Study Desk

God said to Jacob, "Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.^(a) Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."^(b)

So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.^(c) Purify yourselves and change your clothes.^(d)

We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.^(e) He has been with me everywhere I have gone."^(f)

Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem.

When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob's sons.^(g)

So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel^(h)) in the land of Canaan.

Jacob built an altar there and called the place God of Bethel^[a] because it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah,^[b](i) died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Oak of Weeping.^[c]

God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.

God said to him: Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.^(j) So He named him Israel.

God also said to him: I am God Almighty.^(k) Be fruitful and multiply.^(l) A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you,^(m) and kings will descend from you.^[d](n)

I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac.^(o) And I will give the land to your future descendants.

Then God withdrew^[e](p) from him at the place where He had spoken to him.

Jacob set up a marker at the place where He had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.^(q)

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

They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son."^(r)

With her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni,^[f] but his father called him Benjamin.^[g]

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem^(s)).

Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel's grave to this day.

Israel set out again and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.^[h]

While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.^(t) Jacob had 12 sons:^(u)

Leah's sons were Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

Rachel's sons were Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of Rachel's slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.

The sons of Leah's slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre^(v) in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron^(w)), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

Isaac lived 180 years.

He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people,^(x) old and full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

These are the family records^(a) of Esau (that is, Edom^(b)).

Esau took his wives from the Canaanite women: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite,^(c) Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter^[a] of Zibeon the Hivite,

and Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.^(d)

Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel,

and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were Esau's sons, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

Esau took his wives, sons, daughters, and all the people of his household, as well as his herds, all his livestock, and all the property he had acquired in Canaan; he went to a land away from his brother Jacob.

For their possessions were too many for them to live together,^(e) and because of their herds, the land where they stayed could not support them.^(f)

So Esau (that is, Edom) lived in the mountains of Seir.^(g)

These are the family records of Esau, father of the Edomites in the mountains of Seir.

These are the names of Esau's sons:^(h) Eliphaz son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel son of Esau's wife Basemath.

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

Timna, a concubine of Esau's son Eliphaz, bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Esau's wife Adah.

These are Reuel's sons: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau's wife Basemath.

These are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter^[b] of Zibeon: She bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah to Edom.

These are the chiefs of Esau's sons: the sons of Eliphaz, Esau's firstborn: Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

Korah,^[c] Gatam, and Amalek. These are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Adah.

These are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son: Chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Esau's wife Basemath.

These are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Chiefs Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the chiefs of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.

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

These are the sons of Seir the Horite,⁽ⁱ⁾ the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir, in the land of Edom.

The sons of Lotan were Hori and Heman. Timna was Lotan's sister.

These are Shobal's sons: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

These are Zibeon's sons: Aiah and Anah. This was the Anah who found the hot springs^[d] in the wilderness while he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.

These are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah daughter of Anah.

These are Dishon's sons: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

These are Ezer's sons: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

These are Dishan's sons: Uz and Aran.

These are the chiefs of the Horites: Chiefs Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, according to their divisions, in the land of Seir.

These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom^(j) before any king ruled over the Israelites:

Bela son of Beor ruled in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah.

When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah became king in his place.

When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites became king in his place.

When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad became king in his place. He defeated Midian in the field of Moab; the name of his city was Avith.

When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah became king in his place.

When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth on the Euphrates River became king in his place.

When Shaul died, Baal-hanan son of Achbor became king in his place.

When Baal-hanan son of Achbor died, Hadar^[e] became king in his place. His city was Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred daughter of Me-zahab.

These are the names of Esau's chiefs, according to their families and their localities, by their names: Chiefs Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,

Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

Magdiel, and Iram. These are Edom's chiefs, according to their settlements in the land they possessed. Esau^[f] was father of the Edomites.

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.^(a)

These are the family records of Jacob. At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives,^(b) and he brought a bad report about them to their father.^(c)

Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age,^(d) and he made a robe of many colors^[a] for him.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.

Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:

There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf."^(e)

"Are you really going to reign over us?" his brothers asked him. "Are you really going to rule us?" So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. "Look," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me."

He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him. "What kind of dream is this that you have had?" he said. "Are your mother and brothers and I going to come and bow down to the ground before you?"

His brothers were jealous of him,^(f) but his father kept the matter in mind.^(g)

His brothers had gone to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem.

Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I'm sending you to them." "I'm ready," Joseph replied.

Then Israel said to him, "Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me." So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron,^(h) and he went to Shechem.

A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for my brothers," Joseph said. "Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?"

"They've moved on from here," the man said. "I heard them say, ‘Let's go to Dothan.'"⁽ⁱ⁾ So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.^(j)

They said to one another, "Here comes that dreamer!^[b]

Come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams!"

When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them.^[c] He said, "Let's not take his life."^(k)

Reuben also said to them, "Don't shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him"—intending to rescue him from their hands and return him to his father.

When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the robe of many colors that he had on.

Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.