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Genesis 36

Esau's Family

    ^4-5Esau and his three wives had five sons while in Canaan. Adah's son was Eliphaz; Basemath's son was Reuel; Oholibamah's three sons were Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

    ⁶Esau took his children and wives, his relatives and servants, his animals and possessions he had gotten while in Canaan, and moved far from Jacob. ⁷He did this because the land was too crowded and could not support him and his brother with their flocks and herds. ⁸That's why Esau made his home in the hill country of Seir.

    ^9-14Esau lived in the hill country of Seir and was the ancestor of the Edomites. Esau had three wives: Adah, Basemath, and Oholibamah. Here is a list of his descendants: Esau and Adah had a son named Eliphaz, whose sons were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. Timna was the other wife ^[a] of Esau's son Eliphaz, and she had a son named Amalek. Esau and Basemath had a son named Reuel, whose sons were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

   Esau and Oholibamah had three sons: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

Chiefs and Leaders in Edom

    ¹⁷The clans that descended from Esau and Basemath's son Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

    ¹⁸The clans that descended from Esau and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah were Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. ¹⁹All of these clans descended from Esau, who was known as Edom.

    ²⁰Seir was from the Horite tribe that had lived in Edom before the time of Esau. The clans that had descended from him were Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.

    ²²Lotan's sons were Hori and Heman; his sister was Timna.

    ²³Shobal's sons were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

    ²⁴Zibeon's sons were Aiah and Anah--the same Anah who found an oasis ^[b] in the desert while taking the donkeys of his father out to pasture. ²⁵Anah's children were Dishon and Oholibamah.

    ²⁶Dishon's sons were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

    ²⁷Ezer's sons were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

    ²⁸Dishan's sons were Uz and Aran.

    ²⁹The clans of the Horites were Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan, and they lived in the land of Seir.

    ^31-39Before there were kings in Israel, the following kings ruled Edom one after another:

   Bela son of Beor from Dinhabah;

   Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah;

   Husham from the land of Teman;

   Hadad son of Bedad from Avith (Bedad had defeated the Midianites in Moab);

   Samlah from Masrekah;

   Shaul from the city of Rehoboth on the Euphrates River;

   Baalhanan son of Achbor;

   Hadar from the city of Pau (his wife Mehetabel was the daughter of Matred and the granddaughter of Mezahab).

    ⁴⁰The clans that descended from Esau took their names from their families and the places where they lived. They are Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³Magdiel, and Iram. These clans descended from Esau, who was known as Edom, the father of the Edomites. They took their names from the places where they settled.

Genesis 37

Joseph and His Brothers

   When Jacob's son Joseph was seventeen years old, he took care of the sheep with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. ^[c] But he was always telling his father all sorts of bad things about his brothers. ³Jacob loved Joseph more than he did any of his other sons, because Joseph was born after Jacob was very old. Jacob had given Joseph a fancy coat ^{[d] 4}to show that he was his favorite son, and so Joseph's brothers hated him and would not be friendly to him. ⁵One day, Joseph told his brothers what he had dreamed, and they hated him even more. ⁶Joseph said, "Let me tell you about my dream. ⁷We were out in the field, tying up bundles of wheat. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles gathered around and bowed down to it."

    ⁸His brothers asked, "Do you really think you are going to be king and rule over us?" Now they hated Joseph more than ever because of what he had said about his dream.

    ⁹Joseph later had another dream, and he told his brothers, "Listen to what else I dreamed. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me."

    ¹⁰When he told his father about this dream, his father became angry and said, "What's that supposed to mean? Are your mother and I and your brothers all going to come and bow down in front of you?" ¹¹Joseph's brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept wondering about the dream.

Joseph Is Sold and Taken to Egypt

   "Yes, sir," Joseph answered.

    ¹⁴His father said, "Go and find out how your brothers and the sheep are doing. Then come back and let me know." So he sent him from Hebron Valley.

   Joseph was near Shechem ¹⁵and wandering through the fields, when a man asked, "What are you looking for?"

    ¹⁶Joseph answered, "I'm looking for my brothers who are watching the sheep. Can you tell me where they are?"

    ¹⁷"They're not here anymore," the man replied. "I overheard them say they were going to Dothan."

   Joseph left and found his brothers in Dothan. ¹⁸But before he got there, they saw him coming and made plans to kill him. ¹⁹They said to one another, "Look, here comes the hero of those dreams! ²⁰Let's kill him and throw him into a pit and say that some wild animal ate him. Then we'll see what happens to those dreams."

    ²¹Reuben heard this and tried to protect Joseph from them. "Let's not kill him," he said. ²²"Don't murder him or even harm him. Just throw him into a dry well out here in the desert." Reuben planned to rescue Joseph later and take him back to his father.

    ²³When Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his fancy coat ^{[e] 24}and threw him into a dry well. ²⁵As Joseph's brothers sat down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with all kinds of spices that they were taking to Egypt. ²⁶So Judah said, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and hide his body? ²⁷Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not harm him. After all, he is our brother." And the others agreed.

    ²⁸When the Midianite merchants came by, Joseph's brothers took him out of the well, and for twenty pieces of silver they sold him to the Ishmaelites ^[f] who took him to Egypt. ²⁹When Reuben returned to the well and did not find Joseph there, he tore his clothes in sorrow. ³⁰Then he went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone! What am I going to do?"

    ³¹Joseph's brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph's fancy coat in its blood. ³²After this, they took the coat to their father and said, "We found this! Look at it carefully and see if it belongs to your son."

    ³³Jacob knew it was Joseph's coat and said, "It's my son's coat! Joseph has been torn to pieces and eaten by some wild animal."

    ³⁴Jacob mourned for Joseph a long time, and to show his sorrow he tore his clothes and wore sackcloth. ^{[g] 35}All of Jacob's children came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "I will go to my grave, mourning for my son." So Jacob kept on grieving. ³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold Joseph in Egypt to a man named Potiphar, who was the king's ^[h] official in charge of the palace guard.

Genesis 38

Judah and Tamar

    ⁶Later, Judah chose Tamar as a wife for Er, his oldest son. ⁷But Er was very evil, and the LORD took his life. ⁸So Judah told Onan, "It's your duty to marry Tamar and have a child for your brother." ^{[i] 9}Onan knew the child would not be his, ^[j] and when he had sex with Tamar, he made sure that she would not get pregnant. ¹⁰The LORD wasn't pleased with Onan and took his life too. ¹¹Judah did not want the same thing to happen to his son Shelah, and he told Tamar, "Go home to your father and live there as a widow until my son Shelah is grown." So Tamar went to live with her father.

    ¹²Some years later Judah's wife died, and he mourned for her. He then went with his friend Hirah to the town of Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared. ¹³Tamar found out that her father-in-law Judah was going to Timnah to shear his sheep. ¹⁴She also realized that Shelah was now a grown man, but she had not been allowed to marry him. So she decided to dress in something other than her widow's clothes and to cover her face with a veil. After this, she sat outside the town of Enaim on the road to Timnah.

    ¹⁵When Judah came along, he did not recognize her because of the veil. He thought she was a prostitute ¹⁶and asked her to sleep with him. She asked, "What will you give me if I do?"

    ¹⁷"One of my young goats," he answered.

   "What will you give me to keep until you send the goat?" she asked.

    ¹⁸"What do you want?" he asked in return.

   "The ring on that cord around your neck," was her reply. "I also want the special walking stick ^[k] you have with you." He gave them to her, they slept together, and she became pregnant. ¹⁹After returning home, Tamar took off the veil and dressed in her widow's clothes again.

    ²⁰Judah had his friend Hirah take a goat to the woman, so he could get back the ring and walking stick, but she wasn't there. ²¹Hirah asked the people of Enaim, "Where is the prostitute who sat along the road outside your town?"

   "There's never been one here," they answered.

    ²²Hirah went back and told Judah, "I couldn't find the woman, and the people of Enaim said no prostitute had ever been there."

    ²³"If you couldn't find her, we'll just let her keep the things I gave her," Judah answered. "And we'd better forget about the goat, or else we'll look like fools."

    ²⁴About three months later someone told Judah, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar has behaved like a prostitute, and now she's pregnant!"

   "Drag her out of town and burn her to death!" Judah shouted.

    ²⁵As Tamar was being dragged off, she sent someone to tell her father-in-law, "The man who gave me this ring, this cord, and this walking stick is the one who got me pregnant."

    ²⁶"Those are mine!" Judah admitted. "She's a better person than I am, because I broke my promise to let her marry my son Shelah." After this, Judah never slept with her again.

    ^27-28Tamar later gave birth to twins. But before either of them was born, one of them stuck a hand out of her womb. The woman who was helping tied a red thread around the baby's hand and explained, "This one came out first."

    ²⁹Right away his hand went back in, and the other child was born first. The woman then said, "What an opening you've made for yourself!" So they named the baby Perez. ^{[l] 30}When the brother with the red thread came out, they named him Zerah. ^[m]

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²¹Brothers and sisters will betray one another and have each other put to death. Parents will betray their own children, and children will turn against their parents and have them killed. ²²Everyone will hate you because of me. But if you remain faithful until the end, you will be saved. ²³When people mistreat you in one town, hurry to another one. I promise you that before you have gone to all the towns of Israel, the Son of Man will come.

    ²⁴Disciples are not better than their teacher, and slaves are not better than their master. ²⁵It is enough for disciples to be like their teacher and for slaves to be like their master. If people call the head of the family Satan, what will they say about the rest of the family?

The One To Fear

(Luke 12.2-7)

Telling Others about Christ

(Luke 12.8,9)

Not Peace, but Trouble

(Luke 12.51-53; 14.26,27)

    ³⁷If you love your father or mother or even your sons and daughters more than me, you are not fit to be my disciples. ³⁸And unless you are willing to take up your cross and come with me, you are not fit to be my disciples. ³⁹If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.

Rewards

(Mark 9.41)