Genesis 36-39

Genesis 36

¹Now these are the generations of Esau, that is to say, Edom.

²Esau's wives were women of Canaan: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,

³And Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.

⁴Adah had a son Eliphaz; and Basemath was the mother of Reuel;

⁵Oholibamah was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the sons of Esau, whose birth took place in the land of Canaan.

⁶Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the people of his house, and his beasts and his cattle and all his goods which he had got together in the land of Canaan, and went into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob.

⁷For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle.

⁸So Esau made his living-place in the hill-country of Seir (Esau is Edom).

⁹And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill-country of Seir:

¹⁰These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹²And Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had connection with a woman named Timna, who gave birth to Amalek: all these were the children of Esau's wife Adah.

¹³And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: they were the children of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹⁴And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵These were the chiefs among the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, Esau's first son: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

¹⁶Korah, Gatam, Amalek: all these were chiefs in the land of Edom, the offspring of Eliphaz, the seed of Adah.

¹⁷And these are the sons of Esau's son Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah: these were the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom, the children of Esau's wife Basemath.

¹⁸And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah: these were the chiefs who came from Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah.

¹⁹These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.

²⁰These are the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in that country; Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan: these are the chiefs of the Horites, offspring of Seir in the land of Edom.

²²The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan's sister was Timna.

²³And these are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his father Zibeon.

²⁵And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah his daughter.

²⁶These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.

²⁷These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

²⁹These were the Horite chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Such were the Horite chiefs in their order in the land of Seir.

³¹And these are the kings who were ruling in the land of Edom before there was any king over the children of Israel.

³²Bela, son of Beor, was king in Edom, and the name of his chief town was Dinhabah.

³³At his death, Jobab, son of Zerah of Bozrah, became king in his place.

³⁴And at the death of Jobab, Husham, from the country of the Temanites, became king in his place.

³⁵And at the death of Husham, Hadad, son of Bedad, who overcame the Midianites in the field of Moab, became king; his chief town was named Avith.

³⁶And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became king.

³⁷And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the River became king in his place.

³⁸And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, became king.

³⁹And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadar became king in his place; his chief town was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

⁴⁰These are the names of the chiefs of Esau in the order of their families and their places: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,

⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

⁴³Magdiel, Iram; these are the Edomite chiefs, in their places in their heritage; this is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

Genesis 37

¹Now Jacob was living in the land where his father had made a place for himself, in the land of Canaan.

²These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them.

³Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater than his love for all his other children, because he got him when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for him.

⁴And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him.

⁵Now Joseph had a dream, and he gave his brothers an account of it, which made their hate greater than ever.

⁶And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my dream.

⁷We were in the field, getting the grain stems together, and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went down on the earth before mine.

⁸And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his words, their hate for him became greater than ever.

⁹Then he had another dream, and gave his brothers an account of it, saying, I have had another dream: the sun and the moon and eleven stars gave honour to me.

¹⁰And he gave word of it to his father and his brothers; but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this? am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our faces to the earth before you?

¹¹And his brothers were full of envy; but his father kept his words in mind.

¹²Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's flock in Shechem.

¹³And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers with the flock in Shechem? come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here am I.

¹⁴And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

¹⁵And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?

¹⁶And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give me word of where they are keeping their flock.

¹⁷And the man said, They have gone away from here, for they said in my hearing, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after them and came up with them at Dothan.

¹⁸But they saw him when he was a long way off, and before he came near them they made a secret design against him to put him to death;

¹⁹Saying to one another, See, here comes this dreamer.

²⁰Let us now put him to death and put his body into one of these holes, and we will say, An evil beast has put him to death: then we will see what becomes of his dreams.

²¹But Reuben, hearing these words, got him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life.

²²Do not put him to a violent death, but let him be placed in one of the holes; this he said to keep him safe from their hands, with the purpose of taking him back to his father again.

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they took off his long coat which he had on;

²⁴And they took him and put him in the hole: now the hole had no water in it.

²⁵Then seating themselves, they took their meal: and looking up, they saw a travelling band of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt, with spices and perfumes on their camels.

²⁶And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?

²⁷Let us give him to these Ishmaelites for a price, and let us not put violent hands on him, for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers gave ear to him.

²⁸And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt.

²⁹Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief,

³⁰He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do?

³¹Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the blood from a young goat which they had put to death,

³²And they took the coat to their father, and said, We came across this; is it your son's coat or not?

³³And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has come to a cruel end.

³⁴Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and went on weeping for his son day after day.

³⁵And all his sons and all his daughters came to give him comfort, but he would not be comforted, saying with weeping, I will go down to the underworld to my son. So great was his father's sorrow for him.

³⁶And in Egypt the men of Midian gave him for a price to Potiphar, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house.

Genesis 38

¹Now at that time, Judah went away from his brothers and became the friend of a man of Adullam named Hirah.

²And there he saw the daughter of a certain man of Canaan named Shua, and took her as his wife.

³And she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Er.

⁴And again she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Onan.

⁵Then she had another son, to whom she gave the name Shelah; she was at Chezib when the birth took place.

⁶And Judah took a wife for his first son Er, and her name was Tamar.

⁷Now Er, Judah's first son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death.

⁸Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife and do what it is right for a husband's brother to do; make her your wife and get offspring for your brother.

⁹But Onan, seeing that the offspring would not be his, went in to his brother's wife, but let his seed go on to the earth, so that he might not get offspring for his brother.

¹⁰And what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death, like his brother.

¹¹Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Go back to your father's house and keep yourself as a widow till my son Shelah becomes a man: for he had in his mind the thought that death might come to him as it had come to his brothers. So Tamar went back to her father's house.

¹²And after a time, Bath-shua, Judah's wife, came to her end; and after Judah was comforted for her loss, he went to Timnah, where they were cutting the wool of his sheep, and his friend Hirah of Adullam went with him.

¹³And when Tamar had news that her father-in-law was going up to Timnah to the wool-cutting,

¹⁴She took off her widow's clothing, and covering herself with her veil, she took her seat near Enaim on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was now a man, but she had not been made his wife.

¹⁵When Judah saw her he took her to be a loose woman of the town, because her face was covered.

¹⁶And turning to her by the roadside, he said to her, Let me come in to you; for he had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, What will you give me as my price?

¹⁷And he said, I will give you a young goat from the flock. And she said, What will you give me as a sign till you send it?

¹⁸And he said, What would you have? And she said, Your ring and its cord and the stick in your hand. So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she became with child by him.

¹⁹Then she got up and went away and took off her veil and put on her widow's clothing.

²⁰Then Judah sent his friend Hirah with the young goat, to get back the things which he had given as a sign to the woman: but she was not there.

²¹And he put questions to the men of the place, saying, Where is the loose woman who was in Enaim by the wayside? And they said, There was no such woman there.

²²So he went back to Judah, and said, I have not seen her, and the men of the place say that there is no such woman there.

²³And Judah said, Let her keep the things, so that we may not be shamed; I sent the young goat, but you did not see the woman.

²⁴Now about three months after this, word came to Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had been acting like a loose woman and was with child. And Judah said, Take her out and let her be burned.

²⁵And while she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law, saying, The man whose property these things are, is the father of my child: say then, whose are this ring and this cord and this stick?

²⁶Then Judah said openly that they were his, and said, She is more upright than I am, for I did not give her to Shelah my son. And he had no more connection with her.

²⁷And when the time came for her to give birth, it was clear that there were two children in her body.

²⁸And while she was in the act of giving birth, one of them put out his hand; and the woman who was with her put a red thread round his hand, saying, This one came out first.

²⁹But then he took his hand back again, and his brother came first to birth: and the woman said, What an opening you have made for yourself! So he was named Perez.

³⁰And then his brother came out, with the red thread round his hand, and he was named Zerah.

Genesis 39

¹Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar the Egyptian, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house, got him for a price from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

²And the Lord was with Joseph, and he did well; and he was living in the house of his master the Egyptian.

³And his master saw that the Lord was with him, making everything he did go well.

⁴And having a high opinion of Joseph as his servant, he made him the overseer of his house and gave him control over all he had.

⁵And from the time when he made him overseer and gave him control of all his property, the blessing of the Lord was with the Egyptian, because of Joseph; the blessing of the Lord was on all he had, in the house and in the field.

⁶And he gave Joseph control of all his property, keeping no account of anything, but only the food which was put before him. Now Joseph was very beautiful in form and face.

⁷And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover.

⁸But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his property in my control;

⁹So that no one has more authority in this house than I have; he has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife; how then may I do this great wrong, sinning against God?

¹⁰And day after day she went on requesting Joseph to come to her and be her lover, but he would not give ear to her.

¹¹Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and not one of the men of the house was inside.

¹²And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but slipping out of his coat, he went running away.

¹³And when she saw that he had got away, letting her keep his coat,

¹⁴She sent for the men of her house and said to them, See, he has let a Hebrew come here and make sport of us; he came to my bed, and I gave a loud cry;

¹⁵And hearing it he went running out without his coat.

¹⁶And she kept his coat by her, till his master came back.

¹⁷Then she gave him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have taken into our house came in to make sport of me;

¹⁸And when I gave a loud cry he went running out without his coat.

¹⁹And hearing his wife's account of what his servant had done, he became very angry.

²⁰And Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, in the place where the king's prisoners were kept in chains, and he was there in the prison-house.

²¹But the Lord was with Joseph, and was good to him, and made the keeper of the prison his friend.

²²And the keeper of the prison put all the prisoners under Joseph's control, and he was responsible for whatever was done there.

²³And the keeper of the prison gave no attention to anything which was under his care, because the Lord was with him; and the Lord made everything he did go well.