them. I have never seen any so ugly as these in all the land of Egypt.
20 And the seven scrawny and ugly young cows ate the first seven plump young cows.
21 When they had come into their inwards, it would not be known that they had come into their inwards, for their appearance was ugly just as at the start. At this I awoke.
22 Then I fell asleep a second time, and I saw in my dream, behold, seven ears of grain, full and good, were coming up on one stalk.
23 And behold, seven other ears of grain, puny, thin and blasted by the east wind, were sprouting after them.
24 And the seven thin ears of grain swallowed up the seven good ears of grain. When I told this to the sacred scribes, there was no one to unravel it for me.
25 Joseph said to Pharaoh: The dream of Pharaoh, it is but one. What the One, Elohim, is about to do, He has told to Pharaoh.
26 The seven good young cows, they are seven years. And the seven good ears of grain, they are seven years. The dream of Pharaoh, it is but one.
27 The seven scrawny and ugly young cows coming up after them, they are seven years. And the seven empty ears of grain, blasted by the east wind, they shall be seven years of famine.
28 This is the word that I have spoken to Pharaoh: What the One, Elohim, is about to do, He has shown to Pharaoh.
29 Behold, seven years are coming with great plenty in all the land of Egypt.
30 But seven years of famine will arise after them; and all the plenty in the land of Egypt will be forgotten; the famine will consume the land.
31 The plenty shall be unknown in the land in view of that famine thereafter; for it will be exceedingly heavy.
32 The reason the dream was repeated to Pharaoh, given twice, is that the matter is already established with the One, Elohim. And the One, Elohim, will make haste to do it.
33 And now let Pharaoh select an understanding and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.
34 Let Pharaoh act and appoint supervisors over the land and take a fifth of all the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven years of plenty.
35 They should get together all the food of these seven good years which are coming, and they should heap up cereal grain under Pharaoh’s hand for food in the cities, and they must safeguard it.
36 This food will be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine which shall come in the land of Egypt, so that the land should not be cut off in the famine.
37 The proposal seemed good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his officials;
38 and Pharaoh said to his officials: Shall we find one like this, a man in whom is the spirit of Elohim?
39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: After Elohim let you know all this, there is no one so understanding and wise as you.
40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall obey at your bidding. But in the throne I shall be greater than you.
41 Pharaoh further said to Joseph: See! I have set you today over all the land of Egypt.
42 Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand. He had him clothed in garments of cambric, and he placed a decorative chain of gold about his neck.
43 He had him ride in the second chariot that he had; and they called out before him: Attention! Thus he was putting him over all the land of Egypt.
44 Moreover Pharaoh said to Joseph: I am the Pharaoh, yet without your consent no man shall raise up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.
45 Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah, and he gave him as wife Asenath, daughter of Poti-phera priest of On. Then Joseph began to go out over the land of Egypt.
46 Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. After Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, he traveled across the whole land of Egypt.
47 While the earth yielded in overabundance during the seven years of plenty,
48 he got together all the food of the seven years of copiousness that came to be in the land of Egypt. And he stored the food in the cities; the food from the field that was round about the city, he stored in the midst of it.
49 Thus Joseph was heaping up cereal grain, exceedingly much, like the sand of the sea, until he halted counting , for there was no more enumeration possible.
50 Two sons were born to Joseph ere the year of the famine came. Asenath, daughter of Poti-phera priest of On, bore them for him.
51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For Elohim has made me oblivious of all my toil and all my father’s house.
52 He called the name of the second Ephraim: For Elohim has made me fruitful in the land of my humiliation.
53 Then the seven years of plenty that had come to be in the land of Egypt concluded,
54 and the seven years of the famine started to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was found bread.
55 When the whole land of Egypt was famishing too, then the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Yet Pharaoh said to all Egyptians: Go to Joseph; what he says to you, you shall do.
56 Meanwhile the famine, it had come to be over the entire surface of the earth. When the famine held fast in the land of Egypt, Joseph opened all the storehouses, all that was in them, and he rationed out grain to the Egyptians.
57 Also all the earth came to Egypt, to Joseph, to purchase because the famine held fast in all the earth.

Chapter 42
1 When Jacob saw that there were grain rations to be had in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons: Why are you staring at one another?
2 And he added: Behold, I have heard that there are grain rations in Egypt. Go down there and purchase for us a little food from there, that we may live and not die.
3 So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to purchase cereal grain in Egypt.
4 Yet Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said: Lest mishap befall him.
5 Thus the sons of Israel came along to purchase in the midst of others who were coming; for the famine was also in the land of Canaan.
6 As for Joseph, he was the man in authority over the land; he was rationing out to all the people of the land. When Joseph’s brothers came, they bowed down to him with their brow to the earth.
7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them; yet he made himself unrecognizable to them. He spoke harshly to them and asked them: From where have you come? And they replied: From the land of Canaan, to purchase food.
8 While Joseph had recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.
9 Now Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them: You are spies. You have come to see the land in its nakedness.
10 Yet they replied to him: No, my lord. Your servants, they have come to purchase food.
11 All of us, we are sons of one man; we are forthright men; your servants have never been spies.
12 But he said to them: No, for you have come to see the land in its nakedness.
13 They replied: We, your servants, were twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And, behold, the youngest is with our father this day, and the one he is no more.
14 However Joseph said to them: It is just as I told you, saying: You are spies.
15 By this you shall be tested, as sure as Pharaoh is alive. You shall assuredly not go forth from here, unless your youngest brother comes here.
16 Send one of you, and let him take your brother here, while you shall be bound. Thus shall your words be tested whether there is truth in you. But if not, then, as sure as Pharaoh is alive, you are spies! And they said: The youth cannot leave his father. When he would leave his father, then he would die!
17 Yet he had them gathered under guard for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them: Do this, and you shall live! I am fearing the One, Elohim.
19 If you are forthright men, let one of your brothers be kept bound in your guardhouse. The rest of you, go and bring the grain rations for the famine of your households.
20 But you shall bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified, and you shall not die. And this is what they did.
21 Now they said, each man to his brother: Verily, we are guilty on account of our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he supplicated with us, but we did not hearken. Therefore this distress has come upon us.
22 Reuben retorted to them, saying: Did I not tell you, saying: Do not sin against the boy? But you did not hearken. As for his blood, indeed, here it is required from us.
23 Yet they did not know that Joseph was making out their words, for there was a translator between him and them.
24 Now Joseph turned around, away from them; and he was weeping. Then he returned to them and spoke to them. He took Simeon from them and had him bound before their eyes.
25 Joseph gave instructions to fill their vessels with cereal grain, to restore their money, each man’s into his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Accordingly one did so for them.
26 Then they loaded their grain rations on their donkeys and went off from there.
27 When, at the lodging place, one of them opened his sack to give provender to his donkey, he saw his money pouch; here it was in the mouth of his bag.
28 And he said to his brothers: My money has been restored. Indeed, here it is in my bag. At this their heart tensed up, so that they trembled, each man looking at his brother, saying: What is this that Elohim has done to us?
29 When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had befallen them, saying:
30 The man who is lord of the land spoke harshly with us and put us under guard as spies against the land.
31 But we said to him: We are forthright men; we have never been spies.
32 We were twelve brothers, sons of our father; the one he is no more; and the youngest is with our father this day, in the land of Canaan.
33 Then the man who is lord of the land said to us: By this I shall know that you are forthright men. Leave one of your brothers with me; take the grain rations for the famine of your households and go.
34 But bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but you are forthright men. I shall deliver your brother to you, and you may go as merchants in the land.
35 It came to pass when they were emptying their sacks, behold, each man found his money pouch in his sack. When they saw their money pouches, they and their father as well, they were fearful.
36 Then their father Jacob said to them: It is me that you bereave. Joseph, he is no more, and Simeon, he is no more. And you would take Benjamin away. On me come all these things.
37 Now Reuben spoke to his father, saying: You may put my two sons to death, should I not bring him back to you. Do give him into my hand, and I shall restore him to you.
38 But he replied: My son shall not go down with you since his brother is dead, and he is remaining, he alone. If mishap would befall him on the way which you go, then you would bring down my grey hairs with affliction to the unseen.

Chapter 43
1 As to the famine, it was heavy in the land.
2 So it came to pass, as soon as they had finished eating the grain rations which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them: Return, purchase for us a little food.
3 Yet Judah spoke to him, saying: The man who is lord of the land bore witness, yea witness to us, saying: You shall not see my face unless your youngest brother is with you.
4 If you will send our brother with us, we are determined to go down and purchase food for you.
5 But if you will not send our brother with us, we shall not go down. For the man, he said to us: You shall not see my face unless your youngest brother is with you.
6 Then Israel said: Why did you bring this evil on me by telling the man, you had another brother?
7 They replied: The man questioned, yea questioned us about ourselves and our kindred, saying: Is your father still alive? Have you another brother? So we told him in accordance with these facts. How could we know, yea know that he would say to us: Bring down your brother?
8 Yet again Judah said to Israel his father: Do let the youth go with me. And do let us set out and go that we may live and not die, not only we, but also you and our little ones.
9 I shall be the one to be surety for him. From my hand shall you seek to exact him; if I do not bring him back to you and put him before you, then I will be at fault before you all my days.
10 For if we had not procrastinated, we would now have returned this twice.
11 So Israel their father said to them: If that is the case, indeed, then do this: Take some of the land’s superior products in your vessels and bring them down to the man as an approach present; a little balm and a little honey, tragacanth gum and labdanum, pistachio nuts and almonds.
12 Also, take a double amount of money in your hand; and the money that was restored in the mouth of your bags, you must bring back in your hand; perhaps it was an inadvertent error.
13 Take your brother too, and set out; return to the man.
14 And may El Who-Suffices grant you compassion before the man, so that he sends back with you your other brother and Benjamin. As for me, if I am to be bereaved, I shall be bereaved.
15 So the men procured this approach present. And they took a double amount of money into their hand, and Benjamin. Then they set out and went down to Egypt where they stood in Joseph’s presence.
16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the one who was to oversee his house: Bring the men to the house. Have an animal slaughtered for slaughtered meat, and have it prepared. For the men shall eat with me at noon.
17 And the man did just as Joseph had said. So the man brought the men to Joseph’s house.
18 Yet the men were fearful because they were brought to Joseph’s house, and they said: It must be on account of the money which was restored in our bags at the start that we are brought in, so that one may roll himself upon us and cast himself upon us and take us for slaves, and our donkeys too.
19 Hence they came close to the man who was to oversee Joseph’s house, and they spoke to him at the portal of the house.
20 They said: O! my lord, we came down, yea down at the start to purchase food.
21 And it occurred when we came to the lodging place and began opening our bags, behold, there was the money of each one in the mouth of his bag, our money in its full weight. Now we brought it back in our hand.
22 And we have brought down other money in our hand to purchase food. We do not know who put our money into our bags.
23 He replied: It is well-being with you. You must not be fearful. Your Elohim and the Elohim of your fathers, He gave you a buried treasure in your bags. Your money came to me. And he brought forth Simeon to them.
24 Then the man brought the men toward Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed their feet. When he had provided provender for their donkeys,
25 they laid out the approach present for Joseph’s coming at noon; for they had heard that they should eat bread there.
26 When Joseph came home, they brought the approach present in their hand to him into the house, and they bowed down before him to the earth.
27 He asked them about their well-being and said: Is it well-being with your old father of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?
28 They replied: It is well-being with your servant, our father; he is still alive. And they bowed the head and prostrated themselves to him.
29 When Joseph lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked: Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to bring him to me? And he added: May Elohim be gracious to you, my son.
30 Then Joseph left quickly, for his compassions were fervid for his brother, so that he sought to weep. And he entered his own chamber and wept there.
31 After he had washed his face, he came forth, checked himself and said: Serve the bread.
32 Then they served him alone by himself, and them alone by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him, alone by themselves; for the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews since that would be an abhorrence to the Egyptians.
33 Now they sat facing him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the junior according to his inferior status. So the men, looking each at his associate, were amazed.
34 Then he had helpings carried from before him to them; yet Benjamin’s helping was fivefold more than the helpings of all of them. Thus, with him, they feasted and drank freely.

Chapter 44
1 Then Joseph instructed the one who was to oversee his house, saying: Fill the men’s bags with food as much as they are able to carry; put also each one’s money in the mouth of his bag.
2 And you shall put my beaker, the silver beaker, in the mouth of the bag of the youngest together with the money for his grain ration. So he did according to the word of Joseph that he had spoken.
3 When the morning was light, the men were dismissed, they and their donkeys,
4 and they went forth from the city. They had not gone far when Joseph said to the one who was to oversee his house: Set out, pursue after the men. When you have overtaken them, then you must say to them: Why have you repaid evil for good?
5 Why did you steal my beaker, the silver beaker? Is this not the one from which my lord drinks? It is the same by which he practices augury. You have done evil in what you did.
6 He overtook them and spoke to them with these words.
7 But they said to him: Why does my lord speak words as these? Far be it from your servants to act in this way.
8 Behold, the money that we found in the mouth of our bags, we brought it back to you from the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?
9 With whom the beaker may be found among your servants, he would die; and we also shall become slaves to my lord.
10 He replied: Now then, so be it, according to your words, yet only the man with whom the beaker is found, he shall become a slave to me. As for the rest of you, you shall be held innocent.
11 So they quickly let down each one his bag to the earth, and they opened each one his bag.
12 And he made the search, starting with the oldest, and finishing with the youngest. And the beaker was found in Benjamin’s bag.
13 At this they tore their raiments; they reloaded each man his bag on his donkey, and they returned to the city.
14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there; and they fell to the earth before him.
15 Joseph said to them: What deed is this that you have done? Did you not know that a man such as I practices augury?
16 Judah answered: What shall we say to my lord? What shall we argue? How can we justify ourselves? The One, Elohim, He has found out the depravity of your servants. Behold, we are slaves to my lord, both we and he in whose hand the beaker was found.
17 But Joseph said: Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose hand the beaker was found, he shall become a slave to me. As for the rest of you, go up in peace to your father.
18 Then Judah came close to him and said: O! my lord, let your servant speak now a word in my lord’s ears, and let your anger not grow hot against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.
19 My lord, he asked his servant, saying: Have you a father or a brother?
20 And we said to my lord: We have an old father and a child of his old age, the youngest. Since his brother is dead, he alone is left of his mother, and so his father loves him.
21 Then you told your servants: Bring him down to me; I am determined to set my eyes on him.
22 And we said to my lord: The youth cannot leave his father. When he would leave his father, then he would die.
23 But you told your servants: If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you shall not see my face again.
24 And it came to pass as we went up to your servant our father that we told him the words of my lord.
25 Later our father said: Return, purchase for us a little food.
26 Yet we said: We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face if he, our youngest brother, is not with us.
27 Then your servant our father said to us: You yourselves know that my wife bore two sons for me.
28 One went forth, away from me, and I said: Surely he was torn to pieces, yea torn to pieces. And I have not seen him hitherto.
29 If you take this one also from my presence and mishap would befall him on the way, then you would bring down my grey hairs with evil to the unseen.
30 So now, if I should come to your servant our father, and the youth were not with us, since his soul is tied up with his boy’s soul,
31 then it will come to pass, as soon as he sees the youth is not with us, that he will die; and your servants will bring down the grey hairs of your servant our father with affliction to the unseen.
32 For your servant became surety for the youth to my father, saying: If I do not bring him back to you, I will be at fault before my father all my days.
33 So now let your servant stay instead of the youth as a slave to my lord, and let the youth go up with his brothers.
34 For how could I go up to my father if the youth were not with me, for fear that I may see the evil which would come upon my father?

Chapter 45
1 At this Joseph was no longer able to check himself before all those who were stationed by him, and he called out: Have every man go out from me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
2 He raised his voice in lamentation, and the Egyptians heard it; and Pharaoh’s house heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers: I am Joseph! Is my father still alive? But his brothers were not able to answer him, for they were flustered at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers: Now come closer to me. When they came close, he said: I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold to Egypt.
5 And now do not be grieved nor let it be hot in your eyes that you sold me hither, because Elohim has sent me on before you for the preservation of life.
6 For this is just two years that the famine is within the land; and for five more years there will be no plowing nor harvest.
7 But Elohim sent me on before you to set up for you a remnant on earth and to preserve lives for you in a great deliverance.
8 So now, not you sent me here, but the One, Elohim; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over all his household and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.
9 Make haste and go up to my father, and say to him: Thus says your son Joseph, Elohim has made me lord over the whole of Egypt. Do come down to me; do not stay behind.
10 You will dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me, you and your sons and your sons’ sons, also your flocks and your herds and all that is yours.
11 I will provide for you there, since there are yet five years of famine, lest you become destitute, you and your household and all that you have.
12 And now your eyes and my brother Benjamin’s eyes are seeing that it is my mouth that is speaking to you.
13 So you tell my father about all my glory in Egypt and all that you have seen. And you must make haste and bring my father down here.
14 Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept. And Benjamin wept on his neck.
15 He also kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
16 The news was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brothers have come. And it was well pleasing in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his officials.
17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: Tell your brothers, Do this: Load up your livestock and go; enter into the land of Canaan,
18 and take your father and your households, and come to me. I am determined to give you of the best of the land of Egypt; you shall eat the fat of the land.
19 And you are instructed to tell them: Do this: Take for yourselves carts from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives; and you must lift your father on one and come.
20 Let not your eye commiserate over your chattels, for of the best of the whole land of Egypt, it is yours.
21 The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them carts at the bidding of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey.
22 To each and everyone he gave changes of raiments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of raiments.
23 And to his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys carrying some of the best things of Egypt, and ten jennies carrying cereal grain, bread and sustenance for his father on the journey.
24 Then he sent his brothers off. When they were going, he said to them: Do not be disturbed on the way!
25 So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob.
26 They told him, saying: Your son Joseph is still alive; indeed, he is ruler over the whole land of Egypt. But Jacob’s heart was torpid, for he did not believe them.
27 Then they spoke to him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them; and when he saw the carts that Joseph had sent to carry him, then the spirit of their father Jacob revived,
28 and Israel said: Enough! Joseph my son is still alive! I am determined to go and see him ere I die.

Chapter 46
1 So Israel journeyed, he and all that he had. When he came to Beer-sheba, he sacrificed sacrifices to the Elohim of his father Isaac.
2 Then Elohim spoke to Israel in appearances of the night and said: Jacob! Jacob! And he replied: Here I am.
3 Then He said, I am the One, El, the Elohim of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I shall make you there into a great nation.
4 I Myself shall go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself shall also bring you up, yea up; and Joseph shall set his hand on your eyes.
5 After this Jacob set out from Beer-sheba. The sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
6 They also took their cattle and their goods that they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him;
7 his sons and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters and his sons’ daughters, and all his seed, he brought them with him to Egypt.
8 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn;
9 Reuben’s sons: Enoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.
10 Simeon’s sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar and Saul the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 Levi’s sons: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
12 Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez and Zerah; yet Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan. Later, the sons of Perez came to be Hezron and Hamul.
13 Issachar’s sons: Tola, Puvah, Job and Shimron.
14 Zebulun’s sons: Sered, Elon and Jahleel.
15 These were Leah’s sons whom she bore for Jacob in Padan-Syria, besides his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and daughters were thirty-three.
16 Gad’s sons: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi and Areli.
17 Asher’s sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah, besides Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.
18 These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah; these she bore for Jacob, sixteen souls.
19 The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
20 And sons were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera priest of On bore for him: Manasseh and Ephraim. And Manasseh’s sons came to be (whom the Syrian concubine bore for him) Machir; and Machir begot Gilead. And the sons of Manasseh’s brother Ephraim were Shuthelah and Tahan; and the sons of Shuthelah: Edem.
21 Benjamin’s sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel. And Bela’s sons came to be Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim and Huppim. And Gera begot Ard.
22 These were the sons of Rachel who were born for Jacob. All the souls were eighteen.
23 Dan’s sons: Hushim.
24 Naphtali’s sons: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem.
25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel; these she bore for Jacob. All the souls were seven.
26 All the souls belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt, who had come forth from his thighs, aside from the wives of Jacob’s sons, all the souls were sixty-six.
27 And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy-five.
28 He had sent Judah before him to Joseph to point out before him the way to Goshen. Then they came into the land of Goshen.
29 Joseph had his chariot hitched up and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he appeared before him, he fell on his neck and wept long on his neck.
30 Then Israel said to Joseph: I am willing to die at this time, after I have seen your face, and that you are still alive.
31 After this Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household: I must surely go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him: My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, they have come to me.
32 The men are shepherds of small cattle, for they became cattlemen. They have brought with them their flocks and their herds and all that belongs to them.
33 And it will occur that Pharaoh shall call for you and ask you: What is your occupation?
34 Then you must say: Your servants are cattlemen from our youth until now, both we and our fathers, in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd of small cattle is an abhorrence to Egyptians.

Chapter 47
1 So Joseph came and told Pharaoh. He said: My father and my brothers, their flocks, their herds and all that belongs to them, have come from the land of Canaan, and they are now in the land of Goshen.
2 From the whole number of his brothers he had taken with him five men that he might put them before Pharaoh.
3 When Pharaoh asked Joseph’s brothers, What is your occupation? they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds of small cattle, both we and our fathers.
4 Then they told Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in this land; for there is no pasture for the small cattle that your servants have, because the famine is heavy in the land of Canaan. And now, we pray you, let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.
5 After this Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying: So your father and your brothers, they have come to you.
6 The land of Egypt, it is before you. Have your father and your brothers settle in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know that there are among them able men, then you may appoint them chiefs over the cattle that belong to me.
7 Joseph then brought Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
8 Then Pharaoh asked Jacob, How many are the days of the years of your life?
9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojournings are a hundred thirty years. Few and troubled have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not overtaken the days of the years of the lives of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.
10 After this Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went forth from before Pharaoh.
11 Then Joseph had his father and his brothers settle and gave them a holding in the land of Egypt in the best part of the land, in the land of Rameses, just as Pharaoh had given instruction.
12 Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with bread corresponding to the number of their little ones.
13 Yet there was no bread in the whole land, for the famine was very heavy; and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were pining away because of the famine.
14 So Joseph took in all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in payment for the grain rations which they were purchasing. And Joseph brought the money to Pharaoh’s house.
15 When all the money from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan was spent, all Egypt came to Joseph, saying, Grant us bread; why should we die in front of you since our money is expended?
16 Joseph replied, Grant me your cattle, and I will supply you in exchange for your cattle since your money is expended.
17 So they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for their horses, their stock of flocks, their stock of herds and their donkeys. In that year he got them through the famine with bread in exchange for all their livestock.
18 When that year came to end, they came to him in the second year and said to him, We should not suppress the fact from my lord that, since our money is spent and the stock of our domestic beasts belongs to my lord, there is nothing left before my lord barring our body and our ground.
19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our ground? Buy us and our ground for bread; and we and our ground shall become serfs to Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may sow and may live and not die, and the ground may not be desolate.
20 So Joseph bought all the ground of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all Egypt sold to Pharaoh, each man his field, because the famine held a fast grip on them. So the land became Pharaoh’s.
21 As for the people, he made them pass over to the cities, from one end of Egypt’s territory unto its other end.
22 But the ground of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a statutory allowance from Pharaoh. So they lived off their statutory allowance that Pharaoh had granted them. Therefore they did not sell their ground.
23 Then Joseph said to the people: Behold, I have bought you today with your ground for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you, and you must sow the ground with it.
24 Yet this will apply to the harvest yields: You must give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be for you as seed for your fields and as food for yourselves and for all those in your households, and as food for your little ones.
25 They answered, You have preserved our lives. May we find grace in the eyes of my lord; we will be serfs to Pharaoh.
26 And Joseph made it a statute concerning the ground of Egypt, still valid to this day: Pharaoh must have a fifth; but the ground of the priests, theirs alone, did not become Pharaoh’s.
27 Thus Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the land of Goshen. They had holdings in it and were fruitful and increased more and more in number.
28 Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that Jacob’s days, the years of his life, came to be a hundred forty-seven years.
29 When the days drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him: If now I have found grace in your eyes, place your hand please under my thigh that you mean to show kindness and faithfulness to me. I pray, do not entomb me in Egypt.
30 I would lie with my fathers. So you must carry me away from Egypt and entomb me in their tomb. He replied, I myself shall do according to your word.
31 And he said, Do swear to me. So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship on the top of his couch.

Chapter 48
1 It came about after these things that someone said to Joseph, Behold, your father is ailing. At that he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim, and came to Jacob.
2 When it was told to Jacob, saying, Behold, your son Joseph has come to you, then Israel encouraged himself and sat up on the couch.
3 Jacob said to Joseph: El Who-Suffices, He appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.
4 He said to me: Behold Me making you fruitful. I will multiply you and make of you an assembly of peoples. I will give this land to you and to your seed after you as an eonian holding.
5 Now as for your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you to Egypt, they are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh, they shall belong to me like Reuben and Simeon.
6 But your children whom you will beget after them, they shall become yours; by the name of their brothers shall they be called in their allotment.
7 I want this because, when I came from Padan-Syria, your mother Rachel died upon me in the land of Canaan on the way while there was still some distance of land before coming to Ephrath. So I entombed her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, Who are these?
9 Joseph replied to his father, They are my sons whom Elohim has given me in this land. At this Jacob said, Take them please to me that I may bless them.
10 Now Israel’s eyes, they were heavy with old age; he could not see well. When he brought them close to him, he kissed them and embraced them.
11 And Israel said to Joseph, I had never assumed to see your face again, and here Elohim has let me see your seed as well.
12 Joseph brought them forth from beside his knees, and he bowed down to him with his brow toward the earth.
13 Then Joseph took both of them, Ephraim with his right hand to Israel’s left, and Manasseh with his left hand to Israel’s right, and brought them close to him.
14 Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the junior, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head. He used his hands intelligently, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 And he blessed Joseph and said: The One, Elohim, before Whom my fathers walked, Abraham and Isaac, The One, Elohim, my Shepherd from my youth until this day,
16 The Messenger, my Redeemer from all evil, May He bless the lads, That through them my name may be called, And the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, And that they may proliferate to a multitude within the land.
17 When Joseph saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it was displeasing in his eyes. So he took firm hold of his father’s hand to take it away, off Ephraim’s head, to the head of Manasseh.
18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
19 But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he; and his seed shall become a fullness of nations.
20 So he blessed them on that day, saying: By you shall Israel bless itself, saying: May Elohim make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph: Behold, I am about to die; but Elohim will be with you and restore you to the land of your fathers.
22 As for me, I give to you one mountain slope more than to your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.

Chapter 49
1 Later on Jacob called his sons and said: Gather yourselves; I am determined to tell you what shall happen to you in the days hereafter.
2 Come together and hear, sons of Jacob, Hearken to Israel your father:
3 Reuben, my firstborn are you, my vigor And the beginning of my virility, Excelling in dignity and excelling in strength.
4 Unstable like water, you shall certainly not excel. For you went up to your father’s bed; Then you profaned my berth which you went up to.
5 Simeon and Levi are brothers, Weapons of violence are their broadswords.
6 Do not come into their intimate group, my soul! Do not unite with their assembly, my glory! For in their anger they killed men, And in their whim they hamstrung a bull.
7 Accursed be their anger, for it was fierce, And their rage, for it was obstinate. I shall apportion them in Jacob, And I shall scatter them in Israel.
8 As for you, Judah, your brothers shall acclaim you; Your hand shall be on the scruff of your enemies. Your father’s sons shall bow down to you.
9 A whelp of a lion is Judah From the prey, my son, you will grow up He crouches, he reclines like a lion; And like a lioness, who would make him rise up?
10 The scepter shall not withdraw from Judah, Nor the statute-maker’s staff from between his feet Until indeed He comes to Whom it belongs. And the peoples’ homage goes to Him.
11 He tethers His colt to a vine, His jenny’s foal to a yellow muscat grape. He launders His clothing in wine And His vesture in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes are more cheering than wine And His teeth whiter than milk.
13 Zebulun, he tabernacles toward the sea shore; He lies toward the shore for ships, With his flank toward Sidon.
14 Issachar is a boney donkey, Reclining between the two saddlebags.
15 He sees the resting place, how good it is, And the land, how pleasant it is. So he lowers his shoulder to bear burdens And come under tributary service.
16 Dan, he adjudicates his people As one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan becomes a serpent by the way, A horned snake by the path, That bites the horse’s heels, So that its rider falls backwards.
18 For Your salvation, O Yahweh, I wait in expectation!
19 As for Gad, a raiding party, it raids him, Yet he raids their heels.
20 Asher, his bread is nutritious; As for him, he provides royal dainties.
21 Naphtali is a hind let loose, Giving seemly words.
22 Offshoot of a fruitful plant is Joseph, The offshoot of a fruitful plant by a spring, Whose sprigs have climbed up on the straight wall.
23 The archers had been bitterly enraged against him, They had contended with him And begrudged him.
24 But his bow remained in perennial steadiness, And the arms of his hands were supple Because of the hands of the Sturdy One of Jacob, Because there is the Shepherd of the Israel-Stone,
25 Because of your father’s El May He help you And the One Who-Suffices May He bless you With blessings of the heavens above, With blessings of the abyss reclining beneath, With blessings of breasts and womb.
26 The blessings of your father have gained the mastery Over the blessings of my progenitors, Unto the yearning of the eonian hills May they come to be onto the head of Joseph And onto the crown of the one singled out from his brothers.
27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; In the morning he devours his prey, And in the evening he apportions the spoil.
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them as he was blessing them. He blessed them, each one according to his own blessing.
29 Then he instructed them and said to them: I am to be gathered to my people. Entomb me with my fathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
30 in the cave which is in the field of Machpelah adjoining Mamre in the land of Canaan the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a holding for a tomb.
31 There they entombed Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they entombed Isaac and his wife Rebecca, and there I entombed Leah.
32 The field with the cave in it was an acquisition from the sons of Heth.
33 When Jacob had finished giving instruction to his sons, he drew his feet up again onto the couch and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Chapter 50
1 Joseph fell on his father’s face, weeping over him and kissing him.
2 Then Joseph instructed servants of him, who were physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.
3 They took a full forty days for him; so they took the full number of days for embalming. And the Egyptians lamented over him seventy days.
4 When the days of lamentation over him were passed, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household, saying: If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak please before the ears of Pharaoh, saying:
5 My father, he made me swear before his death, saying: Behold, I am dying. In my tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall entomb me. And now let me go up, please, and do let me entomb my father. Then I shall indeed return.
6 Pharaoh replied to Joseph, Go up and entomb your father, just as he made you swear.
7 So Joseph went up to entomb his father. And with him went up all Pharaoh’s courtiers, the eldest of his household, and all the eldest of the land of Egypt,
8 also Joseph’s entire household and his brothers and his father’s household. But their little ones, all their flocks and their herds they left behind in the land of Goshen.
9 Both chariots as well as horsemen went up with him; it was a very massive force.
10 When they came to the threshing site of Atad, which is next to the Jordan, they wailed there with a loud and very grave wailing; and he observed seven days of mourning for his father.
11 When those dwelling in the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing site of Atad, they said, This is a grave mourning for the Egyptians. Therefore one called its name Abel-Mizraim, which is next to the Jordan.
12 Thus his sons did for him just as he had instructed them.
13 His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and entombed him in the cave in the field of Machpelah the field adjoining Mamre that Abraham bought as a holding for a tomb from Ephron the Hittite.
14 Then Joseph returned to Egypt, after he had entombed his father, he and his brothers and all those going up with him to entomb his father.
15 Yet Joseph’s brothers, seeing that their father was dead, said, Suppose, Joseph holds a grudge against us and should pay us back, yea pay back for all the evil that we dealt out to him.
16 So they sent forth a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave instruction before his death, saying,
17 Thus shall you speak to Joseph: I pray you, please bear with the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they dealt evilly with you. So now please bear with the transgression of the servants of the Elohim of your father. And Joseph wept over their words to him.
18 Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are yours as servants.
19 Joseph replied to them: Do not fear! For am I in the place of Elohim?
20 You devised evil against me, yet Elohim, He devised it for good in order to accomplish, as at this day, to preserve many people alive.
21 So now do not fear; I myself shall sustain you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke to their hearts.
22 Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his brothers and all his father’s household. Joseph lived a hundred ten years;
23 and Joseph saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation; also the sons of Manasseh’s son Machir, they were born on Joseph’s knees.
24 At length Joseph said to his brothers: I am about to die; yet Elohim, He shall take note, yea take note of you. He will bring you up from this land to the land about which Elohim swore to our fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
25 Then Joseph adjured the sons of Israel, saying, When Elohim shall take note, yea take note of you, then you will bring up my bones with you from here.
26 After that Joseph died, a hundred ten years old; they had him embalmed, and he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.