Neofiti Genesis

The Creation of the World

1 From the beginning, with wisdom, the Memra of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth.⁠a 2 And the earth was desolate and empty, deserted by people and by animals, and bare of all growing plants and of trees, and darkness was spread over the face of the deep. And a spirit of mercy from before the Lord was blowing over the face of the waters. 3 And the Memra of the Lord said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, by the decree of his Memra. 4 And it was revealed before the Lord that the light was good, and the Memra of the Lord separated the light from the darkness. 5 And the Memra of the Lord called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning: the order of the work of creation, the first day. 6 And the Memra of the Lord said, “Let there be a firmament in the middle of the waters, and let it separate the lower waters from the upper waters.” 7 And the Lord created the firmament, and separated the waters below the firmament from the waters above the firmament. And it was so, according to his Memra. 8 And the Memra of the Lord called the firmament heaven. And there was evening and there was morning: the order of the work of creation, the second day.⁠b 9 And the Memra of the Lord said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so, according to his Memra. 10 And the Memra of the Lord called the dry land earth, and the place where the waters gather he called seas. And it was revealed before the Lord that it was pleasing and fitting. 11 And the Memra of the Lord said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, plants that yield seed, and fruit trees that bear fruit after their kind, whose seed comes from them and is in them, on the earth.” And it was so, according to his Memra. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, plants that yield seed after their kinds, and fruit trees that bear fruit, whose seed comes from them and is in them, after their kind. And it was revealed before the Lord that it was pleasing and fitting. 13 And there was evening and there was morning: the order of the work of creation, the third day. 14 And the Lord said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs and for set times, and to sanctify by them the intercalation of moons and months. 15 And let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it was so, according to his Memra. 16 And the Memra of the Lord created the two great lights: the great light to rule by day and the small light to rule by night, and the orders of the stars. 17 And the Glory of the Lord set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule by day and by night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And it was revealed before the Lord that it was pleasing and fitting. 19 And there was evening and there was morning: the order of the work of creation, the fourth day. 20 And the Memra of the Lord said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth, across the face of the air of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 And the Lord created the two great monsters,⁠c and every living creature that creeps, with which the waters swarmed, after their kinds, and every winged bird after its kind. And it was revealed before the Lord that it was pleasing and fitting. 22 And the Memra of the Lord blessed them, saying, “Be strong and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning: the order of the work of creation, the fifth day. 24 And the Memra of the Lord said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle, creeping things and wild animals of the earth, after their kind.” And it was so, according to his Memra. 25 And the Memra of the Lord created the wild animals of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the earth after its kind. And it was revealed before the Lord that it was pleasing and fitting. 26 And the Lord said, “Let us create man in our likeness, resembling us, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 And the Memra of the Lord created man in his likeness; in a likeness from before the Lord he created him; male and his partner he created them. 28 And the Glory of the Lord blessed them, and the Memra of the Lord said to them, “Be strong and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every wild animal that creeps on the earth.” 29 And the Glory of the Lord said, “Look, I have given you every plant that yields seed on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit yielding seed; I have given them to you for food. 30 And to every wild animal of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything with the breath of life in it, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so, according to his Memra. 31 And it was revealed before the Lord that everything he had made was indeed pleasing and very fitting. And there was evening and there was morning: the order of the work of creation, the sixth day.

The Seventh Day

1 And they completed the creation of the heavens and the earth and all their hosts. 2 And the Memra of the Lord completed on the seventh day his work that he had created, and there was rest and repose before him on the seventh day from all his work that he had created. 3 And the Glory of the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it there was rest and repose before him from all his work that the Glory of the Lord had created to make.

The Garden of Eden

4 These are the line and generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. On the day that the Lord God created the heavens and the earth, 5 none of the trees on the face of the field had yet come to be on the earth, and none of the plants on the face of the field had yet sprouted, because the Lord God had not made rain fall on the earth, and Adam had not yet been created to work the earth. 6 And a cloud would go up from the earth and water all the face of the earth. 7 And the Lord God created Adam from dust of the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being that speaks. 8 And the Lord God had planted a garden in Eden from the beginning, and he set there the first Adam, whom he had created. 9 And the Lord God made every tree grow from the ground that is pleasant to look at and good to eat, and the tree of life within the very middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge, of which anyone who ate from it would know how to tell good from evil. 10 And a river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four heads of great rivers. 11 The name of one of them is Pishon. It is the one that winds around and encircles all the land of India, where the gold comes from. 12 And the gold of that land is good. From there come bdellium and precious stones and pearls. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that winds around and encircles all the land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris. It is the one that winds around and encircles Assyria on the east. And the fourth river is the great river, the river Euphrates. 15 And the Lord God took Adam and settled him in the garden of Eden to labor in the Law and to keep its commandments. 16 And the Lord God gave Adam a command, saying, “From all the trees of the garden you may freely eat. 17 But from the tree of knowledge, of which anyone who eats from it knows how to tell good from evil, you shall not eat from it, because on the day you eat from it you shall surely die.”

The Creation of the Woman

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not right for man to be alone. I will make him a partner who matches him.” 19 And the Lord God created from the ground every wild animal on the face of the field and every bird of the heavens, and he brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature in the language of the sanctuary, that is its name. 20 And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the heavens and to every wild animal on the face of the field, but for Adam he did not find a partner who matched him. 21 And the Lord God made a deep sleep fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and put flesh in its place. 22 And the Lord God perfected the rib that he had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam. 23 And Adam said, “This time, and never again, will a woman be created from a man the way this one was created from me: bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. It is fitting to call this one woman, because this one was created from a man.” 24 For this reason a man will part from his father’s bed and his mother’s and cling to his wife, and the two of them will become one flesh. 25 And the two of them were naked, Adam and his wife, and they did not yet know what shame was.

The Serpent and the Forbidden Fruit

1 And the serpent was more cunning than all the wild animals on the face of the field that the Lord God had created. And it said to the woman, “So the Lord has really said, ‘You shall not eat from any of the trees of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden the Lord has said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not come near it, so that you will not die.’” 4 And the serpent said to the woman, “You will certainly not die. 5 For it is revealed and known before the Lord that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like angels before the Lord, knowing how to tell good from evil.” 6 And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was fit for gaining insight from it. And she took from its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 And the eyes of the two of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together for themselves and made themselves belts.

The Lord Questions Adam and the Woman

8 And they heard the voice of the Memra of the Lord God walking in the garden as the day’s breeze was blowing, and Adam and his wife hid from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Look, the whole world that I created is revealed before me; darkness and light are revealed before me. And do you think that the place where you are is not revealed before me? Where is the commandment that I gave you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the voice of your Memra in the garden, and I was afraid because I am naked, and I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you then eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 And Adam said, “The woman you put with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent misled me, and I ate.”

Punishments for the Serpent, the Woman, and Adam

14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed shall you be, serpent, more than all the cattle and more than all the wild animals on the face of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust shall be your food all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your sons and her sons. And it shall be that when her sons keep the Law and do the commandments, they will aim at you and strike you on your head and kill you. And when they abandon the commandments of the Law, you will aim and bite him on his heel and make him sick. Yet for her sons there will be healing, but for you, serpent, there will be no healing, for they are destined to make peace in the end, in the day of King Messiah.”⁠a 16 And to the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pains and your pregnancies. In pain you shall bear children, and toward your husband you will turn, and he will have power over you, whether for innocence or for sin.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it,’ cursed is the earth because of you. In pain you shall eat the fruits of its harvest all the days of your life. 18 And thorns and thistles it shall grow for you, and you shall eat the plants on the face of the field.” Adam answered and said, “Please, by the mercy that is before you, Lord, let us not be counted like the cattle, that we should eat the grass on the face of the field. Let us get up now and toil, and from the toil of my hands let us eat food from the fruits of the earth, and in this way there will be a distinction between people and cattle.” 19 “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the earth, because from it you were created. For dust you are, and to dust you will return. And from the dust you will rise again and give an account and a reckoning of everything you have done.” 20 And the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of glory for the skin of their flesh, and clothed them.

Adam Is Driven from the Garden

22 And the Lord God said, “Look, the first Adam, whom I created, is one of a kind in the world, as I am one of a kind in the heavens on high.⁠b Many nations are going to arise from him, and from him one nation will arise that will know how to tell good from evil. If he had kept the commandment of the Law and carried out its precept, he would have lived and endured like the tree of life forever. And now, since he has not kept the commandments of the Law and has not carried out its precept, look, we will drive him out from the garden of Eden before he stretches out his hand and takes from the fruit of the tree of life and eats and lives forever.” 23 And the Lord God drove him out from the garden of Eden to work the earth from which he had been created.

The Law as the Tree of Life

24 And he drove Adam out, and from the beginning he made the Glory of his Shekinah dwell to the east of the garden of Eden, between the two cherubim. Two thousand years before he created the world, he created the Law; he prepared the garden of Eden for the righteous and Gehenna for the wicked. He prepared the garden of Eden for the righteous, so that they might eat and take their delight from the fruit of the tree, because they kept the commandments of the Law in this world and carried out its precepts. He prepared Gehenna for the wicked, and it is like a sharp sword that devours from both its sides; he prepared within it sparks of fire and burning coals for the wicked, to punish them in the world to come, because they did not keep the commandments of the Law in this world. For the Law is a tree of life for everyone who toils in it and keeps its commandments: he lives and endures like the tree of life in the world to come. The Law is good for those who serve it in this world, like the fruit of the tree of life.

Cain and Abel Bring Their Offerings

1 And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said, “Look, a son has been given to me from before the Lord.” 2 And she bore again, his brother Abel. And Abel was a shepherd of sheep, and Cain was a worker of the earth. 3 And at the end of days Cain brought a gift from the fruits of the earth to the name of the Lord. 4 And Abel too brought one, from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat animals. And the Lord accepted Abel and his offering with favor, 5 but Cain and his offering he did not accept with favor. And Cain grew very angry, and the look of his face changed. 6 And the Lord said to Cain, “Why now are you angry, and why now has the look of your face changed? 7 Is it not so that if you do your deeds well in this world, you will be loosed and forgiven in the world to come? But if you do not do your deeds well in this world, your sin is kept for the day of the great judgment, and at the door of your heart your sin lies crouching. And into your hand I have given power over the evil inclination, and you shall rule over it, whether for innocence or for sin.”⁠a

Cain and Abel Debate Judgment

8 And Cain said to Abel his brother, “Come, let the two of us go out to the face of the field.” And when the two of them had gone out to the face of the field, Cain spoke up and said to Abel, “I see that the world was not created with mercy, and it is not governed by the fruit of good deeds, and there is favoritism in judgment. Otherwise why was your offering accepted with favor, and my offering was not accepted from me with favor?” Abel spoke up and said to Cain, “I see that the world was created with mercy, and it is governed by the fruit of good deeds. And because my good deeds were better than yours, my offering was accepted from me with favor, and your offering was not accepted from you with favor.” Cain spoke up and said to Abel, “There is no judgment, and there is no judge, and there is no other world.⁠b There is no good reward given to the righteous, and no punishment taken from the wicked.” Abel spoke up and said to Cain, “There is judgment, and there is a judge, and there is another world. There is good reward given to the righteous, and punishment taken from the wicked in the world to come.” And over this matter the two of them were quarreling on the face of the field. And Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Cain’s Punishment

9 And the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s guardian?” 10 And he said, “What is this that you have done? The voice of the blood of the multitudes of righteous people who were to arise from Abel your brother is crying out against you before me from the earth. 11 And now, cursed shall you be from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand. 12 When you work the earth, it will no longer give you the fruits of its harvest. An exile and a wanderer you will be, Cain, on the earth.” 13 And Cain said before the Lord, “My sins are too many to bear, but there is power before you to loose and to forgive. 14 Look, you have driven me today from the face of the earth, and from before you it is not possible for me to hide. And Cain will be an exile and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever meets him will kill him.” 15 And the Lord said to him with an oath, “Anyone who kills Cain, it will be held in suspense for him for seven generations.” And the Lord put a sign on Cain so that whoever met him would not kill him. 16 And Cain went out from before the Lord and lived in the land, an exile and a wanderer, to the east of Eden. And before he killed Abel, the earth used to grow for him what was like the fruits of the garden of Eden; but once he sinned and killed Abel, it turned to growing thorns and thistles for him.

The Descendants of Cain

17 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he was building a city, and he called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. 18 And to Enoch Irad was born, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 And Lamech took two wives for himself. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. 20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of all who live in tents and own cattle. 21 And the name of his brother was Jubal. He was the father of all who play the lyre and the pipe. 22 And Zillah too bore Tubal-Cain, a craftsman in every craft of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah; she devised dirges and songs. 23 And Lamech said to his two wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to the words of my mouth. For I have not killed a man, that I should be killed because of him, and I have not harmed a young man, that my descendants should be destroyed after me. 24 For Cain, who killed Abel, it was held in suspense for seven generations; and for Lamech, his son’s son, who did not kill, it is only right that it be held in suspense for him for seventy-seven generations.”

The Birth of Seth

25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and she called his name Seth: “For the Lord has appointed me another son in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.” 26 And to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. Then people began to make idols for themselves and to call them by the name of the Memra of the Lord.

The Generations from Adam to Noah

1 This is the book of the line and generations of Adam. On the day the Lord created Adam, he created him in a likeness from before the Lord. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and called their name Adam on the day he created them. 3 And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and fathered a son in his likeness, resembling him, and called his name Seth. 4 And the days of the life of Adam after he fathered Seth were eight hundred years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 5 And all the days of the life of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 6 And Seth lived a hundred and five years and fathered Enosh. 7 And Seth lived after he fathered Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 8 And all the days of the life of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 9 And Enosh lived ninety years and fathered Kenan. 10 And Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 11 And all the days of the life of Enosh were nine hundred and five years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 12 And Kenan lived seventy years and fathered Mahalalel. 13 And Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 14 And all the days of the life of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 15 And Mahalalel lived sixty-five years and fathered Jared. 16 And Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 17 And all the days of the life of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 18 And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years and fathered Enoch. 19 And Jared lived after he fathered Enoch eight hundred years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 20 And all the days of the life of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 21 And Enoch lived sixty-five years and fathered Methuselah. 22 And Enoch served in truth before the Lord after he fathered Methuselah three hundred years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 23 And all the days of the life of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch served in truth before the Lord, and no one knows where he is,⁠a because he was drawn away by a word from before the Lord. 25 And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty years and fathered Lamech. 26 And Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 27 And all the days of the life of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 28 And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years and fathered a son. 29 And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us for our evil deeds and for the robbery of our hands, from the earth that was cursed by a word from before the Lord.” 30 And Lamech lived after he fathered Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world. 32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Human Wickedness

1 And when people began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of the judges saw that the daughters of people were beautiful to look at, and they took wives for themselves from all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, “None of the generations that are to arise will be judged by the order of judgment of the generation of the flood. Is not the order of judgment of the generation of the flood sealed before him, that it be destroyed and wiped out from the midst of the world? Look, I put my spirit in people, because they are flesh and their deeds are evil. Look, I have given you a reprieve of a hundred and twenty years, in case they might repent, and they have not done so.”⁠a 4 The giants were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, after the sons of the judges went in to the daughters of people and they bore them children. These are the giants who from the beginning of the world were mighty men known by their names. 5 And it was revealed before the Lord that the wickedness of people was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart pondered nothing but evil all day long. 6 And there was regret before the Lord that he had created Adam on the earth, and he was troubled, and he was calmed in his heart. 7 And the Lord said, “I will wipe out Adam, whom I created, from the face of the earth, from people to cattle, to creeping things and to the birds of the heavens, because there is regret before me that I created them.” 8 And Noah, since there was no one righteous in his generation, found grace and favor before the Lord.

Noah and the Ark

9 These are the line and generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, perfect in good deeds in his generations. Noah served before the Lord in truth. 10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 And the inhabitants of the earth corrupted their deeds before the Lord, and the earth was filled with violence and plunderers. 12 And the earth was revealed before the Lord, and look, it was corrupt, because all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth. 13 And the Lord said to Noah, “The outcry of all flesh has come up before me, because the earth is filled with violence and plunder because of them. And look, I am destroying them and the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of cedar wood. You shall make the ark with compartments, and coat it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is the plan by which you shall make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits the measure of its height. 16 You shall make a place for light in the ark, and you shall finish it to the measure of a cubit from the top. And the door of the ark you shall set in its side. You shall make it with a lower story, a second and a third. 17 And I, look, I am bringing the flood of waters on the earth to destroy all flesh in which there is the breath of life from under the heavens. Everything that is on the earth will be wiped out. 18 And I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing, of all flesh, two of each you shall bring into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of each shall come in to you to be kept alive. 21 And you, take for yourself some of every food that is eaten, and gather it to you, and it shall be food for you and for them.” 22 And Noah did everything that the Lord had commanded him; so he did.

Noah Enters the Ark

1 And the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all the people of your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Of all the clean cattle you shall take with you seven pairs, male and female, and of the cattle that are not clean, two, male and female; 3 also of the birds of the heavens seven pairs, male and female, to keep sons alive on the face of the earth. 4 For after seven days, look, I am bringing rain down on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe out every creature that I have created from the face of the earth.” 5 And Noah did everything that the Lord had commanded him. 6 And Noah was six hundred years old, and the flood came, waters on the earth. 7 And Noah went into the ark, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him, from before the waters of the flood. 8 Of the clean cattle and of the cattle that are not clean, and of the birds and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went in with Noah into the ark, male and its mate, as the Lord had commanded Noah. 10 And at the end of the seven days of mourning for Methuselah, the waters of the flood came on the earth.

The Flood

11 At the end of six hundred years of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, at that very time all the springs of the great deep burst open, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 At that very time Noah went into the ark, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them; 14 they, and every wild animal after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything that flies and everything that soars. 15 And they went in with Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh in which there is the breath of life. 16 And those that went in, male and female of all flesh, went in as the Lord had commanded him. And the Lord in his good mercy shielded him. 17 And the flood was on the earth forty days, and the waters increased and lifted the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 And the waters grew strong and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark drifted on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters grew stronger and stronger on the earth, and all the high mountains that are under all the heavens were covered. 20 Fifteen cubits upward the waters grew strong, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh that creeps on the earth came to an end: birds and cattle and wild animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and all people. 22 Everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils, of everything that was on the dry land, died. 23 And he wiped out every creature that was on the face of the earth, from people to cattle, to creeping things and to the birds of the heavens, and they were wiped out from the earth. And only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters grew strong on the earth a hundred and fifty days.

The Waters Recede

1 And the Lord in his good mercy remembered Noah and his sons and all the wild animals and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. And the Lord made a spirit of mercy pass over the earth, and the waters settled. 2 And the springs of the deep and the windows of the heavens were shut, and the rain of the flood was held back from under the heavens. 3 And the waters went back from the earth, going and returning, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had gone down. 4 And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Corduene. 5 And the waters kept going down until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

The Raven and the Dove

6 And at the end of forty days Noah opened the door of the ark that he had made. 7 And he sent out the raven, and it kept going out and coming back until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 And he sent out the dove from beside him to see whether the waters had grown less from the face of the earth. 9 And the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of its foot, and it came back to him to the ark, because the waters were on the face of all the earth. And he stretched out his hand and took it and brought it in to himself into the ark. 10 And he began again to count seven more days, and once more he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him at evening time, and look, there was a plucked olive leaf in its mouth. And Noah knew that the waters had grown less from the earth. 12 And he began again to count another seven days, and he sent out the dove, and it did not come back to him again. 13 And at the end of six hundred and one years, in the first month, on the first of the month, the waters dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and look, the face of the earth had dried. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

Leaving the Ark

15 And the Lord spoke with Noah, saying, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, of birds and of cattle and of every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, bring out with you, and let them breed on the earth and be strong and multiply on the earth.” 18 And Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every living thing, every creeping thing and every bird, everything that creeps on the earth, went out from the ark by their families.

Noah’s Sacrifice

20 And Noah built an altar to the name of the Memra of the Lord, and he took some of every clean animal and of every clean bird and set out burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord accepted Noah’s offering with favor, and the Lord said in the thought of his heart, “I will not again curse the earth because of man, for the inclination of the heart of people is to ponder evil from their youth. And I will not again destroy all that lives, as I have done. 22 From now on, all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.”

The Blessing of Noah and His Sons

1 And the Lord blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be strong and multiply and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every wild animal of the earth and on every bird of the heavens, with everything that creeps on the ground and with all the fish of the Great Sea; into your hands I have handed them over. 3 Every creeping thing that has the breath of life in it shall be food for you; as with the green plants, I have given you everything. 4 Only flesh, its blood with its life, you shall not eat. 5 And your blood, the blood of your lives, I will surely demand back. From every living creature I will demand it back, and from man, and from a man’s brother I will demand back the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by the hands of a man his blood shall be shed, because in a likeness from before the Lord he created man. 7 And you, be strong and multiply, breed on the earth and multiply in it.”

The Covenant and the Rainbow

8 And the Lord said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “And I, look, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your sons after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, among the birds and among the cattle and among every wild animal of the earth with you, of all that came out of the ark, every wild animal of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you, and never again will all flesh be wiped out by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And the Lord said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am setting between my Memra and you and every living creature that is with you, for the generations of the earth. 13 My bow I will set in the cloud, and it will be a sign of the covenant between my Memra and the earth. 14 And when the clouds are spread over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud. 15 And I will remember my covenant between my Memra and you and every living creature among all flesh, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow will be in the cloud, and I will see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between the Memra of the Lord and every living creature among all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And the Lord said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between my Memra and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Noah and His Sons After the Flood

18 And the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth. And Ham was the father of the Canaanites. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was filled. 20 And Noah, a righteous man, began to work the earth, and he planted a vineyard. 21 And he drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he was uncovered inside his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of the Canaanites, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers in the marketplace. 23 And Shem and Japheth took the cloak and put it on the shoulders of both of them, and they walked backward and covered their father’s nakedness. And their faces were turned backward, and their father’s nakedness they did not see. 24 And Noah woke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 And he said, “Cursed is Canaan; he shall be a slave in bondage to his brothers.” 26 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be a slave in bondage to them. 27 May the Lord widen the territory of Japheth, and may the Glory of his Shekinah dwell in the midst of the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be a slave in bondage to them.” 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And all the days of the life of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died and was gathered from the midst of the world.

The Descendants of Noah’s Sons

1 And these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.

The Sons of Japheth

2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras. And the names of their provinces: Phrygia and Germania and Media and Macedonia and Bithynia and Mysia and Thrace. 3 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah. And the names of their provinces: Asia and Barkewi and Barbaria. 4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim. And the names of their provinces: Greece and Tarsus and Italy and Dardania. 5 From these the islands of the nations were parted out in their lands, each man by his language, by their families, in their nations.

The Sons of Ham

6 And the sons of Ham: Cush and Egypt and Put and Canaan. 7 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 8 And Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first to become a mighty one on the earth. 9 He was mighty in sin before the Lord. That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, mighty in sin before the Lord.” 10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, Edessa and Nisibis and Ctesiphon, in the land of Babylon. 11 From that land the Assyrian went out, and he built Nineveh and the broad streets of the city and Adiabene, 12 and Telassar, between Nineveh and Adiabene; that is the great city. 13 And Egypt fathered the Ludim and the Anamim and the Lehabim and the Naphtuhim, 14 and the Pathrusim and the Casluhim, from whom the Philistines came out, and the Cappadocians. 15 And Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, 16 and the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Girgashites, 17 and the Hivites and the Arkites and the Orthosians, 18 and the Arvadites and the Zemarites and the Antiochenes. And after that the clans of the Canaanites were scattered. 19 And the border of the Canaanites ran from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; as you go toward Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Callirrhoe. 20 These are the sons of Ham by their families, by their languages, in their lands, in their nations.

The Sons of Shem

21 And to Shem too children were born; he is the father of all the sons of the Hebrews, the elder brother of Japheth. 22 The sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram. 23 And the sons of Aram: Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash. 24 And Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber. 25 And to Eber two sons were born. The name of one of them was Peleg, because in his days the inhabitants of the earth were divided; and the name of his brother was Joktan. 26 And Joktan fathered Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah, 27 and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah, 28 and Obal and Abimael and Sheba, 29 and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab. All these are the sons of Joktan. 30 And their dwelling place ran from Mesha, as you go toward the Sepharites, the mountains of the east. 31 These are the sons of Shem by their families, by their languages, in their lands, by their nations. 32 These are the families of the sons of Noah by their generations, in their nations. And from these the nations were parted out on the earth after the flood.

The Tower of Babel

1 And all the inhabitants of the earth had one language and one speech, and they would talk together in the language of the sanctuary, the language in which the world was created at the beginning. 2 And it happened, when they turned their hearts away, that they found a plain in the land of Babylon, and they settled there. 3 And they said, each man to his companion, “Come, let us mold bricks and cast them into the kiln.” And the bricks served them as stones, and bitumen served them as plaster. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top reaches up toward the heavens, and let us make ourselves an object of worship at its top, and put a sword in its hand, and let it draw up lines of battle against him, before we are scattered over the face of all the earth.” 5 And the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord was revealed to see the city and the tower that the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one nation, with one language for all of them, and look, now they have begun to act; and now nothing that they have planned to do will be kept back from them. 7 Come now, and I will reveal myself, and there let us confuse their languages, so that they will not understand, each man, the language of his companion.” 8 And the Lord scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they were stopped from building the city. 9 That is why its name was called Babel, because in this way the Lord confused the languages of all the inhabitants of the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over the face of all the earth.

The Generations from Shem to Abram

10 This is the lineage of the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. 11 And after he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 12 And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and fathered Shelah. 13 And after he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and thirty years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 14 And Shelah lived thirty years and fathered Eber. 15 And after he fathered Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 16 And Eber lived thirty-four years and fathered Peleg. 17 And after he fathered Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 18 And Peleg lived thirty years and fathered Reu. 19 And after he fathered Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 20 And Reu lived thirty-two years and fathered Serug. 21 And after he fathered Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 22 And Serug lived thirty years and fathered Nahor. 23 And after he fathered Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 24 And Nahor lived twenty-nine years and fathered Terah. 25 And after he fathered Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteen years, and in those years he was fathering sons and daughters. 26 And Terah lived seventy years and fathered Abraham, Nahor and Haran.

Terah’s Family

27 And these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 And Haran died in the lifetime of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in the furnace of fire of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. 30 And Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of his son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went out with them from the furnace of fire of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came as far as Haran and settled there. 32 And the days of the life of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

The Call of Abram

1 And the Lord said to Abram, “Go away from your land and from your kindred and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will appoint you to be a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name strong, and you shall be blessings. 3 And I will bless the one who blesses you, and the one who curses you shall be cursed; and through your merit all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 And Abram went, just as the Lord had spoken with him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old at the time he went out from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son and all the possessions they had acquired and the persons they had made proselytes, and he went out to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to the land of Canaan. 6 And Abram passed through as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the Plain of Vision. And at that time the Canaanites were still dwelling in the land. 7 And the Memra of the Lord was revealed to Abram and said to him, “To your sons I will give this land.” And he built an altar there to the name of the Memra of the Lord, who had been revealed to him. 8 And from there he moved on to the mountain east of Bethel, and he spread out his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And he built an altar there to the name of the Memra of the Lord, and he served and prayed there in the name of the Memra of the Lord. 9 And Abram set out, going on and setting out toward the south.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, because the famine was severe in the land. 11 And when he had come near to entering Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “Look now, I know that you are a woman beautiful to look at. 12 And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ and they will kill me, but you they will let live. 13 Say, please, that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me on your account, and my life may be preserved through your merits.” 14 And when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw his wife, that she was very beautiful. 15 And Pharaoh’s nobles saw her and praised her before Pharaoh, and the woman was led off to Pharaoh’s palace. 16 And on her account he dealt well with Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and male donkeys and male servants and female servants and female donkeys and camels. 17 And the Lord brought great plagues on Pharaoh and on the men of his house over the matter of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she is your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for myself as a wife? And now, here is your wife; take her and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave great men orders concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

Abram and Lot Separate

1 And Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, toward the south. 2 And Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. 3 And he went on his journeys from the south as far as Bethel, as far as the place where he had spread his tent at the first, between Bethel and Ai, 4 as far as the place of the altar that he had built there at the first. And there Abram prayed in the name of the Memra of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had sheep and oxen and tents. 6 And the land could not hold them, for them to dwell together, because their possessions were many and they were not able to dwell together. 7 And there were quarrels between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Abram’s herdsmen would muzzle their livestock until they came to the pasture land, but Lot’s herdsmen did not muzzle their livestock; instead they let them loose to roam and go where they would. And Abram’s herdsmen had been commanded by Abram their master, saying, “Do not stray toward the Canaanites and the Perizzites; they are still dwelling in the land.” 8 And Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no quarrels between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, because we are like men who are brothers. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Part from me, please. If you go to the north, I will go to the south; and if you go to the south, I will go to the north.” 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that all of it was a well-watered place, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord in its trees, like the land of Egypt in its fruits, as you go toward Zoar. 11 And Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot set out eastward, and they parted, each man from his brother. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and he spread his tent as far as Sodom. 13 And the people of Sodom were evil, each man toward his companion, and greatly guilty before the Lord in the uncovering of nakedness and in the shedding of blood and in strange worship.

The Promise of the Land

14 And the Memra of the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, to the north and to the south, and to the east and to the west, 15 because all the land that you see, to you I will give it, and to your sons forever. 16 And I will make your sons like the dust of the earth; because just as it is not possible for any man to count the dust of the earth, so your sons too cannot possibly be counted. 17 Rise up, walk about in the land, through its length and through its breadth, because to you I will give it.” 18 And Abram spread out his tent, and came and dwelt in the Plain of Vision, which is in Hebron, and there he built an altar in the name of the Memra of the Lord.

The War of the Kings

1 And it happened in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of the nations, 2 that they drew up battle with Bera king of Sodom and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of the city that swallowed up its inhabitants, that is, Zoar. 3 All these kings joined forces in the Plain of the Orchards, that is, the Salt Sea. 4 Twelve years they had served before Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled against him. 5 And in the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer came, and the kings who were with him, and they killed the giants in Ashteroth of Karnaim, and the strongest who were among them, and the Emtanites who dwelt inside the city, 6 and the Horites who dwelt on the mountain of Gebal, as far as the border of Paran, which lies next to the wilderness. 7 And they turned back and came to the Spring of Judgment, that is, Rekem, and they struck down all the territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in En Gedi of the Palms. 8 And the king of Sodom went out, and the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of the city that swallowed up its inhabitants, that is, Zoar, and they drew up lines of battle against them in the Plain of the Orchards, 9 against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of the nations and Amraphel king of Babylon and Arioch king of Pontus: four kings drew up battle against five, and they overcame them. 10 And the Plain of the Orchards was pit after pit full of bitumen; and the kings of Sodom and of Gomorrah fled and fell there, and those who were left fled to the mountain. 11 And they took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and went away. 12 And they took Lot and his possessions, Lot the son of Abram’s brother, and went away; and he was dwelling in Sodom.

Abram Rescues Lot

13 And a survivor came and told Abram the Hebrew. And he was dwelling in the Plain of the Vision of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner; and they were Abram’s covenant partners. 14 And Abram heard that Lot his brother’s son had been taken captive, and he armed his young men, those raised in his house, three hundred and ten, and pursued after them as far as Caesarea. 15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his officers, and he killed them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. 16 And he brought back all the possessions; and Lot his brother’s son and his possessions he also brought back, and also the women and the people. 17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after he had returned from killing Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, in the Plain of the Orchards, that is, the King’s Plain.

Melchizedek, Shem the Great

18 And Melchizedek king of Jerusalem, who is Shem the Great, brought out bread and wine; and he was a priest who served in the high priesthood before the Most High God. 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed is Abram before the Most High God, who by his Memra made the heavens and the earth. 20 And blessed is the Most High God, who has shattered your enemies before you.” And he gave him one out of ten of everything.

Abram Refuses the King’s Goods

21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the possessions for yourself.” 22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, “Look, I have raised my hand in an oath before the Lord, the Most High God, who by his Memra made the heavens and the earth, 23 that I will not take so much as the thread of a sandal strap, of anything that is yours, so that you will not boast and say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 Nothing for me; only what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol and Mamre: they shall take their share.”

Abram’s Reward in the World to Come

1 After these things, after all the kingdoms of the earth had gathered together and drawn up battle against Abram, and had fallen before him, and he had killed four kings of them and brought back nine camps, Abram thought in his heart and said, “Woe is me now! Perhaps I have received the reward of the commandments in this world, and there is no portion for me in the world to come. Or perhaps the brothers or the kinsmen of these slain men who fell before me will go and be in their fortified towns and in their cities, and many legions will join up with them, and they will come against me and kill me. Or perhaps there were a few commandments to my credit the first time, when they fell before me, and they stood up for me; or perhaps no commandment will be found to my credit the second time, and the name of Heaven will be profaned through me.” For this reason a word of prophecy came from before the Lord to Abram the righteous, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram; for even though many legions join up and come against you to kill you, my Memra will be a shield for you, and it will be a protection for you in this world. And even though I have handed your enemies over before you in this world, the reward of your good deeds is made ready for you before me in the world to come.”⁠a

The Promise of an Heir

2 And Abram said, “I entreat you, in mercy from before you, Lord: much you have given me, and much is before you to give me; but I am going from the world without sons, and Eliezer, a son of my house, by whose hands miracles were done for me in Damascus, will be my heir.” 3 And Abram said, “Look, to me you have not given sons, and look, a son of my house will be my heir.” 4 And indeed a word of prophecy came from before the Lord to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir; but only the one who comes out of your own body, he will be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look up now at the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And he said to him, “So shall the offspring of your sons be.” 6 And Abram believed in the name of the Memra of the Lord, and it was counted to him as merit.

The Covenant with Abram

7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of the furnace of fire of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”⁠b 8 And he said, “I entreat you, in mercy from before you: by what now shall I know that I will inherit it?” 9 And he said to him, “Offer before me a heifer three years old, and a goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtledove, and a fledgling, a young pigeon.” 10 And he offered all these before him, and he cut them through the middle, and set each piece opposite its fellow; but the birds he did not cut. 11 And the birds came down on the pieces, and the merit of Abram drove them away. When the bird of prey came down, it settled on the pieces. What is this bird of prey? This bird of prey is the unclean bird of prey; this is the unclean bird. These are the kingdoms of the earth: when they plot evil plots against the house of Israel, through the merits of Abram their father there is deliverance for them. 12 And the sun was about to set, and a sweet sleep fell on Abram. And look, Abram saw four kingdoms rising up against him. Dread: that is Babylon. Darkness: that is Media. Great: that is Greece. Fell upon him: that is wicked Edom, which is destined to fall and will have no rising again. 13 And he said to Abram, “Know for certain that the offspring of your sons will be strangers and settlers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them four hundred years. 14 But the nation that enslaves them, I will exact payment from it; after that they will go out with great wealth. 15 And you shall be gathered to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And the fourth generation will return here, because the sins of the Amorites are not yet complete.” 17 And look, the sun had set and there was darkness; and look, Abram was watching while benches were set in order and thrones were set up. And look, Gehenna, which is likened to a furnace, to an oven, surrounded by sparks of fire, by flames of fire, into the middle of which the wicked fell, because the wicked rebelled against the Law in their lifetime in this world; and the righteous, because they kept it, were delivered from the distress. All this was shown to Abram as he passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your sons I will give this land, from the Nile of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 the Salmaeans and the Kenizzites and the Easterners, 20 and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the giants, 21 and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Sarai and Hagar

1 And Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children; and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abraham, “Look now, the Lord has kept me from giving birth. Go in now to my maidservant; perhaps I too may be built up through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 And Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maidservant, at the end of ten years of days after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan, and she gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and she saw that she had conceived, and the honor of her mistress became light in her sight. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “My judgment and my humiliation, my disgrace and the beginning of my distress, are handed over into your hand. I left my land and the house of my birth and the house of my father, and I came with you in faith. I went in with you before the kings of the earth, before Pharaoh king of Egypt and before Abimelech king of Gerar, and I said, ‘He is my brother,’ so that they would not kill you. And I saw that I was not bearing, and I took Hagar the Egyptian, my maidservant, and gave her to you as a wife, and I said, ‘She will bear and I will raise; perhaps I too may be built up through her.’ And she saw that she had conceived, and my honor became light in her sight. And now let the Lord be revealed and judge between me and you, and let him spread his peace between me and you, and let the earth be filled from us, and we will not need the sons of Hagar the Egyptian, who is of the sons of the sons of the people who threw you into the furnace of fire of the Chaldeans.” 6 And Abram said to Sarai, “Look, your maidservant is in your hand; do to her what is good in your sight.” And Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from before her.

Hagar and the Angel

7 And the angel of the Lord came upon her by the spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the road to Elusa. 8 And he said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, where are you coming from, and where are you going? And where will you find a house like the house of Abram your master?” And she said, “I am fleeing from before Sarai my mistress.” 9 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress, and bear affliction under her hand.” 10 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your sons, and they will not be counted for their great number.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Look, you are with child, and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because your affliction has been heard before the Lord. 12 And he will be like a wild donkey among people: his hands will rule over everyone, and the hands of everyone will rule over him, and he will dwell before all the nations.” 13 And she prayed in the name of the Memra of the Lord who had been revealed to her: “You are the God who endures through all ages”; for she said, “Look, now too he has been revealed to me, after he was revealed to Sarai my mistress.” 14 That is why the well was called the Well Over Which the One Who Endures Through All Ages Was Revealed. Look, it is between Rekem and Elusa.

The Birth of Ishmael

15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore him, Ishmael. 16 And Abram was eighty-six years old at the time Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

The Covenant of Circumcision

1 And Abram was ninety-nine years old, and the Memra of the Lord was revealed to Abram and said to him, “I am the God of the heavens. Serve before me in truth, and be perfect in good work. 2 And I will set my covenant between me and you, and I will make you strong, very, very greatly.” 3 And Abram bowed down on his face, and the Memra of the Lord spoke with him, saying, 4 “As for me, look, my covenant is with you, and you shall become an assembly of a congregation of righteous nations. 5 And your name shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, because I have made you an assembly of a congregation of righteous nations. 6 And I will make you strong, very, very greatly, and I will make you into nations; kings who rule over the nations will come out of your loins. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your sons after you, for their generations, as an everlasting covenant, to be, by my Memra, God to you and to your sons after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your sons after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and by my Memra I will be to them a God who redeems.” 9 And the Lord said to Abraham, “And you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your sons after you, for their generations. 10 This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your sons after you: every male of yours shall be circumcised. 11 And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of a covenant between my Memra and you. 12 And at eight days old every male of yours shall be circumcised, for your generations, the one raised in your houses and the one bought with your money from any gentile who is not of your sons. 13 He shall surely be circumcised, the one raised in your houses and the one bought with your money; and my covenant shall be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. 14 And an uncircumcised male who does not circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be blotted out from among his people: he has made my covenant void.”

The Promise of Isaac

15 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, because Sarah is her name. 16 And I have blessed her, and also I have given you a son by her; and I have blessed her, and she shall become nations: kings who rule over the nations shall arise from her.” 17 And Abraham bowed down on his face and was amazed, and said in his heart, “Look, a man a hundred years old: is it possible for me to father sons? And Sarah, look, a woman ninety years old: is it possible for her to give birth?” 18 And Abraham said before the Lord, “If only Ishmael might live before you!” 19 And the Lord said to Abraham, “But look, Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant, and with his sons after him. 20 And concerning Ishmael, I have heard the voice of your prayer. Look, I have blessed him and made him strong and multiplied him very, very greatly; he will father twelve princes, and I will make him a great inheritance. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season in the next year.” 22 And he finished speaking with him, and the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord went up from Abraham.

Abraham Circumcises His Household

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all those raised in his house, and all those bought with money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin at the time of that very day, just as the Lord had spoken with him. 24 And Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin. 26 At the time of that very day Abraham circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael his son. 27 And all the men of his house, those raised in his house and those bought with money from a gentile, were circumcised with him.

Three Angels Visit Abraham

1 Three angels were sent to our father Abraham at the time that he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and the three of them were sent for three matters,⁠a because it is not possible for one of the angels on high to be sent with more than one matter. The first angel was sent to bring Abraham the news that Sarah would bear Isaac for him; and the second angel was sent to rescue Lot from the midst of the overthrow; and the third angel was sent to overturn Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim. And the Memra of the Lord was revealed to Abraham in the plains of Vision, and he was sitting at the door of his tent in the strength of the day, warming himself from the blood of his circumcision, in the heat of the day. 2 And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and there were three angels in the likeness of men standing over him. And he saw them and ran from the door of the tent to meet them, and he greeted them according to the custom of the land. 3 And he said, “I beg you, from before you, Lord: if now I have found grace and favor in your face, do not let the Glory of your Shekinah go up from your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought now, and wash your feet and rest under the tree. 5 And I will bring a little food, and you can refresh your hearts, and after that you will pass on, since for this reason you have passed by your servant at the hour of the meal.” And they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hurried and went to the tent, to Sarah, and said, “Hurry, take three seahs of fine flour; knead it and make unleavened cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the young man, and he hurried to prepare it. 8 And he took cream and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set them before them, and he was standing over them under the tree, and they appeared as though they were eating and as though they were drinking.⁠b

The Promise of Sarah’s Son

9 And they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “Look, she is in the tent.” 10 And he said, “I will surely come back to you at this time, and there will be a male son for Sarah your wife.” And Sarah was listening at the door of the tent, and Ishmael was standing behind her, listening. 11 And Abraham and Sarah were old and advanced in days; the way of women had stopped being with Sarah. 12 And Sarah wondered in her heart, saying, “After I have grown old, is it possible for me to go back to the days of my youth and to conceive again, when my master Abraham is old?” 13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Now Sarah has laughed, saying, ‘Is it really true that I will give birth, when I have grown old?’ 14 Is it possible for anything to be hidden from before the Lord? At the set time I will come back to you, at this time, and Sarah will have a male son.” 15 And Sarah lied, saying, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. And he said to her, “No, for you did laugh.”

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

16 And the men rose from there and gazed out toward Sodom, and Abraham was going with them to see them on their way. 17 And the Lord said in his Memra, “Look, am I hiding from Abraham my friend what I am doing? Since the city of Sodom is within the gift I gave him, it is right that I not overturn it until I have let him know. 18 And Abraham will surely become a great and strong nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in his merit. 19 For it is revealed before me that he will command his sons and the people of his house after him, and they will keep the way of the Lord, doing righteousness and justice, so that the Memra of the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken with him.” 20 And the Lord said, “The outcry of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, indeed it has grown great, and their sins, indeed they are very heavy. 21 I will be revealed now and see: if they have done according to their outcry that has come up before me, they are guilty of complete destruction; and if they seek to repent, and they think in their souls that perhaps their evil deeds are not revealed before me, look, they are before me as though I did not know.” 22 And the men turned from there and went to Sodom, and Abraham was still standing, praying for mercy from before the Lord. 23 And Abraham drew near and said, “Look, will you in anger destroy the innocent with the guilty? 24 Perhaps there are fifty innocent in the midst of the city; will you in anger destroy, and not pardon and forgive the sins of the place for the sake of the fifty innocent who are in it? 25 Far be it from before you to do this thing, to kill the innocent with the guilty, so that the judgment of the innocent is like the judgment of the guilty. Far be it from before you to do this thing! Shall the Judge of the judges of all the inhabitants of the earth not do justice?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty innocent in the midst of the city, I will pardon and forgive all the guilty of the place for their sake.” 27 And Abraham answered and said, “Look, now I have begun to speak before the Lord, and I am dust and ashes. 28 Perhaps the fifty innocent will lack five; will you destroy the whole city because of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 And he spoke with him again and said, “Perhaps forty will be found there?” And he said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of forty innocent.” 30 And he said, “Do not let the anger of the Lord grow strong now, and I will speak: perhaps thirty will be found there?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find thirty there.” 31 And he said, “Look, now I have begun to speak before the Lord: perhaps twenty will be found there?” And he said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty innocent.” 32 And he said, “Do not let the anger of the Lord grow strong now, and I will speak only this one time: perhaps ten will be found there?” And he said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” 33 And the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord went up when he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

The Angels Visit Lot

1 And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. And Lot saw them and ran to meet them, and he greeted them according to the custom of the land. 2 And he said, “I beg you, my masters, turn aside now to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet, and you can rise early and go on your way.” And they said to him, “No, for we will spend the night in the street of the city.” 3 And he pressed them very hard, and they turned aside to him and went into his house. And he made them a meal and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Before they had lain down, the people of the city, the people of Sodom, surrounded his house, from the young to the old, all the people from one side. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” 6 And he went out to them, outside, and shut the door behind him. 7 And he said, “No, now, my brothers, do not do evil. 8 Look now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you now, and do to them whatever is pleasing in your face; only do nothing to these men, because it is for this reason that they have come, to spend the night in the shade of my roof.” 9 And they said, “Get back!” And they said, “This one came to live as a stranger among us, and look, he wants to be judge over our judgments! Now we will do worse to you than to them.” And they pressed hard against the man, against Lot, and came near to break the door. 10 And the men put out their hands and brought Lot into the house to them, and they shut the door. 11 And the men who were at the door of the house they struck with blindness, from the least of them to the oldest, and they wore themselves out trying to find the door of the house, and they did not find the door.

Lot Is Rescued

12 And the men said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? Your son-in-law, your sons and your daughters, and everyone you have in the city, bring out of this place. 13 For we are destroying this place, because their outcry has grown great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 And Lot went out and spoke with his sons-in-law, who were to take his daughters, and said, “Get up, go out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” And he seemed like one who was joking in the face of his sons-in-law. 15 And when the column of dawn was rising, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, so that you are not destroyed in the sins of the city.” 16 And he lingered, and the men took hold of his hand and the hand of his wife and the hand of his two daughters, because the pity from before the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And when they had brought them outside, he said, “Escape for your life; do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, so that you are not destroyed.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Wait now a little while, until I pray for mercy from before the Lord. 19 Look now, your servant has found grace and favor before you, and you have made great your kindness that you have shown me in keeping my soul alive; and I am not able to escape to the mountain, for fear that evil will overtake me and I die. 20 Look now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is near. Let me escape there now; is it not small? And my soul will live.” 21 And he said to him, “Look, I have shown you favor in this matter too, not to overturn the city you have spoken of. 22 Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you have gone in there.” For this reason he called the name of the city Zoar.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

23 The sun set over the earth, and Lot entered Zoar. 24 And the Memra of the Lord brought down sulfur and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah from before the Lord, from the heavens. 25 And he overturned those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grows from the ground. 26 And because Lot’s wife was one of the daughters of the people of Sodom, she looked behind her to see what would become of the end of her father’s house. And look, she stands a pillar of salt until the time when the dead are brought to life. 27 And Abraham rose early in the morning to the place where he had stood and prayed there before the Lord. 28 And he gazed toward Sodom and toward Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain, and he saw, and look, the smoke of the land was going up like the vapor of the smoke of a furnace. 29 And when the Lord destroyed the cities of the plain, the Lord remembered Abraham in his good mercies and sent Lot out from the midst of the overthrow, when he overturned the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30 And Lot went up from Zoar and lived in the cave, he and his two daughters with him, because he was afraid to live in Zoar; and he lived in the cave, he and his two daughters. 31 And the elder said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us in the way of all the earth. 32 Come, let us give our father wine to drink, and let us lie with him, so that we may raise up sons from our father.” 33 And they gave their father wine to drink that night, and the elder went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she got up. 34 And on the next day the elder said to the younger, “Look, I lay with father last night. Let us give him wine to drink tonight as well, and you go in and lie with him, so that we may raise up sons from our father.” 35 And they gave their father wine to drink that night as well, and the younger got up and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she got up. 36 And the two daughters of Lot conceived by their father. 37 And the elder bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father, the father of the Moabites, to the time of this day. 38 And the younger also bore a son and called his name Bar-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites to the time of this day.

Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech

1 And Abraham set out from there for the land of the south, and lived between Rekem and Elusa, and stayed as a stranger in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 And the Memra of the Lord was revealed to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “Look, you are going to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 And Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, “I beg, by the mercy from before you, Lord: shall a people be killed in judgment, even an innocent one? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the perfection of my heart and in the honesty of my hands I have done this.” 6 And the Memra of the Lord said to him in the dream, “I too, it is revealed before me that in the perfection of your heart you have done this, and I too held you back from sinning before me; for this reason I did not give you leave to come near her. 7 And now give back the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. And if you do not give her back, know that you will surely die, Abimelech, and everything that is his.”

Abimelech Confronts Abraham

8 And Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his officers and spoke these words in their hearing, and the men were very much afraid. 9 And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And what sin have I committed against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom great sins? You have done things to me that are not fit to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you have done this thing?” 11 And Abraham said, “Because I said, ‘Surely the fear of the Lord is not to be found in this place, and they will kill me because of Sarah my wife.’ 12 And besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father, only not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when the nations sought to lead me astray after their idols, and the Memra of the Lord brought me out of my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you shall do for me: in every place we come to, say there now about me, “He is my brother.”’”

Abimelech Returns Sarah

14 And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and he showed him Sarah his wife. 15 And Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you; live wherever is pleasing in your face.” 16 And to Sarah he said, “Look, I have given a thousand selas of silver to your brother. Look, that silver is given to you as a gift, because you were hidden, if only for one night, from the eyes of the righteous man, and from everyone who was with you; and above everything you have been proved right. But if I had given everything I have, I would not have been worthy, so that Abraham the righteous may know that I did not know you.” 17 And Abraham prayed before the Lord, and the Lord healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, and they bore children. 18 For the Lord had firmly closed every opening of the womb in the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

The Birth of Isaac

1 And the Lord remembered Sarah in his good mercies, as he had said, and the Lord worked miracles for Sarah, as he had spoken. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time the Lord had spoken of with him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised Isaac his son when he was eight days old, as the Lord had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was a hundred years old at the time Isaac his son was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “Great joy has been made for me from before the Lord; everyone who hears will rejoice with me.” 7 And she said, “If only someone would go and tell in the house of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, that Sarah has nursed sons, for she has borne him a son in his old age.”

Hagar and Ishmael Are Sent Away

8 And the boy grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great banquet on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, doing deeds that are not proper, like one sporting in foreign worship. 10 And she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maidservant and her son, for the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with my son, with Isaac.” 11 And the matter was very evil in Abraham’s face, because of Ishmael his son. 12 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Do not let it be evil in your face because of the boy and because of your maidservant. Everything that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, for through Isaac a line of sons will be called yours. 13 And the son of the maidservant too I will make into a great nation, because he is your son.” 14 And Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, along with the boy, and he sent her away. And she went and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15 And the water in the skin ran out, and she threw the boy down under one of the trees. 16 And she went and sat down by herself, opposite him, a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” And she sat by herself opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And the voice of the boy was heard before the Lord, and an angel of the Lord called to Hagar from the heavens and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, for the Lord has heard the voice of the boy’s prayer in the place where he is. 18 Get up, lift the boy, and keep a firm hold on him with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 19 And the Lord opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And the Lord was with the boy, and he grew up and lived in the wilderness, and he became one who learned to shoot with the bow. 21 And he lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The Covenant at Beersheba

22 And at that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, saying, “The Lord is with you in everything you do. 23 And now swear to me here by the name of the Lord that you will not deal falsely with me, or with my son, or with my son’s son. As the kindness I have done with you, so you shall do with me and with the land where you have lived as a stranger.” 24 And Abraham said, “Look, I swear, and I will keep the oath.” 25 And Abraham rebuked Abimelech about the well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized. 26 And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; and you too did not tell me, and I myself had not heard of it until today.” 27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set the seven lambs of the flock apart by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What are these seven lambs that you have set apart by themselves?” 30 And he said, “Because you will take the seven lambs from my hand, so that they may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 For this reason he called the name of that place Beersheba, because there the two of them made a covenant. 32 And they made a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech rose, with Phicol the commander of his army, and they returned to their land, to the Philistines. 33 And Abraham planted an orchard in Beersheba and gave food in it to those passing by. And when they had eaten and drunk, they would try to give him the price of what they had eaten and drunk, and he would say to them, “It is from the one who spoke and the world came to be that you are eating.” And they would not move from there until he had made them proselytes and taught them to give praise to the Master of the world. And he worshiped and prayed in the name of the Memra of the Lord, the God of the world. 34 And Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines many days.

Abraham Is Tested

1 And it happened after these things that the Lord tested Abraham with the tenth test, and said to him, “Abraham.” And Abraham answered in the language of the sanctuary, and Abraham said to him, “Here I am.” 2 And he said, “Take now your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Mount Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you of.” 3 And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took his two young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and rose and went to the place that the Lord had told him of. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from far off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go on as far as over there, and we will pray, and we will come back to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them went on together with a whole heart. 7 And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “From before the Lord a lamb has been made ready for him for the burnt offering; and if not, you are the lamb for the burnt offering.” And the two of them went on together with a whole heart.

The Binding of Isaac

9 And they came to the place that the Lord had told him of, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 And Abraham put out his hand and took the knife to slaughter Isaac his son. Isaac answered and said to Abraham his father, “Father, tie me up well, so that I do not kick you, and your offering be made unfit, and we be thrust down into the pit of destruction in the world to come.” Abraham’s eyes were on Isaac’s eyes, and Isaac’s eyes were gazing at the angels on high. Abraham did not see them. At that hour a voice came out from the heavens and said, “Come, see two only ones in my world: one slaughters and one is slaughtered. The one who slaughters does not hold back, and the one who is slaughtered stretches out his neck.” 11 And the angel of the Lord called to him from the heavens and said, “Abraham, Abraham.” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 And he said, “Do not put out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear from before the Lord, and you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and there was a ram caught in a tree by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham worshiped and prayed in the name of the Memra of the Lord, and said, “I beg, by the mercy from before you, Lord: everything is revealed and known before you, that there was no division in my heart at the first time, when you told me to offer Isaac my son, to make him dust and ashes before you; but at once I rose early in the morning and carried out your word with joy,⁠a and I fulfilled your decree. And now, when his sons stand in the hour of distress, may you remember the binding of Isaac their father, and hear the voice of their prayer, and answer them, and save them from every distress, so that the generations that are to arise after him will say: On the mountain of the sanctuary of the Lord Abraham offered Isaac his son, and on this mountain the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord was revealed to him.” 15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from the heavens, 16 and said, “By the name of his Memra I have sworn, says the Lord: because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only one, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your sons like the stars of the heavens and like the sand that is on the shore of the sea; and your sons will inherit the cities of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed in your descendants, because you have listened to the voice of his Memra.” 19 And Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived in Beersheba.

The Descendants of Nahor

20 And after these things it was told to Abraham, saying, “Look, Milcah too has borne sons to Nahor your brother: 21 Uz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 and Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.” 23 And Bethuel fathered Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

The Death of Sarah

1 And the life of Sarah was a hundred and twenty-seven years: the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in the city of the four patriarchs, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.

Abraham Buys a Burial Place

3 And Abraham rose from beside his dead and spoke with the sons of Heth, saying, 4 “I am a resident and a settler among you. Give me a possession for a burial place among you, so that I may bury my dead from before me.” 5 And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Listen to us, our master: you are a great one from before the Lord among us. Bury your dead in the best of our graves. Not one of us will keep his grave from you, to stop you burying your dead.” 7 And Abraham rose and greeted them according to the custom of the land of the sons of Heth. 8 And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your will that I bury my dead from before me, listen to me, and plead for me with Ephron son of Zohar, 9 and let him sell me the cave of Machpelah, which is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me among you for full silver, as a possession for a burial place.” 10 And Ephron was living among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, of all who came in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my master, listen to me: the field I have given you, and the cave that is in it I give to you; in the presence of the sons of the people I have given it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he spoke with Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “Only, if you would listen to me: look, I have given the silver for the field; accept it from me, and I will bury my dead there.” 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My master, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred selas of silver, between me and you, what does it count for? Bury your dead.” 16 And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out the silver that he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred selas of silver, current in every place and accepted in every trade. 17 And the field of Ephron, which is in Machpelah, which is facing Mamre, the field and the cave that is in it, and all the trees that are in the field, that are within all its border round about, 18 passed to Abraham as a purchase, in the presence of the sons of Heth, of all who came in at the gate of his city. 19 And after this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. 20 And the field and the cave that is in it passed to Abraham as a possession for a burial place from the sons of Heth.

The Servant’s Oath to Abraham

1 And Abraham was old and advanced in days, and the Memra of the Lord had blessed Abraham in everything. 2 And Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who had charge of everything that was his, “Put your hand now under my thigh, 3 and I will make you swear by the name of the Memra of the Lord, the God of the heavens, who is the God who rules over the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live; 4 but you shall go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, for Isaac.” 5 And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to come after me to this land; must I then take your son back to the land you came out of?” 6 And Abraham said to him, “Be careful that you do not take my son back there. 7 The Lord, the God of the heavens, who brought me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke with me and who made a covenant with me, saying, ‘To your sons I will give this land,’ he will send the angel of mercy before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there. 8 And if the woman is not willing to come after you, you will be clear of this oath of mine; only you shall not take my son back there.” 9 And the servant put his hand under the covenant of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

The Servant Meets Rebekah

10 And the servant took ten camels from his master’s camels, and all the best of his master’s testament with him, and he rose and went to the land of Naharaim, to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made the camels kneel outside the city by the well of water, at the time of evening, at the hour when the women who draw water come out. 12 And he said, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, let it be arranged for me now, before me, this day, and do kindness with my master Abraham. 13 Look, I am standing, stationed by the spring of water, and the daughters of the people of the land are coming out to draw water. 14 And let the young woman to whom I say, ‘Lower your jar now, and let me drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels too,’ be the one you have appointed for your servant, for Isaac; and by her I will know that you have done kindness with my master.” 15 And before he had finished speaking, look, Rebekah was coming out, who was born to Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her jar on her shoulder. 16 And the young woman was very beautiful in appearance, a virgin, and no man had known her. And she went down to the spring, and filled her jar, and came up. 17 And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Give me a drink now from your jar.” 18 And she said, “Drink, my master,” and she hurried and lowered her jar onto her hand and gave him a drink. 19 And she finished giving him a drink, and she said, “I will draw for your camels too, until they have finished drinking.” 20 And she hurried and emptied her jar into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. 21 And the man was drinking and gazing at her in silence, to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosper or not. 22 And when the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold nose ring, a teba in weight, and two bracelets for her hand, ten of gold in weight. 23 And he said, “Whose daughter are you? Tell me now: is there room in the house for us to spend the night?” 24 And she said to him, “I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.” 25 And she said to him, “We have both straw and plenty of fodder, and also room to spend the night.” 26 And the man bowed down, and gave thanks and praise to the name of the Lord. 27 And he said, “Blessed is the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and his truth with my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

The Servant Speaks with Rebekah’s Family

28 And the young woman ran into the house of the brothers of my master, of her mother, and told all these things. 29 And Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban; and Laban ran out to the man, outside, to the spring. 30 And when he saw the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, “This is what the man said to me,” he came to the man, and look, he was standing by the camels at the spring. 31 And he said, “Come in, blessed of the Lord; why are you standing outside now? I have cleared the house of foreign worship, and there is a place for the camels.” 32 And the man came into the house, and he unloaded the camels and gave straw and fodder to the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. 33 And they set food before him to eat; but he said, “I will not eat until I have spoken my words.” And he said, “Speak.” 34 And he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 And the Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he has grown great; and he has given him sheep and oxen, and silver and gold, and male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. 36 And Sarah, my master’s wife, bore my master a son after he had grown old, and he has given him everything he has. 37 And my master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; 38 but you shall go to my father’s house, and to my family, and take a wife for my son, for Isaac.’ 39 And I said to my master, ‘Perhaps the woman will not come after me.’ 40 And he said to me, ‘The Lord, before whom I have served in truth, will send his angel before you and make your journey prosper, and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s house. 41 Then you will be clear of my oath, when you come to my family; and if they do not give her to you, you will be clear of my oath.’ 42 And I came today to the spring and said, ‘I beg, by the mercy from before you, Lord, God of my master Abraham: if it is your will before you to make prosper my way on which I am going, 43 look, I am standing, stationed by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I say, “Give me a little water now to drink from your jar,” 44 and who says to me, “You drink, and I will draw for your camels too,” let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’ 45 Before I had finished speaking with my heart, look, Rebekah was coming out with her jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew; and I said to her, ‘Give me a drink now.’ 46 And she hurried and lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels a drink too.’ And I drank, and she gave the camels a drink too. 47 And I asked her and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ And I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her hands. 48 And I bowed down, and gave thanks and praise to the name of the Lord, and I prayed before the God of my master Abraham, who led me on the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brothers for his son. 49 And now, if it is your will to do kindness and goodness with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, and I will turn to the right or to the left.”

Rebekah Leaves with the Servant

50 And Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The matter has come from before the Lord; we cannot speak to you either bad or good. 51 Look, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be a wife to my master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.” 52 And when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he gave thanks and praise to the name of the Lord according to the custom of the land. 53 And the servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah; and he gave gifts to her brother and to her mother. 54 And they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and they spent the night. And they rose in the morning and said, “Send me away to my master.” 55 And her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman stay with us two days or ten days, and after that she will go.” 56 And he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey prosper; send me away, and I will go to my master.” 57 And they said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her own mouth.” 58 And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” 59 And they sent off Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Truly, until now you were our sister; but from here on you are going and joining yourself to him, to the pious man. And from you will arise thousands and tens of thousands, and your sons will inherit the cities of their enemies.” 61 And Rebekah and her maid rose and rode on the camels and went after the man; and the servant took Rebekah and went.

Isaac and Rebekah Meet

62 And Isaac was coming from the house of the sanctuary of Shem the Great, to the well over which the One who sustains all the ages was revealed; and he was living in the land of the south. 63 And Isaac went out to pray in the open field toward evening, and he lifted up his eyes and saw, and look, camels were coming. 64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac, and she bent down from the camel. 65 And she said to the servant, “Who is that man coming in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “He is my master.” And she took her veil and covered herself with it. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things he had done. 67 And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after Sarah his mother died.

The Sons of Keturah

1 And Abraham took a wife again, and her name was Keturah. 2 And she bore him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. 3 And Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were traders and merchants and heads of nations. 4 And the sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. 5 And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. 6 And to the sons of the concubines that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from Isaac his son while he was still alive, eastward, to the land of the east.

The Death of Abraham

7 And these are the days of the years of the life of Abraham that he lived: a hundred and seventy-five years. 8 And Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, old and full of years, and he was gathered to his people. 9 And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, which faces Mamre, 10 the field that Abraham bought from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife. 11 And after the death of Abraham, the Lord blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled by the well over which the One who endures through all ages had been revealed.

The Descendants of Ishmael

12 And these are the generations of Ishmael son of Abraham, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham. 13 And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; and Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam, 14 and Mishma and Dumah and Massa, 15 Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. 16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, in their villages and in their encampments: twelve chiefs for their nations. 17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael: a hundred and thirty-seven years. And he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. 18 And they lived from India as far as Elusa, which faces Egypt as you go toward Assyria. And he settled facing all his brothers.

The Birth of Esau and Jacob

19 And these are the generations of Isaac son of Abraham: Abraham fathered Isaac. 20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as his wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan, the sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 And Isaac prayed before the Lord on behalf of Rebekah his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord answered him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 And the children shoved one another in her womb, and she said, “If this is the anguish of having children, why should I have children now?” And she went to the house of study of Shem the Great to seek mercy from before the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two kingdoms will part from your womb; and one kingdom will be stronger than the other kingdom, and the elder will be subject to the younger.”⁠a 24 And the days of her giving birth were completed, and indeed there were twins in her womb. 25 And the first came out ruddy, all of him like a cloak of hair, and they called his name Esau. 26 And after that his brother came out, his hand gripping Esau’s heel, and he called his name Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old at the time he fathered them. 27 And the boys grew up, and Esau was a man who knew hunting, a man, a master of the fields; and Jacob was a man perfect in good work, who lived in the houses of study. 28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; and Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

29 And Jacob cooked a dish of lentils, and Esau came in from the open country, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat now some of this red dish, because I am exhausted.” That is why they called his name Edom. 31 And Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 And Esau said, “Look, I am going to die. So what use to me is the birthright?” 33 And Jacob said, “Swear to me, as on this day.” And he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and a dish of lentils, and he ate and drank, and got up and went away. And Esau despised his birthright, and the resurrection of the dead, and he denied the life of the world to come.

Isaac and Abimelech

1 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that had been in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar. 2 And the Lord was revealed to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land that I tell you. 3 Stay in this land, and I will be with you in my Memra, and I will bless you; for to you and to your sons I will give all these lands, and I will carry out the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will multiply you like the stars of the heavens, and I will give your sons all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in your merit, 5 because Abraham obeyed the voice of my Memra and kept my charge: my commandments and my covenants and the orders of my judgments.” 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. 7 And the men of the place asked about his wife, and he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” so that the people of the land would not kill him on account of Rebekah, because she was very beautiful to look at. 8 And when he had been there many days, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through the window and saw, and there was Isaac sporting with Rebekah his wife. 9 And Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Surely, look, she is your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘So that I do not die on her account.’” 10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? A little more, and one of the young men would have lain with your wife, and you would have brought great sins on us.” 11 And Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “Whoever comes near this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

The Disputes over the Wells

12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred measures of grain. And the Lord blessed him. 13 And the man grew strong, and kept on growing stronger until he became very strong. 14 And he had possessions of sheep and possessions of oxen and many servants, and the Philistines envied him. 15 And all the wells that his father’s servants had dug, the Philistines stopped up and filled with dirt. 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, because you have grown much stronger than we are.” 17 And Isaac went away from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham; and he called them by the same names by which his father had called them. 19 And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water. 20 And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the well Esek, because they had quarreled with him. 21 And they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, and he called its name Sitnah. 22 And he moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it, and he called its name Rehoboth, and he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we have grown strong in the land.”

The Covenant with Abimelech

23 And he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord was revealed to him that night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your sons in the merit of Abraham my servant.” 25 And he built an altar there and prayed in the name of the Memra of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and Isaac’s servants dug a well there. 26 And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with a band of his friends and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, when you hate me and sent me away from you?” 28 And they said, “We have clearly seen that the Lord was with you, and we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not come near you, and just as we did you only good and sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’” 30 And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 And they rose early in the morning and swore an oath, each man to his brother, and Isaac sent them off, and they went from him in peace. 32 And on that day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 And he called it Shibah. That is why the name by which the well is called is Beersheba, to this day.

Esau’s Wives

34 And Esau was forty years old, and he took as his wife Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were rebellious and vexing in spirit, and they reveled in foreign worship, and they would not accept teaching from Isaac or from Rebekah.

Isaac Prepares to Bless Esau

1 And when Isaac had grown old and his eyes had grown too dim to see, he called Esau his elder son and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 2 And he said, “Look, I have grown old now; I do not know the days of my death. 3 And now, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out into the open country and hunt game for me. 4 And make me dishes the way I love them, and bring them to me, and I will eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Rebekah and Jacob’s Plan

5 And Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke with Esau his son. And Esau went out into the open country to hunt game to bring home. 6 And Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard the voice of your father speaking with Esau your brother, saying, 7 ‘Bring me game and make me dishes, and I will eat and bless you before the Lord before I die.’ 8 And now, my son, obey my voice and go where I command you. 9 Go now to the flock and bring me from there two good young goats, and I will make them into dishes for your father, the way he loves them. 10 And you will bring them to your father and he will eat, so that he may bless you before the Lord before he dies.” 11 And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. 12 What if my father feels me, and I am in his face like one who mocks him, and I bring on myself curses and not blessings?” 13 And his mother said to him, “Let those curses of yours fall on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go and bring them to me.” 14 And he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made dishes the way his father loved them. 15 And Rebekah took the finest garments of Esau her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. 17 And she put the dishes and the bread that she had made into the hand of Jacob her son.

Jacob Receives Isaac’s Blessing

18 And he came to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?” 19 And Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Get up now, sit and eat of my game, so that your soul may bless me.” 20 And Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord your God arranged it before me.” 21 And Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near now, and let me feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.” 22 And Jacob came near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the feel of his hands is the feel of Esau’s hands.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were like the hands of Esau his brother, hairy. And he blessed him. 24 And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” 25 And he said, “Bring it near to me, and let me eat of my son’s game, so that my soul may bless you.” And he brought it near to him and he ate; and he brought him wine and he drank. 26 And Isaac his father said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.” 27 And he came near to him and kissed him, and he smelled the scent of his garments, and he blessed him and said, “See, the scent of my son is like the scent of the incense of fine spices that will be offered on top of the altar on the mountain of the sanctuary, which is the mountain that the One who lives and endures for all ages has blessed. 28 And may the Lord give you of the goodness of the dew that comes down from heaven, of the finest, and of the goodness of the earth, and plenty of grain, wine and oil. 29 Let nations serve before you, all the sons of Esau; let kingdoms be made subject to you, all the sons of Ishmael. Be master and ruler over your brothers, all the sons of Keturah; and let them come early to greet you, all the sons of Laban, who is your mother’s brother. Whoever curses you shall be cursed, like Balaam son of Beor; and whoever blesses you shall be blessed, like Moses the prophet, the scribe of Israel.”

Esau Returns for His Blessing

30 And when Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had only just gone out from before Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 And he too made dishes and brought them to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s game, so that your soul may bless me.” 32 And Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 And Isaac trembled with a very great trembling and said, “Who then was it who hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate of all of it before you came, and I blessed him?” And a heavenly voice came out from the heavens and said, “He shall indeed be blessed.” 34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with a great cry, very loud and bitter, and said to his father, “Bless me too, father!” 35 And he said, “Your brother came with a great deal of cleverness and took your blessing.” 36 And he said, “Look, it is in truth that his name was called Jacob, for he has tripped me up these two times. He took my birthright, and look, now he has taken my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?” 37 And Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Look, I have made him master and ruler over you, and all his brothers I have made his servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. And what more can I do for you now, my son?” 38 And Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, father? Bless me too, father!” And Esau raised his voice and wept. 39 And Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Look, from the goodness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and from the goodness of the dew that comes down from heaven above. 40 And by your sword you shall live, and before your brother you shall serve and be subject. And when the sons of Jacob toil in the Law and keep the commandments, they will set the yoke of their burden on your neck; and when the sons of Jacob abandon the commandments and hold themselves back from toiling in the Law, you shall rule over him, and you shall break the yoke of servitude off your neck.”

Jacob Must Leave Home

41 And Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, “I am not going to do as Cain did, who killed Abel in his father’s lifetime, and his father went on to father Seth and called his name after his own name. Look, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father draw near, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be called killer and heir.” 42 And the words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Look, Esau your brother is plotting against you, to kill you. 43 And now, my son, obey my voice: get up and go to Laban my brother in Haran. 44 And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s rage dies down, 45 until the force of your brother’s anger turns away from you and he forgets what you did to him; and I will send and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” 46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am sick of my life because of the daughters of the Hittites. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of the Hittites like these, from the daughters of the people of the land, what is my life to me?”

Jacob Is Sent to His Mother’s Family

1 And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and he commanded him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites. 2 Get up, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. 3 And may the God of the heavens bless you and make you strong and multiply you, and may you become an assembly, a congregation of righteous nations. 4 And may he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your sons with you, so that you may inherit the land where you live as a stranger, which the Lord gave to Abraham.” 5 And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Esau Marries Ishmael’s Daughter

6 And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram. 8 And Esau saw that the daughters of the Canaanites were evil in the face of Isaac his father. 9 And Esau went to Ishmael, and he took Mahalath daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth, as his wife, in addition to the wives he had.

The Five Miracles for Jacob

10 Five miracles were worked for our father Jacob at the time he went out from Beersheba to go to Haran. The first miracle: the hours of the day were cut short, and the sun set before its time, because the Word wished to speak with him. And the second miracle: the stones that our father Jacob had taken and set under his head, when he rose early in the morning he found that they had all become one stone. This is the stone that he set up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. And the third miracle: when our father Jacob lifted his feet to go to Haran, the earth shrank before him, and he found himself living in Haran. And the fourth miracle: the stone that all the shepherds gathered to roll off the mouth of the well and could not, when our father Jacob came he lifted it with one hand and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. And the fifth miracle: when our father Jacob lifted the stone off the mouth of the well, the well overflowed and rose up to his face, and it went on overflowing for twenty years, all the days that he lived in Haran. These five miracles were worked for our father Jacob at the time he went out from Beersheba to go to Haran.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

11 And he prayed in the place and spent the night there, because the sun had set on him. And he took some of the stones of the place and set them under his head as a pillow, and he lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed, and look, a ladder was set on the earth, and its top reached toward the heavens. And look, the angels that had accompanied him from his father’s house went up to bring the good news to the angels on high, saying, “Come, see the pious man whose image is set in the throne of glory, whom you have longed to see.” And look, angels from before the Lord were going up and coming down, and gazing at him. 13 And look, the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying, I will give it to you and to your sons. 14 And your sons will be like the dust of the earth, and you will grow strong to the west and to the north and to the south and to the east. And in your merit all the families of the earth will be blessed, and in the descendants of your sons. 15 And look, I in my Memra am with you, and I will guard you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land; for my Memra will not abandon you until I have done what I have told you.” 16 And Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Truly, the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord dwells in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How fearsome this place is! This place is not a common place, but a place set apart before the Lord, and this gate is the gate of prayer, set apart toward the heavens.” 18 And Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone he had set under his head as a pillow, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on its top. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but at first the name of the city was Luz. 20 And Jacob made a vow, saying, “If the Lord is at my aid and guards me on the road I am traveling, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, 21 and I come back in peace to my father’s house, and the Lord is a redeeming God to me, 22 then this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be a sanctuary to the name of the Lord, and of all that you give me I will set apart a tenth to your name.”

Jacob Meets Rachel at the Well

1 And Jacob lifted his feet and went to the land of the sons of the east. 2 And he looked, and there was a well in the open country, and there were three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because they watered the flocks from that well; and the stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 And all the flocks would be gathered there, and they would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back over the mouth of the well in its place. 4 And Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.” 5 And he said to them, “Do you know Laban son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” 6 And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well; and look, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep.” 7 And he said, “Look, the day is still high; it is not the time to gather the cattle. Water the sheep, and go and pasture them.” 8 And they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone off the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.” 9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with the sheep that belonged to her father, for she was a shepherdess. 10 And when Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and cleared the stone off the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and he raised his voice and wept. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father. 13 And when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and he embraced him and kissed him and brought him into his house. And he told Laban all these things. 14 And Laban said to him, “Surely you are like my own flesh and kin.” And he stayed with him for a month of days.

Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel

15 And Laban said to Jacob, “Look, you are my brother; it is not possible for you to serve before me for nothing. Tell me now, what shall your wages be?” 16 And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 And Leah’s eyes were raised in prayer, asking to be married to Jacob the righteous; and Rachel was lovely in figure and beautiful in appearance. 18 And Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, “I will serve before you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.” 19 And Laban said, “It is more fitting that I give her to you than give her to another man. Stay with me.” 20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they were in his face like a few days, because of the love he had for her. 21 And Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, because the days of my service are completed, and let me go in to her.” 22 And Laban gathered all the people of the place and made a feast. Laban answered and said to them, “Look, for seven years this pious man has lived among us. Our wells have not run short, and our watering places have increased. And now, what counsel will you give me so that we can keep him here among us another seven years?” And they gave him a counsel of deceit: to marry him to Leah instead of Rachel. 23 And in the evening he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and he went in to her. 24 And Laban gave Zilpah his maidservant to Leah his daughter as her maidservant. 25 And in the morning, look, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? And why then have you deceived me?” 26 And Laban said, “It is not proper to do so in our land, to give the younger before the elder. 27 Complete the seven days of this one’s wedding feast, and I will give you this one as well, for the service you will serve with me for another seven years.” 28 And Jacob did so, and he completed the seven days of this one’s wedding feast, and he gave him Rachel his daughter as his wife. 29 And Laban gave Rachel his daughter Bilhah the maidservant as her maidservant. 30 And he went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with him another seven years.

Leah Bears Four Sons

31 And it was revealed before the Lord that Leah was hated, and he decided in his Memra to give her sons; and Rachel was barren. 32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because my affliction has been revealed before the Lord, now my husband will love me.” 33 And she conceived again and bore a son, and she said, “Because it was heard before the Lord that I am hated, he has given me this one too.” And she called his name Simeon. 34 And she conceived again and bore a son, and she said, “Now this time my husband will draw close to me, because I have borne him three sons.” That is why he called his name Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and she said, “This time I will give thanks and praise before the Lord.” That is why she called his name Judah. And she stopped bearing children.

Jacob’s Growing Family

1 And Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, and Rachel was jealous of her sister, and she said to Jacob, “Give me sons; and if not, I am a dead woman.” 2 And Jacob’s anger grew strong against Rachel, and he said, “Is it from me that the fruit, the offspring of the womb, comes? Look, you and I will go and plead before the Lord, who has withheld from you the fruit, the offspring of the womb.” 3 And she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Go in to her, and she will give birth, and I will raise the child, so that I too may be built up through her.” 4 And she gave him Bilhah her maidservant as his wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 And Rachel said, “The Lord has judged me, and he has also heard my voice and given me a son.” That is why she called his name Dan. 7 And Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 And Rachel said, “In the prayer that I prayed before the Lord, that he would give me sons as he gave to my sister, I too have been heard.” And she called his name Naphtali. 9 And Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, and she took Zilpah her maidservant and gave her to Jacob as his wife. 10 And Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, bore Jacob a son. 11 And Leah said, “Good fortune has come, which is destined to cut down the foundations of the nations.” And she called his name Gad. 12 And Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, bore Jacob a second son. 13 And Leah said, “With great praise the daughters of Israel will praise me in the synagogues.” And she called his name Asher. 14 And Reuben went out in the days of the wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and he brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 And she said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband, and now you want to take my son’s mandrakes?” And Rachel said, “Then he shall lie with you tonight, in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 And Jacob came in from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said to him, “You are to come in to me, because I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night. 17 And the Lord heard the voice of Leah’s prayer, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 And Leah said, “The Lord has given me my wages, because I gave my maidservant to my husband.” And she called his name Issachar. 19 And Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 And Leah said, “The Lord has presented me with good gifts. This time my husband will bring me gifts, because I have borne him six sons.” And she called his name Zebulun. 21 And after that she bore a daughter, and she called her name Dinah.

The Four Keys and the Birth of Joseph

22 There are four keys that are entrusted into the hand of the Master of all the worlds, the Lord, and he does not hand them over, neither to an angel nor to a seraph: the key of the rain, and the key of sustenance, and the key of the graves, and the key of barrenness. The key of the rain, for so Scripture explains and says, “The Lord will open for you the good treasury from the heavens.” The key of sustenance, for so Scripture explains and says, “You open your hand and satisfy every living thing in which there is good will.” The key of the graves, for so Scripture explains and says, “Look, I am opening your graves, and I will bring you up out of your graves, my people.” The key of barrenness, for so Scripture explains and says, “And the Lord in his good mercies remembered Rachel, and the Lord heard the voice of Rachel’s prayer, and he decided in his Memra to give her sons.” 23 And she conceived and bore a son, and she said, “The Lord has gathered up my disgrace.” 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add another son for me.”

Jacob and Laban Agree on Wages

25 And when Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away now, and I will go to my place and to my land. 26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served before you, and I will go; for you know the service I have served before you.” 27 And Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor and kindness in your face: I have put it to the test, and the Lord has blessed me in your merit.” 28 And he said, “Set your wages before me, and I will give it.” 29 And he said to him, “You know how I have served before you, and how your cattle have fared before me, and have grown strong and many. 30 For the few cattle you had before me have grown strong and many, and the Lord has blessed you in my merit. And now, what can I do? And I am bound to provide for my sons and the people of my house.” 31 And he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it. 32 I will pass through all your flock today, setting apart from there every lamb that is patched and spotted, and every brown lamb among the lambs, and the spotted and patched among the goats; and that shall be my wages. 33 And my merit will testify for me today and tomorrow, when you come to receive my wages before you: anything that is not patched and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, is stolen if it is with me.” 34 And Laban said, “Look, good. Let it be as you say.” 35 And that day he set apart the patched and spotted he-goats, and all the patched and spotted she-goats, every one that had white marking on it, and every brown one among the lambs, and he put them in the hand of his sons. 36 And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.

Jacob’s Flocks Increase

37 And Jacob took for himself rods of fresh poplar and of almond and of plane tree, and he peeled white strips in them, from the white bark that was on the rods. 38 And he set up the rods that he had peeled in the troughs, in the water channels where the flock came to drink, in front of the flock; and they would be in heat when they came to drink. 39 And the flock went into heat in front of the rods, and the flock bore patched, spotted and speckled young. 40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and he turned the faces of the flock toward the patched and every brown one in Laban’s flock; and he made flocks for himself on their own, and did not mix them with Laban’s flock. 41 And whenever the early-breeding flock was in heat, Jacob set the rods in the troughs in front of the flock, to make them come into heat among the rods. 42 But for the late-breeding of the flock he did not set them; and he had a great flock: the late-breeding were Laban’s and the early-breeding were Jacob’s. 43 And the man grew very, very strong, and he had a great flock, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Prepares to Leave Laban

1 And he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken all that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has acquired all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw Laban’s countenance, and indeed it was not friendly toward him as it had been yesterday and the day before. 3 And the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you in my Memra.” 4 And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the open country, to his flock. 5 And he said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, and indeed it is not friendly toward me as it was yesterday and the day before; but the Memra of the God of my father has been at my aid. 6 And you know that with all my strength I have served before your father. 7 And your father has lied to me and changed my wages ten times; but the Lord did not give him leave to do me harm. 8 If he said, ‘The patched shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore patched young; and if he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted young. 9 And the Lord has emptied out your father’s wealth and given it to me. 10 And at the time when the flock was in heat, I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and there were the he-goats mounting the flock: patched, spotted and speckled. 11 And the angel of the Lord said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see: all the he-goats mounting the flock are patched, spotted and speckled; for all that Laban is doing to you has been revealed before me. 13 I am the God who was revealed to you at Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land of your kindred.’” 14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15 Are we not counted by him as foreigners? For he sold us, and he has also eaten up the money paid for us. 16 For all the wealth that the Lord has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. And now, whatever the Lord has told you, do it.”

Jacob Leaves with His Family

17 And Jacob got up and set his sons and his wives on the camels. 18 And he drove off all his cattle and all his property that he had acquired, his possessions and his goods that he had acquired in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. 19 And Laban had gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stole the images that belonged to her father. 20 And Jacob stole the mind of Laban the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he was fleeing. 21 And he fled, he and all that he had, and he got up and crossed the river, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

22 And when Laban’s shepherds went to water the flock from the well and could not, they waited two or three days, hoping that perhaps it would overflow; and it did not overflow. Then it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled. 23 And he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for a journey of seven days, and caught up with him at the mountain of Gilead. 24 And the Lord was revealed to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Take care that you do not speak with Jacob either good or evil.” 25 And Laban caught up with Jacob. And Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, and Laban camped his kinsmen on the mountain of Gilead. 26 And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have stolen my mind, and you have carried off my daughters like captives fleeing from before the drawn sword. 27 Why then did you hide to flee, and steal away from me and my daughters, and did not tell me? If you had told me, I would have sent you off with joy, with songs, with tambourines and with lyres. 28 And you did not let me kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly in what you have done. 29 I have strength and many troops with me to do you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last evening, saying, ‘Take care not to speak with Jacob either good or evil.’ 30 And now you have indeed gone, because you longed so much for your father’s house. But why did you steal the gods I revere, my idols?” 31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid; for I said, ‘You might take your daughters from me by force.’ 32 Whoever it is with whom you find your idols shall die. In front of our kinsmen, identify what of yours is with me, and take it.” And Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. 33 And Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two concubines, and he did not find them. And he went out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent. 34 And Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the camel’s saddle and sat on them. And Laban felt through the whole tent and did not find them. 35 And she said to her father, “Let it not be displeasing in the face of my lord that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.” And he searched the whole tent and did not find the images. 36 And Jacob’s anger grew strong, and he quarreled with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What is my guilt, and what is my sin, that you have chased after me? 37 Now that you have felt through all my things, what have you found of all the things of your house? Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, and let them decide between the two of us. 38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your she-goats have not lost their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. 39 What was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; every one of them that was missing from the count I made good myself; you required it of me. What the thieves stole by day and what the wild beasts devoured by night, I made good myself. 40 That is how I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 41 These twenty years I have been in your house: I served before you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Strong One of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty now. My suffering and the toil of my hands were revealed before the Lord, and last evening he rebuked you.”

Jacob and Laban Make a Covenant

43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the flock is my flock, and all that you see is mine. And for my daughters, what can I do to these today, or to their sons whom they have borne? 44 And now come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a sign between me and you.” 45 And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. 46 And Jacob said to his kinsmen, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. 47 And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it in the language of the sanctuary Galeed. 48 And Laban said, “This heap is a witness between me and you today.” That is why he called its name Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord be revealed and judge between me and you when we are hidden from each other. 50 If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, though there is no one with us, see, the Lord is witness between me and you.” 51 And Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap, and here is this pillar that I have set up between me and you. 52 This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not cross over this heap to you, and that you will not cross over this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm. 53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge between us, the God of their fathers.” And Jacob swore by the Strong One of his father Isaac. 54 And Jacob offered sacrifices on the mountain, and called his kinsmen to eat bread; and they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.

Jacob Continues His Journey

1 And Laban rose early in the morning and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them, and Laban went and returned to his place. 2 And Jacob went on his way, and angels from before the Lord met him. 3 And when Jacob saw them, he said, “Perhaps these are messengers from Laban, my mother’s brother, who has come back to pursue me; or they are camps of the messengers of Esau my brother, who is coming to meet me; or they are camps of angels from before the Lord, coming to rescue me from the hands of the two of them.” Therefore he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

Preparing to Meet Esau

4 And Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother, to the land of Gebalene, to the territory of the Edomites. 5 And he gave them orders, saying, “This is what you shall say to my master, to Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob says: I have lived as a stranger with Laban, and I have stayed until now. 6 And I have oxen and donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and I have sent to tell my master, so as to find grace and favor before your face.’” 7 And the scouts came back to Jacob and said, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and look, he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men, captains of war, with him.” 8 And Jacob was very much afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him, and the sheep and the oxen and the camels, into two camps. 9 And he said, “If Esau comes to one camp and kills it, the camp that remains will be left to escape.” 10 And Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your birthplace, and I will do good to you’: 11 I am small, and I am not worthy of all the kindnesses and of all the faithfulness that you have shown your servant; for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now look, I have become two camps. 12 Rescue me now from the hands of my brother, from the hands of Esau, for I am afraid of him, that he may come and kill me, mother and sons alike. 13 And you said, ‘I will surely do good to you, and I will make your sons like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted for its great number.’” 14 And he spent that night there, and from what he had brought in his hand he took a gift for Esau his brother: 15 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 16 thirty nursing camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she-donkeys and ten Libyan donkeys. 17 And he put them in the hands of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Cross over ahead of me, and leave a space between herd and herd.” 18 And he instructed the first, saying, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you, and where are you going, and whose are these ahead of you?’ 19 then you shall say, ‘They are your servant Jacob’s; it is a gift sent to my master, to Esau, and look, he too is behind us.’” 20 And he instructed the second as well, and the third as well, and the one who walked behind the herds as well, saying, “You shall speak to Esau in these same words when you find him. 21 And you shall say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob too is behind us.’” For he said, “I will win his favor with the gift that goes ahead of me, and after that I will see his face; perhaps he will receive me kindly.” 22 And the gift crossed over ahead of him, and he spent that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with Sariel

23 And he rose in that night and took his two wives and his two concubines and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 24 And he took them and brought them across the stream, and brought across everything he had. 25 And Jacob was left by himself, and the angel Sariel wrestled with him in the likeness of a man and embraced him until the time when the column of dawn rose. 26 And when he saw that he could not overcome him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh went numb in his wrestling with him. 27 And he said, “Let me go, for the column of dawn has risen, for the time has come for the angels on high to give praise, and I am the chief of those who give praise.” And he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 28 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 29 And he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have proved great with angels from before the Lord and with men, and you have overcome them.” 30 And Jacob asked and said, “Tell me your name, now.” And he said, “Why now do you ask for my name?” And he blessed him there. 31 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, “for I have seen angels from before the Lord face to face, and my life has been saved.” 32 And the sun rose on him as he crossed Peniel, and he was limping on his thigh. 33 Therefore the sons of Israel do not eat the thigh sinew, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh at the thigh sinew.

Jacob and Esau Meet

1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and there was Esau coming, and with him four hundred men on foot. And he divided the children between Leah and Rachel and the two concubines. 2 And he put the concubines and their sons first, and Leah and her sons after them, and Rachel and Joseph last. 3 And he himself passed on ahead of them and asked after their peace, according to the custom of the land, seven times, until he came near to his brother. 4 And Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and leaned upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept. 5 And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?” And he said, “The children with whom the Lord has favored your servant.” 6 And the concubines came near, they and their sons, and asked after his peace. 7 And Leah too came near with her sons, and they asked after his peace; and after that Joseph and Rachel came near and asked after his peace. 8 And he said, “What do you mean by all this camp that I met?” And he said, “To find grace and favor before your face.” 9 And Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother; let what is yours stay yours.” 10 And Jacob said, “No, please; if now I have found grace and favor before your face, then accept my gift from my hand, for this is why I have seen the countenance of your face, as one sees the countenance of the face of angels from before the Lord, and you have welcomed me. 11 Accept now my blessing that has been brought to you, for the Lord has favored me, and because I have everything.” And he pressed him, and he took it.

The Brothers Part

12 And he said, “Let us set out now and go, and I will go in front of you.” 13 And he said to him, “My master knows that the children are tender, and the flocks and the cattle that are nursing are in my care; if they drive them hard for one day, all the flock will die. 14 Let my master now pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead them on slowly, at the pace of the work that is in my hands and at the pace of the children, until I come to my master at Gebalene.” 15 And Esau said, “Let me leave with you now some of the people who are with me.” And he said, “Why now? Let me find grace and favor before the face of my master.” 16 And Esau went back that day on his way to Gebalene. 17 And Jacob traveled to Succoth and built himself a house, and for his cattle he made shelters; therefore he called the name of the place Succoth.

Jacob Settles Near Shechem

18 And Jacob came, perfect in good work, to the walled town of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram, and he camped facing the town. 19 And he bought the plot of field where he had spread his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pearls. 20 And he set up an altar there, and he prayed there in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

The Assault on Dinah

1 And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to show herself among the daughters of the people of the land. 2 And Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the chief of the land, saw her, and he took her and lay with her and humiliated her. 3 And his soul delighted in Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, and he loved the girl, and he spoke words of peace to the girl’s heart. 4 And Shechem said to Hamor his father, “Take this girl for me as a wife.” 5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle out in the open country, and Jacob kept silent until they came. 6 And Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 And the sons of Jacob came in from the open country when they heard, and the men were angry, and it was very bad in their sight, for he had done a loathsome thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, and it was not proper that this be done.

Negotiations for Dinah’s Marriage

8 And Hamor spoke with them, saying, “Shechem my son, his soul delights in your daughter; give her to him now as a wife. 9 And mingle with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 And you shall live with us, and the land shall be before you; live in it and trade in it and take possession in it.” 11 And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find grace and favor before your faces, and whatever you tell me I will give. 12 Set the dowry and the marriage contract very high for me, and I will give as you tell me; only give me the girl as a wife.” 13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father in their great wisdom, and they spoke so, because he had defiled Dinah their sister. 14 And they said to them, “We cannot do this thing, give our sister to a man who has a foreskin, for that is a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we mingle with you: if you become like us by circumcising every male among you. 16 Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people. 17 But if you do not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.” 18 And their words pleased Hamor and pleased Shechem son of Hamor. 19 And the young man did not delay to do the thing, for his soul delighted in Jacob’s daughter; and he was more honored than all the people of his father’s house. 20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their town and spoke with the people of their town, saying, 21 “These men are perfect in good work with us; let them live in the land and trade in it, and the land, look, it is wide in its borders before them. Let us take their daughters as wives for ourselves, and give our daughters to them. 22 Only on this condition will the men mingle with us, to live with us and to be one people: if every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. 23 Their property and their wealth and all their cattle, will they not be ours? Only let us mingle with them, and they will live with us.” 24 And all who went out of the gate of his town listened to Hamor and to Shechem his son, and they circumcised every male, all who went out of the gate of his town.

Simeon and Levi Attack the City

25 And on the third day, when they were in pain from their circumcision, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took each man his sword, and they came upon the town in confidence and killed every male. 26 And Hamor and Shechem his son they killed with the edge of the sword, and they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the town, because they had defiled their sister. 28 Their sheep and their oxen and their donkeys, and whatever was in the town and whatever was out in the open country, they took. 29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones and their wives, they took captive and plundered, and everything that was in the house. 30 And Jacob said to Simeon and to Levi, “You have done me harm, giving me a bad name before the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and among the Perizzites; and I am a people few in number, and they will gather against me and kill me, and they will destroy me and the people of my house.” 31 The two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, answered and said to Jacob their father, “It is not fitting that it should be said in their assemblies and in their houses of study, ‘The uncircumcised defiled virgins, and the worshipers of idols the daughter of Jacob.’ Rather, it is fitting that it should be said in the assemblies of Israel and in their house of study, ‘The uncircumcised were killed on account of a virgin, and the worshipers of idols because they defiled Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.’ All this so that Shechem son of Hamor would not mock in his soul and boast in his heart and say, ‘Like a woman who has no one to seek redress for her shame, so it has been done to Dinah our sister, like a woman gone astray, a streetwalker.’”

Jacob Returns to Bethel

1 And the Lord said to Jacob, “Get up, go up to Bethel and live there, and build there an altar to the name of the Memra of the Lord, who was revealed to you when you were fleeing from before Esau your brother.” 2 And Jacob said to the people of his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign worship that is among you, and purify yourselves and make your garments white. 3 And let us get up and go up to Bethel, and I will build there an altar to the name of the Lord, who answered me in the hour of my distress and was my help on the road that I traveled.” 4 And they gave Jacob all the foreign worship that was in their hands, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak that is near Shechem. 5 And they set out, and the fear of the Lord was on the towns all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there, and he called the place where the Lord had been revealed to him Bethel, for there the Lord had been revealed to him when he was fleeing from before Esau his brother. 8 And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under the oak, and he called the name of the oak Weeping.

Praise for the Lord’s Humility

9 God of the world, may his name be blessed forever and for ages of ages! Your humility and your uprightness and your righteousness and your might and your majesty never cease, for ages of ages. You taught us to bless the bridegroom and the bride, from Adam and his partner; and again you taught us to visit the sick, from our father Abraham the righteous, when you were revealed to him in the Plain of Vision while he was still in pain from the circumcision; and again you taught us to comfort mourners, from our father Jacob the righteous. The way of the world came upon Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah his mother, and Rachel died beside him on his journey; and he sat down, crying out and weeping and wailing and grieving. And you in your great mercy were revealed to him and blessed him with the blessing of mourners: you blessed him and you comforted him. For so the scripture says expressly: And the Lord was revealed to Jacob a second time when he came from Paddan Aram, and he blessed him.

Jacob’s Name and Blessing Are Renewed

10 And the Lord said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” And he called his name Israel. 11 And the Lord said to him, “I am the God of the heavens. Be strong and multiply. A people and an assembly of a congregation of righteous nations shall arise from you, and kings who rule over the peoples shall come forth from your loins. 12 And the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac I will give to you, and to your sons after you I will give the land.” 13 And the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord went up from over him, in the place where he had spoken with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where the Lord had spoken with him Bethel.

The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel

16 And they set out from Bethel, and it was the season of the harvest of the land, on the way to Ephrath, and Rachel gave birth, and she had hard labor in her childbearing. 17 And while she was in hard labor in her childbearing, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for this one too is a son for you.” 18 And as her soul was leaving her, for she was dying, he called his name Son of My Pain, but his father called him, in the language of the sanctuary, Benjamin. 19 And Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. 20 And Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. 21 And Israel set out and spread his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.

Reuben and Bilhah

22 And while Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. And the sons of Jacob were twelve.

Jacob’s Twelve Sons

23 The sons of Leah: Jacob’s firstborn Reuben, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun. 24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant: Dan and Naphtali. 26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

The Death of Isaac

27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father at Mamre, the town of the mighty men, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived as strangers. 28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people, old and full of days; and Esau and Jacob his sons buried him.

The Descendants of Esau

1 And these are the family records of Esau, that is, Edom. 2 Esau took his wives from the daughters of the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, 3 and Basemath the daughter of Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth. 4 And Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel. 5 And Oholibamah bore Jeush and Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. 6 And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all the people of his household, and his wealth and all his cattle and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and he went to another land, from before Jacob his brother. 7 For their wealth was too great for them to live together, and the land where they lived as strangers could not support them because of their cattle. 8 And Esau lived in the mountain of Gebalene; Esau is Edom. 9 And these are the family records of Esau, the father of the Edomites, in the mountain of Gebalene. 10 These are the names of the sons of Esau: Eliphaz the son of Adah, Esau’s wife; this is Reuel, the daughter of Basemath, Esau’s wife. 11 And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz. 12 And Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. 13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. 14 These were the sons of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: she bore to Esau Jeush and Jalam and Korah.

The Chiefs of Edom

15 These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz, 16 chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of the Edomites; these are the sons of Adah. 17 And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah. These are the chiefs of Reuel in the land of the Edomites; these are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. 18 And these are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau’s wife: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah. These are the chiefs of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife. 19 These are the sons of Esau, and these are their chiefs; that is Edom.

The Descendants of Seir

20 These are the sons of Seir the Hauranite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah, 21 and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Hauranites, the sons of Gebalene, in the land of Gebalene. 22 ⟨…⟩ 23 ⟨…⟩ 24 ⟨…⟩ 25 ⟨…⟩ 26 ⟨…⟩ 27 ⟨…⟩ 28 ⟨…⟩ 29 ⟨…⟩ 30 ⟨…⟩ by their chiefs, in the land of Gebalene.

The Kings of Edom

31 And these are the kings who reigned in the land of the Edomites before any king reigned over the sons of Israel. 32 And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his town was Dinhabah. 33 And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned after him. 34 And Jobab the son of Zerah died, and Husham from the land of the South reigned after him. 35 And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who killed the Midianites in the territory of the Moabites, reigned after him, and the name of his town was Avith. 36 And Hadad died, and Samlah from Masrekah reigned after him. 37 And Samlah died, and Shaul from Mesopotamia reigned after him. 38 And Shaul died, and Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor reigned after him. 39 And Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadad reigned after him, and the name of his town was Pau; and the name of his wife was Mehetabel, the daughter of a man who made hunting nets, who toiled at the chase all his days; and he grew rich and wealthy and acquired property, and he knew what silver is and what gold is.

The Chiefs and Their Territories

40 And these are the names of the chiefs of Esau, by their families, by their places, by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth, 41 ⟨chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon,⟩ 42 chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar, 43 chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These are the chiefs of the Edomites, by their dwellings in the land where they lived; that is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

Joseph and His Brothers

1 And Jacob lived in the land where his father had lived as a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the family records of Jacob. Joseph, a son of seventeen years, was tending the flock with his brothers, and he was a boy brought up with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of his brothers to their father. 3 And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an embroidered robe. 4 And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him and could not speak words of peace with him.

Joseph’s Dreams

5 And Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to his brothers, and they hated him still more. 6 And he said to them, “Listen now to this dream that I dreamed. 7 Look, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and look, my sheaf rose up and stood upright too, and look, your sheaves gathered around and asked after the peace of my sheaf.” 8 And his brothers said to him, “Will you really be king over us? Or will you really rule over us?” And they hated him still more because of his dreams and because of his words. 9 And he dreamed again, a second time, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream, and look, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were asking after my peace.” 10 And he told it to his father and to his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Are we really to come, I and your mother and your brothers, to ask after your peace according to the custom of the land?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph Goes Looking for His Brothers

12 And his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing at Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14 And he said to him, “Go now and see how your brothers are and how the flock is, and bring word back to me.” And he sent him from the plain of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And an angel in the likeness of a man met him, and there he was, wandering in the field; and the man asked him, saying, “What are you looking for?” 16 And he said, “I am looking for my brothers. Tell me now where they are pasturing.” 17 And the man said, “They have moved on from here, for I heard them saying, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” And Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

The Plot to Kill Joseph

18 And they saw him from far off, and before he came near to them they plotted against him to kill him. 19 And they said to one another, “Look, here comes the master of these dreams. 20 So now come, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and we will say that a wild beast devoured him; and we will see what becomes of his dreams in the end.” 21 And Reuben heard, and he rescued him from their hands and said, “Let us not kill him and become guilty for his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Do not shed innocent blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not stretch out a murderer’s hand against him,” so that he might rescue him from their hands and bring him back to his father. 23 And when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his robe, the embroidered robe that he had on. 24 And they took him and threw him into the pit, and the pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Joseph Is Sold into Slavery

25 And they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and there was a caravan of Saracens coming from Gilead, and their camels carrying wax and balm and ladanum, on their way to take them down to Egypt. 26 And Judah said to his brothers, “What gain is there for us if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Saracens, and let our hand not be stretched out against him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 And Midianite men, traders, passed by, and they pulled Joseph up and brought him out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Saracens for twenty selas of silver, and they brought Joseph to Egypt. 29 And Reuben came back to the pit, and look, Joseph was not in the pit, and he tore his garments. 30 And he went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there, and I do not know where I am to go.” 31 And they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a young goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 And they sent the embroidered robe and brought it to their father, and said, “We found this. Examine it now: is it your son’s robe or not?” 33 And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph has surely been killed.” 34 And Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on in their place, and he mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and said, “For I will go down to Sheol over my son.” And his father wept for him. 36 And the Midianites sold him to the Egyptians, to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners.

Judah and Tamar

1 And it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to an Adullamite man whose name was Hirah. 2 And there Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man whose name was Shua, and he took her and went in to her. 3 And she conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Er. 4 And she conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. 5 And she bore a son once more and called his name Shelah; and she stopped bearing after she had borne him. 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn, did evil deeds before the Lord, and he died by a decree from before the Lord. 8 And Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the brother-in-law’s duty to her, and raise up offspring of sons for your brother’s name.” 9 And Onan knew that the sons would not be called by his name; and whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, he spoiled his deeds on the ground, so as not to raise up sons for his brother’s name. 10 And what he did was evil before the Lord, and he too died by a decree from before the Lord. 11 And Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Stay a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up,” for he said, “Otherwise he too may die like his brothers.” And Tamar went and stayed in her father’s house.

Tamar Meets Judah

12 And many days passed, and the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died; and Judah was comforted, and he went up to the shearers of his flock, he and Hirah his friend the Adullamite, to Timnah. 13 And it was told to Tamar, saying, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his flock.” 14 And she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself up, and she sat down at the fork of the roads that is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife. 15 And Judah saw her and took her for a streetwalker, because she used to keep her face covered in Judah’s house, and Judah did not know her. 16 And he turned aside to her by the road and said, “Come now, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, “What will you give me for coming in to me?” 17 And he said, “I will send a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “Only if you give a pledge until you send it.” 18 And he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” And she said, “Your signet ring and your cloak and your staff that is in your hand.” And he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. 19 And she got up and went away, and she took off her veil and put on her widow’s garments. 20 And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to take the pledge from the woman’s hand, but he did not find her. 21 And he asked the people of her place, saying, “Where is the streetwalker who was sitting at the fork of the roads by the way?” And they said, “There has been no streetwalker here.” 22 And he went back to Judah and said, “I did not find her, and the people of the place also said, ‘There has been no streetwalker here.’” 23 And Judah said, “Let her keep them, so that we do not become a laughingstock. Look, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.”

Tamar’s Proof and Judah’s Confession

24 And it happened about three months later that it was told to Judah, saying, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the harlot, and look, she is even pregnant by harlotry.” And Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned.” 25 Tamar was brought out to be burned in the fire, and she looked for the three witnesses and did not find them. She lifted her eyes on high and said, “I beg mercy from before you, Lord. You are the one who answers the afflicted in the hour of their affliction. Answer me in this hour, which is the hour of my anguish, God who answers the anguished. Give light to my eyes and give me the three witnesses, and I will raise up for you three righteous men in the valley of Dura: Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. When they go down into the burning fire, they will hallow your holy name.” And at once the Lord heard the sound of her prayer, and he said to Michael, “Go down, give her his three witnesses.” And her eyes were given light and she saw them, and she put them into the hands of the judges and said, “The man to whom these belong, by him I am pregnant. And I, even though I am burned, I will not make him known. But the Witness who is between me and him will put it in his heart to look at them in this hour, and he will redeem me from this great judgment.” At once Judah stood up on his feet and said, “I beg you, my brothers and the people of my father’s house, listen to me. It is better for me to burn in this world, in a fire that goes out, and not burn in the world to come, which is a fire that consumes. It is better for me to be ashamed in this world, which is a passing world, and not be ashamed before my righteous fathers in the world to come. Listen to me, my brothers and house of my father: with the measure with which a person measures, it will be measured to him, whether a good measure or a bad measure, and happy is every person who confesses his deeds. Because I took the robe of Joseph my brother and dipped it in the blood of a goat, and said to Jacob, ‘Recognize, recognize now: is this your son’s robe or not?’ so now it is said to me, ‘Whose are these, this signet ring and cloak and staff?’ ‘By him I am pregnant.’ And Tamar my daughter-in-law is innocent; by me she is pregnant. Far be it from her, Tamar my daughter-in-law! She is not pregnant with children of harlotry.” A voice came out from heaven and said, “You are both innocent; from before the Lord the thing came about.” 26 And Judah recognized them and said, “Tamar my daughter-in-law is innocent; because of this I did not give her to Shelah my son.” And he did not know her again.

The Birth of Perez and Zerah

27 And it happened at the time she gave birth that, look, there were twins in her womb. 28 And while she was giving birth, the child stretched out his hand, and the midwife took scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 And as he drew back his hand, look, his brother came out, and she said, “How strong you have been, and you are destined to be strong, my son!” And he called his name Perez. 30 And after that his brother came out, the one with the scarlet thread on his hand, and he called his name Zerah.

Joseph in Potiphar’s House

1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, chief of the executioners, an Egyptian man, bought him from the hands of the Saracens who had brought him down there. 2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a man who prospered in good work, and he became master and ruler in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper in his hands. 4 And Joseph found grace and favor before him, and he served him; and he made him steward over his house, and everything he had he put under his authority. 5 And from the time he made him steward over his house and over everything he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for the merit of Joseph, and the blessing of the Lord was on everything he had, in the house and out in the open country. 6 And he left everything he had under Joseph’s authority, and he did not look into anything at all after him, except the bread that he ate. And Joseph was handsome in form and beautiful in appearance.

Joseph Resists His Master’s Wife

7 And it happened after these things that his master’s wife lifted up her eyes to Joseph and said to him, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not look into anything after me, what is in his house, and everything he has he has put under my authority. 9 There is no one great or ruling in this house besides me, and he has kept back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. And how could I do this great evil and sin before my God?” 10 And it happened, when she spoke with Joseph day after day, that he did not listen to her, to lie with her in this world, so as not to be with her in the world to come. 11 And it happened about this time of day that he came into the house to work on his accounts, and there was no man of the people of the house there in the house. 12 And she caught hold of him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” And he left his garment with her and fled and went out to the street. 13 And when she saw that he had left his garment with her and gone out to the street, 14 she called to the people of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought us a Hebrew man to make sport of us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And when he heard that I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment with me and fled and went out to the street.” 16 And she put his garment away with her until her master came to his house. 17 And she spoke to him in these same words, saying, “The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me, to make sport of me. 18 And when I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment with me and fled to the street.”

Joseph Is Imprisoned

19 And when his master heard the words of his wife which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your servant did to me,” his anger grew strong. 20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him in the prison house, the place where the king’s prisoners were held; and he was there in the prison house. 21 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he set grace and favor upon him, and gave him favor before the chief of the prison house. 22 And the chief of the prison house put all the prisoners who were in the prison house under Joseph’s authority, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The chief of the prison house did not look into anything at all after him, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper in his hands.

The Cupbearer and the Baker in Prison

1 And it happened after these things that the chief of the cupbearers of the king of Egypt and the chief of the bakers offended their master, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, with the chief of the cupbearers and with the chief of the bakers. 3 And he put them in custody in the house of the chief of the executioners, in the prison house, the place where Joseph was held. 4 And the chief of the executioners appointed Joseph over them, and he served them; and they were in custody for some days. 5 And the two of them dreamed a dream, each man his own dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the chief of the cupbearers and the chief of the bakers who belonged to the king of Egypt, who were held in the prison house. 6 And Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, and look, their faces were gloomy. 7 And he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, saying, “Why are your faces gloomy today?” 8 And they said to him, “We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one to interpret it.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations come from before the Lord? Tell them to me, now.”

The Cupbearer’s Dream

9 And the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream, look, there was a vine before me. 10 And on the vine were three branches, and as it budded, it put out its blossoms, its clusters ripened and turned into grapes. 11 And Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup into the palm of Pharaoh’s hand.” 12 And Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are the three fathers of the world, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose sons’ sons are destined to be enslaved in the slavery of the land of Egypt, and are destined to be redeemed by the hands of three faithful leaders, Moses and Aaron and Miriam, who are likened to clusters of grapes. And as for what you said, ‘I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup into Pharaoh’s hands,’ that is the cup of punishment that Pharaoh is destined to drink in the end. And you, chief of the cupbearers, will not lose the reward for having dreamed this good dream.” But Joseph did not tell the interpretation of the dream; Joseph interpreted it for him as seemed good in his eyes. And Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 At the end of three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your service, and you will put the cup into the palm of Pharaoh’s hand, by the former custom, when you were his cupbearer. 14 But remember me with you when it goes well with you, and now show me kindness and goodness, and remember me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison house. 15 For I was indeed stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done nothing at all that they should put me in the prison house.”

The Baker’s Dream

16 And the chief of the bakers saw that he had interpreted well, and he said to Joseph, “I too, in my dream, look, there were three baskets of white bread on my head. 17 And in the top basket there was every kind of food for Pharaoh, the work of a baker, and the birds were eating them out of the basket above my head.” 18 And Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of the dream: the three baskets are three hard servitudes in which Israel is destined to be enslaved in the land of Egypt, in clay and in bricks and in every kind of work out in the open country. And Pharaoh is destined to decree evil decrees against Israel and throw their sons into the river. But Pharaoh will perish and his armies will be wiped out, and the sons of Israel will go out redeemed, with their heads uncovered. And you too, chief of the bakers, will receive an evil reward for having dreamed this dream.” But Joseph did not tell the interpretation of the dream; Joseph explained it to him as seemed good in his eyes. And Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. 19 At the end of three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from upon you and will hang you on a gibbet, and the birds will eat your flesh from upon your head.”

Pharaoh’s Birthday Feast

20 And it happened on the third day, Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his officers, and he lifted up the head of the chief of the cupbearers and lifted up the head of the chief of the bakers among his officers. 21 And he restored the chief of the cupbearers to his service, and he put the cup into the palm of Pharaoh’s hand. 22 And the chief of the bakers he hanged, as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Joseph Trusts the Cupbearer and Is Forgotten

23 Joseph forsook the kindness from above and the kindness from below, and the kindness that had gone with him from his father’s house, and he put his trust in the chief of the cupbearers, in flesh that passes away, in flesh that tastes the cup of death. And he did not remember the scripture that is written in the book of the Law of the Lord, which is likened to the book of the Wars: “Cursed be the man who trusts in flesh, who makes flesh his trust.” Therefore the chief of the cupbearers did not remember Joseph, and he forgot him until the time came for the end, for him to be redeemed.

Pharaoh’s Dreams

1 And it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh was dreaming, and look, he was standing on the bank of the river. 2 And look, seven cows came up from the river, beautiful to look at and healthy in their flesh, and they were grazing in the reeds. 3 And look, seven other cows came up after them from the river, bad to look at and lean in their flesh, and they stood beside the cows on the bank of the river. 4 And the cows that were bad to look at and lean in their flesh ate up the seven cows that were beautiful to look at and healthy. And Pharaoh woke up. 5 And he slept and dreamed a second time, and look, seven ears of grain were coming up on one stalk, healthy and good. 6 And look, seven ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, were sprouting after them. 7 And the thin ears swallowed the seven healthy and full ears. And Pharaoh woke up, and look, it was a dream. 8 And it happened in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called all the magicians of the Egyptians and all their wise men, and Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh. 9 And the chief of the cupbearers spoke with Pharaoh, saying, “I call my offenses to mind this day. 10 Pharaoh was angry with his officers, and he put me in custody in the house of the chief of the executioners, me and the chief of the bakers. 11 And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed, each man according to the interpretation of his own dream. 12 And there with us was a Hebrew young man, a servant of the chief of the executioners, and we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; for each man according to his dream he interpreted. 13 And it happened that just as he interpreted for us, so it turned out: me he brought back to my service, and him he hanged on the gallows.”

Joseph Interprets the Dreams

14 And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they hurried him out of the prison house, and he shaved and washed his clothes and went in to Pharaoh. 15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one to interpret it, and I have heard it said of you that you hear a dream and interpret it.” 16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; from before the Lord an answer will be given for the welfare of Pharaoh.” 17 And Pharaoh spoke with Joseph: “In my dream, look, I was standing on the bank of the river. 18 And look, seven cows came up from the river, healthy in their flesh and beautiful in their appearance, and they were grazing in the reeds. 19 And look, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very bad to look at and lean in their flesh; I have not seen any as bad as they are in all the land of Egypt. 20 And the lean and bad cows ate up the seven first, healthy cows. 21 And they went into their bellies, and no one could tell that they had gone into their bellies, and their appearance was as poor as it had been at the beginning. And I woke up. 22 And I saw in my dream, and look, seven ears were coming up on one stalk, full and good. 23 And look, seven ears, withered, thin and scorched by the east wind, were sprouting after them. 24 And the ears swallowed the good ones. And I told the magicians, but there was no one who could interpret it for me.” 25 And Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What the Lord is about to do he has made known to Pharaoh. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years; the dream is one. 27 And the seven lean and bad cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind will be seven years of famine. 28 This is the word that I have spoken with Pharaoh: what the Lord is about to do he has made known to Pharaoh. 29 Look, seven years of great plenty are coming in all the land of Egypt. 30 And seven years of famine will rise up after them, and all the plenty in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will wipe out the land. 31 And the plenty will not be known in the land because of that famine that comes after it, for it will be very severe. 32 And as for the dream being repeated to Pharaoh two times: it is because the matter has been made ready from before the Lord, and there is haste from before the Lord to do it.

The Plan for the Coming Famine

33 And now let Pharaoh appoint a man who is understanding and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh give charge to a man, and let him appoint stewards in all the land of Egypt, and let them take out one part in five of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty. 35 And let them gather all the food of these seven good years that are coming, and let them heap up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, food in the cities, and let them keep it safe. 36 And let the food be a good remembrance for the land for the seven years of famine that will be in Egypt, so that the land is not wiped out by the famine.”

Joseph Is Appointed over Egypt

37 And the word was pleasing in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of all his officers. 38 And Pharaoh said to his officers, “Can we find a man like this, on whom the holy spirit from before the Lord rests?” 39 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since the Lord has made all this known to you, there is no one as understanding and wise as you. 40 You shall be steward over my house, and by the decree of your mouth all my people shall be fed; only by the throne of my kingdom will I be greater than you.” 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have appointed you chief and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” 42 And Pharaoh took the ring from his hand and put it on the hand of Joseph, and clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a chain of gold around his neck. 43 And he made him ride in the second chariot that he had, and they were acclaiming before him, “Long live the father of the king, who is great in wisdom, and slight in beauty, and tender in years!” And he appointed him chief and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 44 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and apart from you no man shall put out his hand to fasten his belt, or his foot to mount a horse, in all the land of Egypt.” 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name “The man to whom hidden things are revealed,” and he gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, chief of Tanis, as his wife. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

The Years of Plenty

46 And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before Pharaoh and passed through all the land of Egypt. 47 And the land produced in the seven years of plenty, and the storehouses were filled. 48 And he gathered all the food of the seven years that were in the land of Egypt and put food in the cities; the food of the territory around each city he put inside it. 49 And Joseph heaped up grain like the sand of the sea, a very great amount, until he was held back from counting, for there was no total to its count. 50 And to Joseph two sons were born before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, chief of Tanis, bore to him. 51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For the Lord has made me forget all my toil and all the people of my father’s house.” 52 And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For the Lord has made me strong in the land of my affliction.”

The Famine Begins

53 And the seven years of plenty that had been in Egypt came to an end. 54 And the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said, and there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 And all the land of Egypt was hungry, and the people cried out before Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, do it.” 56 And the famine was over all the face of the land, and Joseph opened all the storehouses that had grain in them and sold to the Egyptians, and the famine grew strong in the land of Egypt. 57 And all the inhabitants of the earth came into Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, for the famine had grown strong in all the earth.

Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt

1 And Jacob saw in the holy spirit that grain was being sold in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you now show yourselves full among the hungry?” 2 And he said, “Look, I have heard that grain is being sold in Egypt. Go down there and buy for us from there, so that we may live and not die.” 3 And ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he said, “Some mishap might befall him.” 5 And the sons of Israel came in to buy among those who came in, for there was famine in the land of Canaan.

Joseph Questions His Brothers

6 And Joseph was the ruler over the land, and he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and asked after his welfare according to the custom of the land. 7 And Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, and he acted as their enemy and spoke harsh words with them, and he said to them, “Where have you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the ways into the land.” 10 And they said to him, “No, my lord; your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies.” 12 And he said to them, “It is the ways into the land that you have come to see.” 13 And they said, “We your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and look, the youngest is with our father today, and one of us went away from us, and we do not know what became of him in the end.” 14 And Joseph said to them, “That is the word I spoke with you, saying, You are spies. 15 By this you will be tested: by the life of the head of Pharaoh, you shall not go out from here unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, and you will be kept in custody, and your words will be tested, whether you are truthful; and if not, by the life of the head of Pharaoh, you are spies.” 17 And he put them in custody for three days. 18 And Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I am one who fears before the Lord. 19 If you are honest, let one of you, your brother, be bound in your prison house, and you go and carry food, grain, for the hunger of your households. 20 And bring your youngest brother to me, and your words will be found true, and you will not die.” And they did so. 21 And they said, each man to his brother, “Truly we are guilty for the blood of our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he was writhing before us, and we would not listen; that is why this great anguish has come upon us.” 22 And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’? But you would not listen. And now look, his blood is being demanded.” 23 And they did not know that Joseph understood them, for Manasseh was there as interpreter, standing between them. 24 And he turned away from them and wept, and he came back to them and spoke with them, and he took Simeon from among them and bound him before their eyes.

The Brothers Return to Jacob

25 And Joseph gave orders to fill their vessels with grain, and to put back each man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the road. And it was done for them in this way. 26 And they loaded their grain on their donkeys and went away from there. 27 And one of them opened his sack to give fodder to his donkey at the lodging place, and he saw his money, and look, it was in the mouth of his load. 28 And he said to his brothers, “My money has been put back, and look, it is in the mouth of my load.” And their hearts shook, and they trembled, facing one another, saying, “What is this that the Lord has done to us?” 29 And they came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke hard words with us and treated us like men spying out the land. 31 And we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one of us went away from us, and we do not know what became of him in the end, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’ 33 And the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest: leave one of your brothers with me, and take something for the hunger of your households, and go. 34 And bring your youngest brother to me, and I will know that you are not spies, that you are honest. I will give your brother back to you, and you shall possess the land.’” 35 And as they were emptying their sacks, look, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And they saw their bundles of money, they and their father, and they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me. Joseph, since I sent him to you at Dothan, I do not know what became of him in the end; and now you want to take Benjamin, and it is on him that they are counting to raise up the twelve tribes.” 37 And Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him into my hands, and I will bring him back to you.” 38 And he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. And if a mishap befalls him on the road you are traveling, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in grief.”

Judah Takes Responsibility for Benjamin

1 And the famine was severe in the land. 2 And it happened, when they had finished eating the grain that they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, “Go back; buy us a little food.” 3 And Judah spoke to him, saying, “The man gave us a solemn warning, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you are willing to send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’” 6 And Israel said, “Why have you done me harm by telling the man that you still have a brother?” 7 And they said, “The man asked closely about us and about our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have a brother?’ And we told him according to these words.” And Judah said, “Could we possibly have known that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” 8 And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will get up and go, so that we may live and not die, we and you and our little ones. 9 I will stand surety for him; you may demand him from me. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, let me be barred from greeting you all the days. 10 For if we had not delayed, we would have been back by now and come twice.” 11 And Israel their father said to them, “If you have settled on this, do this: take some of the best of the land in your vessels and carry down a gift to the man, a little balm and a little honey, wax, oil of pistachios and of almonds. 12 And take double money in your hands, and the money that was put back in the mouth of your loads, carry back in your hands; perhaps it was a mistake. 13 And take your brother, and get up, go back to the man. 14 And may the God of the heavens grant you mercy before the ruler, and may he send back to you your other brother and Benjamin. And I, just as I have been bereaved of Joseph my son, shall not be bereaved again of Benjamin.” 15 And the men took this gift, and they took double money in their hands, and Benjamin, and they got up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

The Brothers Dine in Joseph’s House

16 And Joseph saw Benjamin with them, and he said to the one appointed steward over his house, “Bring the men into the palace, and slaughter animals and make ready, for the men will eat with me at mealtime.” 17 And the man did as Joseph had said, and the man brought the men into Joseph’s palace. 18 And the men were afraid because they had been brought into Joseph’s palace, and they said, “It is because of the money that was put back in our loads the first time that we are being brought in, so that he can lord it over us and fall upon us, and take us as slaves, along with our donkeys.” 19 And they came up to the man who was appointed over Joseph’s palace, and they spoke with him at the gate of the palace. 20 And they said, “Please, my lord, we did come down the first time to buy food. 21 And it happened, when we came to the lodging place and opened our loads, look, each man’s money was in the mouth of his load, our money in its full weight, and we have brought it back in our hands. 22 And we have brought down other money in our hands to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our loads.” 23 And he said, “Peace to you; do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your fathers gave you treasures in your loads; your money came to me.” And he brought Simeon out to them. 24 And the man brought the men into Joseph’s palace, and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave fodder to their donkeys. 25 And they made the gift ready for the time when Joseph would come at mealtime, for they had heard that they were to eat bread there. 26 And Joseph came into the house, and they brought him the gift that was in their hands into the palace, and they asked after his welfare according to the custom of the land. 27 And he asked them about their welfare and said, “Is your old father well, the one you spoke of? Is he still alive?” 28 And they said, “Your servant our father is well; look, he is still alive.” And they bowed down and gave thanks and praised. 29 And he raised his eyes and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you spoke of to me?” And he said, “May there be mercy on you from before the Lord, my son.” 30 And Joseph hurried, for his inner feelings were stirred for his brother, and he wanted to weep, and he went into his bedchamber and wept there. 31 And he washed his face and came out, and he steadied himself and said, “Serve the bread.” 32 And they served him by himself and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, for the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews, because that is a thing the Egyptians keep far from. 33 And he had them recline before him, the eldest according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men were amazed, each man facing his fellow. 34 And he took portions from before him and divided them among them, and he made Benjamin’s portion greater than the portions of all of them, five portions. And they drank and became drunk with him.

The Silver Cup in Benjamin’s Sack

1 And he gave orders to the one appointed steward over his house, saying, “Fill the men’s loads with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his load. 2 And my goblet, the silver goblet, you shall put in the mouth of the load of the youngest, along with the money for his grain.” And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 3 The morning grew light, and the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 They had gone out of the city and had not gone far when Joseph said to the one who was steward over his house, “Get up, chase after the men, and overtake them, and say to them, ‘Why now have you repaid bad things in place of good? 5 Is this not the one my lord drinks from, and does he not surely divine by it? You have done evil in what you have done.’” 6 And he overtook them and spoke these words with them. 7 And they said to him, “Why now does my lord speak these words? Far be it from your servants to do anything like these words. 8 Look, the money that we found in the mouth of our loads we brought back to you the first time from the land of Canaan; how then could we steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 Whoever among your servants it is found with, let him be put to death, and we too will be slaves to my lord.” 10 And he said, “Now let it be just as your words say: whoever it is found with shall be my slave, and you shall go free of guilt.” 11 And each man hurried and lowered his load to the ground, and each man opened his load. 12 And he searched, beginning with the eldest and finishing with the youngest, and the goblet was found in Benjamin’s load. 13 And they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and they went back to the city. 14 And Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s palace, and he was still there, and they asked after his welfare according to the custom of the land. 15 And Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Did you not know that a lord and ruler like me surely divines?” 16 And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak, and how shall we clear ourselves? From before the Lord the guilt of your servants has been found out. Look, we are slaves to my lord, both we and the one in whose hand the goblet was found.” 17 And he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose hand the goblet was found, he shall be my slave; and you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah Pleads for Benjamin

18 And Judah came near to him, raging in his words and grinding with his tongue; he roared like a lion and said, “I beg you, my lord, let your servant speak a word now, and, my lord, do not let your anger grow strong against your servant. Was it not from the first time that we came to you that you kept saying to us, ‘I fear before the Lord’? And now your judgments have turned to be like the judgments of Pharaoh your master.” And he said, “Look now, our lord: the first time we came, you told us, ‘I fear before the Lord,’ and now you say, ‘I fear Pharaoh.’ Perhaps it has not been told to you, or perhaps you have not heard, what Simeon and Levi, my two brothers, did in the city of Shechem: how they went into it and killed every male in it, because inside it they had defiled Dinah our sister, who is not counted among the tribes and has no share or inheritance in the division of the land. How much more for the sake of Benjamin our brother, who is counted among the tribes and has a share and inheritance in the division of the land! And as for me, my strength is greater than the strength of Simeon and Levi. On oath: if I draw my sword from its sheath, I will not put it back into it until I have killed all the Egyptians. With you I will begin, and with Pharaoh your master I will finish. For I am as honored as you, and my father as Pharaoh your master. For whatever you swear by, by that you swear; I swear to you by the life of my father’s head, just as you swear by the life of the head of Pharaoh your master, that if I draw my sword from inside its sheath, I will not put it back in its sheath until all the land of Egypt is filled with the slain. I will not put it back in its sheath until we make all the land of Egypt empty of inhabitants. With you I will begin, and with Pharaoh your master, by whom you swear, I will make an end. I am set on doing it, and I will do it even against my father’s will. Look, has it not been heard by you, and has it not been told to you, what my two brothers Simeon and Levi did in the city of Shechem, whose people were living at ease? They went into it and killed every male by the edge of the sword, because they had defiled Dinah our sister, who was not counted with us among the tribes and does not receive an inheritance with us. How much more and more for our brother, who is counted with us among the tribes and receives a share and inheritance with us in the division of the land! And how much harder I am than they, and how much more is my strength harder than theirs! And I went surety for the boy with my father, and I said to him, ‘If I do not bring him to you and set him before you, let me be barred from greeting my father all the days.’ Or perhaps it has not been heard by you, and has not been told to you, that we are kings and rulers like you in the land of Canaan: just as you and Pharaoh your master are rulers in the land of Egypt, so I and Jacob my father are rulers in the land of Canaan.” 19 And it happened, when Joseph, the beloved and honored, saw that the might of Judah his brother had risen up, and saw also that the hairs of his chest were coming out from his heart, and that his garments had been torn, at that hour Joseph was alarmed and trembled before Judah. And Joseph signaled to Manasseh his son, and he stamped with his feet on the palace, and the whole palace shook. Judah answered and said, “It looks as though this might is from my father’s house, and this great strength because he is from my father’s rib; if not, he would not be able to do this.” Because of this Judah began to soften his words, and he spoke gentle words: “My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young child of his old age, a little one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’ 21 And you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, and I will set my eyes on him.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if the boy leaves his father, he will die.’ 23 And you said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you shall not see my face again.’ 24 And it happened, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord. 25 And my father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ 26 And we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, we will go down, for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that Rachel my wife bore me two sons. 28 And one went away from me, and I said, Surely he has been killed, and I have not seen him to this day. 29 And if you take this one from me too, and a mishap befalls him, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in misery.’ 30 And now, when I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, and his life is as dear to him as his own life, 31 it will happen, when he sees that the boy is not with us, that he will die, and your servants will bring the gray hairs of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief. 32 For your servant went surety for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him to you, let me be barred from greeting my father all the days.’ 33 And now let your servant stay in place of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers. 34 For how can I go up to my father when the boy is not with me? Let me not see the evil that will come upon my father.”

Joseph Reveals His Identity

1 And Joseph could not bear it before all who were standing by him, and he called out and said, “Send every man out from beside me.” And no man stood with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he raised his voice in weeping, and the Egyptians heard, and it was heard in Pharaoh’s palace. 3 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” And his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed before him. 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near, and he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be angry, and do not let it seem bad in your sight that you sold me here, for it was to save life that the Lord sent me ahead of you. 6 For these two years the famine has been within the land, and for five more years there will be no sowing and no harvest. 7 And the Lord sent me ahead of you to set a deliverance for you in the land and to keep you alive for a great rescue. 8 And now it was not you who sent me here, but the Lord, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord over all the people of his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 9 Hurry and go out to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph: The Lord has made me lord over all the Egyptians. Come down to me; do not delay. 10 And you shall live in the land of Goshen and be near me, you and your sons and your sons’ sons, and your flocks and your herds, and all that you have. 11 And I will provide for you there, for there are still five years of famine, so that you are not wiped out, you and the people of your house.’ 12 And look, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is in the language of the holy house that my mouth is speaking with you. 13 And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen, and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 And he fell on the neck of Benjamin his brother and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept in front of them, and after that his brothers spoke with him.

Pharaoh Invites the Family to Egypt

16 And the report was heard in Pharaoh’s palace, saying, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” and it was pleasing in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. 17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your animals and go, enter the land of Canaan. 18 And take your father and the people of your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the best of the land.’ 19 And you are commanded: ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and carry your father and come. 20 And do not let your eyes spare your weapons, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’” 21 And the sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons by the command of Pharaoh’s mouth, and he gave them provisions for the road. 22 To each of them, to every man, he gave a robe and a garment, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred selas of silver and five robes and garments. 23 And to his father he sent this as a gift: ten donkeys loaded with the best of Egypt, and ten she-donkeys loaded with grain and bread and food for his father for the road. 24 And he sent his brothers away, and they went, and he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the road.”

Jacob Hears That Joseph Is Alive

25 And they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father. 26 And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart was divided, for he did not believe them. 27 And they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken with them, and he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, and the spirit of Jacob their father came to rest. 28 And Israel said, “Many good things and comforts I have hoped to see, but this I did not hope for: that Joseph is still alive. I will go now and see him before I die.”

Jacob Goes to Egypt

1 And Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. 2 And the Lord spoke to Israel in a vision of the night, and he said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” 3 And he said, “I am he, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. 4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I, by my Memra, will surely bring you up again, and Joseph will lay his hand on your eyes.” 5 And Jacob set out from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father and their little ones and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. 6 And they took their cattle and their goods that they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his sons with him: 7 his sons and all his sons with him, his daughters and his daughters’ daughters, and all his descendants they brought down with him to Egypt.

The Family That Enters Egypt

8 And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Jacob’s firstborn, Reuben. 9 And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. 10 And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar, and Shaul the son of the Canaanite woman. 11 And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. 12 And the sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah. And Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 13 And the sons of Issachar: Tola and Puvah and Iob and Shimron. 14 And the sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel. 15 These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, and Dinah his daughter; all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three. 16 And the sons of Gad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi and Areli. 17 And the sons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah, and Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. 18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob, sixteen souls. 19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin. 20 And to Joseph were born in the land of Egypt, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, chief of On, bore to him, Manasseh and Ephraim. 21 And the sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard. 22 These are the sons of Rachel, whom she bore to Jacob; all the souls were fourteen. 23 And the sons of Dan: Hushim. 24 And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and Shillem. 25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob; all the souls were seven. 26 All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who came out of his loins, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons, all the souls were sixty-six. 27 And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two souls. All the souls of the people of Jacob’s house who came into Egypt were seventy.

Jacob and Joseph Are Reunited

28 And he sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to prepare for him a place, a house to lodge in, in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. 29 And Joseph harnessed his chariot and went out to meet Israel his father in Goshen, and he saw him, and he fell on his neck and wept on his neck once more. 30 And Israel said to Joseph, “Were I to die this time, I would not have died, now that I have seen your face, that you are still alive.” 31 And Joseph said to his brothers and to the people of his father’s house, “I will go up now and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and the people of my father’s house who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. 32 And the men are shepherds of flocks, for they are owners of cattle, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ 33 And it will be, when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your work?’ 34 you shall say, ‘Your servants have been owners of cattle from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd of flocks is a thing the Egyptians keep far from.”

The Family Settles in Egypt

1 And Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come from the land of Canaan, and look, they are settled in the land of Goshen.” 2 And from some of them he took five men and set them before Pharaoh. 3 And Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your work?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds of flocks, both they and our fathers.” 4 And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for the flocks that belong to your servants, because the famine is very severe and they have wasted away in the land of Canaan. And now let your servants live in the land of Goshen.” 5 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6 The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land; let them live in the land of Goshen. And if you know that there are among them mighty men of valor, make them chiefs over our livestock, over all that I have.” 7 And Joseph brought Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojournings are a hundred and thirty years. Few and bad have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.” 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh. 11 And Joseph settled his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in Egypt, in the best part of the land, in the land of Pelusium, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph provided for his father and his brothers and all the people of his father’s house with bread, according to the number of the little ones.

Joseph Manages the Famine

13 And there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, and the inhabitants of the land of Egypt and of the land of Canaan grew faint before the famine. 14 And Joseph collected all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were buying, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. 15 And the money from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan was used up, and all the Egyptians came to Joseph, saying, “Give us bread. Why should we die before you? For the money is used up.” 16 And Joseph said, “Bring your cattle, and I will give to you in exchange for your cattle, if the money is used up.” 17 And all the Egyptians came to Joseph, saying, “Give us bread.” And Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, and for their holdings of flocks and holdings of herds, and for the donkeys, and he provided for them with bread in exchange for all their cattle in that year. 18 And that year came to an end, and they came to him in the second year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that the money is used up, and the flocks and the cattle belong to my lord; nothing is left before my lord except our bodies and our land. 19 Why should we die before you, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. And give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and the land not be laid waste.” 20 And Joseph bought all the land of the Egyptians for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold, each man his field, because the famine was severe upon them. And the land became Pharaoh’s. 21 And the people who had slandered with an evil tongue, Joseph moved them about and exiled them, and shifted them from city to city, and from one end of the borders of the Egyptians to the other end. And the people who were in the cities he settled in the provinces, and the people of the provinces he settled in the cities, from one end of the land of Egypt to the other, so that the Egyptians would not be taunting Joseph’s brothers and saying to them, “Strangers, exiles.” 22 Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and they ate their portion that Pharaoh gave them; for this reason they did not sell their land. 23 And Joseph said to the people, “Look, I have bought you this day, you and your land, for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you; sow the land. 24 And at the time of the harvest you shall give one part in five to Pharaoh, and four parts shall be yours, for sowing your territories, and for your food, and for the sustenance of your households, and for food for your little ones.” 25 And they said, “You have kept us alive. May we find grace and favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be slaves to Pharaoh.” 26 And Joseph made it a sign, to this day, over the land of the Egyptians: to Pharaoh, one part in five. Only the land of the priests, theirs alone, did not become Pharaoh’s.

Jacob’s Burial Request

27 And Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they took possession in it and grew strong and became very many. 28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the days of Jacob’s life, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years. 29 And the days of Israel drew near for him to die, and he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found grace and favor in your sight, put your hand now under my covenant and deal with me in kindness and goodness: do not bury me in Egypt. 30 And I will be gathered to my fathers, and you shall carry me from Egypt and bury me in their graves.” And he said, “Look, I will do as you have said.” 31 And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. And Israel gave thanks and praised at the head of the bed.

Jacob Receives Joseph and His Sons

1 And it happened after these things that it was said to Joseph, “Look, your father is ill.” And he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 And it was told to Jacob, and someone said, “Look, your son Joseph is coming to you.” And Israel gathered his strength and sat up on the head of the bed. 3 And Jacob said to Joseph, “The God of the heavens was revealed to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. 4 And he said to me, ‘Look, I am making you strong and making you many, and you shall become an assembly of a gathering of righteous nations, and I will give this land to your sons after you as an everlasting possession.’ 5 And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are called by my name; Ephraim and Manasseh, like Reuben and Simeon, shall be called by my name. 6 And your offspring whom you father after them shall be called by your name; by the name of their brothers they shall be called in their inheritance. 7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan Aram, Rachel died in my presence in the land of Canaan on the road, at the time of the harvest of the land, as we were going in to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.”

Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

8 And Israel saw Joseph’s sons and said, “Who are these?” 9 And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom the Lord has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me now, and I will bless them.” 10 And Israel’s eyes were dim with age, and he could not see. And he brought them near to him, and he embraced them and kissed them. 11 And Israel said to Joseph, “I did not hope to see your face, and look, the Lord has let me see your sons too.” 12 And Joseph brought them out after he had blessed them, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 13 And Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim at his right hand, toward Israel’s left, and Manasseh at his left hand, toward Israel’s right, and brought them near to him. 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and stretched it out and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh; he crossed his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 And he blessed Joseph and said, “The Lord, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked in truth, the Lord who has led me from my youth until this day, 16 the angel who redeemed me from all distress, may he bless the boys, and may my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they multiply in the land as the fish multiply in the water.” 17 And Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, and it was not pleasing in his sight, and he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. 18 And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” 19 And his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be strong; but his younger brother shall be stronger than he, and his sons shall be rulers among the nations.” 20 And he blessed them on that day, saying, “By your merit Israel will be blessed, saying, ‘May the Lord make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.’” And he set the blessing of Manasseh. 21 And Israel said to Joseph, “Look, I am dying, and the Lord will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers. 22 And I have given you one portion more than your brothers: the garments of the first Adam, which Abraham, my father’s father, took from the hands of Nimrod the wicked and gave to Isaac, and Isaac my father gave them to Esau my brother, and I took them from the hands of Esau my brother, not with my sword and not with my bow, but by my merits and by my good deeds, which are better for me than my sword and my bow. And besides, I have given you one portion more than your brothers: Shechem, which I took by my merits and by my good deeds from the hands of the Amorites, which are better for me than my sword and my bow.”

Jacob Summons His Sons

1 And Jacob called his sons and said to them, “Gather together, and I will tell you the hidden mysteries, the concealed ends, the giving of the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked, and what the bliss of Eden is.” The twelve tribes gathered together and surrounded the bed of gold on which our father Jacob was lying, after the end had been revealed to him, and so that he might tell them the end of the blessing and the consolation. When the end was revealed to him, the mystery was hidden from him. They were hoping that he would tell them the end of the redemption and the consolation. When the mystery was revealed to him, it was hidden from him, and when the door was opened to him, it was shut against him. Our father Jacob answered and blessed them; each man according to his good deeds he blessed them. 2 When the twelve tribes of Jacob had gathered and surrounded the bed of gold on which our father Jacob was lying, they were hoping that he would reveal to them the order of the blessing, but it was hidden from him. Our father Jacob answered and said to them, “From Abraham, my father’s father, there arose a blemish, Ishmael, and all the sons of Keturah; and from Isaac my father there arose his blemish, Esau my brother. And I am afraid that there may be among you a man whose heart is divided against his brothers, to go and worship before foreign idols.” The twelve tribes of Jacob answered together and said, “Hear us, Israel our father: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Jacob answered and said, “Blessed is his name, the glory of his kingdom, forever and ever.”

The Blessing of Reuben

3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the beginning of my sorrow. You were fit to take three portions more than your brothers: the birthright was yours, and the kingship and the high priesthood were fit to be yours. Because you sinned, Reuben my son, the birthright has been given to Joseph my son, and the kingship to Judah, and the high priesthood to the tribe of Levi. 4 I compare you, Reuben my son, to a small garden into which flooding streams of water came, and you could not withstand them, and you were broken before them. So you have been broken, Reuben my son, in your wisdom and in your good deeds, because you sinned. Do not sin again, my son, and for what you sinned you will be loosed and forgiven. For you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it; he went up to my couch.

The Blessings of Simeon and Levi

5 Simeon and Levi are twin brothers, masters of sharp weapons, makers of war from their youth; in the land of their enemies they won the victories of their battles. 6 In their assemblies, in their counsels, my soul took no pleasure; when they gathered against the city of Shechem to lay it waste, they had no regard for my honor, for in their anger they killed kings, and at their will they broke down the walls of their enemies. 7 Cursed was the city of Shechem when Simeon and Levi went into it to lay it waste in their anger, for their anger is strong, and the dread of them, for it was harsh,” said our father Jacob. “If Simeon and Levi live together, there is no nation or kingdom that can stand against them. I will divide the portion of Simeon within the house of Jacob, and I will increase the inheritance of Levi within the tribe of the sons of Israel.

Judah’s Blessing and the Coming of King Messiah

8 Judah, your brothers will praise you, and by your name all Jews will be called Jews. Your hands will take vengeance for you on your enemies; all your father’s sons will come first to ask after your welfare. 9 I compare you, Judah, to a lion’s cub. From the killers of Joseph my son you were the rescuer; from the judgment of Tamar, my son, you came out innocent. You rest and lie down in the midst of battle like a lion and like a lioness, and there is no nation or kingdom that can stand against you. 10 Kings shall not cease from those of the house of Judah,⁠a nor scribes who teach the Law from his sons’ sons, until the time when King Messiah comes, to whom the kingship belongs, and all the kingdoms shall be subject to him. 11 How beautiful is King Messiah, who is to arise from those of the house of Judah! He girds his loins and goes out to battle against those who hate him, and he kills kings together with rulers. He reddens the mountains with the blood of their slain and whitens the hills with the fat of their warriors. His garments are rolled in blood; he is like one who treads grapes.⁠b 12 How beautiful are the eyes of King Messiah, more than clear wine, so that he will not look with them on the uncovering of nakedness, nor on the shedding of innocent blood. His teeth are purer than milk, so that he will not eat with them what is taken by violence or by robbery. The mountains will grow red from his vines, and the vats from wine, and the hills will grow white with plenty of grain and flocks of sheep.

The Blessing of Zebulun

13 Zebulun will live on the coasts of the Great Sea, and he will rule over the harbors of ships, and his border will reach as far as Sidon.

The Blessing of Issachar

14 Issachar is a strong tribe, lying between the two borders. 15 And he saw from the beginning that it was good, and the land of Israel, that its fruits were rich, and he bent his shoulder to the teaching of the Law, and all his brothers were bringing up tribute to him.

The Blessing of Dan

16 From those of the house of Dan redemption and a judge will arise; all the tribes of the sons of Israel will obey him together. 17 This shall be the redeemer who is to arise from those of the house of Dan: he will be strong, he will be exalted over all the nations. He will be like a snake that lies on the ground, and like a viper that lurks at the parting of the roads, that bites the horses on the heels, and in fear of it the rider is thrown and turns over backward. He is Samson son of Manoah, the dread of whom is upon his enemies and the fear of whom is upon those who hate him; he goes out to battle against those who hate him, and he kills kings together with rulers.”

Jacob’s Hope for Redemption

18 Our father Jacob said, “Not for the redemption of Gideon son of Joash does my soul wait, for it is the redemption of an hour; and not for the redemption of Samson son of Manoah does my soul wait, for it is a passing redemption; but for the redemption of the one you have said you will bring to your people, the house of Israel, does my soul wait. For you, for your redemption, I wait, Lord.”

The Blessing of Gad

19 “From those of the house of Gad, camps will go out, drawn up in ranks and armed; they will cross the Jordan with Israel, and they will subdue the land before them, and after that they will return to their place with great wealth.

The Blessing of Asher

20 Happy are you of the house of Asher! How rich are the fruits of your land! And look, it will raise up produce, the delicacies of the kings of the sons of Israel.

The Blessing of Naphtali

21 Naphtali is a swift runner who brings good news. It was he who brought word to our father Jacob at the first that Joseph was still alive. And he girded himself and went down to Egypt in a short hour, and brought the deed of the field from Joseph’s palace. And when his mouth brought good news in the assemblies of Israel, milk and honey came out from his lips.

The Blessing of Joseph

22 My son who has grown great, Joseph, my son who has grown great and become strong, and you are fit to become stronger still! I compare you, Joseph my son, to a vine planted by springs of water, which sent its roots into the earth and broke the teeth of all the rocks, and sent its branches up on high and overcame all the trees. So you overcame, Joseph my son, by your wisdom, all the magicians of the Egyptians and all their wise men, when they had you ride in Pharaoh’s second chariot and were acclaiming before you, ‘Long live the father of the king, who is great in wisdom and young in years!’ And the daughters of the kings and of the rulers were peering at you through the windows and looking out at you from the lattices, and they were throwing down before you bracelets, rings, chains, necklaces and all kinds of gold, hoping that you would raise your eyes and look at one of them. Far be it from you, Joseph my son! You did not raise your eyes and look at one of them. And the daughters of the kings and of the rulers were saying to one another, ‘This is Joseph, the pious man, who did not go after the sight of his eyes nor after the imaginings of his heart, which are the things that destroy a person from the world.’ Because of this two tribes will arise from you, Manasseh and Ephraim, and they will receive a share and inheritance with their brothers in the division of the land. 23 They spoke against him, but all the magicians of the Egyptians and their wise men could not prevail against him. They spoke evil before their master and slandered him before Pharaoh king of Egypt, in order to bring him down from his greatness and to remove him from the throne of the kingdom. They spoke against him with a slanderous tongue in Pharaoh’s palace, and it was harder on him than arrows. 24 But he placed his trust in the Strong One; he stretched out his hands and his arms to ask for mercy from the Strong One of his father Jacob, from under whose mighty arm all the tribes of Israel are provided for. 25 May the Memra of the God of your father be your help, and may the God of the heavens bless you with the good of the dew and the rain that come down from the heavens above, and with the blessing of the springs of the deep that rise from the earth below. Blessed are the breasts that you sucked, and the womb in which you lay.⁠c 26 May the blessings of your father be added to you, beyond the blessings with which my fathers Abraham and Isaac blessed me, which the great ones of the world, Esau and Ishmael, have coveted from the beginning. May all these blessings come and become a crown of greatness on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the pious man who was lord and ruler over the land of Egypt and was careful of the honor of his father and the honor of his brothers.

The Blessing of Benjamin

27 Benjamin is a strong tribe. In his territory the sanctuary will be built, and in his inheritance the Glory of the Shekinah of the Lord will dwell. In the morning the priests will offer the perpetual lamb with its grain offering, and between the evenings they will offer the perpetual lamb with its grain offering, and in the evening they will divide what remains of the offerings of the sons of Israel.”

Jacob’s Burial Instructions and Death

28 All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve, and this is the blessing with which he blessed them; each man according to the measure of his blessing he blessed them. 29 And he commanded them and said to them, “Look, I am being gathered to my people. Bury me beside my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is facing Mamre in Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial possession. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase of the field and of the cave that is in it was from the sons of Heth.” 33 And Jacob finished commanding his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed, and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.

Mourning and Burying Jacob

1 And Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph laid his father on a couch of ivory, overlaid with gold, set with pearls, filled out and made firm with stone, fine linen and purple. Precious wines and fine perfumes were poured out there; fine spices were burned there. Kings and rulers of the sons of Ishmael stood there; rulers of the sons of Esau stood there; rulers of the sons of Keturah stood there. There stood Judah, the lion, the mightiest of his brothers. Judah answered and said to his brothers, “Come, let us build for our father a tall cedar, whose top reaches to the vault of the heavens and whose roots reach to the generations of the world, for from him have come the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel; from him have come the priests with their trumpets and the Levites with their lyres.” Then Joseph bent over his father’s neck, and Joseph wept over him and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 And forty days were completed for him, for so the days of embalming are completed. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. 4 And the days of his weeping passed, and Joseph spoke with the people of Pharaoh’s house, saying, “If now I have found grace and favor in your sight, speak now in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Look, I am dying; in my grave that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” And now let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.’” 6 And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 And Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the officers of Pharaoh, the stewards of the land of Egypt, 8 and all the people of Joseph’s house, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their little ones and their flocks and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and the camp was very great. 10 And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a great and very bitter lament; and he kept mourning for his father seven days. 11 And the inhabitants of the land of Canaan saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, and they said, “This is a heavy mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12 And his sons did for him as he had commanded them. 13 And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham bought as a burial possession from Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre. 14 And Joseph went back to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

Joseph Reassures His Brothers

15 And Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, and they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the evil that we did to him?” 16 And the tribes charged Bilhah, who had brought Joseph up, to say to him, “Your father gave command before he died, saying, 17 ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph: Please, loose now and forgive the offenses of your brothers and their sins, for they did you evil. And now loose and forgive the rebellions of the servants of the God of your father.’” And Joseph wept as he spoke with her. 18 And his brothers also went and fell down before him and said, “Look, we are your slaves.” 19 And Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for is it from me that the evil you did me will be repaid to you? Are not the thoughts of people revealed before the Lord? 20 And you planned evil against me; from before the Lord it was planned for good, so as to keep many people alive on this day. 21 And now do not be afraid; I will provide for you and for your little ones.” Joseph answered and said to them, “Ten stars sought to uproot one star and could not uproot it; how then is it possible for one star to uproot ten stars?” And he comforted them and spoke words of peace to their hearts.

The Death of Joseph

22 And Joseph lived in Egypt, he and the people of his father’s house, and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23 And Joseph saw sons of the third generation of Ephraim; the sons of Machir son of Manasseh too were born on Joseph’s knees. 24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Look, I am dying, and the Lord will surely remember you in his good mercies and bring you up from this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “The Lord will surely remember you in his good mercies, and you shall carry my bones up from here.” 26 And Joseph died, a hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.