351 God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau." 2 Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, 3 we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone since." 4 They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they'd been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem. 5 Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan. 7 He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because that's where God revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother. 8 And that's when Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak). 9 God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him: 10 "Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that's your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler)." 11 God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation - a whole company of nations! - will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; 12 the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants. 13 And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him. 14 Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. 15 Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House).
16 They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor - hard, hard labor. 17 When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid - you have another boy." 18 With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune). 19 Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. 20 Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's Grave Stone."
21 Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder.
22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did. There were twelve sons of Jacob. 23 The sons by Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun. 24 The sons by Rachel: Joseph Benjamin. 25 The sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid: Dan Naphtali. 26 The sons by Zilpah, Leah's maid: Gad Asher. These were Jacob's sons, born to him in Paddan Aram.
27 Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. 28 Isaac was now 180 years old. 29 Isaac breathed his last and died - an old man full of years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.
361 This is the family tree of Esau, who is also called Edom. 2 Esau married women of Canaan: Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, daughter of Anah and the granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; 3 and Basemath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. 4 Adah gave Esau Eliphaz; Basemath had Reuel; 5 Oholibamah had Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. 6 Esau gathered up his wives, sons and daughters, and everybody in his household, along with all his livestock - all the animals and possessions he had gotten in Canaan - and moved a considerable distance away from his brother Jacob. 7 The brothers had too many possessions to live together in the same place; the land couldn't support their combined herds of livestock. 8 So Esau ended up settling in the hill country of Seir (Esau and Edom are the same).
9 So this is the family tree of Esau, ancestor of the people of Edom, in the hill country of Seir. 10 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: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. 12 (Eliphaz also had a concubine Timna, who had Amalek.) These are the grandsons of Esau's wife Adah. 13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah - grandsons of Esau's wife Basemath. 14 These are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah the son of Zibeon. She gave Esau his sons Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. 15 These are the chieftains in Esau's family tree. From the sons of Eliphaz, Esau's firstborn, came the chieftains Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, 16 Korah, Gatam, and Amalek - the chieftains of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; all of them sons of Adah. 17 From the sons of Esau's son Reuel, came the chieftains Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the chieftains of Reuel in the land of Edom; all these were sons of Esau's wife Basemath. 18 These are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: the chieftains Jeush, Jalam, and Korah - chieftains born of Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah. 19 These are the sons of Esau, that is, Edom, and these are their chieftains.
20 This is the family tree of Seir the Horite, who were native to that land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chieftains of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. 22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; Lotan's sister was Timna. 23 The sons of Shobal were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 24 The sons of Zibeon were Aiah and Anah - this is the same Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness while herding his father Zibeon's donkeys. 25 The children of Anah were Dishon and his daughter Oholibamah. 26 The sons of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran. 27 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. 28 The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran. 29 And these were the Horite chieftains: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 30 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan - the Horite chieftains clan by clan in the land of Seir.
31 And these are the kings who ruled in Edom before there was a king in Israel: 32 Bela son of Beor was the king of Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah. 33 When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah became the next king. 34 When Jobab died, he was followed by Hushan from the land of the Temanites. 35 When Hushan died, he was followed by Hadad son of Bedad; he was the king who defeated the Midianites in Moab; the name of his city was Avith. 36 When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah became the next king. 37 When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth-on-the-River became king. 38 When Shaul died, he was followed by Baal-Hanan son of Acbor. 39 When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad became king; the name of his city was Pau; his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, daughter of Me-Zahab. 40 And these are the chieftains from the line of Esau, clan by clan, region by region: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, 41 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, 42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, 43 Magdiel, and Iram - the chieftains of Edom as they occupied their various regions. This accounts for the family tree of Esau, ancestor of all Edomites.
371 Meanwhile Jacob had settled down where his father had lived, the land of Canaan. Joseph and His Brothers 2 This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them. 3 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. 4 When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him - they wouldn't even speak to him.
5 Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said, "Listen to this dream I had. 7 We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine." 8 His brothers said, "So! You're going to rule us? You're going to boss us around?" And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked. 9 He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: "I dreamed another dream - the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!" 10 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him: "What's with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers all supposed to bow down to you?" 11 Now his brothers were really jealous; but his father brooded over the whole business.
12 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father's flocks. 13 Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them." Joseph said, "I'm ready." 14 He said, "Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report." He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem. 15 A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?" 16 "I'm trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are grazing their flocks?" 17 The man said, "They've left here, but I overheard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan. 18 They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. 19 The brothers were saying, "Here comes that dreamer. 20 Let's kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We'll see what his dreams amount to." 21 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, "We're not going to kill him. 22 No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out here in the wild, but don't hurt him." Reuben planned to go back later and get him out and take him back to his father.
23 When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing, 24 grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn't any water in it. 25 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. 26 Judah said, "Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? 27 Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let's not kill him - he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. 28 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt. 29 Later Reuben came back and went to the cistern - no Joseph! He ripped his clothes in despair. 30 Beside himself, he went to his brothers. "The boy's gone! What am I going to do!"
31 They took Joseph's coat, butchered a goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. 32 They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, "We found this. Look it over - do you think this is your son's coat?" 33 He recognized it at once. "My son's coat - a wild animal has eaten him. Joseph torn limb from limb!" 34 Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and mourned his son a long, long time. 35 His sons and daughters tried to comfort him but he refused their comfort. "I'll go to the grave mourning my son." Oh, how his father wept for him. 36 In Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, manager of his household affairs.
