Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
Genesis 37: 5-7
Genesis 36
Esau’s Descendants
1 This is the account of Esau (that is, Edom).
…..2 Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite– 3 also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
…..4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, 5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.
…..6 Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob. 7 Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. 8 So Esau (that is, Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir.
…..9 This is the account of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.
10 These are the names of Esau’s sons:
…..Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife
…..Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau’s
…..wife Basemath.
11 The sons of Eliphaz:
…..Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and
…..Kenaz.
…..12 Esau’s son Eliphaz also had a
…..concubine named Timna, who bore
him Amalek. These were grandsons
…..of Esau’s wife Adah.
…..13 The sons of Reuel:
…..Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah.
…..These were grandsons of Esau’s
…..wife Basemath.
14 The sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah
daughter of Anah and granddaughter of
Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau: Jeush,
…..Jalam and Korah.
…..15 These were the chiefs among Esau’s
descendants:
The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of
…..Esau:
…..Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,
…..16 Korah, Gatam and Amalek.
…..These were the chiefs descended
…..from Eliphaz in Edom; they were
…..grandsons of Adah.
17 The sons of Esau’s son Reuel:
…..Chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah
…..and Mizzah. These were the chiefs
…..descended from Reuel in Edom;
…..they were grandsons of Esau’s wife
…..Basemath.
18 The sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah:
…..Chiefs Jeush, Jalam and Korah.
…..These were the chiefs descended
…..from Esau’s wife Oholibamah
…..daughter of Anah.
19 These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.
…..20 These were the sons of Seir the Horite, who were living in the region:
…..Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 21 Dishon,
…..Ezer and Dishan. These sons
…..of Seir in Edom were Horite chiefs.
22 The sons of Lotan:
…..Hori and Homam. Timna was Lotan’s
…..sister.
23 The sons of Shobal:
…..Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho
…..and Onam.
24 The sons of Zibeon:
…..Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah
…..who discovered the hot springs in
…..the desert while he was grazing the
…..donkeys of his father Zibeon.
25 The children of Anah:
…..Dishon and Oholibamah daughter
…..of Anah.
26 The sons of Dishon:
…..Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Keran.
27 The sons of Ezer:
…..Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.
28 The sons of Dishan:
…..Uz and Aran.
29 These were the Horite chiefs:
…..Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
…..30 Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These were
…..the Horite chiefs, according to their …..divisions, in the land of Seir.
The Rulers of Edom
…..31 These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned:
…..32 Bela son of Beor became king of
…..Edom. His city was named Dinhabah.
33 When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah
…..from Bozrah succeeded him
…..as king.
34 When Jobab died, Husham from the land
…..of the Temanites succeeded him as king.
35 When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad,
…..who defeated Midian in the country of
…..Moab, succeeded him as king. His city was named
….. Avith.
36 When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah
…..succeeded him as king.
37 When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth
…..on the river succeeded him as king.
38 When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan son of
…..Acbor succeeded him as king.
39 When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died,
…..Hadad succeeded him as king. His
…..city was named Pau, and his wife’s
…..name was Mehetabel daughter of
…..Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.
…..40 These were the chiefs descended from
Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions:
…..Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, 41 Oholibamah,
…..Elah, Pinon, 42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,
…..43 Magdiel and Iram. These were
…..the chiefs of Edom, according to
…..their settlements in the land they
…..occupied.
…..This was Esau the father of the Edomites.
Genesis 37
Joseph’s Dreams
1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
…..2 This is the account of Jacob.
…..Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
…..3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
…..5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
…..8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
…..10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Joseph Sold by His Brothers
…..12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”
…..“Very well,” he replied.
…..14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.
…..When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
…..16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”
…..17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ”
…..So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
…..19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
…..21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
…..23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe–the richly ornamented robe he was wearing– 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
….. 25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
…..26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
…..28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
…..29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
…..31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
…..33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
…..34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him.
…..36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Genesis 38
Judah and Tamar
1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
…..6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death.
…..8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Lie with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so he put him to death also.
…..11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
…..12 After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
…..13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
…..15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
…..“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
…..17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.
…..“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.
…..18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”
…..“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.
…..20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”
…..“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.
…..22 So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’ ”
…..23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”
…..24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”
…..Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
…..25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
…..26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
…..27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” 29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.
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