What the Bible Says About Patriarchal History: A Definition and Exploration

Scripture

¹ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
⁵ Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.
⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
⁷ Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
⁸ From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.
⁹ And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Genesis 12:1-9

Genesis 15:1-21: ¹ After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
² But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
⁶ And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
⁷ And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
⁹ He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
¹⁰ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.
¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
¹² As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
¹⁴ But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
²¹ And the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Genesis 17:1-27: ¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
² “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”
³ Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.”
⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
¹² He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Throughout your generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at eight days old, including those born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.
¹³ He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
¹⁵ And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
¹⁹ God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.
²¹ But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
²² When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.
²³ Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.
²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
²⁵ And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
²⁶ In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
²⁷ So all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

Genesis 22:1-19: ²² After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
² He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.
⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven
²² and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Genesis 25:19-34: ¹⁹ These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac.
²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.
²¹ And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
²² The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
²³ And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
²⁴ When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.
²⁵ The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau.
²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob.
²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
²⁸ Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
²⁹ Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.
³⁰ And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)
³¹ Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”
³² Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”
³³ Then Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 27:1-46: ²⁷ When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.”
² And he said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.
³ Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me,
⁴ and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”
⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it,
⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying,
⁷ ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’
⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.
⁹ Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.
¹⁰ Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
¹² Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.”
¹³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves.
¹⁴ So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved.
¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
¹⁶ And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
¹⁷ Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
²⁰ Then Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.”
²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
²² So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
²³ Then he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him.
²⁴ Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”
²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.
²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.”
²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed!
²⁸ May God give you of the dew of heaven
and of the fatness of the earth
and plenty of grain and wine.
²⁹ Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!
³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
³¹ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”
³³ Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”
³⁴ As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
³⁵ But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.”
³⁶ Then he said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
³⁷ Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”
³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high.
⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.
⁴¹ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
⁴² But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.
⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran,
⁴⁴ Stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away,
⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?”
⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

Genesis 28:10-22: ¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
¹¹ And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
¹² And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!
²⁸ And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.
¹⁴ Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
¹⁵ Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
¹⁶ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
¹⁷ And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
¹⁸ So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
¹⁹ He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,
²¹ so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,
²² And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

Genesis 32:22-32: ²⁴ And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
²³ The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
²⁴ And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
²⁵ When he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
²⁷ And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
²⁸ Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
²⁹ Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.
³⁰ So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
³¹ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
³² Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Genesis 35:1-15: ¹ God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
³ Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”
⁴ So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.
⁵ And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
⁶ And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,
⁷ And he built there an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.
⁸ And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.
⁹ God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram and blessed him.
¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel.
¹¹ And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
¹² And the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.
¹³ And God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.
¹⁴ And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
¹⁵ So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

Genesis 37:1-36: ² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.
⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.
⁶ He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed:
⁷ And behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.
⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
⁹ Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”
¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
¹² Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem.
¹³ And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”
¹⁴ So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
¹⁵ And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?”
¹⁶ And he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are pasturing the flock.”
¹⁷ And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
¹⁸ They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.
¹⁹ They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer.
²⁰ Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.”
²¹ But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”
²² And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore.
²⁴ Then they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
²⁵ Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
²⁷ Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers listened to him.
²⁸ Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
²⁹ When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes
³⁰ Then he returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?”
³¹ Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
³² And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.”
³³ And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
³⁴ Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.
³⁵ All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
³⁶ Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.

Genesis 45:1-28: ¹ Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
² And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
³ And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.
⁴ So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.
⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.
¹⁰ You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.
¹¹ There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’”
¹² And his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem.
¹³ And you must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Go quickly and bring my father down here.”
¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.
¹⁶ When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, “Joseph’s brothers have come,” it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.
¹⁷ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan,
¹⁸ take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’
¹⁹ You are also commanded, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.
²⁰ Also do not concern yourselves with your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”
²¹ The sons of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey.
²² To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.
²³ To his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey.
²⁴ So he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”
²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.
²⁶ And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them.
²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.
²⁸ And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”

Genesis 49:1-33: ² “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
² “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
³ Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my might, and the firstfruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
⁴ Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
because you went up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
⁵ “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords.
⁶ Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
⁸ “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
⁹ Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
¹¹ Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
¹² His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
¹³ “Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea; he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon.
¹⁴ “Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.
¹⁵ He saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant at forced labor.
¹⁶ “Dan shall judge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
¹⁷ Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider falls backward.
¹⁸ I wait for your salvation, O Lord.
¹⁹ “Raiders shall raid Gad,
but he shall raid at their heels.
²⁰ “Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
²¹ Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful fawns.
²² “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.”
²³ The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely,
²⁴ yet his bow remained unmoved;
his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
²⁵ by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
²⁶ The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
²⁷ “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening dividing the spoil.”
²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.
²⁹ Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
³⁰ in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
³¹ There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah—
³² the field that Abraham bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.
³³ When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

Exodus 1:1-22: ¹ These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:
² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
⁵ All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.
⁶ Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
⁷ But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
⁸ Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
⁹ And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.
¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.
¹³ So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves.
¹⁴ and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
¹⁵ Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,
¹⁶ “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”
¹⁷ But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
¹⁸ But the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”
¹⁹ Then the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
²⁰ So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong.
²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
²² Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Exodus 3:1-22: ¹ Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”
⁴ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,
⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
⁹ And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
¹² He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
¹³ Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
¹⁶ Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,
¹⁷ and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
¹⁸ And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’
¹⁹ But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.
²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
²¹ And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,
²² But each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

Exodus 6:1-13: ² God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord.
² God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord.
³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
⁴ I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.
⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant.
⁶ Say therefore to the people of Israel, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.
⁷ I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
⁸ And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.
⁹ Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses,
¹¹ Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.
¹² But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”
¹³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:1-51: ¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
² “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
³ Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.
⁴ And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.
⁶ and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
⁷ Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
⁸ They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.
¹⁰ And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
¹¹ In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
¹² For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
¹³ The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
¹⁴ “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”
¹⁵ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
¹⁶ On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you.
¹⁷ And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.
¹⁸ In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
¹⁹ For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.
²⁰ You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
²¹ Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.
²² Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
²³ For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.
²⁴ You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
²⁵ And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.
²⁶ And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
²⁷ Then you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
²⁸ Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock.
³⁰ And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
³¹ Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said.
³² Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.
³³ The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”
³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.
³⁵ The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.
³⁶ And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
³⁷ And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
³⁸ A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.
³⁹ And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
⁴⁰ The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.
⁴¹ At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
⁴² It was a night of watching by the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.
⁴³ And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner shall eat of it,
⁴⁴ but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him.
⁴⁵ It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.
⁴⁶ It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones.
⁴⁷ All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
⁴⁸ If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
⁴⁹ There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”
⁵⁰ All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
⁵¹ And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.