The first parents.

Genesis 4

1

Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man."

2

Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.

3

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.

4

But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

5

but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

6

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?

7

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

8

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

9

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

10

The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.

11

Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

12

When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

13

Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear.

14

Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."

15

But the LORD said to him, "Not so ; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

16

So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

17

Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.

18

To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

19

Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.

20

Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.

21

His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.

22

Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

23

Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.

24

If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times."

25

Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him."

26

Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.

Hebrews 11:4 Hebrews 11 Hebrews 11:3-5
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

1 John 3:12 1 John 3 1 John 3:11-13
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.

Jude 1:11 Jude 1 Jude 1:10-12
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.

Divisions in the parents lead to divisions in the children.

Genesis 16:14-17

14

That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi ; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

15

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

16

Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Genesis 17:17-27

17

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

18

And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

19

Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

20

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

21

But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year."

22

When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

23

On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.

24

Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

25

and his son Ishmael was thirteen;

26

Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day.

27

And every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

Genesis 17:16-26

17

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

18

And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

19

Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

20

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

21

But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year."

22

When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

23

On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.

24

Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

25

and his son Ishmael was thirteen;

26

Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day.

Genesis 21:1-13

1

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.

2

Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.

3

Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.

4

When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.

5

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

6

Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."

7

And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

8

The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.

9

But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking,

10

and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."

11

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.

12

But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

13

I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."

Genesis 25:8-10

8

Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.

9

His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite,

10

the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.

Galatians 4:22-31

22

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.

23

His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

24

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

25

Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

26

But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

27

For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."

28

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

29

At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.

30

But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."

31

Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Playing favorites.

Genesis 25:15

19

This is the account of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,

20

and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

21

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

22

The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.

23

The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."

24

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

25

The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.

26

After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

27

The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.

28

Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.

30

He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom. )

31

Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."

32

"Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"

33

But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

34

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 25:15

34

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35

They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Genesis 27

1

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," he answered.

2

Isaac said, "I am now an old man and don't know the day of my death.

3

Now then, get your weapons--your quiver and bow--and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

4

Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die."

5

Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back,

6

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, "Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau,

7

`Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.'

8

Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you:

9

Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it.

10

Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies."

11

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a man with smooth skin.

12

What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing."

13

His mother said to him, "My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me."

14

So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it.

15

Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

16

She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.

17

Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

18

He went to his father and said, "My father." "Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is it?"

19

Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing."

20

Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" "The LORD your God gave me success," he replied.

21

Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."

22

Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

23

He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

24

"Are you really my son Esau?" he asked. "I am," he replied.

25

Then he said, "My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing." Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.

26

Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come here, my son, and kiss me."

27

So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

28

May God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness-- an abundance of grain and new wine.

29

May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed."

30

After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.

31

He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing."

32

His father Isaac asked him, "Who are you?" "I am your son," he answered, "your firstborn, Esau."

33

Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him--and indeed he will be blessed!"

34

When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me--me too, my father!"

35

But he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing."

36

Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob ? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?"

37

Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?"

38

Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.

39

His father Isaac answered him, "Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

40

You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck."

41

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

42

When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.

43

Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.

44

Stay with him for a while until your brother's fury subsides.

45

When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"

46

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living."

Genesis 28

1

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman.

2

Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

3

May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.

4

May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham."

5

Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6

Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman,"

7

and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.

8

Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac;

9

so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

10

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

11

When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

12

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13

There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

14

Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

15

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

16

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."

17

He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."

18

Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

19

He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.

20

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear

21

so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God

22

and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."

Obadiah

1

The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom-- We have heard a message from the LORD: An envoy was sent to the nations to say, "Rise, and let us go against her for battle"--

2

"See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.

3

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, `Who can bring me down to the ground?'

4

Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.

5

"If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night-- Oh, what a disaster awaits you-- would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes?

6

But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!

7

All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

8

"In that day," declares the LORD, "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

9

Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau's mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.

10

Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.

11

On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

12

You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

13

You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.

14

You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.

15

"The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.

16

Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been.

17

But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance.

18

The house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame; the house of Esau will be stubble, and they will set it on fire and consume it. There will be no survivors from the house of Esau." The LORD has spoken.

19

People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20

This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan will possess [the land] as far as Zarephath; the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev.

21

Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the LORD's. .

Malachi 1:1-4

1

An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi.

2

"I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, `How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob,

3

but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

4

Edom may say, "Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins." But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD.

Romans 9:10-13

10

Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac.

11

Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad--in order that God's purpose in election might stand:

12

not by works but by him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger."

13

Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

Sisters Sisters

Genesis 16:15

7

Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

8

Then Rachel said, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won." So she named him Naphtali.

9

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Jacob did not learn about the preference of one over another.

Genesis 33:1-5

1

Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants.

2

He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.

3

He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.

4

But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.

5

Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. "Who are these with you?" he asked. Jacob answered, "They are the children God has graciously given your servant."

Genesis 37

1

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.

4

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

6

He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:

7

We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."

8

His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

9

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

10

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"

11

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

12

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem,

13

and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them." "Very well," he replied.

14

So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,

15

a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"

16

He replied, "I'm looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?"

17

"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, `Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

18

But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19

"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other.

20

"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."

21

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.

22

"Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe--the richly ornamented robe he was wearing--

24

and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25

As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26

Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

27

Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.

28

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

29

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

30

He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?"

31

Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

32

They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."

33

He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."

34

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.

35

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.

36

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

Who get's the glory.

Numbers 12:1-5

1

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.

2

"Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this.

3

(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

4

At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out.

5

Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,

6

he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.

7

But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.

8

With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

9

The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.

10

When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam--leprous, ^[1] like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy;

11

and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.

12

Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away."

13

So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!"

14

The LORD replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back."

15

So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

16

After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.

1. [10] The Hebrew word was used for various diseases affecting the skin--not necessarily leprosy.

God makes the choices by the heart.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

1

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

2

But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me." The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, `I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'

3

Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."

4

Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"

5

Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

6

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."

7

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

8

Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either."

9

Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one."

10

Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these."

11

So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."

12

So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."

13

So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

1 Samuel 17:22-31

22

David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers.

23

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.

24

When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.

25

Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."

26

David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

27

They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."

28

When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."

29

"Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?"

30

He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.

31

What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

revenge

2 Samuel 13:1-2

1

In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David.

2

Amnon became frustrated to the point of illness on account of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.

2 Samuel 13:27-29

27

But Absalom urged him, so he sent with him Amnon and the rest of the king's sons.

28

Absalom ordered his men, "Listen! When Amnon is in high spirits from drinking wine and I say to you, `Strike Amnon down,' then kill him. Don't be afraid. Have not I given you this order? Be strong and brave."

29

So Absalom's men did to Amnon what Absalom had ordered. Then all the king's sons got up, mounted their mules and fled.