Genesis 34-37

Genesis 34

¹Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had by Jacob, went out to see the women of that country.

²And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had connection with her.

³Then his heart went out in love to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he said comforting words to her.

⁴And Shechem said to Hamor, his father, Get me this girl for my wife.

⁵Now Jacob had word of what Shechem had done to his daughter; but his sons were in the fields with the cattle, and Jacob said nothing till they came.

⁶Then Hamor, the father of Shechem, came out to have a talk with Jacob.

⁷Now the sons of Jacob came in from the fields when they had news of it, and they were wounded and very angry because of the shame he had done in Israel by having connection with Jacob's daughter; and they said, Such a thing is not to be done.

⁸But Hamor said to them, Shechem, my son, is full of desire for your daughter: will you then give her to him for a wife?

⁹And let our two peoples be joined together; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰Go on living with us, and the country will be open to you; do trade and get property there.

¹¹And Shechem said to her father and her brothers, If you will give ear to my request, whatever you say I will give to you.

¹²However great you make the bride-price and payment, I will give it; only let me have the girl for my wife.

¹³But the sons of Jacob gave a false answer to Shechem and Hamor his father, because of what had been done to Dinah their sister.

¹⁴And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause of shame to us:

¹⁵But on this condition only will we come to an agreement with you: if every male among you becomes like us and undergoes circumcision;

¹⁶Then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to us and go on living with you as one people.

¹⁷But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go.

¹⁸And their words were pleasing to Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹And without loss of time the young man did as they said, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the noblest of his father's house.

²⁰Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-place of their town, and said to the men of the town,

²¹It is the desire of these men to be at peace with us; let them then go on living in this country and doing trade here, for the country is wide open before them; let us take their daughters as wives and let us give them our daughters.

²²But these men will make an agreement with us to go on living with us and to become one people, only on the condition that every male among us undergoes circumcision as they have done.

²³Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so that they may go on living with us.

²⁴Then all the men of the town gave ear to the words of Hamor and Shechem his son; and every male in the town underwent circumcision.

²⁵But on the third day after, before the wounds were well, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came into the town by surprise and put all the males to death.

²⁶And Hamor and his son they put to death with the sword, and they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went away.

²⁷And the sons of Jacob came on them when they were wounded and made waste the town because of what had been done to their sister;

²⁸They took their flocks and their herds and their asses and everything in their town and in their fields,

²⁹And all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives; everything in their houses they took and made them waste.

³⁰And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have made trouble for me and given me a bad name among the people of this country, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and because we are small in number they will come together against me and make war on me; and it will be the end of me and all my people.

³¹But they said, Were we to let him make use of our sister as a loose woman?

Genesis 35

¹And God said to Jacob, Go up now to Beth-el and make your living-place there: and put up an altar there to the God who came to you when you were in flight from your brother Esau.

²Then Jacob said to all his people, Put away the strange gods which are among you, and make yourselves clean, and put on a change of clothing:

³And let us go up to Beth-el: and there I will make an altar to God, who gave me an answer in the day of my trouble, and was with me wherever I went.

⁴Then they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which they had, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob put them away under the holy tree at Shechem.

⁵So they went on their journey: and the fear of God was on the towns round about, so that they made no attack on the sons of Jacob.

⁶And Jacob came to Luz in the land of Canaan (which is the same as Beth-el), he and all his people.

⁷And there he made an altar, naming the place El-beth-el: because it was there he had the vision of God when he was in flight from his brother.

⁸And Deborah, the servant who had taken care of Rebekah from her birth, came to her end, and was put to rest near Beth-el, under the holy tree: and they gave it the name of Allon-bacuth.

⁹Now when Jacob was on his way from Paddan-aram, God came to him again and, blessing him, said,

¹⁰Jacob is your name, but it will be so no longer; from now your name will be Israel; so he was named Israel.

¹¹And God said to him, I am God, the Ruler of all: be fertile, and have increase; a nation, truly a group of nations, will come from you, and kings will be your offspring;

¹²And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you; and to your seed after you I will give the land.

¹³Then God went up from him in the place where he had been talking with him.

¹⁴And Jacob put up a pillar in the place where he had been talking with God, and put a drink offering on it, and oil.

¹⁵And he gave to the place where God had been talking with him, the name of Beth-el.

¹⁶So they went on from Beth-el; and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, the pains of birth came on Rachel and she had a hard time.

¹⁷And when her pain was very great, the woman who was helping her said, Have no fear; for now you will have another son.

¹⁸And in the hour when her life went from her (for death came to her), she gave the child the name Ben-oni: but his father gave him the name of Benjamin.

¹⁹So Rachel came to her end and was put to rest on the road to Ephrath (which is Beth-lehem).

²⁰And Jacob put up a pillar on her resting-place; which is named, The Pillar of the resting-place of Rachel, to this day.

²¹And Israel went journeying on and put up his tents on the other side of the tower of the flock.

²²Now while they were living in that country, Reuben had connection with Bilhah, his father's servant-woman: and Israel had news of it.

²³Now Jacob had twelve sons: the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first son, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun;

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;

²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali;

²⁶The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher; these are the sons whom Jacob had in Paddan-aram.

²⁷And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had been living.

²⁸And Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old.

²⁹Then Isaac came to his end and was put to rest with his father's people, an old man after a long life: and Jacob and Esau, his sons, put him in his last resting-place.

Genesis 36

¹Now these are the generations of Esau, that is to say, Edom.

²Esau's wives were women of Canaan: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,

³And Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.

⁴Adah had a son Eliphaz; and Basemath was the mother of Reuel;

⁵Oholibamah was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the sons of Esau, whose birth took place in the land of Canaan.

⁶Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the people of his house, and his beasts and his cattle and all his goods which he had got together in the land of Canaan, and went into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob.

⁷For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle.

⁸So Esau made his living-place in the hill-country of Seir (Esau is Edom).

⁹And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill-country of Seir:

¹⁰These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹²And Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had connection with a woman named Timna, who gave birth to Amalek: all these were the children of Esau's wife Adah.

¹³And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: they were the children of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹⁴And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵These were the chiefs among the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, Esau's first son: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

¹⁶Korah, Gatam, Amalek: all these were chiefs in the land of Edom, the offspring of Eliphaz, the seed of Adah.

¹⁷And these are the sons of Esau's son Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah: these were the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom, the children of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹⁸And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah: these were the chiefs who came from Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.

¹⁹These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.

²⁰These are the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in that country; Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan: these are the chiefs of the Horites, offspring of Seir in the land of Edom.

²²The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan's sister was Timna.

²³And these are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his father Zibeon.

²⁵And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah his daughter.

²⁶These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.

²⁷These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

²⁹These were the Horite chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Such were the Horite chiefs in their order in the land of Seir.

³¹And these are the kings who were ruling in the land of Edom before there was any king over the children of Israel.

³²Bela, son of Beor, was king in Edom, and the name of his chief town was Dinhabah.

³³At his death, Jobab, son of Zerah of Bozrah, became king in his place.

³⁴And at the death of Jobab, Husham, from the country of the Temanites, became king in his place.

³⁵And at the death of Husham, Hadad, son of Bedad, who overcame the Midianites in the field of Moab, became king; his chief town was named Avith.

³⁶And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became king.

³⁷And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the River became king in his place.

³⁸And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, became king.

³⁹And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadar became king in his place; his chief town was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

⁴⁰These are the names of the chiefs of Esau in the order of their families and their places: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,

⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

⁴³Magdiel, Iram; these are the Edomite chiefs, in their places in their heritage; this is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

Genesis 37

¹Now Jacob was living in the land where his father had made a place for himself, in the land of Canaan.

²These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them.

³Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater than his love for all his other children, because he got him when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for him.

⁴And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him.

⁵Now Joseph had a dream, and he gave his brothers an account of it, which made their hate greater than ever.

⁶And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my dream.

⁷We were in the field, getting the grain stems together, and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went down on the earth before mine.

⁸And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his words, their hate for him became greater than ever.

⁹Then he had another dream, and gave his brothers an account of it, saying, I have had another dream: the sun and the moon and eleven stars gave honour to me.

¹⁰And he gave word of it to his father and his brothers; but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this? am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our faces to the earth before you?

¹¹And his brothers were full of envy; but his father kept his words in mind.

¹²Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's flock in Shechem.

¹³And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers with the flock in Shechem? come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here am I.

¹⁴And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

¹⁵And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?

¹⁶And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give me word of where they are keeping their flock.

¹⁷And the man said, They have gone away from here, for they said in my hearing, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after them and came up with them at Dothan.

¹⁸But they saw him when he was a long way off, and before he came near them they made a secret design against him to put him to death;

¹⁹Saying to one another, See, here comes this dreamer.

²⁰Let us now put him to death and put his body into one of these holes, and we will say, An evil beast has put him to death: then we will see what becomes of his dreams.

²¹But Reuben, hearing these words, got him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life.

²²Do not put him to a violent death, but let him be placed in one of the holes; this he said to keep him safe from their hands, with the purpose of taking him back to his father again.

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they took off his long coat which he had on;

²⁴And they took him and put him in the hole: now the hole had no water in it.

²⁵Then seating themselves, they took their meal: and looking up, they saw a travelling band of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt, with spices and perfumes on their camels.

²⁶And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?

²⁷Let us give him to these Ishmaelites for a price, and let us not put violent hands on him, for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers gave ear to him.

²⁸And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt.

²⁹Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief,

³⁰He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do?

³¹Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the blood from a young goat which they had put to death,

³²And they took the coat to their father, and said, We came across this; is it your son's coat or not?

³³And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has come to a cruel end.

³⁴Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and went on weeping for his son day after day.

³⁵And all his sons and all his daughters came to give him comfort, but he would not be comforted, saying with weeping, I will go down to the underworld to my son. So great was his father's sorrow for him.

³⁶And in Egypt the men of Midian gave him for a price to Potiphar, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house.