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Cain and Abel
Adam made love to 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.”
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Cain made love to 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.
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Adam made love to 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.”
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The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
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When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
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Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
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Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
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Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
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Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
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When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
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He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.
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And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
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Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
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Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
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Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
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Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful.
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Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
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So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
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Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”
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But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her.
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Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
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Jacob’s Children
When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.
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Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”
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She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.
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His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.
