הִנֵּה

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” Esau replied.

“Look,” said Isaac, “I am now old, and I do not know the day of my death.

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I overheard your father saying to your brother Esau,

So Jacob went to his father and said, “My father.” “Here I am!” he answered. “Which one are you, my son?”

So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

His father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above.

When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.

And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.

And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.

Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

“Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”

When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”

Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, so that through her I too can build a family.”

And Jacob saw from the countenance of Laban that his attitude toward him had changed.

When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.

In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’

Laban also said to Jacob, “Here is the mound, and here is the pillar I have set up between you and me.

…then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”

You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esau with the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.

“These men are at peace with us. Let them live and trade in our land; indeed, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them.

We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”

Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied.

…a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another.

And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,

When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.

So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream: “In my dream there was a vine before me,

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: There were three baskets of white bread on my head.

After two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,

…when seven cows, sleek and well-fed, came up from the river and began to graze among the reeds.

After them, seven other cows, sickly and thin, came up from the Nile and stood beside the well-fed cows on the bank of the river.

…but he fell back asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, came up on one stalk.

After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind.

And the thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, ripe ones. Then Pharaoh awoke and realized it was a dream.

…when seven cows, well-fed and sleek, came up from the river and began to graze among the reeds.

After them, seven other cows—sickly, ugly, and thin—came up. I have never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt!