Genesis 33; Genesis 34; Genesis 35; Matthew 10:1-20

1 Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and with him were four hundred men. So Jacob divided his children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave girls.

2 Jacob put the slave girls with their children first, then Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph last.

3 Jacob himself went out in front of them and bowed down flat on the ground seven times as he was walking toward his brother.

4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and put his arms around him and hugged him. Then Esau kissed him, and they both cried.

5 When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, "Who are these people with you?" Jacob answered, "These are the children God has given me. God has been good to me, your servant."

6 Then the two slave girls and their children came up to Esau and bowed down flat on the earth before him.

7 Leah and her children also came up to Esau and also bowed down flat on the earth. Last of all, Joseph and Rachel came up to Esau, and they, too, bowed down flat before him.

8 Esau said, "I saw many herds as I was coming here. Why did you bring them?" Jacob answered, "They were to please you, my master."

9 But Esau said, "I already have enough, my brother. Keep what you have."

10 Jacob said, "No! Please! If I have pleased you, then accept the gift I give you. I am very happy to see your face again. It is like seeing the face of God, because you have accepted me.

11 So I beg you to accept the gift I give you. God has been very good to me, and I have more than I need." And because Jacob begged, Esau accepted the gift.

12 Then Esau said, "Let us be going. I will travel with you."

13 But Jacob said to him, "My master, you know that the children are weak. And I must be careful with my flocks and their young ones. If I force them to go too far in one day, all the animals will die.

14 So, my master, you go on ahead of me, your servant. I will follow you slowly and let the animals and the children set the speed at which we travel. I will meet you, my master, in Edom."

15 So Esau said, "Then let me leave some of my people with you." "No, thank you," said Jacob. "I only want to please you, my master."

16 So that day Esau started back to Edom.

17 But Jacob went to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his animals. That is why the place was named Succoth.

18 Jacob left Northwest Mesopotamia and arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan. There he camped east of the city.

19 He bought a part of the field where he had camped from the sons of Hamor father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver.

20 He built an altar there and named it after God, the God of Israel.

1 At this time Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.

2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of the land, saw her, he took her and forced her to have sexual relations with him.

3 Shechem fell in love with Dinah, and he spoke kindly to her.

4 He told his father, Hamor, "Please get this girl for me so I can marry her."

5 Jacob learned how Shechem had disgraced his daughter, but since his sons were out in the field with the cattle, Jacob said nothing until they came home.

6 While he waited, Hamor father of Shechem went to talk with Jacob.

7 When Jacob's sons heard what had happened, they came in from the field. They were very angry that Shechem had done such a wicked thing to Israel. It was wrong for him to have sexual relations with Jacob's daughter; a thing like this should not be done.

8 But Hamor talked to Dinah's brothers and said, "My son Shechem is deeply in love with Dinah. Please let him marry her.

9 Marry our people. Give your women to our men as wives and take our women for your men as wives.

10 You can live in the same land with us. You will be free to own land and to trade here."

11 Shechem also talked to Jacob and to Dinah's brothers and said, "Please accept my offer. I will give anything you ask.

12 Ask as much as you want for the payment for the bride, and I will give it to you. Just let me marry Dinah."

13 Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father with lies, because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah.

14 The brothers said to them, "We cannot allow you to marry our sister, because you are not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.

15 But we will allow you to marry her if you do this one thing: Every man in your town must be circumcised like us.

16 Then your men can marry our women, and our men can marry your women, and we will live in your land and become one people.

17 If you refuse to be circumcised, we will take Dinah and leave."

18 What they asked seemed fair to Hamor and Shechem.

19 So Shechem quickly went to be circumcised because he loved Jacob's daughter. Now Shechem was the most respected man in his family.

20 So Hamor and Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

21 "These people want to be friends with us. So let them live in our land and trade here. There is enough land for all of us. Let us marry their women, and we can let them marry our women.

22 But we must agree to one thing: All our men must be circumcised as they are. Then they will agree to live in our land, and we will be one people.

23 If we do this, their cattle and their animals will belong to us. Let us do what they say, and they will stay in our land."

24 All the people who had come to the city gate heard this. They agreed with Hamor and Shechem, and every man was circumcised.

25 Three days later the men who were circumcised were still in pain. Two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi (Dinah's brothers), took their swords and made a surprise attack on the city, killing all the men there.

26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem and then took Dinah out of Shechem's house and left.

27 Jacob's sons came upon the dead bodies and stole everything that was in the city, to pay them back for what Shechem had done to their sister.

28 So the brothers took the flocks, herds, and donkeys, and everything in the city and in the fields.

29 They took every valuable thing the people owned, even their wives and children and everything in the houses.

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have caused me a lot of trouble. Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites who live in the land will hate me. Since there are only a few of us, if they join together to attack us, my people and I will be destroyed."

31 But the brothers said, "We will not allow our sister to be treated like a prostitute."

1 God said to Jacob, "Go to the city of Bethel and live there. Make an altar to the God who appeared to you there when you were running away from your brother Esau."

2 So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods you have, and make yourselves clean, and change your clothes.

3 We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God, who has helped me during my time of trouble. He has been with me everywhere I have gone."

4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and the earrings they were wearing, and he hid them under the great tree near the town of Shechem.

5 Then Jacob and his sons left there. But God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid, so they did not follow them.

6 And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz, which is now called Bethel, in the land of Canaan.

7 There Jacob built an altar and named the place Bethel, after God, because God had appeared to him there when he was running from his brother.

8 Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel, so they named that place Oak of Crying.

9 When Jacob came back from Northwest Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him.

10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. Your new name will be Israel." So he called him Israel.

11 God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Have many children and grow in number as a nation. You will be the ancestor of many nations and kings.

12 The same land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you and your descendants."

13 Then God left him.

14 Jacob set up a stone on edge in that place where God had talked to him, and he poured a drink offering and olive oil on it to make it special for God.

15 And Jacob named the place Bethel.

16 Jacob and his group left Bethel. Before they came to Ephrath, Rachel began giving birth to her baby,

17 but she was having much trouble. When Rachel's nurse saw this, she said, "Don't be afraid, Rachel. You are giving birth to another son."

18 Rachel gave birth to the son, but she herself died. As she lay dying, she named the boy Son of My Suffering, but Jacob called him Benjamin.

19 Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath, a district of Bethlehem,

20 and Jacob set up a rock on her grave to honor her. That rock is still there.

21 Then Israeln continued his journey and camped just south of Migdal Eder.

22 While Israel was there, Reuben had sexual relations with Israel's slave woman Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons.

23 He had six sons by his wife Leah: Reuben, his first son, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

24 He had two sons by his wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

25 He had two sons by Rachel's slave girl Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali.

26 And he had two sons by Leah's slave girl Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These are Jacob's sons who were born in Northwest Mesopotamia.

27 Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre near Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived.

28 Isaac lived one hundred eighty years.

29 So Isaac breathed his last breath and died when he was very old, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

1 Jesus called his twelve followers together and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and sickness.

2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: Simon (also called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who turned against Jesus.

5 Jesus sent out these twelve men with the following order: "Don't go to the non-Jewish people or to any town where the Samaritans live.

6 But go to the people of Israel, who are like lost sheep.

7 When you go, preach this: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'

8 Heal the sick, raise the dead to life again, heal those who have skin diseases, and force demons out of people. I give you these powers freely, so help other people freely.

9 Don't carry any money with you -- gold or silver or copper.

10 Don't carry a bag or extra clothes or sandals or a walking stick. Workers should be given what they need.

11 "When you enter a city or town, find some worthy person there and stay in that home until you leave.

12 When you enter that home, say, 'Peace be with you.'

13 If the people there welcome you, let your peace stay there. But if they don't welcome you, take back the peace you wished for them.

14 And if a home or town refuses to welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake its dust off your feet.

15 I tell you the truth, on the Judgment Day it will be better for the towns of Sodom and Gomorrahn than for the people of that town.

16 "Listen, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as smart as snakes and as innocent as doves.

17 Be careful of people, because they will arrest you and take you to court and whip you in their synagogues.

18 Because of me you will be taken to stand before governors and kings, and you will tell them and the non-Jewish people about me.

19 When you are arrested, don't worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given the things to say.

20 It will not really be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.