God's Good Purposes

¹⁵ When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.”

³⁶ And as for those of you who are left, ^(A)I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^(B)sound of a ^(C)driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues.

²¹ Then they said to one another, ^(A)“In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” ²² And Reuben answered them, ^(B)“Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now ^(C)there comes a reckoning for his blood.”

⁴¹ Now Esau ^(A)hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ^(B)“The days of mourning for my father are approaching; ^(C)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.

¹⁵ They show that the work of the law is ^(A)written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

¹⁷ And he put them all together in custody for three days.