Bible in 90 Days

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this way that I am going, and provide me food to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹ and I return in shalom to my father’s house, then Adonai will be my God. ²² So this stone which I set up as a memorial stone will become God’s House, and of everything You provide me I will definitely give a tenth of it to You.”

Jacob Loves Rachel

29 Then Jacob lifted up his feet and went to the land of the peoples of the east. ² When he looked, suddenly, there was a well in the field, and there were three herds of sheep resting by it. (For from that well they would water the flocks. The stone on the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the herds gathered there, they would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the flocks, and put the stone back to its place over the mouth of the well.)

⁴ Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?”

“We’re from Haran,” they said.

⁵ So he said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s son?”

They said, “We know.”

⁶ He said to them, “Is he well?”

“Well,” they said. “Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the flock.”

⁷ He said, “Since it’s still the middle of the day, it’s not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the flock and let them go and graze.”

⁸ But they said, “We can’t, not until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well—then we water the flock.”

⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with the flock that belonged to her father (for she was a shepherdess). ¹⁰ Now when Jacob saw Rachel (the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother), Jacob stepped forward and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. ¹² Then Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. So she ran and told her father.

¹³ Now when Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, hugged and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things. ¹⁴ Laban said to him, “Surely you are my own bone and flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.

¹⁵ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Should you, my relative, serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be?”

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. ¹⁸ Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said, “Let me serve you for seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”

¹⁹ Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than I give her to another man! Stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob worked for Rachel seven years, yet in his eyes it was like a few days, because of his love for her.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are completed, so I may go to her.” ²² So Laban gathered all the men of the place and he prepared a feast. ²³ When it was evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him, and he went to her. ²⁴ Laban also gave her Zilpah his female servant to his daughter Leah as a female servant.

²⁵ So when it was morning, behold there she was, Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you’ve done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked with you? So why have you deceived me?”

²⁶ But Laban said, “It’s not done so in our place—to give the younger before the first-born. ²⁷ Complete the bridal week for this one. Then we’ll also give you this other—for work that you’ll do with me—another seven years more.”

²⁸ So Jacob did; he also completed this one’s bridal week. Then he gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ²⁹ Laban also gave his daughter Rachel his female servant Bilhah, to be a servant for her.

³⁰ Jacob also went to Rachel and indeed loved Rachel more than Leah. So he served with him for yet another seven years.

Rivalry Continues With Wives

³¹ Now Adonai saw that Leah was unloved, so he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive. ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son and named him Reuben because she said, “For Adonai has seen my affliction. Surely now my husband will love me.” ³³ Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and said, “For Adonai heard that I am hated, so He’s given me this one also,” and she named him Simeon. ³⁴ Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will join himself to me because I’ve given birth to three sons for him.” For this reason he was named Levi. ³⁵ Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I praise Adonai.” For this reason she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

30 When Rachel saw that she bore no children for Jacob, Rachel was jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me sons—if there are none, I’ll die!”

² But Jacob became furious with Rachel and said, “Am I, instead of God, the one who withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

³ So she said, “Here’s my maid-servant Bilhah. Go to her and let her give birth on my knees, so that from her I may also build a family.” ⁴ Then she gave her maid-servant Bilhah to him for a wife, and Jacob went to her. ⁵ Bilhah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Jacob. ⁶ So Rachel said, “God has judged my cause and also heard my voice—and given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan. ⁷ Then Rachel’s female servant became pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob. ⁸ So Rachel said, “I’ve surely wrestled greatly with my sister—also I’ve won.” So she named him Naphtali.

⁹ Now Leah saw that she stopped having children, so she took Zilpah her female servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ Then Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, gave birth to a son for Jacob. ¹¹ Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad. ¹² Then Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, gave birth to a second son for Jacob. ¹³ Leah said, “How happy am I, for daughters have called me happy.” So she named him Asher.

¹⁴ Now during the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and he brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”^[a]

¹⁵ But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took my husband away? You’d also take away my son’s mandrakes?”

So Rachel said, “That being so, let him lie with you tonight, in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶ So when Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and she said, “You must come to me. For I’ve actually hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that very night. ¹⁷ Moreover, God heard Leah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. ¹⁸ Leah said, “God gave me my reward^[b] because I gave my female servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. ¹⁹ Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. ²⁰ Leah said, “God has presented me a good gift. This time my husband will honor me for I’ve borne six sons for him.” So she named him Zebulun. ²¹ Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel and God listened to her and opened her womb. ²³ Then she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. So she said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” ²⁴ She named him Joseph saying, “May Adonai add another son for me.”

Jacob Outwits Laban

²⁵ Now it was after Rachel gave birth to Joseph that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away so that I can go to my place and to my land. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children for whom I’ve served you, and let me go. For you yourself know my labor—that I’ve served you.”

²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If I’ve found favor in your eyes—I’ve looked for good omens, and Adonai has blessed me because of you.” ²⁸ Moreover he said, “Name your own price and I’ll pay it.”

²⁹ Then he said to him, “You yourself know how I’ve served you and how your livestock fared with me. ³⁰ For you had very little before I came, and it has been busting at the seams in abundance. So Adonai blessed you with my every step. So now, when am I myself going to make something for my household also?”

³¹ Then he said, “What can I pay you?”

Jacob said, “You don’t need to pay me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will shepherd your flock again and watch it: ³² let me pass through your flock today, removing every colorfully spotted lamb from there and every dark-colored lamb among the sheep as well as the colorfully spotted among the goats—and that will be my salary. ³³ So tomorrow my honesty will testify on my behalf when you come to check on my salary you agreed to. Every one that isn’t colorfully spotted among the goats or dark-colored among the sheep with me, it is stolen.”

³⁴ So Laban said, “All right! May it be according to your word.” ³⁵ On that day he removed the colorfully striped and colorful billy goats as well as all the colorfully spotted goats—everyone with white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he put them in the hand of his sons. ³⁶ Then he put a three-day’s journey between them and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding Laban’s remaining flocks.

³⁷ But Jacob took fresh white poplar, almond, and plane tree branches, peeled away white stripped sections on them, exposing the white of the branches. ³⁸ Then he set the branches he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs and watering channels where the flocks come to drink. Since they were in heat when they came to drink, ³⁹ the flocks mated near the branches, and the flocks gave birth to striped, spotted and colorful ones. ⁴⁰ Now Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped ones as well as all the dark-colored ones among Laban’s flocks. Then he set aside the herds for himself and did not put them with Laban’s flocks. ⁴¹ Whenever the strong flocks mated, Jacob put the branches in the watering troughs before the eyes of the flocks, to have them mate near the branches. ⁴² But when the flocks were sickly, he did not put the branches down—so the sickly ones became Laban’s and the stronger ones became Jacob’s. ⁴³ And the man grew exceedingly prosperous and had numerous flocks, along with female and male servants, camels and donkeys.

Jacob Secretly Leaves Laban

31 Now Jacob heard the words Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belongs to our father, and from what belongs to our father he has made all these riches.” ² Then Jacob saw Laban’s face, and he noticed that his expression wasn’t the same as it was just a day or two before. ³ Then Adonai said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

⁴ So Jacob sent and called for Rachel and Leah to come to the field, to his flock. ⁵ He said to them, “I can see by your father’s face that his expression isn’t the same as it was just a day or two ago. But the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ Now you yourselves know that I’ve served your father with all my strength. ⁷ Yet your father has fooled around with me and has changed my salary ten times—but God hasn’t allowed him to harm me. ⁸ If he would say, ‘the spotted ones will be your salary,’ then the flocks would give birth to spotted ones. Or if he would say, ‘the striped ones will be your salary,’ then all the flocks would give birth to striped ones. ⁹ So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me. ¹⁰ Now it happened when the flocks were in heat that I lifted up my eyes and saw, in a dream, behold, the males going up to the flocks were striped, spotted and speckled. ¹¹ Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Hineni.’ ¹² He said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see that all the males going up to the flocks are striped, spotted and speckled. For I have seen everything Laban has done to you. ¹³ I am the God of Beth-El where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me. Get up now and leave this land, and return to the land of your relatives.’”

¹⁴ Then Rachel answered along with Leah and they said to him, “Is there still a portion and inheritance for us in our father’s house? ¹⁵ Aren’t we considered foreigners to him? For he has sold us and has also completely used up our bridal price. ¹⁶ For all the riches that God has taken away from our father is for us and for our children. So now, everything God said to you, do it!”

¹⁷ Then Jacob got up and put his children and wives on camels. ¹⁸ He drove away all his livestock and all his possessions that he had acquired—the livestock in his possession that he acquired in Paddan-aram—to go to his father Isaac, to the land of Canaan.

¹⁹ But while Laban went to shear his flocks, Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father, ²⁰ while Jacob stole the heart from Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹ He himself fled with everything that belonged to him, and he got up and crossed the River, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Confronts Jacob and Makes Covenant

²² When Laban was told on the third day after Jacob had fled, ²³ he took his relatives with him and pursued him a seven days’ journey. Then he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.”

²⁵ So Laban caught up to Jacob. (Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, so Laban and his brothers pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead as well). ²⁶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you’ve stolen my heart and have driven my daughters away like captives of the sword? ²⁷ Why did you secretly flee away, and steal from me? Why didn’t you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourines and with lyres? ²⁸ And you didn’t even let me kiss my sons and daughters!

“Now, you’ve behaved foolishly. ²⁹ It is in the power of my hand to do evil with you, but yesterday the God of your fathers spoke to me, saying, ‘Watch yourself—lest you say anything to Jacob, good or bad.’ ³⁰ So now, when you up and left because you really missed your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?”

³¹ In response, Jacob said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought, ‘Suppose you snatch your daughters away from me.’ ³² Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In front of our relatives, identify whatever is yours that is with me, and take it back.” (But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)

³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he found nothing. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ (Now Rachel had taken the idols, put them in the camel’s saddlebag and sat on them.) So Laban felt around the entire tent but did not find them. ³⁵ She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for I am having the way of women.” So he searched but did not find the idols.

³⁶ Then Jacob got angry and argued with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, “What’s my crime? What’s my sin that you’ve hotly pursued me? ³⁷ For you’ve felt through all my things. What did you find? Any of your household things? Put them here, in front of my relatives and yours—so they can decide between the two of us. ³⁸ These past twenty years I’ve been with you, your ewes and female goats have never miscarried, and I’ve never eaten the rams of your flock. ³⁹ I didn’t bring you animals torn by wild beasts. I myself would bear the loss. You would require it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. ⁴⁰ I was consumed by heat during the day, consumed by frost during the night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ This is how it’s been for me twenty years in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks—and you changed my salary ten times! ⁴² Had I not had the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, you would have sent me away empty-handed now. But God saw my misery and the toil of my hands and last night He became the Judge.”

⁴³ In response Laban said to Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, and the sons are my sons, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do for these, my daughters, today, or for their sons to whom they’ve given birth? ⁴⁴ So now, come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”

⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar, ⁴⁶ and Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” So they took the stones and made a pile. Then they ate there on the pile. ⁴⁷ Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha and Jacob called it Gal-ed. ⁴⁸ And Laban said, “This pile is a witness between me and you today.” That is why its name is Gal-ed, ⁴⁹ or Mizpah, for he said, “Let Adonai keep watch between you and me when we are out of one another’s sight. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters, and if you take wives besides my daughters, though no one is with us, look! God is the witness between you and me.”

⁵¹ Laban said further to Jacob, “Behold, this pile, and this pillar which I’ve set up between you and me: ⁵² this pile serves as a witness, that I won’t pass by this pillar to go to you, and that you won’t pass by this pile and this pillar to go to me—with evil intent. ⁵³ May the God of Abraham and the gods of Nahor, the gods of their father, judge between us.”

Jacob also made an oath by the fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and he invited his relatives to eat bread. So they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.

32 Early in the morning Laban got up, kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned to his place. ² While Jacob left on his way, the angels of God met him. ³ Then Jacob said when he saw them, “This is God’s camp”, and he named that place Mahanaim.

Parashat Vayishlach

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

⁴ Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. ⁵ He also commanded them saying, “This is what you should say to my lord, to Esau: ‘This is what your servant Jacob said: I’ve been staying with Laban, and have lingered until now. ⁶ Now I’ve come to possess oxen and donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants. I sent word to tell my lord, in order to find favor in your eyes.’”

⁷ The messengers returned to Jacob saying, “We went to your brother, to Esau, and he’s also coming out to meet you—and 400 men with him.”

⁸ So Jacob became extremely afraid and distressed. He divided the people with him, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, ⁹ for he thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and strikes it, the camp that’s left will escape.”

¹⁰ Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Adonai, who said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will do good with you.’ ¹¹ I am unworthy of all the proofs of mercy and of all the dependability that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I crossed over this Jordan, and now I’ve become two camps. ¹² Deliver me, please, from my brother’s hand, from Esau’s hand, for I’m afraid of him that he’ll come and strike me—the mothers with the children. ¹³ You Yourself said, ‘I will most certainly do good with you, and will make your seed like the sand of the sea that cannot be counted because of its abundance.’”

¹⁴ So he stayed overnight there. Then from all that had come into his possession he took an offering for Esau his brother: ¹⁵ 200 female goats, 20 billy goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, ¹⁶ 30 milking camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. ¹⁷ He put them in the hands of his servants, each herd by itself, and he said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a gap between each of the herds.” ¹⁸ Then he commanded the first one saying, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you saying, ‘To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do all these before you belong?’ ¹⁹ then you are to say, ‘To your servant, to Jacob—it’s an offering sent to my lord, to Esau. And look, he’s also behind us.’” ²⁰ And he also commanded the second one, the third one, and all those who were going behind the flocks, saying, “Say the same exact thing to Esau when you find him. ²¹ Then you are to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is also behind us.’” For he thought, “Let me appease him with the offering that goes ahead of me, and afterward see his face, perhaps he’ll lift up my face.” ²² So the offering passed over ahead of him, while he spent that night in the camp.

²³ Then he got up that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. ²⁴ He took them and sent them across the stream, and he sent across whatever he had.

Jacob Wrestles With God

²⁵ So Jacob remained all by himself. Then a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. ^{[c] 26} When He saw that He had not overcome him, He struck the socket of his hip, so He dislocated the socket of Jacob’s hip when He wrestled with him. ²⁷ Then He said, “Let Me go, for the dawn has broken.”

But he said, “I won’t let You go unless You bless me.”

²⁸ Then He said to him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he said.

²⁹ Then He said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but rather Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and you have overcome.”

³⁰ Then Jacob asked and said, “Please tell me Your name.”

But He said, “What’s this—you are asking My name?” Then He blessed him there.

³¹ So Jacob named the place Peniel, “for I’ve seen God face to face, and my life has been spared.”

³² Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed by Peniel—limping because of his hip. ³³ That is why the children of Israel do not eat the tendon of the hip socket, to this very day, because He struck the socket of Jacob’s thigh on the tendon of the hip.

Jacob Meets Esau

33 Then Jacob glanced up and saw, behold, there was Esau coming—and 400 men with him. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two female servants. ² He put the female servants and their children first, then Leah and her children behind them, then Rachel and Joseph behind them. ³ But he himself passed on ahead of them, and bowed to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.

⁴ But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, fell on his neck and kissed him—and they wept. ⁵ His eyes glanced up and he saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?”

“The children whom God has graciously given your servant,” he said. ⁶ Then the female servants approached, they and their children, and bowed down. ⁷ Leah also approached, along with her children, and they bowed down, and finally, Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

⁸ “What do you mean by this whole caravan that I’ve met?”

So he said, “To find favor in your eyes, my lord.”

⁹ But Esau said, “I have plenty! O my brother, do keep all that belongs to you.”

¹⁰ Yet Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor in your eyes, then you will take my offering from my hand. For this is the reason I’ve seen your face—it is like seeing the face of God—and you’ve accepted me! ¹¹ Please, take my blessing that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me, and because I have everything.” So he kept urging him until he accepted.

¹² Then he said, “Let’s journey and be on our way, and I’ll go ahead of you. ¹³ He continued, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and the cattle in my care are nursing. So if they were pushed hard just one day, all the flocks would die. ¹⁴ Please, let my lord pass on ahead of your servant, and I’ll move on further gradually, at a pace suited to the livestock that are before me and at a pace suited to the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”

¹⁵ Then Esau said, “Please let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.”

But he said, “What’s this? Let me find favor in my lord’s eyes.”

¹⁶ So on that day Esau returned on his way to Seir, ¹⁷ but Jacob journeyed to Sukkot and built a house for himself, and for his livestock he made booths. That is the reason that place is called Sukkot.

¹⁸ So Jacob arrived in shalom to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped right in front of the city. ¹⁹ He purchased the portion of the field there where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of money. ²⁰ There he set up an altar, and he called it, El is Israel’s God.

Dinah Defiled by Shechem

34 Now Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she bore for Jacob, went out to look at the daughters of the land. ² When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her and raped her. ³ But his soul clung to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, and he loved the young woman and spoke reassuringly to the young woman. ⁴ So Shechem said to his father Hamor saying, “Get me this girl for a wife.”

⁵ Now Jacob had heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah while his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept quiet until they came in. ⁶ Meanwhile Shechem’s father Hamor went out to Jacob in order to speak with him. ⁷ Jacob’s sons had already come in from the field when they heard, and the men were deeply grieved and furious, because he had committed a vile deed in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, which ought never to be done.

⁸ But Hamor spoke with them saying, “My son Shechem—he’s very attached to your daughter. Please give her to him for a wife. ⁹ Intermarry with us. You can give your daughters to us, and you can take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰ You can live with us, and the land will be open to you: live in it, move about freely in it, and settle down in it.”

¹¹ Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Would that I find favor in your eyes! Whatever you say to me I’ll give. ¹² Set the dowry and the presents as high as you like and I’ll give whatever you say to me. But give me the young woman as a wife.”

¹³ But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully as they spoke, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. ¹⁴ They said to them, “We can’t do this thing—give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised—for this is a disgrace to us. ¹⁵ Only by this will we consent to you: if you will become like us, by circumcising every male. ¹⁶ Then we’ll give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves, and live with you, and become one people. ¹⁷ But if you don’t listen to us and be circumcised, we’ll take our daughter and leave.”

¹⁸ Now their words seemed good to Hamor as well as Hamor’s son Shechem. ¹⁹ So the young man did not hesitate to do it, since he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was honored above everyone else in his father’s house. ²⁰ So Hamor and his son Shechem came into the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying: ²¹ “These men are enjoying a peaceful relationship with us and they are living in the land and moving about freely in it. As for the land, look, it’s spread out on both sides before us. We can take their daughters to be our wives, and we can give our daughters to them. ²² But by this did these men consent to us, to live with us and to become one people—when all our males are circumcised as they are circumcised. ²³ Their livestock and their possessions: won’t they be ours? Only let us consent to them so that they’ll live with us.”

²⁴ Now everyone who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, every one who went out the gate of his city. ²⁵ Then on the third day while they were in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and came against the city undisturbed and killed every male. ²⁶ Hamor and his son Shechem they killed with the sword, then took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. ²⁷ Jacob’s sons came upon the slain and plundered the city because they defiled their sister. ²⁸ They took their flocks, their cattle and their donkeys, those that were in the city as well as those that were in the field. ²⁹ All their wealth, their little children, and their wives they captured and plundered, as well as everything that was in the houses.

³⁰ But Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You’ve brought trouble on me, making me a stench among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am but a few men—they’ll gather against me and strike me—then I’ll be destroyed, my household and I.”

³¹ But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

Rededication at Beth-El

35 Then God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go up to Beth-El and stay there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

² So Jacob said to his household and to everyone who was with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Cleanse yourselves and change your clothes. ³ Now let’s get up and go up to Beth-El so that I can make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and has been with me in the way that I have gone.”

⁴ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their hand and the rings in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak tree near Shechem. ⁵ Then they journeyed, and the terror of God was on the cities that were around them, so they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. ⁶ Then Jacob arrived at Luz in the land of Canaan (that is Beth-El), he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ He built an altar there and called the place El-Beth-El because God had revealed Himself to him there when he fled from the presence of his brother.

⁸ Then Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died, and was buried below Beth-El, under the oak—so it was named Oak of Weeping.

⁹ God appeared to Jacob again, after he returned from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him:

¹³ Then God went up from him at the place where He had spoken with him. ¹⁴ Jacob set up a memorial stone in the place where He had spoken with him—a stone pillar—and he poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. ¹⁵ Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Beth-El.

Rachel’s Death in Childbirth

¹⁶ Then they traveled from Beth-El, and while they were still a distance from entering Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, but her labor was difficult. ¹⁷ While she was struggling to give birth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for this is also a son for you.” ¹⁸ Now as her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Ben-Oni, but his father named him Benjamin. ¹⁹ Then Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ Jacob set up a memorial stone over her grave. (It is the memorial stone over Rachel’s grave to this day.)

Israel Returns to Isaac

²¹ Then Israel journeyed on and set up his tent beyond the tower of Eder. ²² While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it.

Now Jacob had twelve sons. ²³ Leah’s sons were Jacob’s firstborn Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. ²⁴ Rachel’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s female servant, were Dan and Naphtali, ²⁶ and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, were Gad and Asher. These are Jacob’s sons, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷ Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kiriat-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

²⁸ Now Isaac’s days were 180 years. ²⁹ Then Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his peoples, old and full of days. So his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Esau Fathers the Edomites

36 Now these are the genealogies of Esau (that is, Edom). ² Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah daughter of Anah, daughter of Tzivion the Hivite, ³ and Basemath daughter of Ishmael, sister of Nebaioth. ⁴ Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, ⁵ and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were Esau’s sons, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Now Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters and all the people of his household, as well as his livestock, all his cattle, and all his possessions that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to a land away from his brother Jacob. ⁷ For their possessions were too numerous for them to dwell together, and the land where they were residing was unable to support them because of their livestock. ⁸ So Esau lived in Mount Seir (Esau is Edom).

⁹ So these are the genealogies of Esau, the father of Edom in the hill country of Seir. ¹⁰ These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz son of Esau’s wife Adah and Reuel son of Esau’s wife Basemath. ¹¹ The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz. ¹² Now Timna was a concubine to Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah. ¹³ These are Reuel’s sons: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath. ¹⁴ These were the sons of Oholibamah, daughter of Anah, daughter of Esau’s wife Zibion—she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam and Korah.

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

²⁰ These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ²¹ Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. ²² The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam. Lotan’s sister is Timna. ²³ These are Shobal’s sons: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho and Onam. ²⁴ These are Zibeon’s sons: Aiah and Anah (that is, the Anah who found the hot springs in the desert while he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon). ²⁵ These are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, Anah’s daughter. ²⁶ These are Dishon’s sons: Hemdan, Eshban, Itran and Cheran. ²⁷ These are Ezer’s sons: Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan. ²⁸ These are Dishan’s sons: Uz and Aran. ²⁹ These are the chiefs of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Tzivion, chief Anah, ³⁰ chief Dishon, chief Ezer, chief Dishan—these are the chiefs of the Horites according to their chiefly divisions in the land of Seir.

³¹ Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel. ³² Bela son of Beor reigned in Edom—the name of his city was Dinhabah. ³³ When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his place. ³⁴ When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites reigned in his place. ³⁵ When Husham died, Haddad son of Bedad, who struck down the Midianites in the field of Moab, reigned in his place—the name of his city was Avit. ³⁶ When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah reigned in his place. ³⁷ When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehovot by the River reigned in his place. ³⁸ When Shaul died, Baal-hanan son of Achbor reigned in his place. ³⁹ When Baal-hanan son of Achbor died, Hadar reigned in his place—the name of his city is Pau, and his wife’s name is Mehetabel, daughter of Matred, daughter of Me-zehab.

⁴⁰ Now these are the names of the chiefs from Esau according to their family divisions, according to 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 Edom according to their places of residence in the land of their possession. This is Esau, the father of Edom.

Parashat Vayeshev

Joseph, Favored Son

37 Now Jacob dwelled in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan. ² These are the genealogies of Jacob.

When Joseph was 17 years old (he was a youth), he was shepherding the flocks with his brothers—with the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons because he was the son of his old age. So he had made him a long-sleeved tunic. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak to him in shalom.

⁵ Then Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brothers—and they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Please listen to this dream I dreamed. ⁷ There we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field. All of a sudden, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.”

⁸ “Will you truly be a king over us?” his brothers said to him. “Will you really rule over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of his words.

⁹ But then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “I have just dreamed another dream. Suddenly, there was the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowing down to me!” ¹⁰ He told it to his father as well as his brothers.

Then his father rebuked him and said to him, “What’s this dream you dreamed? Will we really come—your mother and I with your brothers—to bow down to the ground to you?” ¹¹ So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the speech in mind.

Joseph Betrayed

¹² Then his brothers went to graze their father’s flocks at Shechem. ¹³ Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers grazing the flocks in Shechem? Come, let me send you to them.”

“Here I am,” he said to him.

¹⁴ Then he said to him, “Go now, and check on the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flocks and bring word back to me.”

So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem. ¹⁵ A man found him there, wandering in the field, and the man asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶ “I’m looking for my brothers,” he said. “Please tell me where they’re grazing.”

¹⁷ The man said, “They moved on from here. For I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

¹⁸ Now they saw him from a distance. Before he was close to them they plotted together against him in order to kill him. ¹⁹ They said to one another, “Here comes the master of dreams! ²⁰ Come on now! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of those pits, so we can say that an evil animal devoured him. Then let’s see what becomes of his dreams.”

²¹ But Reuben heard and rescued him out of their hands, saying, “We must not beat him to death.” ²² In order to rescue him from their hand and to return him to his father, Reuben said to them, “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him!”

²³ So as soon as Joseph came up to his brothers they stripped Joseph of his tunic (the long sleeved tunic that he had on). ²⁴ Then they took him and threw him into the pit. (Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.)

²⁵ Then they sat down to eat bread. When they looked up, behold, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balsam, and myrrh—going to bring them down to Egypt.

²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come on! ²⁷ Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let’s not lay our hand on him—since he’s our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers listened to him. ²⁸ When some men, Midianite merchants, passed by, they dragged Joseph up and out of the pit and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph to Egypt. ²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. ³⁰ Then he returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! And I—where should I go?”

³¹ So they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a billy goat, and they dipped the tunic into the blood. ³² Then they sent the long-sleeved tunic, and it was brought to their father, and they said, “We found this. Do you recognize whether or not it is your son’s tunic?”

³³ He did recognize it and said, “My son’s tunic! An evil animal has devoured him! Joseph must be torn to pieces!” ³⁴ Jacob tore his clothing and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons got up along with all his daughters to console him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” So his father kept weeping for him.

³⁶ Meanwhile the Midianites sold him into Egypt, to Potiphar an official of Pharaoh, the commander of the bodyguards.

Judah and Tamar

38 About that time Judah went down from his brothers and he camped near an Adullamite man, whose name was Hirah. ² There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man whose name was Shua, and he took her as wife and slept with her. ³ Then she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er. ⁴ She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to yet another son and she called him Shelah. He was in Chezib when she gave birth to him.

⁶ Then Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in Adonai’s eyes, so Adonai put him to death. ⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, go to your brother’s wife to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up a seed for your brother. ⁹ But Onan knew that the seed would not be his. So every time he went to his brother’s wife he would destroy it on the ground so as not to provide a seed for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was evil in Adonai’s eyes, so He put him to death also.

¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Stay as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up,” because he thought, “Otherwise he too might die, like his brothers.” So Tamar went and stayed in her father’s house.

¹² Now the days became many, and Shua’s daughter, Judah’s wife, died. After Judah consoled himself, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. ¹³ Then Tamar was told, “Look! Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his flocks.” ¹⁴ And she removed her widow’s clothes from herself, covered herself with a veil, wrapped herself, and sat by the entrance to the springs 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 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. ¹⁶ So he turned aside to her along the way and said, “Please let me sleep with you” (for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law).

“What,” she asked, “will you give me to sleep with me?”

¹⁷ “I will send you a young goat from the flock,” he said,

“Provided you give a pledge until you send it,” she said.

¹⁸ “What kind of pledge shall I give you?” he asked.

“Your seal, and your cord, and your staff in your hand,” she said. So he gave them to her and he slept with her, and she got pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she got up and left, she removed her veil from herself and put on her widow’s clothes.

²⁰ When Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge from the woman’s hand, he could not find her. ²¹ He asked the men of her area saying, “Where is the cult prostitute? She was at the springs along the way.”

But they said, “There hasn’t been a cult prostitute here.”

²² So he returned to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her, and the people of that place also said, ‘There hasn’t been a cult prostitute here.’”

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her take them for herself, or we’ll be held in contempt. Behold, I did send this young goat, but you couldn’t find her.”

²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been a prostitute—look, she’s even pregnant by prostitution.”

“Bring her out!” Judah said, “and let her be burned.”

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law saying, “I’m pregnant by the man to whom these things belong.” Then she said, “Do you recognize whose these are—the seal, the cords and the staff?”

²⁶ Then Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I didn’t give her to my son Shelah.” He was not intimate with her again.

²⁷ Now when it was time for her to give birth, behold there were twins in her womb. ²⁸ While she was giving birth, one stuck out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it to his hand saying, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But as he was pulling his hand back in, behold, his brother came out. So she said, “How you have broken through! The breach is because of you.” And he named him Perez. ³⁰ Afterward his brother, on whose hand was the scarlet thread, came out. And he named him Zerah.

Joseph Succeeds in Adversity

39 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, commander of the bodyguards, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there. ² But Adonai was with Joseph. So he became a successful man in the house of his master, the Egyptian. ³ His master saw that Adonai was with him and that Adonai made everything he set his hand to successful. ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes, so he served him as a personal servant and he made him an overseer over his household; everything that was his he entrusted into his hand. ⁵ From the time that he made him an overseer in his house and over everything that belonged to him, Adonai blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph; Adonai’s blessing was on everything that belonged to him, in the house and in the field. ⁶ So he released everything he owned into Joseph’s hand. With him in charge, he did not think about anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was handsome in form and handsome in appearance.

⁷ Now after these things, the master’s wife lifted up her eyes at Joseph and said, “Come, lie down with me!”

⁸ But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “my master doesn’t think about anything in the house with me in charge, and everything that belongs to him he’s entrusted into my hand. ⁹ No one in this house is greater than I, and he has withheld nothing from me—except you, because you are his wife. So how could I commit this great evil and sin against God?”

¹⁰ So whenever she spoke to Joseph, day after day, he did not listen to her invitation to lie down beside her, to be with her. ¹¹ Now on one such day, he came into the house to do his work, and none of the people of the house were there in the house. ¹² Then she grabbed him by his garment saying, “Come, lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand, fled and went outside. ¹³ When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, ¹⁴ she screamed to the men of her house and said to them, “Look! Someone brought a Hebrew man to us to fool with us. He approached me to lie with me so I screamed out loud. ¹⁵ When he heard me raise my voice and scream, he left his garment with me, fled and went outside.”

¹⁶ Then she kept the garment with her until his master came home. ¹⁷ She spoke the same words to him saying, “The Hebrew slave that you brought us approached me to fool with me. ¹⁸ When I raised my voiced and screamed, he left his garment with me and fled outside.”

¹⁹ Now when his master heard the words his wife spoke to him saying, “Such are the things your slave did to me,” his anger burned. ²⁰ Then Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So there he was, in the prison.

²¹ But Adonai was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the eyes of the commander of the prison. ²² The commander of the prison entrusted into Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison, so that everything that was done there, he was responsible for it. ²³ The commander of the prison did not concern himself with anything at all under his care, because Adonai was with him, and Adonai made whatever he did successful.

Interpreter of Dreams

40 Now it was after these things that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. ² Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, with the chief of the cupbearers and with the chief of the bakers. ³ So he put them in custody of the house of the commander of the bodyguards—in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. ⁴ The commander of the bodyguards assigned Joseph to be with them and served them as their personal servant. They were in custody for some time.

⁵ Then the two of them each dreamed a dream on the same night. The dream of each man—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each had its own interpretation. ⁶ When Joseph came to them in the morning, he observed them, and there they were, looking miserable. ⁷ So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in the custody of the house of his master saying, “Why are your faces so sad today?”

⁸ They said to him, “We dreamed a dream and there is no one to interpret it.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Please tell me.”

⁹ So the chief of the cupbearers told his dream to Joseph, saying to him, “In my dream, suddenly, there was a vine in front of me. ¹⁰ On the vine were three branches, and as it was budding, its blossoms came out, its clusters ripened into grapes. ¹¹ Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand and I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in Pharaoh’s palm.”