Genesis 35; Genesis 36; Genesis 37

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Genesis 35

1 God said to Jacob, "Go to Bethel at once, and live there. Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau."
2 So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes.
3 We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone."
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and also the earrings that they were wearing. He buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.
5 When Jacob and his sons started to leave, great fear fell on the people of the nearby towns, and they did not pursue them.
6 Jacob came with all his people to Luz, which is now known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
7 He built an altar there and named the place for the God of Bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he was running away from his brother.
8 Rebecca's nurse Deborah died and was buried beneath the oak south of Bethel. So it was named "Oak of Weeping."
9 When Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but from now on it will be Israel." So God named him Israel.
11 And God said to him, "I am Almighty God. Have many children. Nations will be descended from you, and you will be the ancestor of kings.
12 I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and I will also give it to your descendants after you."
13 Then God left him.
14 There, where God had spoken to him, Jacob set up a memorial stone and consecrated it by pouring wine and olive oil on it.
15 He named the place Bethel.
16 Jacob and his family left Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, the time came for Rachel to have her baby, and she was having difficult labor.
17 When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, Rachel; it's another boy."
18 But she was dying, and as she breathed her last, she named her son Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.
19 When Rachel died, she was buried beside the road to Ephrath, now known as Bethlehem.
20 Jacob set up a memorial stone there, and it still marks Rachel's grave to this day.
21 Jacob moved on and set up his camp on the other side of the tower of Eder.
22 While Jacob was living in that land, Reuben had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, one of his father's concubines; Jacob heard about it and was furious. Jacob had twelve sons.
23 The sons of Leah were Reuben (Jacob's oldest son), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24 The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
25 The sons of Rachel's slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.
26 The sons of Leah's slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These sons were born in Mesopotamia.
27 Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived.
28 Isaac lived to be a hundred and eighty years old
29 and died at a ripe old age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Genesis 36

1 These are the descendants of Esau, also called Edom.
2 Esau married Canaanite women: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Hivite;
3 and Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
4 Adah bore Eliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel;
5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.
6 Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the people of his house, along with all his livestock and all the possessions he had gotten in the land of Canaan, and went away from his brother Jacob to another land.
7 He left because the land where he and Jacob were living was not able to support them; they had too much livestock and could no longer stay together.
8 So Esau lived in the hill country of Edom.
9 These are the descendants of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites.
10 Esau's wife Adah bore him one son, Eliphaz, and Eliphaz had five sons: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. And by another wife, Timna, he had one more son, Amalek. Esau's wife Basemath bore him one son, Reuel, and Reuel had four sons: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.
11 (See 36:10)
12 (See 36:10)
13 (See 36:10)
14 Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah son of Zibeon, bore him three sons: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15 These are the tribes descended from Esau. Esau's first son Eliphaz was the ancestor of the following tribes: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,
16 Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These were all descendants of Esau's wife Adah.
17 Esau's son Reuel was the ancestor of the following tribes: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were all descendants of Esau's wife Basemath.
18 The following tribes were descended from Esau by his wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
19 All these tribes were descended from Esau.
20 The original inhabitants of the land of Edom were divided into tribes which traced their ancestry to the following descendants of Seir, a Horite: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.
21 (See 36:20)
22 Lotan was the ancestor of the clans of Hori and Heman. (Lotan had a sister named Timna.)
23 Shobal was the ancestor of the clans of Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
24 Zibeon had two sons, Aiah and Anah. (This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was taking care of his father's donkeys.)
25 Anah was the father of Dishon, who was the ancestor of the clans of Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. Anah also had a daughter named Oholibamah.
26 (See 36:25)
27 Ezer was the ancestor of the clans of Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
28 Dishan was the ancestor of the clans of Uz and Aran.
29 These are the Horite tribes in the land of Edom: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.
30 (See 36:29)
31 Before there were any kings in Israel, the following kings ruled the land of Edom in succession: Bela son of Beor from Dinhabah Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah Husham from the region of Teman Hadad son of Bedad from Avith (he defeated the Midianites in a battle in the country of Moab) Samlah from Masrekah Shaul from Rehoboth-on-the-River Baal Hanan son of Achbor Hadad from Pau (his wife was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab)
32 (See 36:31)
33 (See 36:31)
34 (See 36:31)
35 (See 36:31)
36 (See 36:31)
37 (See 36:31)
38 (See 36:31)
39 (See 36:31)
40 Esau was the ancestor of the following Edomite tribes: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram. The area where each of these tribes lived was known by the name of the tribe.
41 (See 36:40)
42 (See 36:40)
43 (See 36:40)
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Genesis 37

1 Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived,
2 and this is the story of Jacob's family. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, took care of the sheep and goats with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's concubines. He brought bad reports to his father about what his brothers were doing.
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he had been born to him when he was old. He made a long robe with full sleeves for him.
4 When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother so much that they would not speak to him in a friendly manner.
5 One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.
6 He said, "Listen to the dream I had.
7 We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat, when my sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it."
8 "Do you think you are going to be a king and rule over us?" his brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them.
9 Then Joseph had another dream and told his brothers, "I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me."
10 He also told the dream to his father, and his father scolded him: "What kind of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, your brothers, and I are going to come and bow down to you?"
11 Joseph's brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about the whole matter.
12 One day when Joseph's brothers had gone to Shechem to take care of their father's flock,
13 Jacob said to Joseph, "I want you to go to Shechem, where your brothers are taking care of the flock." Joseph answered, "I am ready."
14 His father told him, "Go and see if your brothers are safe and if the flock is all right; then come back and tell me." So his father sent him on his way from Hebron Valley. Joseph arrived at Shechem
15 and was wandering around in the country when a man saw him and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
16 "I am looking for my brothers, who are taking care of their flock," he answered. "Can you tell me where they are?"
17 The man said, "They have already left. I heard them say that they were going to Dothan." So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted against him and decided to kill him.
19 They said to one another, "Here comes that dreamer.
20 Come on now, let's kill him and throw his body into one of the dry wells. We can say that a wild animal killed him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams."
21 Reuben heard them and tried to save Joseph. "Let's not kill him," he said.
22 "Just throw him into this well in the wilderness, but don't hurt him." He said this, planning to save him from them and send him back to his father.
23 When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long robe with full sleeves.
24 Then they took him and threw him into the well, which was dry.
25 While they were eating, they suddenly saw a group of Ishmaelites traveling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were loaded with spices and resins.
26 Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder?
27 Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we won't have to hurt him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed,
28 and when some Midianite traders came by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben came back to the well and found that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes in sorrow.
30 He returned to his brothers and said, "The boy is not there! What am I going to do?"
31 Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood.
32 They took the robe to their father and said, "We found this. Does it belong to your son?"
33 He recognized it and said, "Yes, it is his! Some wild animal has killed him. My son Joseph has been torn to pieces!"
34 Jacob tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. He mourned for his son a long time.
35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, "I will go down to the world of the dead still mourning for my son." So he continued to mourn for his son Joseph.
36 Meanwhile, in Egypt the Midianites had sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of the king's officers, who was the captain of the palace guard.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.