Holy Bible - Basic English Bible

1At the first God made the heaven and the earth.

²And the earth was waste and without form; and it was dark on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters.

³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

⁴And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good: and God made a division between the light and the dark,

⁵Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶And God said, Let there be a solid arch stretching over the waters, parting the waters from the waters.

⁷And God made the arch for a division between the waters which were under the arch and those which were over it: and it was so.

⁸And God gave the arch the name of Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹And God said, Let the waters under the heaven come together in one place, and let the dry land be seen: and it was so.

¹⁰And God gave the dry land the name of Earth; and the waters together in their place were named Seas: and God saw that it was good.

¹¹And God said, Let grass come up on the earth, and plants producing seed, and fruit-trees giving fruit, in which is their seed, after their sort: and it was so.

¹²And grass came up on the earth, and every plant producing seed of its sort, and every tree producing fruit, in which is its seed, of its sort: and God saw that it was good.

¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴And God said, Let there be lights in the arch of heaven, for a division between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for marking the changes of the year, and for days and for years:

¹⁵And let them be for lights in the arch of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so.

¹⁶And God made the two great lights: the greater light to be the ruler of the day, and the smaller light to be the ruler of the night: and he made the stars.

¹⁷And God put them in the arch of heaven, to give light on the earth;

¹⁸To have rule over the day and the night, and for a division between the light and the dark: and God saw that it was good.

¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰And God said, Let the waters be full of living things, and let birds be in flight over the earth under the arch of heaven.

²¹And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good.

²²And God gave them his blessing, saying, Be fertile and have increase, making all the waters of the seas full, and let the birds be increased in the earth.

²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, Let the earth give birth to all sorts of living things, cattle and all things moving on the earth, and beasts of the earth after their sort: and it was so.

²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after its sort, and the cattle after their sort, and everything moving on the face of the earth after its sort: and God saw that it was good.

²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us: and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth.

²⁷And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.

²⁸And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth.

²⁹And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food:

³⁰And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and every living thing moving on the face of the earth I have given every green plant for food: and it was so.

³¹And God saw everything which he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

2And the heaven and the earth and all things in them were complete.

²And on the seventh day God came to the end of all his work; and on the seventh day he took his rest from all the work which he had done.

³And God gave his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy: because on that day he took his rest from all the work which he had made and done.

⁴These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were made.

⁵In the day when the Lord God made earth and heaven there were no plants of the field on the earth, and no grass had come up: for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to do work on the land.

⁶But a mist went up from the earth, watering all the face of the land.

⁷And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul.

⁸And the Lord God made a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had made.

⁹And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come, delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰And a river went out of Eden giving water to the garden; and from there it was parted and became four streams.

¹¹The name of the first is Pishon, which goes round about all the land of Havilah where there is gold.

¹²And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

¹³And the name of the second river is Gihon: this river goes round all the land of Cush.

¹⁴And the name of the third river is Tigris, which goes to the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

¹⁵And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to do work in it and take care of it.

¹⁶And the Lord God gave the man orders, saying, You may freely take of the fruit of every tree of the garden:

¹⁷But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you.

¹⁸And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him

¹⁹And from the earth the Lord God made every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and took them to the man to see what names he would give them: and whatever name he gave to any living thing, that was its name.

²⁰And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one like himself as a help.

²¹And the Lord God sent a deep sleep on the man, and took one of the bones from his side while he was sleeping, joining up the flesh again in its place:

²²And the bone which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman, and took her to the man.

²³And the man said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: let her name be Woman because she was taken out of Man.

²⁴For this cause will a man go away from his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they will be one flesh.

²⁵And the man and his wife were without clothing, and they had no sense of shame.

3Now the snake was wiser than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God truly said that you may not take of the fruit of any tree in the garden?

²And the woman said, We may take of the fruit of the trees in the garden:

³But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, If you take of it or put your hands on it, death will come to you.

⁴And the snake said, Death will not certainly come to you:

⁵For God sees that on the day when you take of its fruit, your eyes will be open, and you will be as gods, having knowledge of good and evil.

⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and gave it to her husband.

⁷And their eyes were open and they were conscious that they had no clothing and they made themselves coats of leaves stitched together.

⁸And there came to them the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening wind: and the man and his wife went to a secret place among the trees of the garden, away from the eyes of the Lord God.

⁹And the voice of the Lord God came to the man, saying, Where are you?

¹⁰And he said, Hearing your voice in the garden I was full of fear, because I was without clothing: and I kept myself from your eyes.

¹¹And he said, Who gave you the knowledge that you were without clothing? Have you taken of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take?

¹²And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I took it.

¹³And the Lord God said to the woman, What have you done? And the woman said, I was tricked by the deceit of the snake and I took it.

¹⁴And the Lord God said to the snake, Because you have done this you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast of the field; you will go flat on the earth, and dust will be your food all the days of your life:

¹⁵And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded.

¹⁶To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master.

¹⁷And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life.

¹⁸Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food;

¹⁹With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.

²⁰And the man gave his wife the name of Eve because she was the mother of all who have life.

²¹And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins for their clothing.

²²And the Lord God said, Now the man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he puts out his hand and takes of the fruit of the tree of life, he will go on living for ever.

²³So the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to be a worker on the earth from which he was taken.

²⁴So he sent the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden he put winged ones and a flaming sword turning every way to keep the way to the tree of life.

4And the man had connection with Eve his wife, and she became with child and gave birth to Cain, and said, I have got a man from the Lord.

²Then again she became with child and gave birth to Abel, his brother. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a farmer.

³And after a time, Cain gave to the Lord an offering of the fruits of the earth.

⁴And Abel gave an offering of the young lambs of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord was pleased with Abel's offering;

⁵But in Cain and his offering he had no pleasure. And Cain was angry and his face became sad.

⁶And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? and why is your face sad?

⁷If you do well, will you not have honour? and if you do wrong, sin is waiting at the door, desiring to have you, but do not let it be your master.

⁸And Cain said to his brother, Let us go into the field: and when they were in the field, Cain made an attack on his brother Abel and put him to death.

⁹And the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? And he said, I have no idea: am I my brother's keeper?

¹⁰And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the earth.

¹¹And now you are cursed from the earth, whose mouth is open to take your brother's blood from your hand;

¹²No longer will the earth give you her fruit as the reward of your work; you will be a wanderer in flight over the earth.

¹³And Cain said, My punishment is greater than my strength.

¹⁴You have sent me out this day from the face of the earth and from before your face; I will be a wanderer in flight over the earth, and whoever sees me will put me to death.

¹⁵And the Lord said, Truly, if Cain is put to death, seven lives will be taken for his. And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one might put him to death.

¹⁶And Cain went away from before the face of the Lord, and made his living-place in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.

¹⁷And Cain had connection with his wife and she became with child and gave birth to Enoch: and he made a town, and gave the town the name of Enoch after his son.

¹⁸And Enoch had a son Irad: and Irad became the father of Mehujael: and Mehujael became the father of Methushael: and Methushael became the father of Lamech.

¹⁹And Lamech had two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

²⁰And Adah gave birth to Jabal: he was the father of such as are living in tents and keep cattle.

²¹And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all players on instruments of music.

²²And Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, who is the father of every maker of cutting instruments of brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

²³And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, give ear to my voice; you wives of Lamech, give attention to my words, for I would put a man to death for a wound, and a young man for a blow;

²⁴If seven lives are to be taken as punishment for Cain's death, seventy-seven will be taken for Lamech's.

²⁵And Adam had connection with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name of Seth: for she said, God has given me another seed in place of Abel, whom Cain put to death.

²⁶And Seth had a son, and he gave him the name of Enosh: at this time men first made use of the name of the Lord in worship.

5This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God made man, he made him in the image of God;

²Male and female he made them, naming them Man, and giving them his blessing on the day when they were made.

³Adam had been living for a hundred and thirty years when he had a son like himself, after his image, and gave him the name of Seth:

⁴And after the birth of Seth, Adam went on living for eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

⁵And all the years of Adam's life were nine hundred and thirty: and he came to his end.

⁶And Seth was a hundred and five years old when he became the father of Enosh:

⁷And he went on living after the birth of Enosh for eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters:

⁸And all the years of Seth's life were nine hundred and twelve: and he came to his end.

⁹And Enosh was ninety years old when he became the father of Kenan:

¹⁰And after the birth of Kenan, Enosh went on living for eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters:

¹¹And all the years of Enosh were nine hundred and five: and he came to his end.

¹²And Kenan was seventy years old when he became the father of Mahalalel:

¹³And after the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan went on living for eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters:

¹⁴And all the years of Kenan's life were nine hundred and ten; and he came to his end.

¹⁵And Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when he became the father of Jared:

¹⁶And after the birth of Jared, Mahalalel went on living for eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters:

¹⁷And all the years of Mahalalel's life were eight hundred and ninety-five: and he came to his end.

¹⁸And Jared was a hundred and sixty-two years old when he became the father of Enoch:

¹⁹And Jared went on living after the birth of Enoch for eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

²⁰And all the years of Jared's life were nine hundred and sixty-two: and he came to his end.

²¹And Enoch was sixty-five years old when he became the father of Methuselah:

²²And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

²³And all the years of Enoch's life were three hundred and sixty-five:

²⁴And Enoch went on in God's ways: and he was not seen again, for God took him.

²⁵And Methuselah was a hundred and eighty-seven years old when he became the father of Lamech:

²⁶And after the birth of Lamech, Methuselah went on living for seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters:

²⁷And all the years of Methuselah's life were nine hundred and sixty-nine: and he came to his end.

²⁸And Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two years old when he had a son:

²⁹And he gave him the name of Noah, saying, Truly, he will give us rest from our trouble and the hard work of our hands, because of the earth which was cursed by God.

³⁰And after the birth of Noah, Lamech went on living for five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters:

³¹And all the years of Lamech's life were seven hundred and seventy-seven: and he came to his end.

³²And when Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

6And after a time, when men were increasing on the earth, and had daughters,

²The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them.

³And the Lord said, My spirit will not be in man for ever, for he is only flesh; so the days of his life will be a hundred and twenty years.

⁴There were men of great strength and size on the earth in those days; and after that, when the sons of God had connection with the daughters of men, they gave birth to children: these were the great men of old days, the men of great name.

⁵And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil.

⁶And the Lord had sorrow because he had made man on the earth, and grief was in his heart.

⁷And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them.

⁸But Noah had grace in the eyes of God.

⁹These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God.

¹⁰And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹And the earth was evil in God's eyes and full of violent ways.

¹²And God, looking on the earth, saw that it was evil: for the way of all flesh had become evil on the earth.

¹³And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth.

¹⁴Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood with rooms in it, and make it safe from the water inside and out.

¹⁵And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

¹⁶You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with a lower and second and third floors.

¹⁷For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end.

¹⁸But with you I will make an agreement; and you will come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.

¹⁹And you will take with you into the ark two of every sort of living thing, and keep them safe with you; they will be male and female.

²⁰Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you to keep them from destruction.

²¹And make a store of every sort of food for yourself and them.

²²And all these things Noah did; as God said, so he did.

7And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be upright.

²Of every clean beast you will take seven males and seven females, and of the beasts which are not clean, two, the male and his female;

³And of the birds of the air, seven males and seven females, so that their seed may still be living on the face of the earth.

⁴For after seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, for the destruction of every living thing which I have made on the face of the earth.

⁵And Noah did everything which the Lord said he was to do.

⁶And Noah was six hundred years old when the waters came flowing over all the earth.

⁷And Noah, with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the flowing of the waters.

⁸Of clean beasts, and of beasts which are not clean, and of birds, and of everything which goes on the earth,

⁹In twos, male and female, they went into the ark with Noah, as God had said.

¹⁰And after the seven days, the waters came over all the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were open;

¹²And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³On the same day Noah, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark;

¹⁴And with them, every sort of beast and cattle, and every sort of thing which goes on the earth, and every sort of bird.

¹⁵They went with Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life.

¹⁶Male and female of all flesh went in, as God had said, and the ark was shut by the Lord.

¹⁷And for forty days the waters were over all the earth; and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up high over the earth.

¹⁸And the waters overcame everything and were increased greatly on the earth, and the ark was resting on the face of the waters.

¹⁹And the waters overcame everything on the earth; and all the mountains under heaven were covered.

²⁰The waters went fifteen cubits higher, till all the mountains were covered.

²¹And destruction came on every living thing moving on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and everything which went on the earth, and every man.

²²Everything on the dry land, in which was the breath of life, came to its end.

²³Every living thing on the face of all the earth, man and cattle and things moving on the face of the earth, and birds of the air, came to destruction: only Noah and those who were with him in the ark, were kept from death.

²⁴And the waters were over the earth a hundred and fifty days.

8And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down.

²And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut, and the rain from heaven was stopped.

³And the waters went slowly back from the earth, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lower.

⁴And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵And still the waters went on falling, till on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶Then, after forty days, through the open window of the ark which he had made,

⁷Noah sent out a raven, which went this way and that till the waters were gone from the earth.

⁸And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from the face of the earth;

⁹But the dove saw no resting-place for her foot, and came back to the ark, for the waters were still over all the earth; and he put out his hand, and took her into the ark.

¹⁰And after waiting another seven days, he sent the dove out again;

¹¹And the dove came back at evening, and in her mouth was an olive-leaf broken off: so Noah was certain that the waters had gone down on the earth.

¹²And after seven days more, he sent the dove out again, but she did not come back to him.

¹³And in the six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters were dry on the earth: and Noah took the cover off the ark and saw that the face of the earth was dry.

¹⁴And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry.

¹⁵And God said to Noah,

¹⁶Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives.

¹⁷Take out with you every living thing which is with you, birds and cattle and everything which goes on the earth, so that they may have offspring and be fertile and be increased on the earth.

¹⁸And Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives;

¹⁹And every beast and bird and every living thing of every sort which goes on the earth, went out of the ark.

²⁰And Noah made an altar to the Lord, and from every clean beast and bird he made burned offerings on the altar.

²¹And when the sweet smell came up to the Lord, he said in his heart, I will not again put a curse on the earth because of man, for the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his earliest days; never again will I send destruction on all living things as I have done.

²²While the earth goes on, seed time and the getting in of the grain, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not come to an end.

9And God gave his blessing to Noah and his sons, and said, Be fertile, and have increase, and make the earth full.

²And the fear of you will be strong in every beast of the earth and every bird of the air; everything which goes on the land, and all the fishes of the sea, are given into your hands.

³Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give them all to you as before I gave you all green things.

⁴But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for food.

⁵And for your blood, which is your life, will I take payment; from every beast I will take it, and from every man will I take payment for the blood of his brother-man.

⁶Whoever takes a man's life, by man will his life be taken; because God made man in his image.

⁷And now, be fertile and have increase; have offspring on the earth and become great in number.

⁸And God said to Noah and to his sons,

⁹Truly, I will make my agreement with you and with your seed after you,

¹⁰And with every living thing with you, all birds and cattle and every beast of the earth which comes out of the ark with you.

¹¹And I will make my agreement with you; never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters; never again will the waters come over all the earth for its destruction.

¹²And God said, This is the sign of the agreement which I make between me and you and every living thing with you, for all future generations:

¹³I will put my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of the agreement between me and the earth.

¹⁴And whenever I make a cloud come over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud,

¹⁵And I will keep in mind the agreement between me and you and every living thing; and never again will there be a great flow of waters causing destruction to all flesh.

¹⁶And the bow will be in the cloud, and looking on it, I will keep in mind the eternal agreement between God and every living thing on the earth.

¹⁷And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the agreement which I have made between me and all flesh on the earth.

¹⁸And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan.

¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah and from them all the earth was peopled.

²⁰In those days Noah became a farmer, and he made a vine-garden.

²¹And he took of the wine of it and was overcome by drink; and he was uncovered in his tent.

²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father unclothed, and gave news of it to his two brothers outside.

²³And Shem and Japheth took a robe, and putting it on their backs went in with their faces turned away, and put it over their father so that they might not see him unclothed.

²⁴And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his youngest son had done to him, and he said,

²⁵Cursed be Canaan; let him be a servant of servants to his brothers.

²⁶And he said, Praise to the Lord, the God of Shem; let Canaan be his servant.

²⁷May God make Japheth great, and let his living-place be in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

²⁸And Noah went on living three hundred and fifty years after the great flow of waters;

²⁹all the years of his life were nine hundred and fifty: and he came to his end.

10Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: these are the sons which they had after the great flow of waters

²The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras.

³And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah.

⁴And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, the Kittim and the Dodanim.

⁵From these came the nations of the sea-lands, with their different families and languages.

⁶And the sons of Ham: Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.

⁷And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

⁸And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who was the first of the great men of the earth.

⁹He was a very great bowman, so that there is a saying, Like Nimrod, a very great bowman.

¹⁰And at the first, his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

¹¹From that land he went out into Assyria, building Nineveh with its wide streets and Calah,

¹²And Resen between Nineveh and Calah, which is a very great town.

¹³And Mizraim was the father of the Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim;

¹⁴And Pathrusim and Casluhim and Caphtorim, from whom came the Philistines.

¹⁵And Canaan was the father of Zidon, who was his oldest son, and Heth,

¹⁶And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite,

¹⁷And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite,

¹⁸And the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; after that the families of the Canaanites went far and wide in all directions;

¹⁹Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim.

²⁰All these, with their different families, languages, lands, and nations, are the offspring of Ham.

²¹And Shem, the older brother of Japheth, the father of the children of Eber, had other sons in addition.

²²These are the sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram.

²³And the sons of Aram: Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash.

²⁴And Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber.

²⁵And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, because in his time the peoples of the earth became separate; and his brother's name was Joktan.

²⁶And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah

²⁷And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah

²⁸And Obal and Abimael and Sheba

²⁹And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.

³⁰And their country was from Mesha, in the direction of Sephar, the mountain of the east.

³¹These, with their families and their languages and their lands and their nations, are the offspring of Shem.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, in the order of their generations and their nations: from these came all the nations of the earth after the great flow of waters.

11And all the earth had one language and one tongue.

²And it came about that in their wandering from the east, they came to a stretch of flat country in the land of Shinar, and there they made their living-place.

³And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks, burning them well. And they had bricks for stone, putting them together with sticky earth.

⁴And they said, Come, let us make a town, and a tower whose top will go up as high as heaven; and let us make a great name for ourselves, so that we may not be wanderers over the face of the earth.

⁵And the Lord came down to see the town and the tower which the children of men were building.

⁶And the Lord said, See, they are all one people and have all one language; and this is only the start of what they may do: and now it will not be possible to keep them from any purpose of theirs.

⁷Come, let us go down and take away the sense of their language, so that they will not be able to make themselves clear to one another.

⁸So the Lord God sent them away into every part of the earth: and they gave up building their town.

⁹So it was named Babel, because there the Lord took away the sense of all languages and from there the Lord sent them away over all the face of the earth.

¹⁰These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the great flow of waters;

¹¹And after the birth of Arpachshad, Shem went on living for five hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

¹²And Arpachshad was thirty-five years old when he became the father of Shelah:

¹³And after the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad went on living for four hundred and three years, and had sons and daughters:

¹⁴And Shelah was thirty years old when he became the father of Eber:

¹⁵And after the birth of Eber, Shelah went on living for four hundred and three years, and had sons and daughters:

¹⁶And Eber was thirty-four years old when he became the father of Peleg:

¹⁷And after the birth of Peleg, Eber went on living for four hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters:

¹⁸And Peleg was thirty years old when he became the father of Reu:

¹⁹And after the birth of Reu, Peleg went on living for two hundred and nine years, and had sons and daughters:

²⁰And Reu was thirty-two years old when he became the father of Serug:

²¹And after the birth of Serug, Reu went on living for two hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters:

²²And Serug was thirty years old when he became the father of Nahor:

²³And after the birth of Nahor, Serug went on living for two hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

²⁴And Nahor was twenty-nine years old when he became the father of Terah:

²⁵And after the birth of Terah, Nahor went on living for a hundred and nineteen years, and had sons and daughters:

²⁶And Terah was seventy years old when he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷These are the generations of Terah: Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot.

²⁸And death came to Haran when he was with his father Terah in the land of his birth, Ur of the Chaldees.

²⁹And 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 Iscah.

³⁰And Sarai had no child.

³¹And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram and they went out from Ur of the Chaldees, to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and were there for some time.

³²And all the years of Terah's life were two hundred and five: and Terah came to his end in Haran.

12Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide:

²And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing:

³To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

⁴So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran.

⁵And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan.

⁶And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land.

⁷And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him.

⁸And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁹And he went on, journeying still to the South.

¹⁰And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt.

¹¹Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye;

¹²And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you.

¹³Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account.

¹⁴And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.

¹⁵And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house.

¹⁶And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels.

¹⁷And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

¹⁸Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife?

¹⁹Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.

²⁰And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had.

13And Abram went up out of Egypt with his wife and all he had, and Lot with him, and they came in to the South.

²Now Abram had great wealth of cattle and silver and gold.

³And travelling on from the South, he came to Beth-el, to the place where his tent had been before, between Beth-el and Ai;

⁴To the place where he had made his first altar, and there Abram gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁵And Lot, who went with him, had flocks and herds and tents;

⁶So that the land was not wide enough for the two of them: their property was so great that there was not room for them together.

⁷And there was an argument between the keepers of Abram's cattle and the keepers of Lot's cattle: at that time the Canaanites and Perizzites were still living in the land.

⁸Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no argument between me and you, and between my herdmen and your herdmen, for we are brothers.

⁹Is not all the land before you? then let us go our separate ways: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; or if you take the right, I will go to the left.

¹⁰And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar.

¹¹So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another.

¹²Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom.

¹³Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.

¹⁴And the Lord had said to Abram, after Lot was parted from him, From this place where you are take a look to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west:

¹⁵For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever.

¹⁶And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered.

¹⁷Come, go through all the land from one end to the other for I will give it to you.

¹⁸And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and made an altar there to the Lord.

14Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim,

²They made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (which is Zoar).

³All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea).

⁴For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control.

⁵And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as far as El-paran, which is near the waste land.

⁷Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position in the valley of Siddim,

⁹Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar: four kings against the five.

¹⁰Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the mountain.

¹¹And the four kings took all the goods and food from Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way.

¹²And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods.

¹³And one who had got away from the fight came and gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were friends of Abram.

¹⁴And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan.

¹⁵And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus.

¹⁶And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people.

¹⁷And when he was coming back after putting to flight Chedorlaomer and the other kings, he had a meeting with the king of Sodom in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the King's Valley.

¹⁸And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, took bread and wine,

¹⁹And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram:

²⁰And let the Most High God be praised, who has given into your hands those who were against you. Then Abram gave him a tenth of all the goods he had taken.

²¹And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the prisoners and take the goods for yourself.

²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth,

²³That I will not take so much as a thread or the cord of a shoe of yours; so that you may not say, I have given wealth to Abram:

²⁴Give me nothing but the food which the fighting-men who went with me have had; but let Aner and Eshcol and Mamre have their part of the goods.

15After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.

²And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me.

³And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.

⁴Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you.

⁵And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.

⁶And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage.

⁸And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine?

⁹And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.

¹⁰All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.

¹¹And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear.

¹³And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;

¹⁴But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth.

¹⁵As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place.

¹⁶And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.

¹⁷Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies.

¹⁸In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

¹⁹The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

²⁰And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

²¹And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

16Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had given him no children; and she had a servant, a woman of Egypt whose name was Hagar.

²And Sarai said to Abram, See, the Lord has not let me have children; go in to my servant, for I may get a family through her. And Abram did as Sarai said.

³So after Abram had been living for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram for his wife.

⁴And he went in to Hagar and she became with child, and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for her master's wife.

⁵And Sarai said to Abram, May my wrong be on you: I gave you my servant for your wife and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for me: may the Lord be judge between you and me.

⁶And Abram said, The woman is in your power; do with her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her, so that she went running away from her.

⁷And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur.

⁸And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am running away from Sarai, my master's wife.

⁹And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself under her authority.

¹⁰And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered.

¹¹And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your sorrow.

¹²And he will be like a mountain ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he will keep his place against all his brothers.

¹³And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this name, You are a God who is seen; for she said, Have I not even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still living?

¹⁴So that fountain was named, Fountain of Life and Vision: it is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵And Hagar gave birth to a child, the son of Abram, to whom Abram gave the name of Ishmael.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

17When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,

²And I will make an agreement between you and me, and your offspring will be greatly increased.

³And Abram went down on his face on the earth, and the Lord God went on talking with him, and said,

⁴As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will be the father of nations without end.

⁵No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a number of nations.

⁶I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring.

⁷And I will make between me and you and your seed after you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a God to you and to your seed after you.

⁸And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God.

⁹And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep the agreement, you and your seed after you through all generations.

¹⁰And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me, you and your seed after you: every male among you is to undergo circumcision.

¹¹In the flesh of your private parts you are to undergo it, as a mark of the agreement between me and you.

¹²Every male among you, from one generation to another, is to undergo circumcision when he is eight days old, with every servant whose birth takes place in your house, or for whom you gave money to someone of another country, and not of your seed.

¹³He who comes to birth in your house and he who is made yours for a price, all are to undergo circumcision; so that my agreement may be marked in your flesh, an agreement for all time.

¹⁴And any male who does not undergo circumcision will be cut off from his people: my agreement has been broken by him.

¹⁵And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her name will be not Sarai, but Sarah.

¹⁶And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring.

¹⁷Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth?

¹⁸And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care!

¹⁹And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him.

²⁰As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth a year from this time.

²²And having said these words, God went up from Abraham.

²³And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all whose birth had taken place in his house, and all his servants whom he had made his for a price, every male of his house, and on that very day he gave them circumcision in the flesh of their private parts as God had said to him.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he underwent circumcision.

²⁵And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he underwent circumcision.

²⁶Abraham and Ishmael, his son, underwent circumcision on that very day.

²⁷And all the men of his house, those whose birth had taken place in the house and those whom he had got for money from men of other lands, underwent circumcision with him.

18Now the Lord came to him by the holy tree of Mamre, when he was seated in the doorway of his tent in the middle of the day;

²And lifting up his eyes, he saw three men before him; and seeing them, he went quickly to them from the door of the tent, and went down on his face to the earth;

³And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do not go away from your servant:

⁴Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest under the tree:

⁵And let me get a bit of bread to keep up your strength, and after that you may go on your way: for this is why you have come to your servant. And they said, Let it be so.

⁶Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make cakes.

⁷And running to the herd, he took a young ox, soft and fat, and gave it to the servant and he quickly made it ready;

⁸And he took butter and milk and the young ox which he had made ready and put it before them, waiting by them under the tree while they took food.

⁹And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent.

¹⁰And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door.

¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth.

¹²And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old?

¹³And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child?

¹⁴Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child.

¹⁵Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.

¹⁶And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way.

¹⁷And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do;

¹⁸Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing?

¹⁹For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said.

²⁰And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil,

²¹I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see.

²²And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord.

²³And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners?

²⁴If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it because of the fifty upright men?

²⁵Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right?

²⁶And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them.

²⁷And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord:

²⁸If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five.

²⁹And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty.

³⁰And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty.

³¹And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty.

³²And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten.

³³And the Lord went on his way when his talk with Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place.

19And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.

²And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street.

³But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took.

⁴But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town;

⁵And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them.

⁶And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.

⁷And he said, My brothers, do not this evil.

⁸See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof.

⁹And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in.

¹⁰But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again.

¹¹But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door.

¹²Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place;

¹³For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town.

¹⁴And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously.

¹⁵And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town.

¹⁶But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town.

¹⁷And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction.

¹⁸And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord;

¹⁹See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;

²⁰This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.

²¹And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town.

²²Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar.

²³The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁵And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.

²⁶But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt.

²⁷And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord:

²⁸And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven.

²⁹So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.

³⁰Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock.

³¹And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way:

³²Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,

³³And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

³⁴And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father.

³⁵And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away.

³⁶And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

³⁷And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

³⁸And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day.

20And Abraham went on his way from there to the land of the South, and was living between Kadesh and Shur, in Gerar.

²And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and said to him, Truly you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man's wife.

⁴Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord, will you put to death an upright nation?

⁵Did he not say to me himself, She is my sister? and she herself said, He is my brother: with an upright heart and clean hands have I done this.

⁶And God said to him in the dream, I see that you have done this with an upright heart, and I have kept you from sinning against me: for this reason I did not let you come near her.

⁷So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house.

⁸So Abimelech got up early in the morning and sent for all his servants and gave them word of these things, and they were full of fear.

⁹Then Abimelech sent for Abraham, and said, What have you done to us? what wrong have I done you that you have put on me and on my kingdom so great a sin? You have done to me things which are not to be done.

¹⁰And Abimelech said to Abraham, Why did you do this thing?

¹¹And Abraham said, Because it seemed to me that there was no fear of God in this place, and that they might put me to death because of my wife.

¹²And, in fact, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife:

¹³And when God sent me wandering from my father's house, I said to her, Let this be the sign of your love for me; wherever we go, say of me, He is my brother.

¹⁴Then Abimelech gave to Abraham sheep and oxen and men-servants and women-servants, and gave him back his wife Sarah.

¹⁵And Abimelech said, See, all my land is before you; take whatever place seems good to you.

¹⁶And he said to Sarah, See, I have given to your brother a thousand bits of silver so that your wrong may be put right; now your honour is clear in the eyes of all.

¹⁷Then Abraham made prayer to God, and God made Abimelech well again, and his wife and his women-servants, so that they had children.

¹⁸For the Lord had kept all the women of the house of Abimelech from having children, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

21And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her as he had undertaken.

²And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son when he was old, at the time named by God.

³And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given birth, the name Isaac.

⁴And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him.

⁵Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of Isaac took place.

⁶And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me.

⁷And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old.

⁸And when the child was old enough to be taken from the breast, Abraham made a great feast.

⁹And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with Isaac.

¹⁰So she said to Abraham, Send away that woman and her son: for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the heritage with my son Isaac.

¹¹And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son.

¹²But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name.

¹³And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed.

¹⁴And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba.

¹⁵And when all the water in the skin was used up, she put the child down under a tree.

¹⁶And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child.

¹⁷And the boy's cry came to the ears of God; and the angel of God said to Hagar from heaven, Hagar, why are you weeping? have no fear, for the child's cry has come to the ears of God.

¹⁸Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation.

¹⁹Then God made her eyes open, and she saw a water-spring, and she got water in the skin and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰And God was with the boy, and he became tall and strong, and he became a bowman, living in the waste land.

²¹And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.

²²Now at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, said to Abraham, I see that God is with you in all you do.

²³Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living.

²⁴And Abraham said, I will give you my oath.

²⁵But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force.

²⁶But Abimelech said, I have no idea who has done this thing; you never gave me word of it, and I had no knowledge of it till this day.

²⁷And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together.

²⁸And Abraham put seven young lambs of the flock on one side by themselves.

²⁹Then Abimelech said, What are these seven lambs which you have put on one side?

³⁰And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness that I have made this water-hole.

³¹So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths.

³²So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.

³³And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.

³⁴And Abraham went on living in the land of the Philistines as in a strange country.

22Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I.

²And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will give you knowledge.

³And Abraham got up early in the morning, and made ready his ass, and took with him two of his young men and Isaac, his son, and after the wood for the burned offering had been cut, he went on his way to the place of which God had given him word.

⁴And on the third day, Abraham, lifting up his eyes, saw the place a long way off.

⁵Then he said to his young men, Keep here with the ass; and I and the boy will go on and give worship and come back again to you.

⁶And Abraham put the wood for the burned offering on his son's back, and he himself took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them went on together.

⁷Then Isaac said to Abraham, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, We have wood and fire here, but where is the lamb for the burned offering?

⁸And Abraham said, God himself will give the lamb for the burned offering: so they went on together.

⁹And they came to the place of which God had given him knowledge; and there Abraham made the altar and put the wood in place on it, and having made tight the bands round Isaac his son, he put him on the wood on the altar.

¹⁰And stretching out his hand, Abraham took the knife to put his son to death.

¹¹But the voice of the angel of the Lord came from heaven, saying, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

¹²And he said, Let not your hand be stretched out against the boy to do anything to him; for now I am certain that the fear of God is in your heart, because you have not kept back your son, your only son, from me.

¹³And lifting up his eyes, Abraham saw a sheep fixed by its horns in the brushwood: and Abraham took the sheep and made a burned offering of it in place of his son.

¹⁴And Abraham gave that place the name Yahweh-yireh: as it is said to this day, In the mountain the Lord is seen.

¹⁵And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham a second time from heaven,

¹⁶Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord, because you have done this and have not kept back from me your dearly loved only son,

¹⁷That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them;

¹⁸And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.

¹⁹Then Abraham went back to his young men and they went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was living.

²⁰After these things, Abraham had news that Milcah, the wife of his brother Nahor, had given birth to children;

²¹Uz the oldest, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel, the father of Aram,

²²And Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.

²³Bethuel was the father of Rebekah: these eight were the children of Milcah and Nahor, Abraham's brother.

²⁴And his servant Reumah gave birth to Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

23Now the years of Sarah's life were a hundred and twenty-seven.

²And Sarah's death took place in Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan: and Abraham went into his house, weeping and sorrowing for Sarah.

³And Abraham came from his dead and said to the children of Heth,

⁴I am living among you as one from a strange country: give me some land here as my property, so that I may put my dead to rest.

⁵And in answer the children of Heth said to Abraham,

⁶My lord, truly you are a great chief among us; take the best of our resting-places for your dead; not one of us will keep back from you a place where you may put your dead to rest.

⁷And Abraham got up and gave honour to the children of Heth, the people of that land.

⁸And he said to them, If you will let me put my dead to rest here, make a request for me to Ephron, the son of Zohar,

⁹That he will give me the hollow in the rock named Machpelah, which is his property at the end of his field; let him give it to me for its full price as a resting-place for my dead among you.

¹⁰Now Ephron was seated among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite gave Abraham his answer in the hearing of the children of Heth, and of all those who came into his town, saying,

¹¹No, my lord, I will give you the field with the hollow in the rock; before all the children of my people will I give it to you for a resting-place for your dead.

¹²And Abraham went down on his face before the people of the land.

¹³And Abraham said to Ephron, in the hearing of the people of the land, If only you will give ear to me, I will give you the price of the field; take it, and let me put my dead to rest there.

¹⁴So Ephron said to Abraham,

¹⁵My lord, give ear to me: the value of the land is four hundred shekels; what is that between me and you? so put your dead to rest there.

¹⁶And Abraham took note of the price fixed by Ephron in the hearing of the children of Heth, and gave him four hundred shekels in current money.

¹⁷So Ephron's field at Machpelah near Mamre, with the hollow in the rock and all the trees in the field and round it,

¹⁸Became the property of Abraham before the eyes of the children of Heth and of all who came into the town.

¹⁹Then Abraham put Sarah his wife to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, that is, Hebron in the land of Canaan.

²⁰And the field and the hollow rock were handed over to Abraham as his property by the children of Heth.

24Now Abraham was old and far on in years: and the Lord had given him everything in full measure.

²And Abraham said to his chief servant, the manager of all his property, Come now, put your hand under my leg:

³And take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living;

⁴But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac.

⁵And the servant said, If by chance the woman will not come with me into this land, am I to take your son back again to the land from which you came?

⁶And Abraham said, Take care that you do not let my son go back to that land.

⁷The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land.

⁸And if the woman will not come with you, then you are free from this oath; only do not take my son back there.

⁹And the servant put his hand under Abraham's leg, and gave him his oath about this thing.

¹⁰And the servant took ten of his master's camels, and all sorts of good things of his master's, and went to Mesopotamia, to the town of Nahor.

¹¹And he made the camels take their rest outside the town by the water-spring in the evening, at the time when the women came to get water.

¹²And he said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, let me do well in what I have undertaken this day, and give your mercy to my master Abraham.

¹³See, I am waiting here by the water-spring; and the daughters of the town are coming out to get water:

¹⁴Now, may the girl to whom I say, Let down your vessel and give me a drink, and who says in answer, Here is a drink for you and let me give water to your camels: may she be the one marked out by you for your servant Isaac: so may I be certain that you have been good to my master Abraham.

¹⁵And even before his words were ended, Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, who was the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water-vessel on her arm.

¹⁶She was a very beautiful girl, a virgin, who had never been touched by a man: and she went down to the spring to get water in her vessel.

¹⁷And the servant came running to her and said, Give me a little water from your vessel.

¹⁸And she said, Take a drink, my lord: and quickly letting down her vessel onto her hand, she gave him a drink.

¹⁹And having done so, she said, I will get water for your camels till they have had enough.

²⁰And after putting the water from her vessel into the animals' drinking-place, she went quickly back to the spring and got water for all the camels.

²¹And the man, looking at her, said nothing, waiting to see if the Lord had given his journey a good outcome.

²²And when the camels had had enough, the man took a gold nose-ring, half a shekel in weight, and two ornaments for her arms of ten shekels weight of gold;

²³And said to her, Whose daughter are you? is there room in your father's house for us?

²⁴And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, Nahor's wife.

²⁵And she said, We have a great store of dry grass and cattle-food, and there is room for you.

²⁶And with bent head the man gave worship to the Lord;

²⁷And said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has given a sign that he is good and true to my master, by guiding me straight to the house of my master's family.

²⁸So the girl went running and took the news of these things to her mother's house

²⁹Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he came out quickly to the man at the water-spring.

³⁰And when he saw the nose-ring and the ornaments on his sister's hands, and when she gave him word of what the man had said to her, then he went out to the man who was waiting with the camels by the water-spring.

³¹And he said to him, Come in, you on whom is the blessing of the Lord; why are you waiting outside? for I have made the house ready for you, and a place for the camels.

³²Then the man came into the house, and Laban took their cords off the camels and gave them dry grass and food, and he gave to him and the men who were with him water for washing their feet.

³³And meat was put before him, but he said, I will not take food till I have made my business clear to you. And they said, Do so.

³⁴And he said, I am Abraham's servant.

³⁵The Lord has given my master every blessing, and he has become great: he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold, and men-servants and women-servants and camels and asses.

³⁶And when Sarah, my master's wife, was old, she gave birth to a son, to whom he has given all he has.

³⁷And my master made me take an oath, saying, Do not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living;

³⁸But go to my father's house and to my relations for a wife for my son.

³⁹And I said to my master, What if the woman will not come with me?

⁴⁰And he said, The Lord, whom I have ever kept before me, will send his angel with you, who will make it possible for you to get a wife for my son from my relations and my father's house;

⁴¹And you will be free from your oath to me when you come to my people; and if they will not give her to you, you will be free from your oath.

⁴²And I came today to the water-spring, and I said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if it is your purpose to give a good outcome to my journey,

⁴³Let it come about that, while I am waiting here by the water-spring, if a girl comes to get water and I say to her, Give me a little water from your vessel, and she says,

⁴⁴Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels; let her be the woman marked out by the Lord for my master's son.

⁴⁵And even while I was saying this to myself, Rebekah came out with her vessel on her arm; and she went down to the spring to get water; and I said to her, Give me a drink.

⁴⁶And straight away she took down her vessel from her arm, and said, Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels.

⁴⁷And questioning her, I said, Whose daughter are you? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, and Milcah his wife. Then I put the ring on her nose and the ornaments on her hands.

⁴⁸And with bent head I gave worship and praise to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, by whom I had been guided in the right way, to get the daughter of my master's brother for his son.

⁴⁹And now, say if you will do what is good and right for my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I have to do.

⁵⁰Then Laban and Bethuel said in answer, This is the Lord's doing: it is not for us to say Yes or No to you.

⁵¹See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord has said.

⁵²And at these words, Abraham's servant went down on his face and gave praise to the Lord.

⁵³Then he took jewels of silver and jewels of gold and fair robes and gave them to Rebekah: and he gave things of value to her mother and her brother.

⁵⁴Then he and the men who were with him had food and drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my master.

⁵⁵But her brother and her mother said, Let the girl be with us a week or ten days, and then she may go.

⁵⁶And he said, Do not keep me; the Lord has given a good outcome to my journey; let me now go back to my master.

⁵⁷And they said, We will send for the girl, and let her make the decision.

⁵⁸And they sent for Rebekah and said to her, Are you ready to go with this man? And she said, I am ready.

⁵⁹So they sent their sister Rebekah and her servant with Abraham's servant and his men.

⁶⁰And they gave Rebekah their blessing, saying, O sister, may you be the mother of thousands and ten thousands; and may your seed overcome all those who make war against them.

⁶¹So Rebekah and her servant-women went with the man, seated on the camels; and so the servant took Rebekah and went on his way.

⁶²Now Isaac had come through the waste land to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the South.

⁶³And when the evening was near, he went wandering out into the fields, and lifting up his eyes he saw camels coming.

⁶⁴And when Rebekah, looking up, saw Isaac, she got down from her camel,

⁶⁵And said to the servant, Who is that man coming to us through the field? And the servant said, It is my master: then she took her veil, covering her face with it.

⁶⁶Then the servant gave Isaac the story of all he had done.

⁶⁷And Isaac took Rebekah into his tent and she became his wife; and in his love for her, Isaac was comforted after his father's death.

25And Abraham took another wife named Keturah.

²She became the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah.

³And Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And from Dedan came the Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim.

⁴And from Midian came Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the offspring of Keturah.

⁵Now Abraham gave all his property to Isaac;

⁶But to the sons of his other women he gave offerings, and sent them away, while he was still living, into the east country.

⁷Now the years of Abraham's life were a hundred and seventy-five.

⁸And Abraham came to his death, an old man, full of years; and he was put to rest with his people.

⁹And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, put him to rest in the hollow rock of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre;

¹⁰The same field which Abraham got from the children of Heth: there Abraham was put to rest with Sarah, his wife.

¹¹Now after the death of Abraham, the blessing of God was with Isaac, his son.

¹²Now these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, the servant of Sarah:

¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their generations: Ishmael's first son was Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam

¹⁴And Mishma and Dumah and Massa,

¹⁵Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah:

¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names in their towns and their tent-circles; twelve chiefs with their peoples.

¹⁷And the years of Ishmael's life were a hundred and thirty-seven: and he came to his end, and was put to rest with his people.

¹⁸And their country was from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt: they took their place to the east of all their brothers.

¹⁹Now these are the generations of Abraham's son Isaac:

²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.

²¹Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and Rebekah became with child.

²²And the children were fighting together inside her, and she said, If it is to be so, why am I like this? So she went to put her question to the Lord.

²³And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body, and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of the younger.

²⁴And when the time came for her to give birth, there were two children in her body.

²⁵And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau.

²⁶And after him, his brother came out, gripping Esau's foot; and he was named Jacob: Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

²⁷And the boys came to full growth; and Esau became a man of the open country, an expert bowman; but Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

²⁸Now Isaac's love was for Esau, because Esau's meat was greatly to his taste: but Rebekah had more love for Jacob.

²⁹And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau came in from the fields in great need of food;

³⁰And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom.

³¹And Jacob said, First of all give me your birthright.

³²And Esau said, Truly, I am at the point of death: what profit is the birthright to me?

³³And Jacob said, First of all give me your oath; and he gave him his oath, handing over his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave him bread and soup; and he took food and drink and went away, caring little for his birthright.

26Then came a time of great need in the land, like that which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

²And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge:

³Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham;

⁴I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth;

⁵Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.

⁶So Isaac went on living in Gerar;

⁷And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful.

⁸And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.

⁹And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her.

¹⁰Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of the people might well have had connection with your wife, and the sin would have been ours.

¹¹And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.

¹²Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him.

¹³And his wealth became very great, increasing more and more;

¹⁴For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.

¹⁵Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines.

¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are stronger than we are.

¹⁷So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there.

¹⁸And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them.

¹⁹Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came to a spring of flowing water.

²⁰But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it.

²¹Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah.

²²Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land.

²³And from there he went on to Beer-sheba.

²⁴That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham.

²⁵Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole.

²⁶And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army.

²⁷And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you?

²⁸And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you;

²⁹That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you.

³⁰Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and drink.

³¹And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace.

³²And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water.

³³And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.

³⁴And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

³⁵And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of them.

27Now when Isaac was old and his eyes had become clouded so that he was not able to see, he sent for Esau, his first son, and said to him, My son: and he said, Here am I.

²And he said, See now, I am old, and my death may take place at any time:

³So take your arrows and your bow and go out to the field and get meat for me;

⁴And make me food, good to the taste, such as is pleasing to me, and put it before me, so that I may have a meal and give you my blessing before death comes to me.

⁵Now Isaac's words to his son were said in Rebekah's hearing. Then Esau went out to get the meat.

⁶And Rebekah said to Jacob, her son, Your father said to your brother Esau in my hearing,

⁷Go and get some roe's meat and make me a good meal, so that I may be full, and give you my blessing before the Lord before my death.

⁸Now, my son, do what I say.

⁹Go to the flock and get me two fat young goats; and I will make of them a meal to your father's taste:

¹⁰And you will take it to him, so that he may have a good meal and give you his blessing before his death.

¹¹And Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, But Esau my brother is covered with hair, while I am smooth:

¹²If by chance my father puts his hand on me, it will seem to him that I am tricking him, and he will put a curse on me in place of a blessing.

¹³And his mother said, Let the curse be on me, my son: only do as I say, and go and get them for me.

¹⁴So he went and got them and took them to his mother: and she made a meal to his father's taste.

¹⁵And Rebekah took the fair robes of her oldest son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son:

¹⁶And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck:

¹⁷And she gave into the hand of Jacob, her son, the meat and the bread which she had made ready.

¹⁸And he came to his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I: who are you, my son?

¹⁹And Jacob said, I am Esau, your oldest son; I have done as you said: come now, be seated and take of my meat, so that you may give me a blessing.

²⁰And Isaac said, How is it that you have got it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord your God made it come my way.

²¹And Isaac said, Come near so that I may put my hand on you, my son, and see if you are truly my son Esau or not.

²²And Jacob went near his father Isaac: and he put his hands on him; and he said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

²³And he did not make out who he was, because his hands were covered with hair like his brother Esau's hands: so he gave him a blessing.

²⁴And he said, Are you truly my son Esau? And he said, I am.

²⁵And he said, Put it before me and I will take of my son's meat, so that I may give you a blessing. And he put it before him and he took it; and he gave him wine, and he had a drink.

²⁶And his father Isaac said to him, Come near now, my son, and give me a kiss.

²⁷And he came near and gave him a kiss; and smelling the smell of his clothing, he gave him a blessing, and said, See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field on which the blessing of the Lord has come:

²⁸May God give you the dew of heaven, and the good things of the earth, and grain and wine in full measure:

²⁹Let peoples be your servants, and nations go down before you: be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's sons go down before you: a curse be on everyone by whom you are cursed, and a blessing on those who give you a blessing.

³⁰And when Isaac had come to the end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had not long gone away from Isaac his father, Esau came in from the field.

³¹And he made ready a meal, good to the taste, and took it to his father, and said to him, Let my father get up and take of his son's meat, so that you may give me a blessing.

³²And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your oldest son, Esau.

³³And in great fear Isaac said, Who then is he who got meat and put it before me, and I took it all before you came, and gave him a blessing, and his it will be?

³⁴And hearing the words of his father, Esau gave a great and bitter cry, and said to his father, Give a blessing to me, even to me, O my father!

³⁵And he said, Your brother came with deceit, and took away your blessing.

³⁶And he said, Is it because he is named Jacob that he has twice taken my place? for he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not kept a blessing for me?

³⁷And Isaac answering said, But I have made him your master, and have given him all his brothers for servants; I have made him strong with grain and wine: what then am I to do for you, my son?

³⁸And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau was overcome with weeping.

³⁹Then Isaac his father made answer and said to him, Far from the fertile places of the earth, and far from the dew of heaven on high will your living-place be:

⁴⁰By your sword will you get your living and you will be your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his yoke will be broken from off your neck.

⁴¹So Esau was full of hate for Jacob because of his father's blessing; and he said in his heart, The days of weeping for my father are near; then I will put my brother Jacob to death.

⁴²Then Rebekah, hearing what Esau had said, sent for Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, It seems that your brother Esau is purposing to put you to death.

⁴³So now, my son, do what I say: go quickly to Haran, to my brother Laban;

⁴⁴And be there with him for a little time, till your brother's wrath is turned away;

⁴⁵Till the memory of what you have done to him is past and he is no longer angry: then I will send word for you to come back; are the two of you to be taken from me in one day?

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, My life is a weariness to me because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, such as these, the women of this land, of what use will my life be to me?

28Then Isaac sent for Jacob, and blessing him, said, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

²But go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and there get yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

³And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples.

⁴And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob away: and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶So when Esau saw that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing, and sent him away to Paddan-aram to get a wife for himself there, blessing him and saying to him, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan;

⁷And that Jacob had done as his father and mother said and had gone to Paddan-aram;

⁸It was clear to Esau that his father had no love for the women of Canaan,

⁹So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

¹⁰So Jacob went out from Beer-sheba to go to Haran.

¹¹And coming to a certain place, he made it his resting-place for the night, for the sun had gone down; and he took one of the stones which were there, and putting it under his head he went to sleep in that place.

¹²And he had a dream, and in his dream he saw steps stretching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God were going up and down on them.

¹³And he saw the Lord by his side, saying, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: I will give to you and to your seed this land on which you are sleeping.

¹⁴Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

¹⁵And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you.

¹⁶And Jacob, awaking from his sleep, said, Truly, the Lord is in this place and I was not conscious of it.

¹⁷And fear came on him, and he said, This is a holy place; this is nothing less than the house of God and the doorway of heaven.

¹⁸And early in the morning Jacob took the stone which had been under his head, and put it up as a pillar and put oil on it.

¹⁹And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before that time the town was named Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on,

²¹So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I will take the Lord to be my God,

²²And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be God's house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part to you.

29Then Jacob went on his journey till he came to the land of the children of the East.

²And there he saw a water-hole in a field, and by the side of it three flocks of sheep, for there they got water for the sheep: and on the mouth of the water-hole there was a great stone.

³And all the flocks would come together there, and when the stone had been rolled away, they would give the sheep water, and put the stone back again in its place on the mouth of the water-hole.

⁴Then Jacob said to the herdmen, My brothers, where do you come from? And they said, From Haran.

⁵And he said to them, Have you any knowledge of Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We have.

⁶And he said to them, Is he well? And they said, He is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep.

⁷Then Jacob said, The sun is still high and it is not time to get the cattle together: get water for the sheep and go and give them their food.

⁸And they said, We are not able to do so till all the flocks have come together and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the water-hole; then we will get water for the sheep.

⁹While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she took care of them.

¹⁰Then when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, coming with Laban's sheep, he came near, and rolling the stone away from the mouth of the hole, he got water for Laban's flock.

¹¹And weeping for joy, Jacob gave Rachel a kiss.

¹²And Rachel, hearing from Jacob that he was her father's relation and that he was the son of Rebekah, went running to give her father news of it.

¹³And Laban, hearing news of Jacob, his sister's son, came running, and took Jacob in his arms, and kissing him, made him come into his house. And Jacob gave him news of everything.

¹⁴And Laban said to him, Truly, you are my bone and my flesh. And he kept Jacob with him for the space of a month.

¹⁵Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother are you to be my servant for nothing? say now, what is your payment to be?

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

¹⁷And Leah's eyes were clouded, but Rachel was fair in face and form.

¹⁸And Jacob was in love with Rachel; and he said, I will be your servant seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.

¹⁹And Laban said, It is better for you to have her than another man: go on living here with me.

²⁰And Jacob did seven years' work for Rachel; and because of his love for her it seemed to him only a very little time.

²¹Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife so that I may have her, for the days are ended.

²²And Laban got together all the men of the place and gave a feast.

²³And in the evening he took Leah, his daughter, and gave her to him, and he went in to her.

²⁴And Laban gave Zilpah, his servant-girl, to Leah, to be her waiting-woman.

²⁵And in the morning Jacob saw that it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What have you done to me? was I not working for you so that I might have Rachel? why have you been false to me?

²⁶And Laban said, In our country we do not let the younger daughter be married before the older.

²⁷Let the week of the bride-feast come to its end and then we will give you the other in addition, if you will be my servant for another seven years.

²⁸And Jacob did so; and when the week was ended, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel for his wife.

²⁹And Laban gave Rachel his servant-girl Bilhah to be her waiting-woman.

³⁰Then Jacob took Rachel as his wife, and his love for her was greater than his love for Leah; and he went on working for Laban for another seven years.

³¹Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was not loved, gave her a child; while Rachel had no children.

³²And Leah was with child, and gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name Reuben: for she said, The Lord has seen my sorrow; now my husband will have love for me.

³³Then she became with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Because it has come to the Lord's ears that I am not loved, he has given me this son in addition: and she gave him the name Simeon.

³⁴And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Now at last my husband will be united to me, because I have given him three sons: so he was named Levi.

³⁵And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son: and she said, This time I will give praise to the Lord: so he was named Judah; after this she had no more children for a time.

30Now Rachel, because she had no children, was full of envy of her sister; and she said to Jacob, If you do not give me children I will not go on living.

²But Jacob was angry with Rachel, and said, Am I in the place of God, who has kept your body from having fruit?

³Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah, go in to her, so that she may have a child on my knees, and I may have a family by her.

⁴So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵And Bilhah became with child, and gave birth to a son.

⁶Then Rachel said, God has been my judge, and has given ear to my voice, and has given me a son; so he was named Dan.

⁷And again Bilhah, Rachel's servant, was with child, and gave birth to a second son.

⁸And Rachel said, I have had a great fight with my sister, and I have overcome her: and she gave the child the name Naphtali.

⁹When it was clear to Leah that she would have no more children for a time, she gave Zilpah, her servant, to Jacob as a wife.

¹⁰And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a son.

¹¹And Leah said, It has gone well for me: and she gave him the name Gad.

¹²And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a second son.

¹³And Leah said, Happy am I! and all women will give witness to my joy: and she gave him the name Asher.

¹⁴Now at the time of the grain-cutting, Reuben saw some love-fruits in the field, and took them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to her, Let me have some of your son's love-fruits.

¹⁵But Leah said to her, Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband from me? and now would you take my son's love-fruits? Then Rachel said, You may have him tonight in exchange for your son's love-fruits.

¹⁶In the evening, when Jacob came in from the field, Leah went out to him and said, Tonight you are to come to me, for I have given my son's love-fruits as a price for you. And he went in to her that night.

¹⁷And God gave ear to her and she became with child, and gave Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Then Leah said, God has made payment to me for giving my servant-girl to my husband: so she gave her son the name Issachar.

¹⁹And again Leah became with child, and she gave Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰And she said, God has given me a good bride-price; now at last will I have my husband living with me, for I have given him six sons: and she gave him the name Zebulun.

²¹After that she had a daughter, to whom she gave the name Dinah.

²²Then God gave thought to Rachel, and hearing her prayer he made her fertile.

²³And she was with child, and gave birth to a son: and she said, God has taken away my shame.

²⁴And she gave him the name Joseph, saying, May the Lord give me another son.

²⁵Now after the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Let me go away to my place and my country.

²⁶Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have been your servant, and let me go: for you have knowledge of all the work I have done for you.

²⁷And Laban said, If you will let me say so, do not go away; for I have seen by the signs that the Lord has been good to me because of you.

²⁸Say then what your payment is to be and I will give it.

²⁹Then Jacob said, You have seen what I have done for you, and how your cattle have done well under my care.

³⁰For before I came you had little, and it has been greatly increased; and the Lord has given you a blessing in everything I have done; but when am I to do something for my family?

³¹And Laban said, What am I to give you? And Jacob said, Do not give me anything; but I will again take up the care of your flock if you will only do this for me:

³²Let me go through all your flock today, taking out from among them all the sheep which are marked or coloured or black, and all the marked or coloured goats: these will be my payment.

³³And so you will be able to put my honour to the test in time to come; if you see among my flocks any goats which are not marked or coloured, or any sheep which is not black, you may take me for a thief.

³⁴And Laban said, Let it be as you say.

³⁵So that day he took all the he-goats which were banded or coloured, and all the she-goats which were marked or coloured or had white marks, and all the black sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons;

³⁶And sent them three days' journey away: and Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flock.

³⁷Then Jacob took young branches of trees, cutting off the skin so that the white wood was seen in bands.

³⁸And he put the banded sticks in the drinking-places where the flock came to get water; and they became with young when they came to the water.

³⁹And because of this, the flock gave birth to young which were marked with bands of colour.

⁴⁰These lambs Jacob kept separate; and he put his flock in a place by themselves and not with Laban's flock.

⁴¹And whenever the stronger ones of the flock became with young, Jacob put the sticks in front of them in the drinking-places, so that they might become with young when they saw the sticks.

⁴²But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put the sticks before them; so that the feebler flocks were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's.

⁴³So Jacob's wealth was greatly increased; he had great flocks and women-servants and men-servants and camels and asses.

31Now it came to the ears of Jacob that Laban's sons were saying, Jacob has taken away all our father's property, and in this way he has got all this wealth.

²And Jacob saw that Laban's feeling for him was no longer what it had been before.

³Then the Lord said to Jacob, Go back to the land of your fathers, and to your relations, and I will be with you.

⁴And Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come to him in the field among his flock.

⁵And he said to them, It is clear to me that your father's feeling is no longer what it was to me; but the God of my father has been with me

⁶And you have seen how I have done all in my power for your father,

⁷But your father has not kept faith with me, and ten times he has made changes in my payment; but God has kept him from doing me damage.

⁸If he said, All those in the flock which have marks are to be yours, then all the flock gave birth to marked young; and if he said, All the banded ones are to be yours, then all the flock had banded young.

⁹So God has taken away your father's cattle and has given them to me.

¹⁰And at the time when the flock were with young, I saw in a dream that all the he-goats which were joined with the she-goats were banded and marked and coloured.

¹¹And in my dream the angel of the Lord said to me, Jacob: and I said, Here am I.

¹²And he said, See how all the he-goats are banded and marked and coloured: for I have seen what Laban has done to you.

¹³I am the God of Beth-el, where you put oil on the pillar and took an oath to me: now then, come out of this land and go back to the country of your birth.

¹⁴Then Rachel and Leah said to him in answer, What part or heritage is there for us in our father's house?

¹⁵Are we not as people from a strange country to him? for he took a price for us and now it is all used up.

¹⁶For the wealth which God has taken from him is ours and our children's; so now, whatever God has said to you, do.

¹⁷Then Jacob put his wives and his sons on camels;

¹⁸And sending on before him all his cattle and his property which he had got together in Paddan-aram, he made ready to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

¹⁹Now Laban had gone to see to the cutting of the wool of his sheep; so Rachel secretly took the images of the gods of her father's house.

²⁰And Jacob went away secretly, without giving news of his flight to Laban the Aramaean.

²¹So he went away with all he had, and went across the River in the direction of the hill-country of Gilead.

²²And on the third day Laban had news of Jacob's flight.

²³And taking the men of his family with him, he went after him for seven days and overtook him in the hill-country of Gilead.

²⁴Then God came to Laban in a dream by night, and said to him, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob.

²⁵Now when Laban overtook him, Jacob had put up his tent in the hill-country; and Laban and his brothers put up their tents in the hill-country of Gilead.

²⁶And Laban said to Jacob, Why did you go away secretly, taking my daughters away like prisoners of war?

²⁷Why did you make a secret of your flight, not giving me word of it, so that I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with melody and music?

²⁸You did not even let me give a kiss to my sons and my daughters. This was a foolish thing to do.

²⁹It is in my power to do you damage: but the God of your father came to me this night, saying, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob.

³⁰And now, it seems, you are going because your heart's desire is for your father's house; but why have you taken my gods?

³¹And Jacob, in answer, said to Laban, My fear was that you might take your daughters from me by force.

³²As for your gods, if anyone of us has them, let him be put to death: make search before us all for what is yours, and take it. For Jacob had no knowledge that Rachel had taken them.

³³So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent, and into the tents of the two servant-women, but they were not there; and he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's.

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the images, and had put them in the camels' basket, and was seated on them. And Laban, searching through all the tent, did not come across them.

³⁵And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry because I do not get up before you, for I am in the common condition of women. And with all his searching, he did not come across the images.

³⁶Then Jacob was angry with Laban, and said, What crime or sin have I done that you have come after me with such passion?

³⁷Now that you have made search through all my goods, what have you seen which is yours? Make it clear now before my people and your people, so that they may be judges between us.

³⁸These twenty years I have been with you; your sheep and your goats have had young without loss, not one of your he-goats have I taken for food.

³⁹Anything which was wounded by beasts I did not take to you, but myself made up for the loss of it; you made me responsible for whatever was taken by thieves, by day or by night.

⁴⁰This was my condition, wasted by heat in the day and by the bitter cold at night; and sleep went from my eyes.

⁴¹These twenty years I have been in your house; I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters, and for six years I kept your flock, and ten times was my payment changed.

⁴²If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away with nothing in my hands. But God has seen my troubles and the work of my hands, and this night he kept you back.

⁴³Then Laban, answering, said, These women are my daughters and these children my children, the flocks and all you see are mine: what now may I do for my daughters and for their children?

⁴⁴Come, let us make an agreement, you and I; and let it be for a witness between us.

⁴⁵Then Jacob took a stone and put it up as a pillar.

⁴⁶And Jacob said to his people, Get stones together; and they did so; and they had a meal there by the stones.

⁴⁷And the name Laban gave it was Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob gave it the name of Galeed.

⁴⁸And Laban said, These stones are a witness between you and me today. For this reason its name was Galeed,

⁴⁹And Mizpah, for he said, May the Lord keep watch on us when we are unable to see one another's doings.

⁵⁰If you are cruel to my daughters, or if you take other wives in addition to my daughters, then though no man is there to see, God will be the witness between us.

⁵¹And Laban said, See these stones and this pillar which I have put between you and me;

⁵²They will be witness that I will not go over these stones to you, and you will not go over these stones or this pillar to me, for any evil purpose.

⁵³May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, be our judge. Then Jacob took an oath by the Fear of his father Isaac.

⁵⁴And Jacob made an offering on the mountain, and gave orders to his people to take food: so they had a meal and took their rest that night on the mountain.

⁵⁵And early in the morning Laban, after kissing and blessing his daughters, went on his way back to his country.

32And on his way Jacob came face to face with the angels of God.

²And when he saw them he said, This is the army of God: so he gave that place the name of Mahanaim.

³Now Jacob sent servants before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom;

⁴And he gave them orders to say these words to Esau: Your servant Jacob says, Till now I have been living with Laban:

⁵And I have oxen and asses and flocks and men-servants and women-servants: and I have sent to give my lord news of these things so that I may have grace in his eyes.

⁶When the servants came back they said, We have seen your brother Esau and he is coming out to you, and four hundred men with him.

⁷Then Jacob was in great fear and trouble of mind: and he put all the people and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two groups;

⁸And said, If Esau, meeting one group, makes an attack on them, the others will get away safely.

⁹Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, Go back to your country and your family and I will be good to you:

¹⁰I am less than nothing in comparison with all your mercies and your faith to me your servant; for with only my stick in my hand I went across Jordan, and now I have become two armies.

¹¹Be my saviour from the hand of Esau, my brother: for my fear is that he will make an attack on me, putting to death mother and child.

¹²And you said, Truly, I will be good to you, and make your seed like the sand of the sea which may not be numbered.

¹³Then he put up his tent there for the night; and from among his goods he took, as an offering for his brother Esau,

¹⁴Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred females and twenty males from the sheep,

¹⁵Thirty camels with their young ones, forty cows, ten oxen, twenty asses, and ten young asses.

¹⁶These he gave to his servants, every herd by itself, and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and let there be a space between one herd and another.

¹⁷And he gave orders to the first, saying, When my brother Esau comes to you and says, Whose servant are you, and where are you going, and whose are these herds?

¹⁸Then say to him, These are your servant Jacob's; they are an offering for my lord, for Esau; and he himself is coming after us.

¹⁹And he gave the same orders to the second and the third and to all those who were with the herds, saying, This is what you are to say to Esau when you see him;

²⁰And you are to say further, Jacob, your servant, is coming after us. For he said to himself, I will take away his wrath by the offering which I have sent on, and then I will come before him: it may be that I will have grace in his eyes.

²¹So the servants with the offerings went on in front, and he himself took his rest that night in the tents with his people.

²²And in the night he got up, and taking with him his two wives and the two servant-women and his eleven children, he went over the river Jabbok.

²³He took them and sent them over the stream with all he had.

²⁴Then Jacob was by himself; and a man was fighting with him till dawn.

²⁵But when the man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob, he gave him a blow in the hollow part of his leg, so that his leg was damaged.

²⁶And he said to him, Let me go now, for the dawn is near. But Jacob said, I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing.

²⁷Then he said, What is your name? And he said, Jacob.

²⁸And he said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel: for in your fight with God and with men you have overcome.

²⁹Then Jacob said, What is your name? And he said, What is my name to you? Then he gave him a blessing.

³⁰And Jacob gave that place the name of Peniel, saying, I have seen God face to face, and still I am living.

³¹And while he was going past Peniel, the sun came up. And he went with unequal steps because of his damaged leg.

³²For this reason the children of Israel, even today, never take that muscle in the hollow of the leg as food, because the hollow of Jacob's leg was touched.

33Then Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. So he made a division of the children between Leah and Rachel and the two women-servants.

²He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph at the back.

³And he himself, going before them, went down on his face to the earth seven times till he came near his brother.

⁴Then Esau came running up to him, and folding him in his arms, gave him a kiss: and the two of them were overcome with weeping.

⁵Then Esau, lifting up his eyes, saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The children whom God in his mercy has given to your servant.

⁶Then the servants and their children came near, and went down on their faces.

⁷And Leah came near with her children, and then Joseph and Rachel, and they did the same.

⁸And he said, What were all those herds which I saw on the way? And Jacob said, They were an offering so that I might have grace in my lord's eyes.

⁹But Esau said, I have enough; keep what is yours, my brother, for yourself.

¹⁰And Jacob said, Not so; but if I have grace in your eyes, take them as a sign of my love, for I have seen your face as one may see the face of God, and you have been pleased with me.

¹¹Take my offering then, with my blessing; for God has been very good to me and I have enough: so at his strong request, he took it.

¹²And he said, Let us go on our journey together, and I will go in front.

¹³But Jacob said, My lord may see that the children are only small, and there are young ones in my flocks and herds: one day's over-driving will be the destruction of all the flock.

¹⁴Do you, my lord, go on before your servant; I will come on slowly, at the rate at which the cattle and the children are able to go, till I come to my lord at Seir.

¹⁵And Esau said, Then keep some of my men with you. And he said, What need is there for that, if my lord is pleased with me?

¹⁶So Esau, turning back that day, went on his way to Seir.

¹⁷And Jacob went on to Succoth, where he made a house for himself and put up tents for his cattle: for this reason the place was named Succoth.

¹⁸So Jacob came safely from Paddan-aram to the town of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and put up his tents near the town.

¹⁹And for a hundred bits of money he got from the children of Hamor, the builder of Shechem, the field in which he had put up his tents.

²⁰And there he put up an altar, naming it El, the God of Israel.

34Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had by Jacob, went out to see the women of that country.

²And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had connection with her.

³Then his heart went out in love to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he said comforting words to her.

⁴And Shechem said to Hamor, his father, Get me this girl for my wife.

⁵Now Jacob had word of what Shechem had done to his daughter; but his sons were in the fields with the cattle, and Jacob said nothing till they came.

⁶Then Hamor, the father of Shechem, came out to have a talk with Jacob.

⁷Now the sons of Jacob came in from the fields when they had news of it, and they were wounded and very angry because of the shame he had done in Israel by having connection with Jacob's daughter; and they said, Such a thing is not to be done.

⁸But Hamor said to them, Shechem, my son, is full of desire for your daughter: will you then give her to him for a wife?

⁹And let our two peoples be joined together; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰Go on living with us, and the country will be open to you; do trade and get property there.

¹¹And Shechem said to her father and her brothers, If you will give ear to my request, whatever you say I will give to you.

¹²However great you make the bride-price and payment, I will give it; only let me have the girl for my wife.

¹³But the sons of Jacob gave a false answer to Shechem and Hamor his father, because of what had been done to Dinah their sister.

¹⁴And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause of shame to us:

¹⁵But on this condition only will we come to an agreement with you: if every male among you becomes like us and undergoes circumcision;

¹⁶Then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to us and go on living with you as one people.

¹⁷But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go.

¹⁸And their words were pleasing to Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹And without loss of time the young man did as they said, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the noblest of his father's house.

²⁰Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-place of their town, and said to the men of the town,

²¹It is the desire of these men to be at peace with us; let them then go on living in this country and doing trade here, for the country is wide open before them; let us take their daughters as wives and let us give them our daughters.

²²But these men will make an agreement with us to go on living with us and to become one people, only on the condition that every male among us undergoes circumcision as they have done.

²³Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so that they may go on living with us.

²⁴Then all the men of the town gave ear to the words of Hamor and Shechem his son; and every male in the town underwent circumcision.

²⁵But on the third day after, before the wounds were well, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came into the town by surprise and put all the males to death.

²⁶And Hamor and his son they put to death with the sword, and they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went away.

²⁷And the sons of Jacob came on them when they were wounded and made waste the town because of what had been done to their sister;

²⁸They took their flocks and their herds and their asses and everything in their town and in their fields,

²⁹And all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives; everything in their houses they took and made them waste.

³⁰And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have made trouble for me and given me a bad name among the people of this country, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and because we are small in number they will come together against me and make war on me; and it will be the end of me and all my people.

³¹But they said, Were we to let him make use of our sister as a loose woman?

35And God said to Jacob, Go up now to Beth-el and make your living-place there: and put up an altar there to the God who came to you when you were in flight from your brother Esau.

²Then Jacob said to all his people, Put away the strange gods which are among you, and make yourselves clean, and put on a change of clothing:

³And let us go up to Beth-el: and there I will make an altar to God, who gave me an answer in the day of my trouble, and was with me wherever I went.

⁴Then they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which they had, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob put them away under the holy tree at Shechem.

⁵So they went on their journey: and the fear of God was on the towns round about, so that they made no attack on the sons of Jacob.

⁶And Jacob came to Luz in the land of Canaan (which is the same as Beth-el), he and all his people.

⁷And there he made an altar, naming the place El-beth-el: because it was there he had the vision of God when he was in flight from his brother.

⁸And Deborah, the servant who had taken care of Rebekah from her birth, came to her end, and was put to rest near Beth-el, under the holy tree: and they gave it the name of Allon-bacuth.

⁹Now when Jacob was on his way from Paddan-aram, God came to him again and, blessing him, said,

¹⁰Jacob is your name, but it will be so no longer; from now your name will be Israel; so he was named Israel.

¹¹And God said to him, I am God, the Ruler of all: be fertile, and have increase; a nation, truly a group of nations, will come from you, and kings will be your offspring;

¹²And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you; and to your seed after you I will give the land.

¹³Then God went up from him in the place where he had been talking with him.

¹⁴And Jacob put up a pillar in the place where he had been talking with God, and put a drink offering on it, and oil.

¹⁵And he gave to the place where God had been talking with him, the name of Beth-el.

¹⁶So they went on from Beth-el; and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, the pains of birth came on Rachel and she had a hard time.

¹⁷And when her pain was very great, the woman who was helping her said, Have no fear; for now you will have another son.

¹⁸And in the hour when her life went from her (for death came to her), she gave the child the name Ben-oni: but his father gave him the name of Benjamin.

¹⁹So Rachel came to her end and was put to rest on the road to Ephrath (which is Beth-lehem).

²⁰And Jacob put up a pillar on her resting-place; which is named, The Pillar of the resting-place of Rachel, to this day.

²¹And Israel went journeying on and put up his tents on the other side of the tower of the flock.

²²Now while they were living in that country, Reuben had connection with Bilhah, his father's servant-woman: and Israel had news of it.

²³Now Jacob had twelve sons: the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first son, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun;

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;

²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali;

²⁶The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher; these are the sons whom Jacob had in Paddan-aram.

²⁷And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had been living.

²⁸And Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old.

²⁹Then Isaac came to his end and was put to rest with his father's people, an old man after a long life: and Jacob and Esau, his sons, put him in his last resting-place.

36Now 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.

37Now 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.

38Now 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.

39Now 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.

40Now after these things the chief servant who had the care of the wine, and the chief bread-maker in Pharaoh's house, did something against Pharaoh's orders;

²And Pharaoh was angry with his two servants, with the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker;

³And he put them in prison under the care of the captain of the army, in the same prison where Joseph himself was shut up.

⁴And the captain put them in Joseph's care, and he did what was needed for them; and they were kept in prison for some time.

⁵And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt, who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a special sense.

⁶And in the morning when Joseph came to them he saw that they were looking sad.

⁷And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

⁸Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream?

⁹Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me;

¹⁰And on the vine were three branches; and it seemed as if it put out buds and flowers, and from them came grapes ready for cutting.

¹¹And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and crushing them into Pharaoh's cup, gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

¹²Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three branches are three days;

¹³After three days Pharaoh will give you honour, and put you back into your place, and you will give him his cup as you did before, when you were his wine-servant.

¹⁴But keep me in mind when things go well for you, and be good to me and say a good word for me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison:

¹⁵For truly I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put in prison.

¹⁶Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream; and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on my head;

¹⁷And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets on my head.

¹⁸Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three baskets are three days;

¹⁹After three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison, hanging you on a tree, so that your flesh will be food for birds.

²⁰Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his servants; and he gave honour to the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker among the others.

²¹And he put the chief wine-servant back in his old place; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.

²²But the chief bread-maker was put to death by hanging, as Joseph had said.

²³But the wine-servant did not keep Joseph in mind or give a thought to him.

41Now after two years had gone by, Pharaoh had a dream; and in his dream he was by the side of the Nile;

²And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and fat, and their food was the river-grass.

³And after them seven other cows came out of the Nile, poor-looking and thin; and they were by the side of the other cows.

⁴And the seven thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows. Then Pharaoh came out of his sleep.

⁵But he went to sleep again and had a second dream, in which he saw seven heads of grain, full and good, all on one stem.

⁶And after them came up seven other heads, thin and wasted by the east wind.

⁷And the seven thin heads made a meal of the good heads. And when Pharaoh was awake he saw it was a dream.

⁸And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the sense of it.

⁹Then the chief wine-servant said to Pharaoh, The memory of my sin comes back to me now;

¹⁰Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and had put me in prison in the house of the captain of the army, together with the chief bread-maker;

¹¹And we had a dream on the same night, the two of us, and the dreams had a special sense.

¹²And there was with us a young Hebrew, the captain's servant, and when we put our dreams before him, he gave us the sense of them.

¹³And it came about as he said: I was put back in my place, and the bread-maker was put to death by hanging.

¹⁴Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his dress changed, he came before Pharaoh.

¹⁵And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is put before you.

¹⁶Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer of peace for Pharaoh.

¹⁷Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the Nile:

¹⁸And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-looking, and their food was the river-grass;

¹⁹Then after them came seven other cows, very thin and poor-looking, worse than any I ever saw in the land of Egypt;

²⁰And the thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows who came up first;

²¹And even with the fat cows inside them they seemed as bad as before. And so I came out of my sleep.

²²And again in a dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stem:

²³And then I saw seven other heads, dry, thin, and wasted by the east wind, coming up after them:

²⁴And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one of them was able to give me the sense of it.

²⁵Then Joseph said, These two dreams have the same sense: God has made clear to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

²⁶The seven fat cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years: the two have the same sense.

²⁷The seven thin and poor-looking cows who came up after them are seven years; and the seven heads of grain, dry and wasted by the east wind, are seven years when there will be no food.

²⁸As I said to Pharaoh before, God has made clear to him what he is about to do.

²⁹Seven years are coming in which there will be great wealth of grain in Egypt;

³⁰And after that will come seven years when there will not be enough food; and the memory of the good years will go from men's minds; and the land will be made waste by the bad years;

³¹And men will have no memory of the good time because of the need which will come after, for it will be very bitter.

³²And this dream came to Pharaoh twice, because this thing is certain, and God will quickly make it come about.

³³And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of Egypt.

³⁴Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the land in the good years.

³⁵And let them get together all the food in those good years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for the use of the towns, and let them keep it.

³⁶And let that food be kept in store for the land till the seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land may not come to destruction through need of food.

³⁷And this seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.

³⁸Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?

³⁹And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom and good sense as you:

⁴⁰You, then, are to be over my house, and all my people will be ruled by your word: only as king will I be greater than you.

⁴¹And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt.

⁴²Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen, and put a chain of gold round his neck;

⁴³And he made him take his seat in the second of his carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁵And Pharaoh gave Joseph the name of Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, the priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph went through all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁷Now in the seven good years the earth gave fruit in masses.

⁴⁸And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years, and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the fields round every town was stored up in the town.

⁴⁹So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it, for it might not be measured.

⁵⁰And before the time of need, Joseph had two sons, to whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, gave birth.

⁵¹And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said, God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and of my father's house.

⁵²And to the second he gave the name Ephraim, for he said, God has given me fruit in the land of my sorrow.

⁵³And so the seven good years in Egypt came to an end.

⁵⁴Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but in the land of Egypt there was bread.

⁵⁵And when all the land of Egypt was in need of food, the people came crying to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to the people, Go to Joseph, and whatever he says to you, do it.

⁵⁶And everywhere on the earth they were short of food; then Joseph, opening all his store-houses, gave the people of Egypt grain for money; so great was the need of food in the land of Egypt.

⁵⁷And all lands sent to Egypt, to Joseph, to get grain, for the need was great over all the earth.

42Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another?

²And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt: go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death may be ours.

³So Joseph's ten brothers went down to get grain from Egypt.

⁴But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with them, for fear, as he said, that some evil might come to him.

⁵And the sons of Israel came with all the others to get grain: for they were very short of food in the land of Canaan.

⁶Now Joseph was ruler over all the land, and it was he who gave out the grain to all the people of the land; and Joseph's brothers came before him and went down on their faces to the earth.

⁷And when Joseph saw his brothers, it was clear to him who they were, but he made himself strange to them, and talking roughly to them, said, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to get food.

⁸Now though Joseph saw that these were his brothers, they had no idea who he was.

⁹Then the memory of his dreams about them came back to Joseph, and he said to them, You have come secretly to see how poor the land is.

¹⁰And they said to him, Not so, my lord: your servants have come with money to get food.

¹¹We are all one man's sons, we are true men; we have not come with any secret purpose.

¹²And he said to them, No, but you have come to see how poor the land is.

¹³Then they said, We your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest of us is now with our father, and one is dead.

¹⁴And Joseph said, It is as I said; you have come with some secret purpose;

¹⁵But in this way will you be put to the test: by the life of Pharaoh, you will not go away from this place till your youngest brother comes here.

¹⁶Send one of your number to get your brother, and the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are true; if not, by the life of Pharaoh, your purpose is certainly secret.

¹⁷So he put them in prison for three days.

¹⁸And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, if you would keep your lives: for I am a god-fearing man:

¹⁹If you are true men, let one of you be kept in prison, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;

²⁰And come back to me with your youngest brother, so that your words may be seen to be true, and you will not be put to death. This is what you are to do.

²¹And they said to one another, Truly, we did wrong to our brother, for we saw his grief of mind, and we did not give ear to his prayers; that is why this trouble has come on us.

²²And Reuben said to them, Did I not say to you, Do the child no wrong? but you gave no attention; so now, punishment has come on us for his blood.

²³They were not conscious that the sense of their words was clear to Joseph, for he had been talking to them through one who had knowledge of their language.

²⁴And turning away from them, he was overcome with weeping; then he went on talking to them again and took Simeon and put chains on him before their eyes.

²⁵Then Joseph gave orders for their bags to be made full of grain, and for every man's money to be put back into his bag, and for food to be given them for the journey: which was done.

²⁶Then they put the bags of grain on their asses and went away.

²⁷Now at their night's resting-place one of them, opening his bag to give his ass some food, saw his money in the mouth of the bag.

²⁸And he said to his brothers, My money has been given back: it is in my bag; then their hearts became full of fear, and turning to one another they said, What is this which God has done to us?

²⁹So when they came to Jacob their father, in the land of Canaan, they gave him an account of all their experiences, saying,

³⁰The man who is the ruler of the country was rough with us and put us in prison, saying that we had come with a secret evil purpose.

³¹And we said to him, We are true men, we have no evil designs;

³²We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is dead, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan.

³³And the ruler of the land said, In this way I may be certain that you are true men; let one of you be kept here with me, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families;

³⁴And come back to me with your youngest brother: then I will be certain that you are true men, and I will give your brother back to you and let you do trade in the land.

³⁵And when they took the grain out of their bags, it was seen that every man's parcel of money was in his bag; and when they and their father saw the money, they were full of fear.

³⁶And Jacob their father said to them, You have taken my children from me: Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone, and now you would take Benjamin away; all these things have come on me.

³⁷And Reuben said, Put my two sons to death if I do not come back to you with him; let him be in my care and I will give him safely back to you.

³⁸And he said, I will not let my son go down with you; for his brother is dead and he is all I have: if evil overtakes him on the journey, then through you will my grey head go down to the underworld in sorrow.

43Now the land was in bitter need of food.

²And when the grain which they had got in Egypt was all used up, their father said to them, Go again and get us a little food.

³And Judah said to him, The man said to us with an oath, You are not to come before me again without your brother.

⁴If you will let our brother go with us, we will go down and get food:

⁵But if you will not send him, we will not go down: for the man said to us, You are not to come before me if your brother is not with you.

⁶And Israel said, Why were you so cruel to me as to say to him that you had a brother?

⁷And they said, The man put a number of questions to us about ourselves and our family, saying, Is your father still living? have you another brother? And we had to give him answers; how were we to have any idea that he would say, Come back with your brother?

⁸Then Judah said to Israel, his father, Send the boy with me, and let us be up and going, so that we and you and our little ones may not come to destruction.

⁹Put him into my care and make me responsible for him: if I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the sin for ever.

¹⁰Truly, if we had not let the time go by, we might have come back again by now.

¹¹Then their father Israel said to them, If it has to be so, then do this: take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels to give the man, perfumes and honey and spices and nuts:

¹²And take twice as much money with you; that is to say, take back the money which was put in your bags, for it may have been an error;

¹³And take your brother and go back to the man:

¹⁴And may God, the Ruler of all, give you mercy before the man, so that he may give you back your other brother and Benjamin. If my children are to be taken from me; there is no help for it.

¹⁵So they took what their father said for the man, and twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph.

¹⁶And when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said to his chief servant, Take these men into my house, and make ready a meal, for they will take food with me in the middle of the day.

¹⁷And the servant did as Joseph said, and took the men into Joseph's house.

¹⁸Now the men were full of fear because they had been taken into Joseph's house and they said, It is because of the money which was put back in our bags the first time; he is looking for something against us, so that he may come down on us and take us and our asses for his use.

¹⁹So they went up to Joseph's chief servant at the door of the house,

²⁰And said, O my lord, we only came down the first time to get food;

²¹And when we came to our night's resting-place, on opening our bags we saw that every man's money was in the mouth of his bag, all our money in full weight: and we have it with us to give it back;

²²As well as more money, with which to get food: we have no idea who put our money in our bags.

²³Then the servant said, Peace be with you: have no fear: your God, even the God of your father, has put wealth in your bags for you: I had your money. Then he let Simeon come out to them.

²⁴And the servant took them into Joseph's house, and gave them water for washing their feet; and he gave their asses food.

²⁵And they got ready the things for Joseph before he came in the middle of the day: for word was given to them that they were to have a meal there.

²⁶And when Joseph came in, they gave him the things which they had for him, and went down to the earth before him.

²⁷And he said, How are you? is your father well, the old man of whom you were talking to me? is he still living?

²⁸And they said, Your servant, our father, is well, he is still living. And they went down on their faces before him.

²⁹Then, lifting up his eyes, he saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother's son, and he said, Is this your youngest brother of whom you gave me word? And he said, God be good to you, my son.

³⁰Then Joseph's heart went out to his brother, and he went quickly into his room, for he was overcome with weeping.

³¹Then, after washing his face, he came out, and controlling his feelings said, Put food before us.

³²And they put a meal ready for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians who were with him by themselves; because the Egyptians may not take food with the Hebrews, for that would make them unclean.

³³And they were all given their seats before him in order of birth, from the oldest to the youngest: so that they were looking at one another in wonder.

³⁴And Joseph sent food to them from his table, but he sent five times as much to Benjamin as to any of the others. And they took wine freely with him.

44Then he gave orders to the servant who was over his house, saying, Put as much food into the men's bags as will go into them, and put every man's money in the mouth of his bag;

²And put my cup, my silver cup, in the youngest one's bag, with his money. So he did as Joseph said.

³And at dawn the men, with their asses, were sent away.

⁴And when they had gone only a little way out of the town, Joseph said to the servant who was over his house, Go after them; and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you done evil in reward for good?

⁵Is not this the cup from which my lord takes wine and by which he gets knowledge of the future? Truly, you have done evil.

⁶So he overtook them and said these words to them.

⁷And they said to him, Why does my lord say such words as these? far be it from your servants to do such a thing:

⁸See, the money which was in the mouth of our bags we gave back to you when we came again from Canaan: how then might we take silver or gold from your lord's house?

⁹If it comes to light that any of your servants has done this, let him be put to death, and we will be your lord's servants.

¹⁰And he said, Let it be as you say: he in whose bag it is seen will become my servant; and you will not be responsible.

¹¹Then every man quickly got his bag down and undid it.

¹²And he made a search, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the cup was in Benjamin's bag.

¹³Then in bitter grief they put the bags on the asses again and went back to the town.

¹⁴So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house; and he was still there: and they went down on their faces before him.

¹⁵And Joseph said, What is this thing which you have done? had you no thought that such a man as I would have power to see what is secret?

¹⁶And Judah said, What are we to say to my lord? how may we put ourselves right in his eyes? God has made clear the sin of your servants: now we are in your hands, we and the man in whose bag your cup was seen.

¹⁷Then he said, Far be it from me to do so: but the man who had my cup will be my servant; and you may go back to your father in peace.

¹⁸Then Judah came near him, and said, Let your servant say a word in my lord's ears, and let not your wrath be burning against your servant: for you are in the place of Pharaoh to us.

¹⁹My lord said to his servants, Have you a father or a brother?

²⁰And we said to my lord, We have an old father and a young child, whom he had when he was old; his brother is dead and he is the only son of his mother, and is very dear to his father.

²¹And you said to your servants, Let him come down to me with you, so that I may see him.

²²And we said to my lord, His father will not let him go; for if he went away his father would come to his death.

²³But you said to your servants, If your youngest brother does not come with you, you will not see my face again.

²⁴And when we went back to your servant, our father, we gave him an account of my lord's words.

²⁵And our father said, Go again and get us a little food.

²⁶And we said, Only if our youngest brother goes with us will we go down; for we may not see the man's face again if our youngest brother is not with us.

²⁷And our father said to us, You have knowledge that my wife gave me two sons;

²⁸The one went away from me, and I said, Truly he has come to a violent death; and from that time I have not seen him,

²⁹If now you take this one from me, and some evil comes to him, you will make my grey head go down in sorrow to the underworld.

³⁰If then I go back to your servant, my father, without the boy, because his life and the boy's life are one,

³¹When he sees that the boy is not with us, he will come to his death, and our father's grey head will go down in sorrow to the underworld.

³²For I made myself responsible for the boy to my father, saying, If I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the sin for ever.

³³So now let me be my lord's servant here in place of the boy, and let him go back with his brothers.

³⁴For how may I go back to my father without the boy, and see the evil which will come on my father?

45Then Joseph, unable to keep back his feelings before those who were with him, gave orders for everyone to be sent away, and no one was present when he made clear to his brothers who he was.

²And so loud was his weeping, that it came to the ears of the Egyptians and all Pharaoh's house.

³And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph: is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to give him an answer for they were troubled before him.

⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me. And they came near, And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sent into Egypt.

⁵Now do not be troubled or angry with yourselves for sending me away, because God sent me before you to be the saviour of your lives.

⁶For these two years have been years of need, and there are still five more years to come in which there will be no ploughing or cutting of grain.

⁷God sent me before you to keep you and yours living on earth so that you might become a great nation.

⁸So now it was not you who sent me here, but God: and he has made me as a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹Now go quickly to my father, and say to him, Your son Joseph says, God has made me ruler over all the land of Egypt: come down to me straight away:

¹⁰The land of Goshen will be your living-place, and you will be near me; you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks and herds and all you have:

¹¹And there I will take care of you, so that you and your family may not be in need, for there are still five bad years to come.

¹²Now truly, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which says these things to you.

¹³Give my father word of all my glory in Egypt and of all you have seen; and come back quickly with my father.

¹⁴Then, weeping, he took Benjamin in his arms, and Benjamin himself was weeping on Joseph's neck.

¹⁵Then he gave a kiss to all his brothers, weeping over them; and after that his brothers had no fear of talking to him.

¹⁶And news of these things went through Pharaoh's house, and it was said that Joseph's brothers were come; and it seemed good to Pharaoh and his servants.

¹⁷And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Put your goods on your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan;

¹⁸And get your father and your families and come back to me: and I will give you all the good things of Egypt, and the fat of the land will be your food.

¹⁹And say to them, This you are to do: take carts from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and get your father and come back.

²⁰And take no thought for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.

²¹And the children of Israel did as he said; and Joseph gave them carts as had been ordered by Pharaoh, and food for their journey.

²²To every one of them he gave three changes of clothing; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred bits of silver and five changes of clothing.

²³And to his father he sent ten asses with good things from Egypt on their backs, and ten she-asses with grain and bread and food for his father on the journey.

²⁴And he sent his brothers on their way, and said to them, See that you have no argument on the road.

²⁵So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob.

²⁶And they said to him, Joseph is living, and is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And at this word Jacob was quite overcome, for he had no faith in it.

²⁷And they gave him an account of everything Joseph had said to them; and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent for them, his spirit came back to him:

²⁸And Israel said, It is enough: Joseph my son is still living; I will go and see him before my death.

46And Israel went on his journey with all he had, and came to Beer-sheba, where he made offerings to the God of his father Isaac.

²And God said to Israel in a night-vision, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.

³And he said, I am God, the God of your father: go down to Egypt without fear, for I will make a great nation of you there:

⁴I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will see that you come back again, and at your death Joseph will put his hands on your eyes.

⁵Then Jacob went on from Beer-sheba; and the sons of Jacob took their father and their little ones and their wives in the carts which Pharaoh had sent for them.

⁶And they took their cattle and all the goods which they had got in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, even Jacob and all his seed:

⁷His sons and his sons' sons, his daughters and his daughters' sons and all his family he took with him into Egypt.

⁸And these are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt, even Jacob and all his sons: Reuben, Jacob's oldest son;

⁹And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi;

¹⁰And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of Canaan;

¹¹And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari;

¹²And the sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah: but Er and Onan had come to their death in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

¹³And the sons of Issachar: Tola and Puah and Job and Shimron;

¹⁴And the sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel;

¹⁵All these, together with his daughter Dinah, were the children of Leah, whom Jacob had by her in Paddan-aram; they were thirty-three in number.

¹⁶And the sons of Gad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi and Areli;

¹⁷And the sons of Asher: Jimnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah, and Sarah, their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah, and Jacob had these sixteen children by her.

¹⁹The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰And Joseph had Manasseh and Ephraim in the land of Egypt, by Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On.

²¹And the sons of Benjamin were Belah and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard.

²²All these were the children of Rachel whom Jacob had by her, fourteen persons.

²³And the son of Dan was Hushim.

²⁴And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and Shillem.

²⁵These were the children of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, seven persons.

²⁶All the persons who came with Jacob into Egypt, the offspring of his body, were sixty-six, without taking into account the wives of Jacob's sons.

²⁷And the sons of Joseph whom he had in Egypt were two. Seventy persons of the family of Jacob came into Egypt.

²⁸Now he had sent Judah before him to Goshen, to get word from Joseph; and so they came to the land of Goshen.

²⁹And Joseph got his carriage ready and went to Goshen for the meeting with his father; and when he came before him, he put his arms round his neck, weeping.

³⁰And Israel said to Joseph, Now that I have seen you living again, I am ready for death.

³¹And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's people, I will go and give the news to Pharaoh, and say to him, My brothers and my father's people, from the land of Canaan, have come to me;

³²And these men are keepers of sheep and owners of cattle, and have with them their flocks and their herds and all they have.

³³Now when Pharaoh sends for you and says, What is your business?

³⁴You are to say, Your servants have been keepers of cattle from our early days up to now, like our fathers; in this way you will be able to have the land of Goshen for yourselves; because keepers of sheep are unclean in the eyes of the Egyptians.

47Then Joseph went to Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers with their flocks and their herds and all they have, are come from Canaan, and are now in the land of Goshen.

²And he took five of his brothers to Pharaoh.

³And Pharaoh said to them, What is your business? And they said, Your servants are keepers of sheep, as our fathers were before us.

⁴And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to make a living in this land, because we have no grass for our flocks in the land of Canaan; so now let your servants make a place for themselves in the land of Goshen.

⁵And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Let them have the land of Goshen; and if there are any able men among them, put them over my cattle.

⁶And Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and when word of it came to the ears of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he said to Joseph, Your father and brothers have come to you; all the land of Egypt is before you; let your father and your brothers have the best of the land for their resting-place.

⁷Then Joseph made his father Jacob come before Pharaoh, and Jacob gave him his blessing.

⁸And Pharaoh said to him, How old are you?

⁹And Jacob said, The years of my wanderings have been a hundred and thirty; small in number and full of sorrow have been the years of my life, and less than the years of the wanderings of my fathers.

¹⁰And Jacob gave Pharaoh his blessing, and went out from before him.

¹¹And Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers, and gave them a heritage in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had given orders.

¹²And Joseph took care of his father and his brothers and all his father's people, giving them food for the needs of their families.

¹³Now there was no food to be had in all the land, so that all Egypt and Canaan were wasted from need of food.

¹⁴And all the money in Egypt and in the land of Canaan which had been given for grain, came into the hands of Joseph: and he put it in Pharaoh's house.

¹⁵And when all the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone, the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, Give us bread; would you have us come to destruction before your eyes? for we have no more money.

¹⁶And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; I will give you grain in exchange for your cattle if your money is all gone.

¹⁷So they took their cattle to Joseph and he gave them bread in exchange for their horses and flocks and herds and asses, so all that year he gave them food in exchange for their cattle.

¹⁸And when that year was ended, they came to him in the second year, and said, We may not keep it from our lord's knowledge that all our money is gone, and all the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nothing more to give my lord but our bodies and our land;

¹⁹Are we to come to destruction before your eyes, we and our land? take us and our land and give us bread; and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh; and give us seed so that we may have life and the land may not become waste.

²⁰So Joseph got all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh; for every Egyptian gave up his land in exchange for food, because of their great need; so all the land became Pharaoh's.

²¹And as for the people, he made servants of them, town by town, from one end of Egypt to the other.

²²Only he did not take the land of the priests, for the priests had their food given them by Pharaoh, and having what Pharaoh gave them, they had no need to give up their land.

²³Then Joseph said to the people, I have made you and your land this day the property of Pharaoh; here is seed for you to put in your fields.

²⁴And when the grain is cut, you are to give a fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts will be yours for seed and food, and for your families and your little ones.

²⁵And they said to him, Truly you have kept us from death; may we have grace in your eyes, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

²⁶Then Joseph made a law which is in force to this day, that Pharaoh was to have the fifth part; only the land of the priests did not become his.

²⁷And so Israel was living among the Egyptians in the land of Goshen; and they got property there, and became very great in numbers and in wealth.

²⁸And Jacob was living in the land of Goshen for seventeen years; so the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven.

²⁹And the time of his death came near, and he sent for his son Joseph and said to him, If now I am dear to you, put your hand under my leg and take an oath that you will not put me to rest in Egypt;

³⁰But when I go to my fathers, you are to take me out of Egypt and put me to rest in their last resting-place. And he said, I will do so.

³¹And he said, Take an oath to me; and he took an oath to him: and Israel gave worship on the bed's head.

48Now after these things, word came to Joseph that his father was ill: and he took with him his sons Manasseh and Ephraim.

²And when they said to Jacob, Your son Joseph is coming to see you: then Israel, getting all his strength together, had himself lifted up in his bed.

³And Jacob said to Joseph, God, the Ruler of all, came to me in a vision at Luz in the land of Canaan, and gave me his blessing,

⁴And said to me, Truly, I will make you fertile and give you increase and will make of you a great family of nations: and I will give this land to your seed after you to be their heritage for ever.

⁵And now your two sons who came to birth in Egypt before I came to you here, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, in the same way as Reuben and Simeon are.

⁶And any other offspring which you have after them, will be yours, and will be named after their brothers in their heritage.

⁷And as for me, when I came from Paddan, death overtook Rachel on the way, when we were still some distance from Ephrath; and I put her to rest there on the road to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.

⁸Then Israel, looking at Joseph's sons, said, Who are these?

⁹And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has given me in this land. And he said, Let them come near me, and I will give them a blessing.

¹⁰Now because Israel was old, his eyes were no longer clear, and he was not able to see. So he made them come near to him, and he gave them a kiss, folding them in his arms.

¹¹And Israel said to Joseph, I had no hope of seeing your face again, but God in his mercy has let me see you and your children.

¹²Then Joseph took them from between his knees, and went down on his face to the earth.

¹³Then taking Ephraim with his right hand, Joseph put him at Israel's left side, and with his left hand he put Manasseh at Israel's right side, placing them near him.

¹⁴And Israel, stretching out his right hand, put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands on purpose, for Manasseh was the older.

¹⁵And he gave Joseph a blessing, saying, May the God to whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, gave worship, the God who has taken care of me all my life till this day,

¹⁶The angel who has been my saviour from all evil, send his blessing on these children: and let my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, be given to them; and let them become a great nation in the earth.

¹⁷Now when Joseph saw that his father had put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it did not seem right to him; and lifting his father's hand he would have put it on the head of Manasseh.

¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the older; put your right hand on his head.

¹⁹But his father would not, saying, I am doing it on purpose, my son; he will certainly become a nation and a great one; but his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a great family of nations.

²⁰So he gave them his blessing that day, saying, You will be the sign of blessing in Israel, for they will say, May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh; and he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, Now my death is near; but God will be with you, guiding you back to the land of your fathers.

²²And I have given you more than your brothers, even Shechem as your heritage, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow.

49And Jacob sent for his sons, and said, Come together, all of you, so that I may give you news of your fate in future times.

²Come near, O sons of Jacob, and give ear to the words of Israel your father.

³Reuben, you are my oldest son, the first-fruit of my strength, first in pride and first in power:

⁴But because you were uncontrolled, the first place will not be yours; for you went up to your father's bed, even his bride-bed, and made it unclean.

⁵Simeon and Levi are brothers; deceit and force are their secret designs.

⁶Take no part in their secrets, O my soul; keep far away, O my heart, from their meetings; for in their wrath they put men to death, and for their pleasure even oxen were wounded.

⁷A curse on their passion for it was bitter; and on their wrath for it was cruel. I will let their heritage in Jacob be broken up, driving them from their places in Israel.

⁸To you, Judah, will your brothers give praise: your hand will be on the neck of your haters; your father's sons will go down to the earth before you.

⁹Judah is a young lion; like a lion full of meat you have become great, my son; now he takes his rest like a lion stretched out and like an old lion; by whom will his sleep be broken?

¹⁰The rod of authority will not be taken from Judah, and he will not be without a law-giver, till he comes who has the right to it, and the peoples will put themselves under his rule.

¹¹Knotting his ass's cord to the vine, and his young ass to the best vine; washing his robe in wine, and his clothing in the blood of grapes:

¹²His eyes will be dark with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

¹³The resting-place of Zebulun will be by the sea, and he will be a harbour for ships; the edge of his land will be by Zidon.

¹⁴Issachar is a strong ass stretched out among the flocks:

¹⁵And he saw that rest was good and the land was pleasing; so he let them put weights on his back and became a servant.

¹⁶Dan will be the judge of his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷May Dan be a snake in the way, a horned snake by the road, biting the horse's foot so that the horseman has a fall.

¹⁸I have been waiting for your salvation, O Lord.

¹⁹Gad, an army will come against him, but he will come down on them in their flight.

²⁰Asher's bread is fat; he gives delicate food for kings.

²¹Naphtali is a roe let loose, giving fair young ones.

²²Joseph is a young ox, whose steps are turned to the fountain;

²³He was troubled by the archers; they sent out their arrows against him, cruelly wounding him:

²⁴But their bows were broken by a strong one, and the cords of their arms were cut by the Strength of Jacob, by the name of the Stone of Israel:

²⁵Even by the God of your father, who will be your help, and by the Ruler of all, who will make you full with blessings from heaven on high, blessings of the deep stretched out under the earth, blessings of the breasts and of the fertile body:

²⁶Blessings of sons, old and young, to the father: blessings of the oldest mountains and the fruit of the eternal hills: let them come on the head of Joseph, on the crown of him who was separate from his brothers.

²⁷Benjamin is a wolf, searching for meat: in the morning he takes his food, and in the evening he makes division of what he has taken.

²⁸These are the twelve tribes of Israel: and these are the words their father said to them, blessing them; to every one he gave his blessing.

²⁹And he gave orders to them, saying, Put me to rest with my people and with my fathers, in the hollow of the rock in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰In the rock in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham got from Ephron the Hittite, to be his resting-place.

³¹There Abraham and Sarah his wife were put to rest, and there they put Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I put Leah to rest.

³²In the rock in the field which was got for a price from the people of Heth.

³³And when Jacob had come to the end of these words to his sons, stretching himself on his bed, he gave up his spirit, and went the way of his people.

50And Joseph put his head down on his father's face, weeping and kissing him.

²And Joseph gave orders to his servants who had the necessary knowledge, to make his father's body ready, folding it in linen with spices, and they did so.

³And the forty days needed for making the body ready went by: and there was weeping for him among the Egyptians for seventy days.

⁴And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph said to the servants of Pharaoh, If now you have love for me, say these words to Pharaoh:

⁵My father made me take an oath, saying, When I am dead, put me to rest in the place I have made ready for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go and put my father in his last resting-place, and I will come back again.

⁶And Pharaoh said, Go up and put your father to rest, as you gave your oath to him.

⁷So Joseph went up to put his father in his last resting-place; and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, and the chief men of his house and all the chiefs of the land of Egypt,

⁸And all the family of Joseph, and his brothers and his father's people: only their little ones and their flocks and herds they did not take with them from the land of Goshen.

⁹And carriages went up with him and horsemen, a great army.

¹⁰And they came to the grain-floor of Atad on the other side of Jordan, and there they gave the last honours to Jacob, with great and bitter sorrow, weeping for their father for seven days.

¹¹And when the people of the land, the people of Canaan, at the grain-floor of Atad, saw their grief, they said, Great is the grief of the Egyptians: so the place was named Abel-mizraim, on the other side of Jordan.

¹²So his sons did as he had given them orders to do:

¹³For they took him into the land of Canaan and put him to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah, which Abraham got with the field, for a resting-place, from Ephron the Hittite at Mamre.

¹⁴And when his father had been put to rest, Joseph and his brothers and all who had gone with him, went back to Egypt.

¹⁵Now after the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said to themselves, It may be that Joseph's heart will be turned against us, and he will give us punishment for all the evil which we did to him.

¹⁶So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father, before his death, gave us orders, saying,

¹⁷You are to say to Joseph, Let the wrongdoing of your brothers be overlooked, and the evil they did to you: now, if it is your pleasure, let the sin of the servants of your father's God have forgiveness. And at these words, Joseph was overcome with weeping.

¹⁸Then his brothers went, and falling at his feet, said, Truly, we are your servants.

¹⁹And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God?

²⁰As for you, it was in your mind to do me evil, but God has given a happy outcome, the salvation of numbers of people, as you see today.

²¹So now, have no fear: for I will take care of you and your little ones. So he gave them comfort with kind words.

²²Now Joseph and all his father's family went on living in Egypt: and the years of Joseph's life were a hundred and ten.

²³And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, came to birth on Joseph's knees.

²⁴Then Joseph said to his brothers, The time of my death has come; but God will keep you in mind and take you out of this land into the land which he gave by his oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

²⁵Then Joseph made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly give effect to his word, and you are to take my bones away from here.

²⁶So Joseph came to his death, being a hundred and ten years old: and they made his body ready, and he was put in a chest in Egypt.

1Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob.

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

⁵All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and Joseph had come to Egypt before them.

⁶Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all that generation.

⁷And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them.

⁸Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no knowledge of Joseph.

⁹And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are:

¹⁰Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land.

¹¹So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.

¹²But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians.

¹³And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do:

¹⁴And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.

¹⁵And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah),

¹⁶When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living.

¹⁷But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living.

¹⁸And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living?

¹⁹And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them.

²⁰And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong.

²¹And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families.

²²And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.

2Now a man of the house of Levi took as his wife a daughter of Levi.

²And she became with child and gave birth to a Son; and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she kept him secretly for three months.

³And when she was no longer able to keep him secret, she made him a basket out of the stems of water-plants, pasting sticky earth over it to keep the water out; and placing the baby in it she put it among the plants by the edge of the Nile.

⁴And his sister took her place at a distance to see what would become of him.

⁵Now Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to take a bath, while her women were walking by the riverside; and she saw the basket among the river-plants, and sent her servant-girl to get it.

⁶And opening it, she saw the child, and he was crying. And she had pity on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children.

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, May I go and get you one of the Hebrew women to give him the breast?

⁸And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and got the child's mother.

⁹And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take the child away and give it milk for me, and I will give you payment. And the woman took the child and gave it milk at her breast.

¹⁰And when the child was older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son, and she gave him the name Moses, Because, she said, I took him out of the water.

¹¹Now when Moses had become a man, one day he went out to his people and saw how hard their work was; and he saw an Egyptian giving blows to a Hebrew, one of his people.

¹²And turning this way and that, and seeing no one, he put the Egyptian to death, covering his body with sand.

¹³And he went out the day after and saw two of the Hebrews fighting: and he said to him who was in the wrong, Why are you fighting your brother?

¹⁴And he said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? are you going to put me to death as you did the Egyptian? And Moses was in fear, and said, It is clear that the thing has come to light.

¹⁵Now when Pharaoh had news of this, he would have put Moses to death. But Moses went in flight from Pharaoh into the land of Midian: and he took his seat by a water-spring.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came to get water for their father's flock.

¹⁷And the keepers of the sheep came up and were driving them away; but Moses got up and came to their help, watering their flock for them.

¹⁸And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that you have come back so quickly today?

¹⁹And they said, An Egyptian came to our help against the keepers of sheep and got water for us and gave it to the flock.

²⁰And he said to his daughters, Where is he? why have you let the man go? make him come in and give him a meal.

²¹And Moses was happy to go on living with the man; and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.

²²And she gave birth to a son, to whom he gave the name Gershom: for he said, I have been living in a strange land.

²³Now after a long time the king of Egypt came to his end: and the children of Israel were crying in their grief under the weight of their work, and their cry for help came to the ears of God.

²⁴And at the sound of their weeping the agreement which God had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob came to his mind.

²⁵And God's eyes were turned to the children of Israel and he gave them the knowledge of himself.

3Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up.

³And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up,

⁴And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

⁵And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy.

⁶And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God.

⁷And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;

⁸And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

⁹For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them.

¹⁰Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

¹¹And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt?

¹²And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God on this mountain.

¹³And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to say to them?

¹⁴And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

¹⁵And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

¹⁶Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel, and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is done to you in Egypt;

¹⁷And I have said, I will take you up out of the sorrows of Egypt into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, into a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁸And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God.

¹⁹And I am certain that the king of Egypt will not let you go without being forced.

²⁰But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he will let you go.

²¹And I will give this people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that when you go out you will go out with your hands full.

²²For every woman will get from her neighbour and from the woman living in her house, ornaments of silver and gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and your daughters; you will take the best of their goods from the Egyptians.

4And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord.

²And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.

³And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he put it down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went running from it.

⁴And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:)

⁵So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by you.

⁶Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow.

⁷And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And he put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out he saw that it had become like his other flesh.)

⁸And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign.

⁹And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.

¹⁰And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue.

¹¹And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

¹²So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say.

¹³And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send.

¹⁴And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do.

¹⁶And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God.

¹⁷And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs.

¹⁸And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

¹⁹And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life.

²⁰And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go.

²²And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons:

²³And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death.

²⁴Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death.

²⁵Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me.

²⁶So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.

²⁷And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss.

²⁸And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do.

²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel:

³⁰And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people.

³¹And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship.

5And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land.

²And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord and I will not let Israel go.

³And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword.

⁴And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back to your work.

⁵And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from their work.

⁶The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying,

⁷Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.

⁸But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.

⁹Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.

¹⁰And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.

¹¹Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.

¹²So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.

¹³And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.

¹⁴And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before?

¹⁵Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants?

¹⁶They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong.

¹⁷But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.

¹⁸Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.

¹⁹Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before.

²⁰And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh:

²¹And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction.

²²And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me?

²³For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you have given them no help.

6And the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see what I am about to do to Pharaoh; for by a strong hand he will be forced to let them go, driving them out of his land because of my outstretched arm.

²And God said to Moses, I am Yahweh:

³I let myself be seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God, the Ruler of all; but they had no knowledge of my name Yahweh.

⁴And I made an agreement with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their wanderings.

⁵And truly my ears are open to the cry of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep under their yoke; and I have kept in mind my agreement.

⁶Say then to the children of Israel, I am Yahweh, and I will take you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and make you safe from their power, and will make you free by the strength of my arm after great punishments.

⁷And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

⁸And I will be your guide into the land which I made an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for your heritage: I am Yahweh.

⁹And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, but they gave no attention to him, because of the grief of their spirit and the cruel weight of their work.

¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses,

¹¹Go in and say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he is to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

¹²And Moses, answering the Lord, said, See, the children of Israel will not give ear to me; how then will Pharaoh give ear to me, whose lips are unclean?

¹³And the word of the Lord came to Moses and Aaron, with orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers' families: the sons of Reuben the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi: these are the families of Reuben.

¹⁵And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of Canaan: these are the families of Simeon.

¹⁶And these are the names of the sons of Levi in the order of their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari: and the years of Levi's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, in the order of their families.

¹⁸And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel: and the years of Kohath's life were a hundred and thirty-three.

¹⁹And the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi: these are the families of the Levites, in the order of their generations.

²⁰And Amram took Jochebed, his father's sister, as wife; and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses: and the years of Amram's life were a hundred and thirty-seven.

²¹And the sons of Izhar: Korah and Nepheg and Zichri.

²²And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Sithri.

²³And Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon; and she gave birth to Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴And the sons of Korah: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korahites.

²⁵And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel; and she gave birth to Phinehas. These are the heads of the families of the Levites, in the order of their families.

²⁶These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in their armies.

²⁷These are the men who gave orders to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of Egypt: these are the same Moses and Aaron.

²⁸And on the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord: say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I am saying to you.

³⁰And Moses said to the Lord, My lips are unclean; how is it possible that Pharaoh will give me a hearing?

7And the Lord said to Moses, See I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet.

²Say whatever I give you orders to say: and Aaron your brother will give word to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land.

³And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and my signs and wonders will be increased in the land of Egypt.

⁴But Pharaoh will not give ear to you, and I will put my hand on Egypt, and take my armies, my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, after great punishments.

⁵And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when my hand is stretched out over Egypt, and I take the children of Israel out from among them.

⁶And Moses and Aaron did so: as the Lord gave them orders, so they did.

⁷And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they gave the Lord's word to Pharaoh.

⁸And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,

⁹If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake.

¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.

¹¹Then Pharaoh sent for the wise men and the wonder-workers, and they, the wonder-workers of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.

¹²For every one of them put down his rod on the earth, and they became snakes: but Aaron's rod made a meal of their rods.

¹³But Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh's heart is unchanged; he will not let the people go.

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning; when he goes out to the water, you will be waiting for him by the edge of the Nile, with the rod which was turned into a snake in your hand;

¹⁶And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go so that they may give me worship in the waste land; but up to now you have not given ear to his words.

¹⁷So the Lord says, By this you may be certain that I am the Lord; see, by the touch of this rod in my hand the waters of the Nile will be turned to blood;

¹⁸And the fish in the Nile will come to destruction, and the river will send up a bad smell, and the Egyptians will not be able, for disgust, to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking.

¹⁹And the Lord said, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the waters of Egypt, and over the rivers and the streams and the pools, and over every stretch of water, so that they may be turned to blood; and there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.

²⁰And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had said; and when his rod had been lifted up and stretched out over the waters of the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, all the water in the Nile was turned to blood;

²¹And the fish in the Nile came to destruction, and a bad smell went up from the river, and the Egyptians were not able to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking; and there was blood through all the land of Egypt.

²²And the wonder-workers of Egypt did the same with their secret arts: but Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

²³Then Pharaoh went into his house, and did not take even this to heart.

²⁴And all the Egyptians made holes round about the Nile to get drinking-water, for they were not able to make use of the Nile water.

²⁵And seven days went past, after the Lord had put his hand on the Nile.

8And this is what the Lord said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh and say to him, The Lord says, Let my people go so that they may give me worship.

²And if you will not let them go, see, I will send frogs into every part of your land:

³The Nile will be full of frogs, and they will come up into your house and into your bedrooms and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and into your bread-basins.

⁴The frogs will come up over you and your people and all your servants.

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the streams and the waterways and the pools, causing frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.

⁶And when Aaron put out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and all the land of Egypt was covered with them.

⁷And the wonder-workers did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up over the land of Egypt.

⁸Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Make prayer to the Lord that he will take away these frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go and make their offering to the Lord.

⁹And Moses said, I will let you have the honour of saying when I am to make prayer for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs may be sent away from you and your houses, and be only in the Nile.

¹⁰And he said, By tomorrow. And he said, Let it be as you say: so that you may see that there is no other like the Lord our God.

¹¹And the frogs will be gone from you and from your houses and from your servants and from your people and will be only in the Nile.

¹²Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses made prayer to the Lord about the frogs which he had sent on Pharaoh.

¹³And the Lord did as Moses said; and there was an end of all the frogs in the houses and in the open spaces and in the fields.

¹⁴And they put them together in masses, and a bad smell went up from the land.

¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time, he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let your rod be stretched out over the dust of the earth so that it may become insects through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁷And they did so; and Aaron, stretching out the rod in his hand, gave a touch to the dust of the earth, and insects came on man and on beast; all the dust of the earth was changed into insects through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁸And the wonder-workers with their secret arts, attempting to make insects, were unable to do so: and there were insects on man and on beast.

¹⁹Then the wonder-workers said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: but Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

²⁰And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh when he comes out to the water; and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go to give me worship.

²¹For if you do not let my people go, see, I will send clouds of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into their houses; and the houses of the Egyptians and the land where they are will be full of flies.

²²And at that time I will make a division between your land and the land of Goshen where my people are, and no flies will be there; so that you may see that I am the Lord over all the earth.

²³And I will put a division between my people and your people; tomorrow this sign will be seen.

²⁴And the Lord did so; and great clouds of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and all the land of Egypt was made waste because of the flies.

²⁵And Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Go and make your offering to your God here in the land.

²⁶And Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we make our offerings of that to which the Egyptians give worship; and if we do so before their eyes, certainly we will be stoned.

²⁷But we will go three days' journey into the waste land and make an offering to the Lord our God as he may give us orders.

²⁸Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go to make an offering to the Lord your God in the waste land; but do not go very far away, and make prayer for me.

²⁹And Moses said, When I go out from you I will make prayer to the Lord that the cloud of flies may go away from Pharaoh and from his people and from his servants tomorrow: only let Pharaoh no longer by deceit keep back the people from making their offering to the Lord.

³⁰Then Moses went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord.

³¹And the Lord did as Moses said, and took away the cloud of flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people; not one was to be seen.

³²But again Pharaoh made his heart hard and did not let the people go.

9Then the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship.

²For if you will not let them go, but still keep them in your power,

³Then the hand of the Lord will put on your cattle in the field, on the horses and the asses and the camels, on the herds and the flocks, a very evil disease.

⁴And the Lord will make a division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; there will be no loss of any of the cattle of Israel.

⁵And the time was fixed by the Lord, and he said, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land.

⁶And on the day after, the Lord did as he had said, causing the death of all the cattle of Egypt, but there was no loss of any of the cattle of Israel.

⁷And Pharaoh sent and got word that there was no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. But the heart of Pharaoh was hard and he did not let the people go.

⁸And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, Take in your hand a little dust from the fire and let Moses send it in a shower up to heaven before the eyes of Pharaoh.

⁹And it will become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and will be a skin-disease bursting out in wounds on man and beast through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁰So they took some dust from the fire, and placing themselves before Pharaoh, Moses sent it out in a shower up to heaven; and it became a skin-disease bursting out on man and on beast.

¹¹And the wonder-workers were not able to take their places before Moses, because of the disease; for the disease was on the wonder-workers and on all the Egyptians.

¹²And the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

¹³And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh, and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship.

¹⁴For this time I will send all my punishments on yourself and on your servants and on your people; so that you may see that there is no other like me in all the earth.

¹⁵For if I had put the full weight of my hand on you and your people, you would have been cut off from the earth:

¹⁶But, for this very reason, I have kept you from destruction, to make clear to you my power, and so that my name may be honoured through all the earth.

¹⁷Are you still uplifted in pride against my people so that you will not let them go?

¹⁸Truly, tomorrow about this time I will send down an ice-storm, such as never was in Egypt from its earliest days till now.

¹⁹Then send quickly and get in your cattle and all you have from the fields; for if any man or beast in the field has not been put under cover, the ice-storm will come down on them with destruction.

²⁰Then everyone among the servants of Pharaoh who had the fear of the Lord, made his servants and his cattle come quickly into the house:

²¹And he who gave no attention to the word of the Lord, kept his servants and his cattle in the field.

²²And the Lord said to Moses, Now let your hand be stretched out to heaven so that there may be an ice-storm on all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field through all the land of Egypt.

²³And Moses put out his rod to heaven: and the Lord sent thunder, and an ice-storm, and fire running down on the earth; the Lord sent an ice-storm on the land of Egypt.

²⁴So there was an ice-storm with fire running through it, coming down with great force, such as never was in all the land of Egypt from the time when it became a nation.

²⁵And through all the land of Egypt the ice-storm came down on everything which was in the fields, on man and on beast; and every green plant was crushed and every tree of the field broken.

²⁶Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no ice-storm.

²⁷Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have done evil this time: the Lord is upright, and I and my people are sinners.

²⁸Make prayer to the Lord; for there has been enough of these thunderings of God and this ice-storm; and I will let you go and will keep you no longer.

²⁹And Moses said, When I am gone outside the town, my hands will be stretched out to the Lord; the thunders and the ice-storm will come to an end, so that you may see that the earth is the Lord's.

³⁰But as for you and your servants, I am certain that even now the fear of the Lord God will not be in your hearts.

³¹And the flax and the barley were damaged, for the barley was almost ready to be cut and the flax was in flower.

³²But the rest of the grain-plants were undamaged, for they had not come up.

³³So Moses went out of the town, and stretching out his hands made prayer to God: and the thunders and the ice-storm came to an end; and the fall of rain was stopped.

³⁴But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the ice-storm and the thunders were ended, he went on sinning, and made his heart hard, he and his servants.

³⁵And the heart of Pharaoh was hard, and he did not let the people go, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Moses.

10And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh: for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants hard, so that I may let my signs be seen among them:

²And so that you may be able to give to your son and to your son's son the story of my wonders in Egypt, and the signs which I have done among them; so that you may see that I am the Lord.

³Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you be lifted up in your pride before me? let my people go so that they may give me worship.

⁴For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send locusts into your land:

⁵And the face of the earth will be covered with them, so that you will not be able to see the earth: and they will be the destruction of everything which up to now has not been damaged, everything which was not crushed by the ice-storm, and every tree still living in your fields.

⁶And your houses will be full of them, and the houses of your servants and of all the Egyptians; it will be worse than anything your fathers have seen or their fathers, from the day when they were living on the earth till this day. And so he went out from Pharaoh.

⁷And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long is this man to be the cause of evil to us? let the men go so that they may give worship to the Lord their God: are you not awake to Egypt's danger?

⁸Then Moses and Aaron came in again before Pharaoh: and he said to them, Go and give worship to the Lord your God: but which of you are going?

⁹And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds; for we are to keep a feast to the Lord.

¹⁰And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if I will let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose clearly is evil.

¹¹Not so; but let your males go and give worship to the Lord, as your desire is. This he said, driving them out from before him.

¹²And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come up on the land for the destruction of every green plant in the land, even everything untouched by the ice-storm.

¹³And Moses' rod was stretched out over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; and in the morning the locusts came up with the east wind.

¹⁴And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will be again.

¹⁵For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so that the land was black; and every green plant and all the fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to be seen in all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against you.

¹⁷Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only, and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take away from me this death only.

¹⁸So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord.

¹⁹And the Lord sent a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts, driving them into the Red Sea; not one locust was to be seen in any part of Egypt.

²⁰But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that men will be feeling their way about in the dark.

²²And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night came over all the land of Egypt for three days;

²³They were not able to see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days: but where the children of Israel were living it was light.

²⁴Then Pharaoh sent for Moses, and said, Go and give worship to the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept here: your little ones may go with you.

²⁵But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned offerings to put before the Lord our God.

²⁶So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place.

²⁷But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not let them go.

²⁸And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me, take care that you come not again before me; for the day when you see my face again will be your last.

²⁹And Moses said, You say truly; I will not see your face again.

11And the Lord said to Moses, I will send one more punishment on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go; and when he does let you go, he will not keep one of you back, but will send you out by force.

²So go now and give orders to the people that every man and every woman is to get from his or her neighbour ornaments of silver and of gold.

³And the Lord gave the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians. For the man Moses was highly honoured in the land of Egypt, by Pharaoh's servants and the people.

⁴And Moses said, This is what the Lord says: About the middle of the night I will go out through Egypt:

⁵And death will come to every mother's first male child in all the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power, to the child of the servant-girl crushing the grain; and the first births of all the cattle.

⁶And there will be a great cry through all the land of Egypt, such as never has been or will be again.

⁷But against the children of Israel, man or beast, not so much as the tongue of a dog will be moved: so that you may see how the Lord makes a division between Israel and the Egyptians.

⁸And all these your servants will come to me, going down on their faces before me and saying, Go out, and all your people with you: and after that I will go out. And he went away from Pharaoh burning with wrath.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not give ear to you, so that my wonders may be increased in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰All these wonders Moses and Aaron did before Pharaoh: but the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

12And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

²Let this month be to you the first of months, the first month of the year.

³Say to all the children of Israel when they are come together, In the tenth day of this month every man is to take a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for every family:

⁴And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between them, taking into account the number of persons and how much food is needed for every man.

⁵Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it from among the sheep or the goats:

⁶Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark.

⁷Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken.

⁸And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants.

⁹Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts.

¹⁰Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire.

¹¹And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover.

¹²For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord.

¹³And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt.

¹⁴And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever.

¹⁵For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for everyone's food.

¹⁷So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an order for ever.

¹⁸In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the twenty-first day of the month.

¹⁹For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is an Israelite by birth.

²⁰Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are living let your food be unleavened cakes.

²¹Then Moses sent for the chiefs of Israel, and said to them, See that lambs are marked out for yourselves and your families, and let the Passover lamb be put to death.

²²And take some hyssop and put it in the blood in the basin, touching the two sides and the top of the doorway with the blood from the basin; and let not one of you go out of his house till the morning.

²³For the Lord will go through the land, sending death on the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the two sides and the top of the door, the Lord will go over your door and will not let death come in for your destruction.

²⁴And you are to keep this as an order to you and to your sons for ever.

²⁵And when you come into the land which the Lord will make yours, as he gave his word, you are to keep this act of worship.

²⁶And when your children say to you, What is the reason of this act of worship?

²⁷Then you will say, This is the offering of the Lord's Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our families safe. And the people gave worship with bent heads.

²⁸And the children of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had given orders to Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹And in the middle of the night the Lord sent death on every first male child in the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power to the child of the prisoner in the prison; and the first births of all the cattle.

³⁰Then Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and a great cry went up from Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not dead.

³¹And he sent for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get up and go out from among my people, you and the children of Israel; go and give worship to the Lord as you have said.

³²And take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone; and give me your blessing.

³³And the Egyptians were forcing the people on, to get them out of the land quickly; for they said, We are all dead men.

³⁴And the people took their bread-paste before it was leavened, putting their basins in their clothing on their backs.

³⁵And the children of Israel had done as Moses had said; and they got from the Egyptians ornaments of silver and of gold, and clothing:

³⁶And the Lord had given the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians so that they gave them whatever was requested. So they took away all their goods from the Egyptians.

³⁷And the children of Israel made the journey from Rameses to Succoth; there were about six hundred thousand men on foot, as well as children.

³⁸And a mixed band of people went with them; and flocks and herds in great numbers.

³⁹And they made unleavened cakes from the paste which they had taken out of Egypt; it was not leavened, for they had been sent out of Egypt so quickly, that they had no time to make any food ready.

⁴⁰Now the children of Israel had been living in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

⁴¹And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.

⁴²It is a watch-night before the Lord who took them out of the land of Egypt: this same night is a watch-night to the Lord for all the children of Israel, through all their generations.

⁴³And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the law of the Passover: no man who is not an Israelite is to take of it:

⁴⁴But every man's servant, whom he has got for money, may take of it, when he has had circumcision.

⁴⁵A man from a strange country living among you, and a servant working for payment, may not take part in it.

⁴⁶It is to be taken in one house; not a bit of the flesh is to be taken out of the house, and no bone of it may be broken.

⁴⁷All Israel is to keep the feast.

⁴⁸And if a man from another country is living with you, and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all the males of his family undergo circumcision, and then let him come near and keep it; for he will then be as one of your people; but no one without circumcision may keep it.

⁴⁹The law is the same for him who is an Israelite by birth and for the man from a strange country who is living with you.

⁵⁰So the children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to Moses and Aaron.

⁵¹And on that very day the Lord took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

13And the Lord said to Moses,

²Let the first male child of every mother among the children of Israel be kept holy for me, even the first male birth among man or beast; for it is mine.

³And Moses said to the people, Let this day, on which you came out of Egypt, out of your prison-house, be kept for ever in memory; for by the strength of his hand the Lord has taken you out from this place; let no leavened bread be used.

⁴On this day, in the month Abib, you are going out.

⁵And it will be that, when the Lord takes you into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, the land which he made an oath to your fathers that he would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you will do this act of worship in this month.

⁶For seven days let your food be unleavened cakes; and on the seventh day there is to be a feast to the Lord.

⁷Unleavened cakes are to be your food through all the seven days; let no leavened bread be seen among you, or any leaven, in any part of your land.

⁸And you will say to your son in that day, It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.

⁹And this will be for a sign to you on your hand and for a mark on your brow, so that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth: for with a strong hand the Lord took you out of Egypt.

¹⁰So let this order be kept, at the right time, from year to year.

¹¹And when the Lord takes you into the land of Canaan, as he made his oath to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you,

¹²You are to put on one side for the Lord every mother's first male child, the first-fruit of her body, and the first young one of every beast; every male is holy to the Lord.

¹³And for the young of an ass you may give a lamb in payment, or if you will not make payment for it, its neck is to be broken; but for all the first sons among your children, let payment be made.

¹⁴And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for this? say to him, By the strength of his hand the Lord took us out of Egypt, out of the prison-house:

¹⁵And when Pharaoh made his heart hard and would not let us go, the Lord sent death on all the first sons in Egypt, of man and of beast: and so every first male who comes to birth is offered to the Lord; but for all the first of my sons I give a price.

¹⁶And this will be for a sign on your hand and for a mark on your brow: for by the strength of his hand the Lord took us out of Egypt.

¹⁷Now after Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not take them through the land of the Philistines, though that was near: for God said, If the people see war, they may have a change of heart and go back to Egypt.

¹⁸But God took the people round by the waste land near the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up in fighting order out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁹And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly keep you in mind; and you are to take my bones away with you.

²⁰Then they went on their journey from Succoth, and put up their tents in Etham at the edge of the waste land.

²¹And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, guiding them on their way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light: so that they were able to go on day and night:

²²The pillar of cloud went ever before them by day, and the pillar of fire by night.

14And the Lord said to Moses,

²Give orders to the children of Israel to go back and put up their tents before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon, opposite to which you are to put up your tents by the sea.

³And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are wandering without direction, they are shut in by the waste land.

⁴And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and he will come after them and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and all his army, so that the Egyptians may see that I am the Lord. And they did so.

⁵And word came to Pharaoh of the flight of the people: and the feeling of Pharaoh and of his servants about the people was changed, and they said, Why have we let Israel go, so that they will do no more work for us?

⁶So he had his war-carriage made ready and took his people with him:

⁷And he took six hundred carriages, all the carriages of Egypt, and captains over all of them.

⁸And the Lord made the heart of Pharaoh hard, and he went after the children of Israel: for the children of Israel had gone out without fear.

⁹But the Egyptians went after them, all the horses and carriages of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them in their tents by the sea, by Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

¹⁰And when Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel, lifting up their eyes, saw the Egyptians coming after them, and were full of fear; and their cry went up to God.

¹¹And they said to Moses, Was there no resting-place for the dead in Egypt, that you have taken us away to come to our death in the waste land? why have you taken us out of Egypt?

¹²Did we not say to you in Egypt, Let us be as we are, working for the Egyptians? for it is better to be the servants of the Egyptians than to come to our death in the waste land.

¹³But Moses said, Keep where you are and have no fear; now you will see the salvation of the Lord which he will give you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again.

¹⁴The Lord will make war for you, you have only to keep quiet.

¹⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? give the children of Israel the order to go forward.

¹⁶And let your rod be lifted up and your hand stretched out over the sea, and it will be parted in two; and the children of Israel will go through on dry land.

¹⁷And I will make the heart of the Egyptians hard, and they will go in after them: and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and over his army, his war-carriages, and his horsemen.

¹⁸And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when I get honour over Pharaoh and his war-carriages and his horsemen.

¹⁹Then the angel of God, who had been before the tents of Israel, took his place at their back; and the pillar of cloud, moving from before them, came to rest at their back:

²⁰And it came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel; and there was a dark cloud between them, and they went on through the night; but the one army came no nearer to the other all the night.

²¹And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, the Lord with a strong east wind made the sea go back all night, and the waters were parted in two and the sea became dry land.

²²And the children of Israel went through the sea on dry land: and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left.

²³Then the Egyptians went after them into the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses and his war-carriages and his horsemen.

²⁴And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent trouble on the army of the Egyptians;

²⁵And made the wheels of their war-carriages stiff, so that they had hard work driving them: so the Egyptians said, Let us go in flight from before the face of Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.

²⁶And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the sea, and the waters will come back again on the Egyptians, and on their war-carriages and on their horsemen.

²⁷And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, at dawn the sea came flowing back, meeting the Egyptians in their flight, and the Lord sent destruction on the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.

²⁸And the waters came back, covering the war-carriages and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh which went after them into the middle of the sea; not one of them was to be seen.

²⁹But the children of Israel went through the sea walking on dry land, and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left.

³⁰So that day the Lord gave Israel salvation from the hands of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea's edge.

³¹And Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done against the Egyptians, and the fear of the Lord came on the people and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

15Then Moses and the children of Israel made this song to the Lord, and said, I will make a song to the Lord, for he is lifted up in glory: the horse and the horseman he has sent down into the sea.

²The Lord is my strength and my strong helper, he has become my salvation: he is my God and I will give him praise; my father's God and I will give him glory.

³The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.

⁴Pharaoh's war-carriages and his army he has sent down into the sea: the best of his captains have gone down into the Red Sea.

⁵They were covered by the deep waters: like a stone they went down under the waves.

⁶Full of glory, O Lord, is the power of your right hand; by your right hand those who came against you are broken.

⁷When you are lifted up in power, all those who come against you are crushed: when you send out your wrath, they are burned up like dry grass.

⁸By your breath the waves were massed together, the flowing waters were lifted up like a pillar; the deep waters became solid in the heart of the sea.

⁹Egypt said, I will go after them, I will overtake, I will make division of their goods: my desire will have its way with them; my sword will be uncovered, my hand will send destruction on them.

¹⁰You sent your wind and the sea came over them: they went down like lead into the great waters.

¹¹Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? who is like you, in holy glory, to be praised with fear, doing wonders?

¹²When your right hand was stretched out, the mouth of the earth was open for them.

¹³In your mercy you went before the people whom you have made yours; guiding them in your strength to your holy place.

¹⁴Hearing of you the peoples were shaking in fear: the people of Philistia were gripped with pain.

¹⁵The chiefs of Edom were troubled in heart; the strong men of Moab were in the grip of fear: all the people of Canaan became like water.

¹⁶Fear and grief came on them; by the strength of your arm they were turned to stone; till your people went over, O Lord, till the people went over whom you have made yours.

¹⁷You will take them in, planting them in the mountain of your heritage, the place, O Lord, where you have made your house, the holy place, O Lord, the building of your hands.

¹⁸The Lord is King for ever and ever.

¹⁹For the horses of Pharaoh, with his war-carriages and his horsemen, went into the sea, and the Lord sent the waters of the sea back over them; but the children of Israel went through the sea on dry land.

²⁰And Miriam, the woman prophet, the sister of Aaron, took an instrument of music in her hand; and all the women went after her with music and dances.

²¹And Miriam, answering, said, Make a song to the Lord, for he is lifted up in glory; the horse and the horseman he has sent into the sea.

²²Then Moses took Israel forward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the waste land of Shur; and for three days they were in the waste land where there was no water.

²³And when they came to Marah, the water was no good for drinking, for the waters of Marah were bitter, which is why it was named Marah.

²⁴And the people, crying out against Moses, said, What are we to have for drink?

²⁵And in answer to his prayer, the Lord made him see a tree, and when he put it into the water, the water was made sweet. There he gave them a law and an order, testing them;

²⁶And he said, If with all your heart you will give attention to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes, giving ear to his orders and keeping his laws, I will not put on you any of the diseases which I put on the Egyptians: for I am the Lord your life-giver.

²⁷And they came to Elim where there were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees: and they put up their tents there by the waters.

16And they went on their way from Elim, and all the children of Israel came into the waste land of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they went out of the land of Egypt.

²And all the children of Israel were crying out against Moses and Aaron in the waste land:

³And the children of Israel said to them, It would have been better for the Lord to have put us to death in the land of Egypt, where we were seated by the flesh-pots and had bread enough for our needs; for you have taken us out to this waste of sand, to put all this people to death through need of food.

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I will send down bread from heaven for you; and the people will go out every day and get enough for the day's needs; so that I may put them to the test to see if they will keep my laws or not.

⁵And on the sixth day they are to make ready what they get in, and it will be twice as much as they get on the other days.

⁶And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, This evening it will be clear to you that it is the Lord who has taken you out of the land of Egypt:

⁷And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord; for your angry words against the Lord have come to his ears: and what are we that you are crying out against us?

⁸And Moses said, The Lord will give you meat for your food at evening, and in the morning bread in full measure; for your outcry against the Lord has come to his ears: for what are we? your outcry is not against us but against the Lord.

⁹And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the people of Israel, Come near before the Lord for he has given ear to your outcry.

¹⁰And while Aaron was talking to the children of Israel, their eyes were turned in the direction of the waste land, and they saw the glory of the Lord shining in the cloud.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses,

¹²The outcry of the children of Israel has come to my ears: say to them now, At nightfall you will have meat for your food, and in the morning bread in full measure; and you will see that I am the Lord your God.

¹³And it came about that in the evening little birds came up and the place was covered with them: and in the morning there was dew all round about the tents.

¹⁴And when the dew was gone, on the face of the earth was a small round thing, like small drops of ice on the earth.

¹⁵And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? for they had no idea what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which the Lord has given you for your food.

¹⁶This is what the Lord has said, Let every man take up as much as he has need of; at the rate of one omer for every person, let every man take as much as is needed for his family.

¹⁷And the children of Israel did so, and some took more and some less.

¹⁸And when it was measured, he who had taken up much had nothing over, and he who had little had enough; every man had taken what he was able to make use of.

¹⁹And Moses said to them, Let nothing be kept till the morning.

²⁰But they gave no attention to Moses, and some of them kept it till the morning and there were worms in it and it had an evil smell: and Moses was angry with them.

²¹And they took it up morning by morning, every man as he had need: and when the sun was high it was gone.

²²And on the sixth day they took up twice as much of the bread, two omers for every person: and all the rulers of the people gave Moses word of it.

²³And he said, This is what the Lord has said, Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord: what has to be cooked may be cooked; and what is over, put on one side to be kept till the morning.

²⁴And they kept it till the morning as Moses had said: and no smell came from it, and it had no worms.

²⁵And Moses said, Make your meal today of what you have, for this day is a Sabbath to the Lord: today you will not get any in the fields.

²⁶For six days you will get it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.

²⁷But still on the seventh day some of the people went out to get it, and there was not any.

²⁸And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you go against my orders and my laws?

²⁹See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, he gives you on the sixth day bread enough for two days; let every man keep where he is; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

³⁰So the people took their rest on the seventh day.

³¹And this bread was named manna by Israel: it was white, like a grain seed, and its taste was like cakes made with honey.

³²And Moses said, This is the order which the Lord has given: Let one omer of it be kept for future generations, so that they may see the bread which I gave you for your food in the waste land, when I took you out from the land of Egypt.

³³And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put one omer of manna in it, and put it away before the Lord, to be kept for future generations.

³⁴So Aaron put it away in front of the holy chest to be kept, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

³⁵And the children of Israel had manna for their food for forty years, till they came to a land with people in it, till they came to the edge of the land of Canaan.

³⁶Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

17And the children of Israel went on from the waste land of Sin, by stages as the Lord gave them orders, and put up their tents in Rephidim: and there was no drinking-water for the people.

²So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and why do you put God to the test?

³And the people were in great need of water; and they made an outcry against Moses, and said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to send death on us and our children and our cattle through need of water?

⁴And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by stoning.

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take some of the chiefs of Israel with you, and take in your hand the rod which was stretched out over the Nile, and go.

⁶See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb; and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it, and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the chiefs of Israel.

⁷And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel were angry, and because they put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not?

⁸Then Amalek came and made war on Israel in Rephidim.

⁹And Moses said to Joshua, Get together a band of men for us and go out, make war on Amalek: tomorrow I will take my place on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and went to war with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹Now while Moses' hand was lifted up, Israel was the stronger: but when he let his hand go down, Amalek became the stronger.

¹²But Moses' hands became tired; so they put a stone under him and he took his seat on it, Aaron and Hur supporting his hands, one on one side and one on the other; so his hands were kept up without falling till the sun went down.

¹³And Joshua overcame Amalek and his people with the sword.

¹⁴And the Lord said to Moses, Make a record of this in a book, so that it may be kept in memory, and say it again in the ears of Joshua: that all memory of Amalek is to be completely uprooted from the earth.

¹⁵Then Moses put up an altar and gave it the name of Yahweh-nissi:

¹⁶For he said, The Lord has taken his oath that there will be war with Amalek from generation to generation.

18Now news came to Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, of all God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and how the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt.

²And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,

³And her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom, for he said, I have been living in a strange land:

⁴And the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, The God of my father was my help, and kept me safe from the sword of Pharaoh:

⁵And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to where Moses had put up his tent in the waste land, by the mountain of God.

⁶And he said to Moses, I, your father-in-law, have come to you, with your wife and your two sons.

⁷And Moses went out to his father-in-law, and went down on his face before him and gave him a kiss; and they said to one another, Are you well? and they came into the tent.

⁸And Moses gave his father-in-law an account of all the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians because of Israel, and of all the troubles which had come on them by the way, and how the Lord had given them salvation.

⁹And Jethro was glad because the Lord had been good to Israel, freeing them from the power of the Egyptians.

¹⁰And Jethro said, Praise be to the Lord, who has taken you out of the hand of Pharaoh and out of the hand of the Egyptians; freeing the people from the yoke of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I am certain that the Lord is greater than all gods, for he has overcome them in their pride.

¹²Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, made a burned offering to God: and Aaron came, with the chiefs of Israel, and had a meal with Moses' father-in-law, before God.

¹³Now on the day after, Moses took his seat to give decisions for the people: and the people were waiting before Moses from morning till evening.

¹⁴And when Moses' father-in-law saw all he was doing, he said, What is this you are doing for the people? why are you seated here by yourself, with all the people waiting before you from morning till evening?

¹⁵And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to get directions from God:

¹⁶And if they have any question between themselves, they come to me, and I am judge between a man and his neighbour, and I give them the orders and laws of God.

¹⁷And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good.

¹⁸Your strength and that of the people will be completely used up: this work is more than you are able to do by yourself.

¹⁹Give ear now to my suggestion, and may God be with you: you are to be the people's representative before God, taking their causes to him:

²⁰Teaching them his rules and his laws, guiding them in the way they have to go, and making clear to them the work they have to do.

²¹But for the rest, take from among the people able men, such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly made; and put such men over them, to be captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens;

²²And let them be judges in the causes of the people at all times: and let them put before you all important questions, but in small things let them give decisions themselves: in this way, it will be less hard for you, and they will take the weight off you.

²³If you do this, and God gives approval, then you will be able to go on without weariness, and all this people will go to their tents in peace.

²⁴So Moses took note of the words of his father-in-law, and did as he had said.

²⁵And he made selection of able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens.

²⁶And they were judges in the causes of the people at all times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every small point they gave decisions themselves.

²⁷And Moses let his father-in-law go away, and he went back to his land.

19In the third month after the children of Israel went out from Egypt, on the same day, they came into the waste land of Sinai.

²And when they had gone away from Rephidim and had come into the waste land of Sinai, they put up their tents in the waste land before the mountain: there Israel put up its tents.

³And Moses went up to God, and the voice of the Lord came to him from the mountain, saying, Say to the family of Jacob, and give word to the children of Israel:

⁴You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I took you, as on eagles' wings, guiding you to myself.

⁵If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my agreement, you will be my special property out of all the peoples: for all the earth is mine:

⁶And you will be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation. These are the words which you are to say to the children of Israel.

⁷And Moses came and sent for the chiefs of the people and put before them all these words which the Lord had given him orders to say.

⁸And all the people, answering together, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do. And Moses took back to the Lord the words of the people.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses, See, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that what I say to you may come to the ears of the people and they may have belief in you for ever. And Moses gave the Lord word of what the people had said.

¹⁰And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and make them holy today and tomorrow, and let their clothing be washed.

¹¹And by the third day let them be ready: for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai, before the eyes of all the people.

¹²And let limits be marked out for the people round the mountain, and say to them, Take care not to go up the mountain or near the sides of it: whoever puts his foot on the mountain will certainly come to his death:

¹³He is not to be touched by a hand, but is to be stoned or have an arrow put through him; man or beast, he is to be put to death: at the long sounding of a horn they may come up to the mountain.

¹⁴Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and made the people holy; and their clothing was washed.

¹⁵And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman.

¹⁶And when morning came on the third day, there were thunders and flames and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a horn sounding very loud; and all the people in the tents were shaking with fear.

¹⁷And Moses made the people come out of their tents and take their places before God; and they came to the foot of the mountain,

¹⁸And all the mountain of Sinai was smoking, for the Lord had come down on it in fire: and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a great burning; and all the mountain was shaking.

¹⁹And when the sound of the horn became louder and louder, Moses' words were answered by the voice of God.

²⁰Then the Lord came down on to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and the Lord sent for Moses to come up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and give the people orders to keep back, for fear that a great number of them, forcing their way through to see the Lord, may come to destruction.

²²And let the priests who come near to the Lord make themselves holy, for fear that the Lord may come on them suddenly.

²³And Moses said to the Lord, The people will not be able to come up the mountain, for you gave us orders to put limits round the mountain, marking it out and making it holy.

²⁴And the Lord said to him, Go down, and you and Aaron may come up; but let not the priests and the people make their way through to the Lord, or he will come on them suddenly.

²⁵So Moses went down to the people and said this to them.

20And God said all these words:

²I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

³You are to have no other gods but me.

⁴You are not to make an image or picture of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth:

⁵You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters;

⁶And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws.

⁷You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged a sinner by the Lord

⁸Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a holy day.

⁹On six days do all your work:

¹⁰But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day you are to do no work, you or your son or your daughter, your man-servant or your woman-servant, your cattle or the man from a strange country who is living among you:

¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and everything in them, and he took his rest on the seventh day: for this reason the Lord has given his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy.

¹²Give honour to your father and to your mother, so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³Do not put anyone to death without cause.

¹⁴Do not be false to the married relation.

¹⁵Do not take the property of another.

¹⁶Do not give false witness against your neighbour.

¹⁷Let not your desire be turned to your neighbour's house, or his wife or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is his.

¹⁸And all the people were watching the thunderings and the flames and the sound of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when they saw it, they kept far off, shaking with fear.

¹⁹And they said to Moses, To your words we will give ear, but let not the voice of God come to our ears, for fear death may come on us.

²⁰And Moses said to the people, Have no fear: for God has come to put you to the test, so that fearing him you may be kept from sin.

²¹And the people kept their places far off, but Moses went near to the dark cloud where God was.

²²And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You yourselves have seen that my voice has come to you from heaven

²³Gods of silver and gods of gold you are not to make for yourselves.

²⁴Make for me an altar of earth, offering on it your burned offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and your oxen: in every place where I have put the memory of my name, I will come to you and give you my blessing.

²⁵And if you make me an altar of stone do not make it of cut stones: for the touch of an instrument will make it unclean.

²⁶And do not go up by steps to my altar, for fear that your bodies may be seen uncovered.

21Now these are the laws which you are to put before them.

²If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment.

³If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him.

⁴If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the property of the master, and the servant is to go away by himself.

⁵But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free:

⁶Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever.

⁷And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do.

⁸If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free; her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to a strange land, because he has been false to her.

⁹And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for her as if she was his daughter.

¹⁰And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing and her married rights are not to be less.

¹¹And if he does not do these three things for her, she has the right to go free without payment.

¹²He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death.

¹³But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight.

¹⁴But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death.

¹⁵Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death.

¹⁶Any man who gets another into his power in order to get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in the act.

¹⁷Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to death.

¹⁸If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone, or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him keep in bed;

¹⁹If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick, the other will be let off; only he will have to give him payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for till he is well.

²⁰If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo punishment.

²¹But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the servant is his property.

²²If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges.

²³But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life,

²⁴Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.

²⁶If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant a blow in the eye, causing its destruction, he is to let him go free on account of the damage to his eye.

²⁷Or if the loss of a tooth is caused by his blow, he will let him go free on account of his tooth.

²⁸If an ox comes to be the cause of death to a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned, and its flesh may not be used for food; but the owner will not be judged responsible.

²⁹But if the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and the owner has had word of it and has not kept it under control, so that it has been the cause of the death of a man or woman, not only is the ox to be stoned, but its owner is to be put to death.

³⁰If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of whatever price is fixed.

³¹If the death of a son or of a daughter has been caused, the punishment is to be in agreement with this rule.

³²If the death of a man-servant or of a woman-servant is caused by the ox, the owner is to give their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is to be stoned.

³³If a man makes a hole in the earth without covering it up, and an ox or an ass dropping into it comes to its death;

³⁴The owner of the hole is responsible; he will have to make payment to their owner, but the dead beast will be his.

³⁵And if one man's ox does damage to another man's ox, causing its death, then the living ox is to be exchanged for money, and division made of the price of it, and of the price of the dead one.

³⁶But if it is common knowledge that the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and its owner has not kept it under control, he will have to give ox for ox; and the dead beast will be his.

22If a man takes without right another man's ox or his sheep, and puts it to death or gets a price for it, he is to give five oxen for an ox, or four sheep for a sheep, in payment: the thief will have to make payment for what he has taken; if he has no money, he himself will have to be exchanged for money, so that payment may be made.

²If a thief is taken in the act of forcing his way into a house, and his death is caused by a blow, the owner of the house is not responsible for his blood.

³But if it is after dawn, he will be responsible.

⁴If he still has what he had taken, whatever it is, ox or ass or sheep, he is to give twice its value.

⁵If a man makes a fire in a field or a vine-garden, and lets the fire do damage to another man's field, he is to give of the best produce of his field or his vine-garden to make up for it.

⁶If there is a fire and the flames get to the thorns at the edge of the field, causing destruction of the cut grain or of the living grain, or of the field, he who made the fire will have to make up for the damage.

⁷If a man puts money or goods in the care of his neighbour to keep for him, and it is taken from the man's house, if they get the thief, he will have to make payment of twice the value.

⁸If they do not get the thief, let the master of the house come before the judges and take an oath that he has not put his hand on his neighbour's goods.

⁹In any question about an ox or an ass or a sheep or clothing, or about the loss of any property which anyone says is his, let the two sides put their cause before God; and he who is judged to be in the wrong is to make payment to his neighbour of twice the value.

¹⁰If a man puts an ass or an ox or a sheep or any beast into the keeping of his neighbour, and it comes to death or is damaged or is taken away, without any person seeing it:

¹¹If he takes his oath before the Lord that he has not put his hand to his neighbour's goods, the owner is to take his word for it and he will not have to make payment for it.

¹²But if it is taken from him by a thief, he is to make up for the loss of it to its owner.

¹³But if it has been damaged by a beast, and he is able to make this clear, he will not have to make payment for what was damaged.

¹⁴If a man gets from his neighbour the use of one of his beasts, and it is damaged or put to death when the owner is not with it, he will certainly have to make payment for the loss.

¹⁵If the owner is with it, he will not have to make payment: if he gave money for the use of it, the loss is covered by the payment.

¹⁶If a man takes a virgin, who has not given her word to another man, and has connection with her, he will have to give a bride-price for her to be his wife.

¹⁷If her father will not give her to him on any account, he will have to give the regular payment for virgins.

¹⁸Any woman using unnatural powers or secret arts is to be put to death.

¹⁹Any man who has sex connection with a beast is to be put to death.

²⁰Complete destruction will come on any man who makes offerings to any other god but the Lord.

²¹Do no wrong to a man from a strange country, and do not be hard on him; for you yourselves were living in a strange country, in the land of Egypt.

²²Do no wrong to a widow, or to a child whose father is dead.

²³If you are cruel to them in any way, and their cry comes up to me, I will certainly give ear;

²⁴And in the heat of my wrath I will put you to death with the sword, so that your wives will be widows and your children without fathers.

²⁵If you let any of the poor among my people have the use of your money, do not be a hard creditor to him, and do not take interest.

²⁶If ever you take your neighbour's clothing in exchange for the use of your money, let him have it back before the sun goes down:

²⁷For it is the only thing he has for covering his skin; what is he to go to sleep in? and when his cry comes up to me, I will give ear, for my mercy is great.

²⁸You may not say evil of the judges, or put a curse on the ruler of your people.

²⁹Do not keep back your offerings from the wealth of your grain and your vines. The first of your sons you are to give to me.

³⁰In the same way with your oxen and your sheep: for seven days let the young one be with its mother; on the eighth day give it to me.

³¹You are to be holy men to me: the flesh of no animal whose death has been caused by the beasts of the field may be used for your food; it is to be given to the dogs.

23Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness.

²Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:

³But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause.

⁴If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him.

⁵If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire.

⁶Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause.

⁷Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin.

⁸Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false.

⁹Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land.

¹⁰For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase;

¹¹But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees.

¹²For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you.

¹³Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips.

¹⁴Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me.

¹⁵You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering:

¹⁶And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields.

¹⁷Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God.

¹⁸Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning.

¹⁹The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

²⁰See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you.

²¹Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him.

²²But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you.

²³And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand.

²⁴Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down.

²⁵And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you.

²⁶All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life.

²⁷I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you.

²⁸I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face.

²⁹I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you.

³⁰Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land.

³¹I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you.

³²Make no agreement with them or with their gods.

³³Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you.

24And he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the chiefs of Israel; and give me worship from a distance.

²And Moses only may come near to the Lord; but the others are not to come near, and the people may not come up with them.

³Then Moses came and put before the people all the words of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do.

⁴Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁵And he sent some of the young men of the children of Israel to make burned offerings and peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord.

⁶And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; draining out half of the blood over the altar.

⁷And he took the book of the agreement, reading it in the hearing of the people: and they said, Everything which the Lord has said we will do, and we will keep his laws.

⁸Then Moses took the blood and let it come on the people, and said, This blood is the sign of the agreement which the Lord has made with you in these words.

⁹Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the chiefs of Israel went up:

¹⁰And they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there was, as it seemed, a jewelled floor, clear as the heavens.

¹¹And he put not his hand on the chiefs of the children of Israel: they saw God, and took food and drink.

¹²And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and take your place there: and I will give you the stones on which I have put in writing the law and the orders, so that you may give the people knowledge of them.

¹³Then Moses and Joshua his servant got up; and Moses went up into the mountain of God.

¹⁴And he said to the chiefs, Keep your places here till we come back to you: Aaron and Hur are with you; if anyone has any cause let him go to them.

¹⁵And Moses went up into the mountain, and it was covered by the cloud.

¹⁶And the glory of the Lord was resting on Mount Sinai, and the cloud was over it for six days; and on the seventh day he said Moses' name out of the cloud.

¹⁷And the glory of the Lord was like a flame on the top of the mountain before the eyes of the children of Israel.

¹⁸And Moses went up the mountain, into the cloud, and was there for forty days and forty nights.

25And the Lord said to Moses,

²Say to the children of Israel that they are to make me an offering; from every man who has the impulse in his heart take an offering for me.

³And this is the offering you are to take from them: gold and silver and brass;

⁴And blue and purple and red, and the best linen, and goats' hair;

⁵And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood;

⁶Oil for the light, spices for the sweet-smelling oil, sweet perfumes for burning;

⁷Beryls and stones of value to be put on the ephod and on the priest's bag.

⁸And let them make me a holy place, so that I may be ever present among them.

⁹Make the House and everything in it from the designs which I will give you.

¹⁰And they are to make an ark of hard wood; two and a half cubits long, and a cubit and a half wide and high.

¹¹It is to be plated inside and out with the best gold, with an edge of gold all round it

¹²And make four rings of gold for it, to be fixed on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two on the other.

¹³And make rods of the same wood, plating them with gold.

¹⁴And put the rods through the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it.

¹⁵The rods are to be kept in the rings, and never taken out.

¹⁶Inside the ark you are to put the record which I will give you.

¹⁷And you are to make a cover of the best gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

¹⁸And at the two ends of the cover you are to make two winged ones of hammered gold,

¹⁹One at one end and one at the other; the winged ones are to be part of the cover.

²⁰And their wings are to be outstretched over the cover, and the winged ones are to be opposite one another, facing the cover.

²¹And put the cover over the ark, and in the ark the record which I will give you.

²²And there, between the two winged ones on the cover of the ark, I will come to you, face to face, and make clear to you all the orders I have to give you for the children of Israel.

²³And you are to make a table of the same wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high,

²⁴Plated with the best gold, with a gold edge all round it;

²⁵And make a frame all round it, as wide as a man's hand, with a gold edge to the frame.

²⁶And make four gold rings and put them at the four angles, on the four feet of the table;

²⁷The rings are to be fixed under the frame to take the rods with which the table is to be lifted.

²⁸Make rods of the same wood, plated with gold, for lifting the table.

²⁹And make the table-vessels, the spoons and the cups and the basins for liquids, all of the best gold.

³⁰And on the table at all times you are to keep my holy bread.

³¹And you are to make a support for lights, of the best gold; its base and its pillar are to be of hammered gold; its cups, its buds, and its flowers are to be made of the same metal.

³²It is to have six branches coming out from its sides; three branches from one side and three from the other.

³³Every branch having three cups made like almond flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower, on all the branches.

³⁴And on the pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every one with its bud and its flower:

³⁵And under every two branches a bud, made with the branch, for all the six branches of it.

³⁶The buds and the branches are to be made of the same metal; all together one complete work of hammered gold.

³⁷Then you are to make its seven vessels for the lights, putting them in their place so that they give light in front of it.

³⁸And the instruments and trays for use with it are all to be of the best gold.

³⁹A talent of gold will be needed for it, with all these vessels.

⁴⁰And see that you make them from the design which you saw on the mountain.

26And you are to make a House for me, with ten curtains of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with designs of winged ones by a good workman.

²Every curtain is to be twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure.

³Five curtains are to be joined together, and the other five are to be joined together.

⁴And you are to put twists of blue cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group of five, and on the edge of the outside curtain of the second group of five;

⁵Fifty twists on one curtain and fifty on the other, the twists to be opposite one another.

⁶Then make fifty gold hooks, joining the curtains together by the hooks, and in this way the House will be made.

⁷And you are to make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the House, eleven curtains.

⁸Every curtain is to be thirty cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure.

⁹Five of these curtains are to be joined together, and the other six are to be joined together, the sixth being folded over to make a hanging in front of the tent.

¹⁰And you are to put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the outside curtain of one group, and fifty twists on the edge of the outside curtain of the other group.

¹¹Then make fifty brass hooks and put the hooks into the twists, joining the tent together to make it one.

¹²And the folded part which is over of the curtains of the tent, the half-curtain which is folded back, will be hanging down over the back of the House.

¹³And the cubit which is over of the ten curtains at the sides will be hanging over the two sides of the House as a cover.

¹⁴And then you are to make a cover for the tent, of sheepskins coloured red, and a cover of leather over that.

¹⁵And you are to make upright boards of hard wood for the House.

¹⁶Every board is to be ten cubits high and a cubit and a half wide.

¹⁷Every board is to be joined to the one nearest to it by two tongues, and so for every board in the House.

¹⁸These are the boards needed for the house; twenty boards for the south side,

¹⁹With forty silver bases under the twenty boards, two bases under every board to take its tongues.

²⁰And twenty boards for the second side of the house on the north,

²¹With their forty silver bases, two under every board.

²²And six boards for the back of the House on the west,

²³With two boards for the angles of the House at the back.

²⁴The two are to be joined together at the base and at the top to one ring, forming the two angles.

²⁵So there are to be eight boards, with their sixteen silver bases, two bases under every board.

²⁶And make rods of the same wood, five for the boards on the one side,

²⁷And five for the boards on the other side of the House, and five for the west side of the House at the back.

²⁸And the middle rod is to go through the rings of all the boards from end to end.

²⁹And the boards are to be plated with gold, having gold rings for the rods to go through: and the rods are to be plated with gold.

³⁰And you are to make the House from the design which you saw on the mountain.

³¹And you are to make a veil of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with designs of winged ones by a good workman:

³²Hanging it by gold hooks from four pillars of wood, plated with gold and fixed in silver bases.

³³And you are to put up the veil under the hooks, and put inside it the ark of the law: the veil is to be a division between the holy place and the most holy.

³⁴You are to put the cover on the ark of the law, inside the most holy place.

³⁵And outside the veil you are to put the table, and the support for the lights opposite the table on the south side of the House; and the table is to be on the north side.

³⁶And you are to make a curtain for the doorway of the Tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red.

³⁷And make five pillars for the curtain, of hard wood plated with gold; their hooks are to be of gold and their bases of brass

27And make an altar of hard wood, a square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high.

²Put horns at the four angles of it, made of the same, plating it all with brass.

³And make all its vessels, the baskets for taking away the dust of the fire, the spades and basins and meat-hooks and fire-trays, of brass.

⁴And make a network of brass, with four brass rings at its four angles.

⁵And put the network under the shelf round the altar so that the net comes half-way up the altar.

⁶And make rods for the altar, of hard wood, plated with brass.

⁷And put the rods through the rings at the two opposite sides of the altar, for lifting it.

⁸The altar is to be hollow, boarded in with wood; make it from the design which you saw on the mountain.

⁹And let there be an open space round the House, with hangings for its south side of the best linen, a hundred cubits long.

¹⁰Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases are to be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their bands are to be of silver.

¹¹And on the north side in the same way, hangings a hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars of brass on bases of brass; their hooks and their bands are to be of silver.

¹²And for the open space on the west side, the hangings are to be fifty cubits wide, with ten pillars and ten bases;

¹³And on the east side the space is to be fifty cubits wide.

¹⁴On the one side of the doorway will be hangings fifteen cubits long, with three pillars and three bases;

¹⁵And on the other side, hangings fifteen cubits long, with three pillars and three bases.

¹⁶And across the doorway, a veil of twenty cubits of the best linen, made of needlework of blue and purple and red, with four pillars and four bases.

¹⁷All the pillars round the open space are to have silver bands, with hooks of silver and bases of brass.

¹⁸The open space is to be a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, with sides five cubits high, curtained with the best linen, with bases of brass.

¹⁹All the instruments for the work of the House, and all its nails, and the nails of the open space are to be of brass.

²⁰Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clear olive oil for the lights, so that a light may be burning there at all times.

²¹Let Aaron and his sons put this in order, evening and morning, before the Lord, inside the Tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the ark; this is to be an order for ever, from generation to generation, to be kept by the children of Israel.

28Now let Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, come near from among the children of Israel, so that they may be my priests, even Aaron, and Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, his sons.

²And make holy robes for Aaron your brother, so that he may be clothed with glory and honour.

³Give orders to all the wise-hearted workmen, whom I have made full of the spirit of wisdom, to make robes for Aaron, so that he may be made holy as my priest.

⁴This is what they are to make: a priest's bag, an ephod, and a robe, and a coat of coloured needlework, a head-dress, and a linen band; they are to make holy robes for Aaron your brother and for his sons, so that they may do the work of priests for me.

⁵They are to take the gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen,

⁶And make the ephod of gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen, the work of a designer.

⁷It is to have two bands stitched to it at the top of the arms, joining it together.

⁸And the beautifully worked band, which goes on it, is to be of the same work and the same material, of gold and blue and purple and red and twisted linen-work.

⁹You are to take two beryl stones, on which the names of the children of Israel are to be cut:

¹⁰Six names on the one stone and six on the other, in the order of their birth.

¹¹With the work of a jeweller, like the cutting of a stamp, the names of the children of Israel are to be cut on them, and they are to be fixed in twisted frames of gold.

¹²And the two stones are to be placed on the ephod, over the arm-holes, to be stones of memory for the children of Israel: Aaron will have their names on his arms when he goes in before the Lord, to keep the Lord in mind of them.

¹³And you are to make twisted frames of gold;

¹⁴And two chains of the best gold, twisted like cords; and have the chains fixed on to the frames.

¹⁵And make a priest's bag for giving decisions, designed like the ephod, made of gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen.

¹⁶It is to be square, folded in two, a hand-stretch long and a hand-stretch wide.

¹⁷And on it you are to put four lines of jewels; the first line is to be a cornelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald;

¹⁸The second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx;

¹⁹The third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

²⁰The fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they are to be fixed in twisted frames of gold.

²¹The jewels are to be twelve in number, for the names of the children of Israel; every jewel having the name of one of the twelve tribes cut on it as on a stamp.

²²And you are to make two chains of gold, twisted like cords, to be fixed to the priest's bag.

²³And put two gold rings on the two ends of the bag.

²⁴Put the two gold chains on the two rings at the ends of the bag;

²⁵Joining the other ends of the chains to the gold frames and putting them on the front of the ephod, at the top of the arms.

²⁶Then make two gold rings and put them on the lower ends of the bag, at the edge of it on the inner side nearest to the ephod.

²⁷And make two more gold rings and put them on the front of the ephod at the top of the arms, at the join, over the worked band:

²⁸So that the rings on the bag may be fixed to the rings of the ephod by a blue cord and on to the band of the ephod, so that the bag may not come loose from the ephod.

²⁹And so Aaron will have the names of the children of Israel on the priest's bag over his heart whenever he goes into the holy place, to keep the memory of them before the Lord.

³⁰And in the bag you are to put the Urim and Thummim, so that they may be on Aaron's heart whenever he goes in before the Lord; and Aaron may have the power of making decisions for the children of Israel before the Lord at all times.

³¹The robe which goes with the ephod is to be made all of blue;

³²With a hole at the top, in the middle of it; the hole is to be edged with a band to make it strong like the hole in the coat of a fighting-man, so that it may not be broken open.

³³And round the skirts of it put fruits in blue and purple and red, with bells of gold between;

³⁴A gold bell and a fruit in turn all round the skirts of the robe.

³⁵Aaron is to put it on for his holy work; and the sound of it will be clear, when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, keeping him safe from death.

³⁶You are to make a plate of the best gold, cutting on it, as on a stamp, these words: HOLY TO THE LORD.

³⁷Put a blue cord on it and put it on the front of the twisted head-dress:

³⁸And it will be over Aaron's brow, so that Aaron will be responsible for any error in all the holy offerings made by the children of Israel; it will be on his brow at all times, so that their offerings may be pleasing to the Lord.

³⁹The coat is to be made of the best linen, worked in squares; and you are to make a head-dress of linen, and a linen band worked in needlework.

⁴⁰And for Aaron's sons you are to make coats, and bands, and head-dresses, so that they may be clothed with glory and honour.

⁴¹These you are to put on Aaron, your brother, and on his sons, putting oil on them, separating them and making them holy, to do the work of priests to me.

⁴²And you are to make them linen trousers, covering their bodies from the middle to the knee;

⁴³Aaron and his sons are to put these on whenever they go into the Tent of meeting or come near the altar, when they are doing the work of the holy place, so that they may be free from any sin causing death: this is to be an order for him and his seed after him for ever.

29This is what you are to do to make them holy, to do the work of priests to me: Take one young ox and two male sheep, without any mark on them,

²And unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes on which oil has been put, made of the best bread-meal;

³Put these in a basket and take them, with the ox and the two sheep.

⁴And let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting, and there let them be washed with water.

⁵Take the robes, and put the coat and the dress and the ephod and the priest's bag on Aaron; put the band of needlework round him,

⁶And let the head-dress be placed on his head and the holy crown on the head-dress.

⁷Then take the oil and put it on his head.

⁸And take his sons and put their robes on them;

⁹And put the linen bands round Aaron and his sons, and the head-dresses on them, to make them priests by my order for ever: so you are to make Aaron and his sons holy to me.

¹⁰Then let the ox be taken in front of the Tent of meeting: and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

¹¹And you are to put the ox to death before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting.

¹²Then take some of the blood of the ox, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, draining out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

¹³And take all the fat covering the inside of the ox, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and let them be burned on the altar;

¹⁴But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-offering.

¹⁵Then take one of the sheep, and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head.

¹⁶Then let it be put to death, so that the sides of the altar are marked with its blood.

¹⁷Then the sheep is to be cut up into its parts, and after washing its legs and its inside parts, you are to put them with the parts and the head,

¹⁸And let them all be burned on the altar as a burned offering to the Lord: a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

¹⁹Then take the other sheep; and after Aaron and his sons have put their hands on its head,

²⁰You are to put the sheep to death, and take some of its blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear, and of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet, dropping the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar.

²¹Then take some of the blood on the altar, and the oil, and put it on Aaron and his robes and on his sons and on their robes, so that he and his robes and his sons and their robes may be made holy.

²²Then take the fat of the sheep, the fat tail, the fat covering the insides, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and the right leg; for by the offering of this sheep they are to be marked out as priests:

²³And take one bit of bread and one cake of oiled bread and one thin cake out of the basket of unleavened bread which is before the Lord:

²⁴And put them all on the hands of Aaron and of his sons, to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord.

²⁵Then take them from their hands, and let them be burned on the burned offering on the altar, a sweet smell before the Lord, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

²⁶Then take the breast of Aaron's sheep, waving it before the Lord; and it is to be your part of the offering.

²⁷So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons;

²⁸And it will be their part as a right for ever from the children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering lifted up to the Lord.

²⁹And Aaron's holy robes will be used by his sons after him; they will put them on when they are made priests.

³⁰For seven days the son who becomes priest in his place will put them on when he comes into the Tent of meeting to do the work of the holy place.

³¹Then take the sheep of the wave offering and let its flesh be cooked in water in a holy place.

³²And let Aaron and his sons make a meal of it, with the bread in the basket, at the door of the Tent of meeting.

³³All those things which were used as offerings to take away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for they are holy food.

³⁴And if any of the flesh of the offering or of the bread is over till the morning, let it be burned with fire; it is not to be used for food, for it is holy.

³⁵All these things you are to do to Aaron and his sons as I have given you orders: for seven days the work of making them priests is to go on.

³⁶Every day an ox is to be offered as a sin-offering, to take away sins: and by this offering on it, you will make the altar clean from sin; and you are to put oil on it and make it holy.

³⁷For seven days you are to make offerings for the altar and make it holy, so that it may become completely holy, and anything touching it will become holy.

³⁸Now this is the offering which you are to make on the altar: two lambs in their first year, every day regularly.

³⁹One lamb is to be offered in the morning and the other in the evening:

⁴⁰And with the one lamb, a tenth part of an ephah of the best meal, mixed with a fourth part of a hin of clear oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

⁴¹And the other lamb is to be offered in the evening, and with it the same meal offering and drink offering, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

⁴²This is to be a regular burned offering made from generation to generation, at the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will come face to face with you and have talk with you.

⁴³There I will come face to face with the children of Israel, and the Tent will be made holy by my glory

⁴⁴I will make holy the Tent of meeting and the altar: and Aaron and his sons I will make holy, to be my priests

⁴⁵Among the children of Israel I will make my living-place, and I will be their God.

⁴⁶And they will see that I am the Lord their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might be ever with them: I am the Lord their God.

30And you are to make an altar for the burning of perfume; of hard wood let it be made.

²The altar is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high, and its horns are to be made of the same.

³It is to be plated with the best gold, the top of it and the sides and the horns, with an edging of gold all round it.

⁴Under the edge on the two opposite sides, you are to make two gold rings, to take the rods for lifting it.

⁵And make these rods of the same wood, plating them with gold.

⁶And let it be placed in front of the veil before the ark of the law, before the cover which is over the law, where I will come face to face with you.

⁷And on this altar sweet spices are to be burned by Aaron every morning when he sees to the lights.

⁸And every evening, when he puts the lights up in their places, the spices are to be burned, a sweet-smelling smoke going up before the Lord from generation to generation for ever.

⁹No strange perfume, no burned offering or meal offering, and no drink offering is to be offered on it.

¹⁰And once every year Aaron is to make its horns clean: with the blood of the sin-offering he is to make it clean once every year from generation to generation: it is most holy to the Lord.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses,

¹²When you are taking the number of the children of Israel, let every man who is numbered give to the Lord a price for his life, so that no disease may come on them when they are numbered.

¹³And this is what they are to give; let every man who is numbered give half a shekel, by the scale of the holy place: (the shekel being valued at twenty gerahs:) this money is an offering to the Lord.

¹⁴Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, is to give an offering to the Lord.

¹⁵The man of wealth is to give no more and the poor man no less than the half-shekel of silver, when the offering is made to the Lord as the price for your lives.

¹⁶And you are to take this money from the children of Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to be the price of your lives.

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁸You are to make a brass washing-vessel, with a brass base; and put it between the Tent of meeting and the altar, with water in it;

¹⁹That it may be used by Aaron and his sons for washing their hands and feet;

²⁰Whenever they go into the Tent of meeting they are to be washed with water, to keep them from death; and whenever they come near to do the work of the altar, or to make an offering by fire to the Lord,

²¹Their hands and feet are to be washed. so that they may be safe from death: this is an order to them for ever; to him and his seed from generation to generation.

²²And the Lord said to Moses,

²³Take the best spices, five hundred shekels' weight of liquid myrrh, and of sweet cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus,

²⁴And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin:

²⁵And make these into a holy oil, a perfume made by the art of the perfume-maker; it is to be a holy oil.

²⁶This oil is to be put on the Tent of meeting, and on the ark of the law,

²⁷And on the table and all its vessels, and on the support for the lights, with its vessels, and on the altar for burning spices,

²⁸And on the altar of burned offerings with its vessels, and on the washing-vessel and its base.

²⁹And you are to make them most holy; anything touching them will become holy.

³⁰And put the oil on Aaron and his sons, making them holy to do the work of priests to me.

³¹And say to the children of Israel, This is to be the Lord's holy oil, from generation to generation.

³²It is not to be used for man's flesh, and no other is to be made like it: holy it is, and you are to keep it holy.

³³Whoever makes any like it, or puts it on one who is not a priest, will be cut off from his people.

³⁴And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, with the best frankincense, in equal weights;

³⁵And make from them a perfume, such as is made by the art of the perfume-maker, mixed with salt, and clean and holy.

³⁶And put some of it, crushed very small, in front of the ark in the Tent of meeting, where I will come face to face with you; it is to be most holy.

³⁷You are not to make any perfume like it for yourselves: it is to be kept holy to the Lord.

³⁸Whoever makes any like it, for its sweet smell, will be cut off from his people.

31And the Lord said to Moses,

²I have made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, by name, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

³And I have given him the spirit of God and made him wise and full of knowledge and expert in every sort of handwork,

⁴To do all sorts of delicate work in gold and silver and brass;

⁵In cutting stones for framing, and to do every form of woodwork.

⁶And I have made selection of Oholiab with him, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are wise I have put the knowledge to make whatever I have given you orders to have made;

⁷The Tent of meeting, and the ark of the law, and the cover which is on it, and all the things for the tent,

⁸And the table with its vessels, and the holy light-support with all its vessels, and the altar for the burning of spices,

⁹And the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the washing-vessel with its base,

¹⁰And the robes of needlework, the holy robes for Aaron and for his sons, for their use when acting as priests,

¹¹And the holy oil, and the perfume of sweet spices for the holy place; they will do whatever I have given you orders to have done.

¹²And the Lord said to Moses,

¹³Say to the children of Israel that they are to keep my Sabbaths; for the Sabbath day is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you may see that I am the Lord who makes you holy.

¹⁴So you are to keep the Sabbath as a holy day; and anyone not honouring it will certainly be put to death: whoever does any work on that day will be cut off from his people.

¹⁵Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.

¹⁶And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement.

¹⁷It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it.

¹⁸And when his talk with Moses on Mount Sinai was ended, he gave him the two stones of the law, two stones on which was the writing made by the finger of God.

32And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him.

²Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me.

³And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron.

⁴And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt.

⁵And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord.

⁶So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure.

⁷And the Lord said to Moses, Go down quickly; for your people, whom you took out of the land of Egypt, are turned to evil ways;

⁸Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them, and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took you up out of the land of Egypt.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses, I have been watching this people, and I see that they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I will make a great nation.

¹¹But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is your wrath burning against your people whom you took out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength of your hand?

¹²Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people.

¹³Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever.

¹⁴So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of sending punishment on his people.

¹⁵Then Moses came down the mountain with the two stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their two sides, on the front and on the back.

¹⁶The stones were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut on the stones.

¹⁷Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the tents.

¹⁸And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear.

¹⁹And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of the mountain.

²⁰And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them?

²²And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have seen how the purposes of this people are evil.

²³For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has come to him.

²⁴Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out.

²⁵And Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them loose to their shame before their haters:

²⁶Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him.

²⁷And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour.

²⁸And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three thousand of the people were put to death that day.

²⁹And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day.

³⁰And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I may get forgiveness for your sin.

³¹Then Moses went back to the Lord and said, This people has done a great sin, making themselves a god of gold;

³²But now, if you will give them forgiveness--but if not, let my name be taken out of your book.

³³And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil against me will be taken out of my book.

³⁴But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin.

³⁵And the Lord sent punishment on the people because they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made.

33And the Lord said to Moses, Go forward from this place, you and the people whom you have taken up out of the land of Egypt, to that land about which I made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed will I give it.

²And I will send an angel before you, driving out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite:

³Go up to that land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, for fear that I send destruction on you while you are on the way.

⁴Hearing this bad news the people were full of grief, and no one put on his ornaments.

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: if I come among you, even for a minute, I will send destruction on you; so take off all your ornaments, so that I may see what to do with you.

⁶So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at Mount Horeb, and did not put them on again.

⁷Now it was Moses' way to put up the Tent of meeting outside the tent-circle, at some distance away; giving it the name of The Tent of meeting. And everyone desiring to make his prayer to the Lord went to the Tent of meeting outside the tent-circle.

⁸And whenever Moses went out to the Tent of meeting, all the people got up and everyone went to the door of his tent, looking after Moses till he went inside the Tent.

⁹And whenever Moses went into the Tent, the pillar of cloud came down, and took its place by the door of the Tent, as long as the Lord was talking with Moses.

¹⁰And all the people saw the cloud at the door of the Tent, and they went down on their faces, everyone at the door of his tent.

¹¹And the Lord had talk with Moses face to face, as a man may have talk with his friend. And when Moses came back to the tents, his servant, the young man Joshua, the son of Nun, did not come away from the Tent.

¹²And Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Be this people's guide on their journey, but you have not made clear to me whom you will send with me. But you have said, I have knowledge of you by name, and you have grace in my eyes.

¹³If then I have grace in your eyes, let me see your ways, so that I may have knowledge of you and be certain of your grace; and my prayer is that you will keep in mind that this nation is your people.

¹⁴And he said, I myself will go with you and give you rest.

¹⁵And Moses said, If you yourself are not going with us, do not send us on from here.

¹⁶For is not the fact of your going with us the sign that I and this people have grace in your eyes, so that we, that is, I and your people, are separate from all other people on the face of the earth?

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, I will do as you say: for you have grace in my eyes, and I have knowledge of you by your name.

¹⁸And Moses said, O Lord, let me see your glory.

¹⁹And he said, I will make all the light of my being come before you, and will make clear to you what I am; I will be kind to those to whom I will be kind, and have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy.

²⁰But it is not possible for you to see my face, for no man may see me and still go on living.

²¹And the Lord said, See, there is a place near me, and you may take your place on the rock:

²²And when my glory goes by, I will put you in a hole in the rock, covering you with my hand till I have gone past:

²³Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back: but my face is not to be seen.

34And the Lord said to Moses, Make two other stones like the first two; and I will put on them the words which were on the first stones, which were broken by you.

²And be ready by the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai, and come before me there in the morning, on the top of the mountain.

³No one is to come up with you, and let no man be seen anywhere on the mountain; let no flocks or herds come near to get their food at its foot.

⁴So Moses got two stones cut like the first; and early in the morning he went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had said, with the two stones in his hand.

⁵And the Lord came down in the cloud and took his place by the side of Moses, and Moses gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁶And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and great in mercy and faith;

⁷Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation.

⁸Then Moses quickly went down on his face in worship.

⁹And he said, If now I have grace in your eyes, let the Lord go among us, for this is a stiff-necked people, and give us forgiveness for our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us for your heritage.

¹⁰And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake: before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to do for you is greatly to be feared.

¹¹Take care to do the orders which I give you today; I will send out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

¹²But take care, and do not make any agreement with the people of the land where you are going, for it will be a cause of sin to you.

¹³But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down:

¹⁴For you are to be worshippers of no other god: for the Lord is a God who will not give his honour to another.

¹⁵So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts,

¹⁶Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.

¹⁷Make for yourselves no gods of metal.

¹⁸Keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days your food is to be bread without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib; for in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹Every first male child is mine; the first male birth of your cattle, the first male of every ox and sheep.

²⁰A lamb may be given in payment for the young of an ass, but if you will not make payment for it, its neck will have to be broken. For all the first of your sons you are to make payment. No one is to come before me without an offering.

²¹Six days let work be done, but on the seventh day take your rest: at ploughing time and at the grain-cutting you are to have a day for rest.

²²And you are to keep the feast of weeks when you get in the first-fruits of the grain, and the feast at the turn of the year when you take in the produce of your fields.

²³Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord, the God of Israel.

²⁴For I will send out the nations before you and make wide the limits of your land; and no man will make an attempt to take your land while you go up to give worship to the Lord, three times in the year.

²⁵No leaven is to be offered with the blood of my offering, and the offering of the Passover feast may not be kept till the morning.

²⁶Take the first-fruits of your land as an offering to the house of the Lord your God. Let not the young goat be cooked in its mother's milk

²⁷And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will make with you.

²⁸And for forty days and forty nights Moses was there with the Lord, and in that time he had no food or drink. And he put in writing on the stones the words of the agreement, the ten rules of the law.

²⁹Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two stones in his hand, he was not conscious that his face was shining because of his talk with God.

³⁰But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for fear.

³¹Then Moses sent for them; and Aaron, with the chiefs of the people, came to him; and Moses had talk with them.

³²And later, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the orders which the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³And at the end of his talk with them, Moses put a veil over his face.

³⁴But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to have talk with him, he took off the veil till he came out. And whenever he came out he said to the children of Israel what he had been ordered to say;

³⁵And the children of Israel saw that the face of Moses was shining: so Moses put the veil over his face again till he went to the Lord.

35And Moses sent for all the children of Israel to come together, and said to them, This is what the Lord has said and these are his orders.

²Six days let work be done, but the seventh day is to be a holy day to you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on that day is to be put to death.

³No fire is to be lighted in any of your houses on the Sabbath day.

⁴And Moses said to all the meeting of the children of Israel, This is the order which the Lord has given:

⁵Take from among you an offering to the Lord; everyone who has the impulse in his heart, let him give his offering to the Lord; gold and silver and brass;

⁶And blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats' hair,

⁷And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood,

⁸And oil for the lights, and spices for the holy oil and for the sweet perfumes for burning.

⁹And beryls and jewels to be cut for the ephod and for the priest's bag.

¹⁰And let every wise-hearted man among you come and make whatever has been ordered by the Lord;

¹¹The House and its tent and its cover, its hooks and its boards, its rods and its pillars and its bases;

¹²The ark with its cover and its rods and the veil hanging before it;

¹³The table and its rods and all its vessels, and the holy bread;

¹⁴And the support for the lights, with its vessels and its lights and the oil for the light;

¹⁵And the altar for burning spices, with its rods, and the holy oil and the sweet perfume, and the curtain for the door, at the door of the House;

¹⁶The altar of burned offerings, with its network of brass, its rods, and all its vessels, the washing-vessel and its base;

¹⁷The hangings for the open space, its pillars and their bases, and the curtain for the doorway;

¹⁸The nails for the House, and the nails for the open space and their cords;

¹⁹The robes of needlework for the work of the holy place, the holy robes for Aaron the priest, and the robes for his sons when acting as priests.

²⁰And all the children of Israel went away from Moses.

²¹And everyone whose heart was moved, everyone who was guided by the impulse of his spirit, came with his offering for the Lord, for whatever was needed for the Tent of meeting and its work and for the holy robes.

²²They came, men and women, all who were ready to give, and gave pins and nose-rings and finger-rings and neck-ornaments, all of gold; everyone gave an offering of gold to the Lord.

²³And everyone who had blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats' hair and sheepskins coloured red and leather, gave them.

²⁴Everyone who had silver and brass gave an offering of them to the Lord; and everyone who had hard wood, such as was needed for the work, gave it.

²⁵And all the women who were expert with their hands, made cloth, and gave the work of their hands, blue and purple and red and the best linen.

²⁶And those women who had the knowledge, made the goats' hair into cloth.

²⁷And the rulers gave the beryls and the cut jewels for the ephod and the priest's bag;

²⁸And the spice and the oil for the light, and the holy oil and the sweet perfumes.

²⁹The children of Israel, every man and woman, from the impulse of their hearts, gave their offerings freely to the Lord for the work which the Lord had given Moses orders to have done.

³⁰And Moses said to the children of Israel, See, the Lord has made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;

³¹And he has made him full of the spirit of God, in all wisdom and knowledge and art of every sort;

³²As an expert designer of beautiful things, working in gold and silver and brass;

³³Trained in the cutting of stones and the ornamenting of wood and in every sort of handwork.

³⁴And he has given to him, and to Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the power of training others.

³⁵To them he has given knowledge of all the arts of the handworker, of the designer, and the expert workman; of the maker of needlework in blue and purple and red and the best linen, and of the maker of cloth; in all the arts of the designer and the trained workman they are expert.

36So let Bezalel and Oholiab get to work, with every wise-hearted man to whom the Lord has given wisdom and knowledge, to do whatever is necessary for the ordering of the holy place, as the Lord has given orders.

²Then Moses sent for Bezalel and Oholiab, and for all the wise-hearted men to whom the Lord had given wisdom, even everyone who was moved by the impulse of his heart to come and take part in the work:

³And they took from Moses all the offerings which the children of Israel had given for the building of the holy place. And still they went on giving him more free offerings every morning.

⁴Then the wise men, who were doing all the work of the holy place, came from their work;

⁵And said to Moses, The people are giving much more than is needed for the work which the Lord has given us orders to do.

⁶So Moses made an order and had it given out through all the tents, saying, Let no man or woman make any more offerings for the holy place. So the people were kept from giving more.

⁷For the material they had was enough and more than enough for all the work which had to be done.

⁸Then all the expert workmen among them made the House with its ten curtains; of the best linen, blue and purple and red, they made them, with winged ones worked by expert designers.

⁹Every curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure.

¹⁰And five curtains were joined together, and the other five curtains were joined together.

¹¹And they put twists of blue cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and in the same way on the outside curtain of the second group.

¹²Fifty twists on the one curtain and fifty on the edge of the curtain of the other group; the twists being opposite to one another.

¹³And they made fifty hooks of gold, joining the curtains one to another with the hooks; and so the House was made.

¹⁴And they made curtains of goats' hair for the tent; eleven curtains were made.

¹⁵Every curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure.

¹⁶Five curtains were joined together to make one group, and six curtains were joined together to make the other group.

¹⁷And they put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and fifty twists on the edge of the outside curtain of the second group,

¹⁸And fifty hooks of brass for joining them together to make the tent.

¹⁹And they made a cover of sheepskins coloured red, to go over the tent, and a cover of leather over that.

²⁰And for the uprights of the House they made boards of hard wood.

²¹The boards were ten cubits long and one cubit and a half wide.

²²Every board had two tongues fixed into it; all the boards were made in this way.

²³They made twenty boards for the south side of the House:

²⁴And for these twenty boards, forty silver bases, two bases under every board, to take its tongues.

²⁵And for the second side of the House, on the north, they made twenty boards,

²⁶With their forty silver bases, two bases for every board.

²⁷And for the west side of the House, at the back, they made six boards,

²⁸And two boards for the angles at the back.

²⁹These were joined together at the base and at the top to one ring, so forming the two angles.

³⁰So there were eight boards with sixteen bases of silver, two bases under every board.

³¹And they made rods of hard wood; five for the boards on one side of the House,

³²And five for the boards on the other side of the House, and five for the boards at the back, on the west.

³³The middle rod was made to go right through the rings of all the boards from one end to the other.

³⁴All the boards were plated with gold, and the rings through which the rods went were of gold, and the rods were plated with gold.

³⁵And he made the veil of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with winged ones designed by expert workmen.

³⁶And they made four pillars for it of hard wood plated with gold: they had hooks of gold and four silver bases.

³⁷And they made a curtain for the door of the tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red;

³⁸And five pillars for the curtain, with their hooks; the heads of the pillars were of gold and they were circled with bands of gold; and their five bases were of brass.

37And Bezalel made the ark of hard wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high;

²Plating it inside and out with the best gold, and putting an edge of gold all round it.

³And he made four gold rings for its four angles, two on one side and two on the other,

⁴And rods of the same wood plated with gold.

⁵These rods he put in the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it.

⁶And he made the cover all of gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

⁷And he made two winged ones, hammered out of one bit of gold, for the two ends of the cover;

⁸Placing one at one end and one at the other; the winged ones were part of the cover.

⁹And their wings were stretched out over the cover; the faces of the winged ones were opposite one another and facing the cover.

¹⁰And he made the table of hard wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high;

¹¹Plating it with the best gold and putting a gold edge all round it.

¹²And he made a frame all round it about as wide as a man's hand, edged with gold all round.

¹³And he made four gold rings, and put the rings at the angles of its four feet.

¹⁴The rings were fixed under the frame to take the rods with which the table was to be lifted.

¹⁵The rods for lifting the table he made of hard wood plated with gold.

¹⁶And all the table-vessels, the plates and spoons and basins and the cups for liquids, he made of the best gold.

¹⁷Then he made the support for the lights, all of the best gold; its base and its pillar were of hammered gold; its cups and buds and flowers were all made out of the same metal:

¹⁸It had six branches coming out from its sides, three from one side and three from the other;

¹⁹Every branch having three cups made like almond flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower on all the branches;

²⁰And on its pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every one with its bud and its flower;

²¹And under every two branches a bud, made with the branch, for all six branches of it.

²²The buds and the branches were made of the same metal, all together one complete work of the best hammered gold.

²³And he made the seven vessels for the lights, and all the necessary instruments for it, of gold.

²⁴A talent of the best gold was used for the making of it and its vessels.

²⁵And he made the altar for the burning of spices, using the same hard wood; it was square, a cubit long and a cubit wide and two cubits high; the horns made of the same.

²⁶The top and the sides and the horns were all plated with the best gold; and he put an edge of gold all round it.

²⁷And he made two gold rings, placing them on the two opposite sides under the edge, to take the rods for lifting it.

²⁸The rods he made of the same hard wood, plating them with gold.

²⁹And he made the holy oil and the perfume of sweet spices for burning, after the art of the perfume-maker.

38The altar of burned offerings he made of hard wood; a square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high,

²And he put horns at its four angles made of the same, plating it all with brass;

³And brass was used for all the vessels of the altar, the baskets and the spades, the basins and the meat-hooks and the fire-trays; all the vessels he made of brass

⁴And he made a network of brass for the altar, under the frame round it, stretching half-way up;

⁵And four rings for the four angles of this network, to take the rods.

⁶The rods he made of hard wood plated with brass.

⁷He put the rods through the rings at the opposite sides of the altar for lifting it; he made the altar hollow, boarded in with wood.

⁸And he made the washing-vessel of brass on a brass base, using the polished brass looking-glasses given by the women who did work at the doors of the Tent of meeting.

⁹To make the open space, he put hangings on the south side, of the best linen, a hundred cubits long:

¹⁰Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were brass; and the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.

¹¹And for the north side. hangings a hundred cubits long, on twenty brass pillars in brass bases, with silver hooks and bands.

¹²And on the west side, hangings fifty cubits long, on ten pillars in ten bases, with silver bands.

¹³And on the east side, the open space was fifty cubits long.

¹⁴The hangings on one side of the doorway were fifteen cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases;

¹⁵And the same on the other side of the doorway; on this side and on that the hangings were fifteen cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases.

¹⁶All the hangings were of the best linen.

¹⁷And the bases of the pillars were of brass; their hooks and the bands round the tops of them were of silver; all the pillars were ringed with silver.

¹⁸And the curtain for the doorway of the open space was of the best linen, with designs of blue and purple and red in needlework; it was twenty cubits long and five cubits high, to go with the hangings round the sides.

¹⁹There were four pillars with their bases, all of brass, the hooks being of silver, and their tops and their bands being covered with silver.

²⁰All the nails used for the House and the open space round it were of brass.

²¹This is the price of the making of the House, even the House of witness, as it was valued by the word of Moses, for the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

²²Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

²³And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; a designer and a trained workman, expert in needlework of blue and purple and red and the best linen.

²⁴The gold used for all the different work done for the holy place, the gold which was given, was twenty-nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy place.

²⁵And the silver given by those who were numbered of the people was a hundred talents, and a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy place.

²⁶A beka, that is, half a shekel by the holy scale, for everyone who was numbered; there were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men of twenty years old and over.

²⁷Of this silver, a hundred talents was used for making the bases of the pillars of the holy place and of the veil; a talent for every base.

²⁸And a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels of silver was used to make the hooks for the pillars, and for plating the tops of the pillars and for making their bands.

²⁹The brass which was given was seventy talents, two thousand four hundred shekels;

³⁰From it he made the bases of the doorway of the Tent of meeting and the brass altar and the network for it and all the vessels for the altar,

³¹And the bases for the open space all round and for its doorway, and all the nails for the House and for the open space.

39And from the needlework of blue and purple and red they made the robes used for the work of the holy place, and the holy robes for Aaron, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

²The ephod he made of gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen;

³Hammering the gold into thin plates and cutting it into wires to be worked into the blue and the purple and the red and the linen by the designer.

⁴And they made two bands for joining its edges together at the top of the arms.

⁵And the beautifully worked band which went on it was of the same design and the same material, worked in gold and blue and purple and red and twisted linen-work, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

⁶Then they made the beryl stones, fixed in twisted frames of gold and cut like the cutting of a stamp, with the names of the children of Israel.

⁷These he put on the ephod, over the arm-holes, to be stones of memory for the children of Israel, as the Lord had said to Moses.

⁸The priest's bag was designed like the ephod, of the best linen worked with gold and blue and purple and red.

⁹It was square and folded in two, as long and as wide as the stretch of a man's hand;

¹⁰And on it they put four lines of stones: in the first line was a carnelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald;

¹¹In the second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx;

¹²In the third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

¹³In the fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they were fixed in twisted frames of gold.

¹⁴There were twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel; on every one the name of one of the tribes of Israel was cut, like the cutting of a stamp.

¹⁵And on the bag they put gold chains, twisted like cords.

¹⁶And they made two gold frames and two gold rings, the rings being fixed to the ends of the priest's bag;

¹⁷And they put the two twisted chains on the two rings at the ends of the priest's bag;

¹⁸And the other two ends of the chains were joined to the two frames and fixed to the front of the ephod over the arm-holes.

¹⁹And they made two rings of gold and put them on the two lower ends of the bag, on the inner side nearest to the ephod.

²⁰And two other gold rings were put on the front of the ephod, over the arm-holes, at the join, and over the worked band.

²¹And the rings on the bag were fixed to the rings of the ephod by a blue cord, keeping it in place over the band, so that the bag might not get loose, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

²²The robe which went with the ephod was made all of blue;

²³With a hole at the top in the middle, like the hole in the coat of a fighting-man, edged with a band to make it strong.

²⁴The skirts of the robe were worked all round with fruits in blue and purple and red made of twisted linen.

²⁵And between the fruits all round the skirt they put gold bells, as the Lord gave orders to Moses.

²⁶All round the skirt of the robe were bells and fruits in turn.

²⁷The coats for Aaron and his sons they made of the best linen;

²⁸And the twisted head-dress for Aaron, and beautiful head-dresses of linen, and linen trousers,

²⁹And a linen band worked with a design of blue and purple and red, as the Lord had said to Moses.

³⁰The plate for the holy crown was made of the best gold, and on it were cut these words, HOLY TO THE LORD.

³¹It was fixed to the head-dress by a blue cord, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

³²So all the work on the House of the Tent of meeting was done; as the Lord had given orders to Moses, so the children of Israel did it.

³³Then they took the House to Moses, the tent with all the things for it; its hooks, its boards, its rods, its pillars, and its bases;

³⁴The outer cover of sheepskins coloured red, and the cover of leather, and the veil for the doorway;

³⁵The ark of the law, with its rods and its cover;

³⁶The table, with all its vessels and the holy bread;

³⁷The support for the lights, with the vessels for the lights to be put in their places on it, and all its vessels, and the oil for the lights;

³⁸And the gold altar, and the holy oil, and the sweet perfume for burning, and the curtain for the doorway of the tent;

³⁹And the brass altar, with its network of brass, and its rods and all its vessels, and the washing-vessel and its base;

⁴⁰The hangings for the open space, with the pillars and their bases, and the curtain for the doorway, and the cords and nails, and all the instruments necessary for the work of the House of the Tent of meeting;

⁴¹The robes for use in the holy place, and the holy robes for Aaron and his sons when acting as priests.

⁴²The children of Israel did everything as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

⁴³Then Moses, when he saw all their work and saw that they had done everything as the Lord had said, gave them his blessing.

40And the Lord said to Moses,

²On the first day of the first month you are to put up the House of the Tent of meeting.

³And inside it put the ark of the law, hanging the veil before it.

⁴And put the table inside, placing all the things on it in order; and put in the support for the lights, and let its lights be burning.

⁵And put the gold altar for burning perfumes in front of the ark of the law, hanging the curtain over the doorway of the House.

⁶And put the altar of burned offerings before the doorway of the House of the Tent of meeting.

⁷And let the washing-vessel, with water in it, be put between the Tent of meeting and the altar.

⁸And put up the hangings forming the open space all round it, with the curtain over its doorway.

⁹And take the holy oil and put it on the House and everything in it, and make it and everything in it holy:

¹⁰And put oil on the altar of burned offering, and make it and all its vessels holy; this altar is to be most holy.

¹¹And put oil on the washing-vessel and its base, and make them holy.

¹²Then let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting; and after washing them with water,

¹³You are to put on Aaron the holy robes; and you are to put oil on him, and make him holy, so that he may be my priest.

¹⁴And take his sons with him and put coats on them;

¹⁵And put oil on them as you did on their father, so that they may be my priests: the putting on of oil will make them priests for ever, from generation to generation.

¹⁶And Moses did this; as the Lord gave him orders, so he did.

¹⁷So on the first day of the first month in the second year the House was put up.

¹⁸Moses put up the House; placing its bases in position and lifting up its uprights, putting in the rods and planting the pillars in their places;

¹⁹Stretching the outer tent over it, and covering it, as the Lord had given him orders.

²⁰And he took the law and put it inside the ark, and put the rods at its side and the cover over it;

²¹And he took the ark into the House, hanging up the veil before it as the Lord had given him orders.

²²And he put the table in the Tent of meeting, on the north side outside the veil.

²³And he put the bread on it in order before the Lord, as the Lord had said.

²⁴The support for the lights he put in the Tent of meeting, opposite the table, on the south side:

²⁵Lighting the lights before the Lord, as the Lord had given him orders.

²⁶And he put the gold altar in the Tent of meeting, in front of the veil:

²⁷Burning sweet perfumes on it, as the Lord had given him orders.

²⁸And he put up the curtain at the doorway of the House.

²⁹And at the door of the House of the Tent of meeting, he put the altar of burned offerings, offering on it the burned offering and the meal offering, as the Lord had given him orders.

³⁰And between the altar and the Tent of meeting he put the vessel with water in it for washing.

³¹In it the hands and feet of Moses and Aaron and his sons were washed,

³²Whenever they went into the Tent of meeting, and when they came near the altar, as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

³³And he put up the hangings forming the open space round the House and the altar, and put the curtain over the doorway. So Moses made the work complete.

³⁴Then the cloud came down covering the Tent of meeting, and the House was full of the glory of the Lord;

³⁵So that Moses was not able to go into the Tent of meeting, because the cloud was resting on it, and the House was full of the glory of the Lord.

³⁶And whenever the cloud was taken up from the House, the children of Israel went forward on their journey:

³⁷But while the cloud was there, they made no move till it was taken up.

³⁸For the cloud of the Lord was resting on the House by day, and at night there was fire in the cloud, before the eyes of all the people of Israel, and so it was through all their journeys.