שָׁם

So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water there.

He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

From there Isaac went up to Beersheba,

So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.

Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can make them into a tasty dish for your father—the kind he loves.

…until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”

On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

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.

When all the flocks had been gathered there, the shepherds would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up, leave this land at once, and return to your native land.’”

…and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.

Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:

And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.

There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”

There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother.

Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.

Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside.

So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison,

And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison.

…and imprisoned them in the house of the captain of the guard, the same prison where Joseph was confined.

Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams and he interpreted them for us individually.

“Look,” he added, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

…and they loaded the grain on their donkeys and departed.

Since the brothers had been told that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

Joseph hurried out because he was moved to tears for his brother, and he went to a private room to weep.

When Judah and his brothers arrived at Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.

And there I will provide for you, because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you and your household and everything you own will come to destitution.’

“I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah.

…my father made me swear an oath when he said, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father, and then return.”