36 This is the genealogy of ‘Esav (that is, Edom). ² ‘Esav chose Kena‘ani women as his wives: ‘Adah the daughter of Eilon the Hitti; Oholivamah the daughter of ‘Anah the daughter of Tziv‘on the Hivi; ³ and Basmat Yishma‘el’s daughter, sister of N’vayot. ⁴ ‘Adah bore to ‘Esav Elifaz, Basmat bore Re‘u’el, ⁵ and Oholivamah bore Ye‘ush, Ya‘lam and Korach. These were the sons of ‘Esav born to him in the land of Kena‘an.

⁶ ‘Esav took his wives, his sons and daughters, the others in his household, his cattle and other animals and everything else he owned, which he had acquired in the land of Kena‘an, and went off to a country distant from his brother Ya‘akov. ⁷ For their possessions had become too great for them to live together, and the countryside through which they were traveling couldn’t support so much livestock. ⁸ So ‘Esav lived in the hill-country of Se‘ir. (‘Esav is Edom.)

⁹ This is the genealogy of ‘Esav the father of Edom in the hill-country of Se‘ir. ¹⁰ The names of ‘Esav’s sons were Elifaz, son of ‘Adah the wife of ‘Esav, and Re‘u’el the son of Basmat the wife of ‘Esav.

¹¹ The sons of Elifaz were Teman, Omar, Tzefo, Ga‘tam and K’naz. ¹² Timnah was the concubine of Elifaz ‘Esav’s son, and she bore to Elifaz ‘Amalek. These were the descendants of ‘Adah ‘Esav’s wife.

¹³ The sons of Re‘u’el were Nachat, Zerach, Shammah and Mizah. These were the sons of Basmat ‘Esav’s wife.

¹⁴ These were the sons of Oholivamah, the daughter of ‘Anah the daughter of Tziv‘on, ‘Esav’s wife: she bore to ‘Esav Ye‘ush, Ya‘lam and Korach.

¹⁵ The chieftains of the sons of ‘Esav were the sons of Elifaz the firstborn of ‘Esav and the chieftains of Teman, Omar, Tzefo, K’naz, ¹⁶ Korach, Ga‘tam and ‘Amalek. These were the chieftains descended from Elifaz in Edom and from ‘Adah.

¹⁷ The sons of Re‘u’el ‘Esav’s son were the chieftains of Nachat, Zerach, Shammah and Mizah. These were the chieftains descended from Re‘u’el in the land of Edom and from Basmat ‘Esav’s wife.

¹⁸ The sons of Oholivamah ‘Esav’s wife were the chieftains of Ye‘ush, Ya‘lam and Korach. These were the chieftains descended from Oholivamah the daughter of ‘Anah, ‘Esav’s wife.

¹⁹ These were the descendants of ‘Esav (that is, Edom), and these were their chieftains.

(vii) ²⁰ These were the descendants of Se‘ir the Hori, the local inhabitants: Lotan, Shoval, Tziv‘on, ‘Anah, ²¹ Dishon, Etzer and Dishan. They were the chieftains descended from the Hori, the people of Se‘ir in the land of Edom. ²² The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan’s sister was Timnah. ²³ The sons of Shoval were ‘Alvan, Manachat, ‘Eival, Sh’fo and Onam. ²⁴ The sons of Tziv‘on were Ayah and ‘Anah. This is the ‘Anah who found the hot springs in the desert while pasturing his father Tziv‘on’s donkeys. ²⁵ The children of ‘Anah were Dishon and Oholivamah the daughter of ‘Anah. ²⁶ The sons of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Yitran and K’ran. ²⁷ The sons of Etzer were Bilhan, Za‘avan and ‘Akan. ²⁸ The sons of Dishan were ‘Utz and Aran. ²⁹ These were the chieftains descended from the Hori: the chieftains of Lotan, Shoval, Tziv‘on, ‘Anah, ³⁰ Dishon, Etzer and Dishan. They were the chieftains descended from the Hori by their clans in Se‘ir.

³¹ Following are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king had reigned over the people of Isra’el. ³² Bela the son of B‘or reigned in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhavah. ³³ When Bela died, Yovav the son of Zerach from Botzrah reigned in his place. ³⁴ When Yovav died, Husham from the land of the Temani reigned in his place. ³⁵ When Husham died, Hadad the son of B’dad, who killed Midyan in the field of Mo’av, reigned in his place; the name of his city was ‘Avit. ³⁶ When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place. ³⁷ When Samlah died, Sha’ul of Rechovot-by-the-River reigned in his place. ³⁸ When Sha’ul died, Ba‘al-Chanan the son of ‘Akhbor reigned in his place. ³⁹ When Ba‘al-Chanan died, Hadar reigned in his place; the name of his city was Pa’u; and his wife’s name was M’heitav’el the daughter of Matred the daughter of Mei-Zahav.

(Maftir) ⁴⁰ These are the names of the chieftains descended from ‘Esav, according to their clans, places and names: the chieftains of Timna, ‘Alvah, Y’tet, ⁴¹ Oholivamah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴² Kenaz, Teman, Mivtzar, ⁴³ Magdi’el and ‘Iram. These were the chieftains of Edom according to their settlements in the land they owned. This is ‘Esav the father of Edom.

Haftarah Vayishlach: Hoshea (Hosea) 11:7–12:12(11) (A); ‘Ovadyah (Obadiah) 1–21 (S)

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Vayishlach: 1 Corinthians 5:1–13; Revelation 7:1–12

13 It was in the eighteenth year of King Yarov‘am that Aviyah began his reign over Y’hudah. ² He ruled three years in Yerushalayim; his mother’s name was Mikhayahu the daughter of Uri’el from Giv‘ah.

There was war between Aviyah and Yarov‘am. ³ Aviyah joined the battle with an army of valiant soldiers, 400,000 select troops; while Yarov‘am took the field against him with 800,000 select troops who were valiant, strong men.

⁴ Aviyah, standing on Mount Z’marayim, in the hills of Efrayim, cried, “Yarov‘am and all Isra’el! Listen to me! ⁵ Don’t you know that Adonai, the God of Isra’el, gave rulership over Isra’el to David forever, to him and his descendants, by a covenant of salt [which is unbreakable]? ⁶ Yet Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, servant to Shlomo the son of David, rose in rebellion against his lord. ⁷ There rallied around him worthless brutes who were too strong for Rechav‘am the son of Shlomo to withstand when he was young and inexperienced. ⁸ Now you expect to withstand the kingdom of Adonai in the hands of the descendants of David. Yes, there are a great number of you, and you have with you the gold calves that Yarov‘am made as gods for you. ⁹ Yes, you drove out the cohanim of Adonai, the descendants of Aharon, and the L’vi’im; and you made yourselves priests as do the peoples in other countries, so that anyone who comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of those non-gods.

¹⁰ “But we are different. Adonai is our God, and we have not abandoned him. We have cohanim performing the service for Adonai, descendants of Aharon. With the L’vi’im doing their work, ¹¹ they burn to Adonai every morning and evening burnt offerings and sweet incense; they arrange the showbread on the pure table, and they prepare the gold menorah with its lamps to burn every evening. For we observe the order of Adonai our God. But you have abandoned him.

¹² “So look here! God is with us, leading us and his cohanim with the battle trumpets to sound an alarm against you. People of Isra’el! Don’t fight against Adonai, the God of your ancestors; because you will not succeed.”

¹³ But Yarov‘am prepared to ambush them from behind, so that the main body was ahead of Y’hudah, while the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴ Thus when Y’hudah looked back, the battle had to be fought in front of them and behind them.

They cried to Adonai, and the cohanim sounded the trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men of Y’hudah gave forth a shout, and as the men of Y’hudah shouted, God struck Yarov‘am and all Isra’el before Aviyah and Y’hudah. ¹⁶ The people of Isra’el fled before Y’hudah, and God handed them over to them. ¹⁷ Aviyah and his army inflicted a great slaughter on them — 500,000 of Isra’el’s select soldiers fell dead. ¹⁸ Thus the people of Isra’el were subdued that time, and the people of Y’hudah won the victory, because they relied on Adonai the God of their ancestors. ¹⁹ Aviyah pursued Yarov‘am, taking from him the towns of Beit-El with its villages, Y’shanah with its villages and ‘Efrayin with its villages. ²⁰ Yarov‘am did not recover his strength during the time of Aviyahu. Finally Adonai struck him, and he died. ²¹ But Aviyahu grew strong; he married fourteen wives and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²² Other activities of Aviyah, together with his ways of doing things and his sayings, are recorded in the commentary of the prophet ‘Iddo. ^23 (14:1) Aviyah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son became king in his place; during his time the land was quiet for ten years.

⁸ Now Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great miracles and signs among the people. ⁹ But opposition arose from members of the Synagogue of the Freed Slaves (as it was called), composed of Cyrenians, Alexandrians and people from Cilicia and the province of Asia. They argued with Stephen, ¹⁰ but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by which he spoke.

¹¹ So they secretly persuaded some men to allege, “We heard him speak blasphemously against Moshe and against God.” ¹² They stirred up the people, as well as the elders and the Torah-teachers; so they came and arrested him and led him before the Sanhedrin. ¹³ There they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the Torah; ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that Yeshua from Natzeret will destroy this place and will change the customs Moshe handed down to us.”

¹⁵ Everyone sitting in the Sanhedrin stared at Stephen and saw that his face looked like the face of an angel.

7 The cohen hagadol asked, “Are these accusations true?” ² and Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to Avraham avinu in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran ³ and said to him, ‘Leave your land and your family, and go into the land that I will show you.’^{[a] 4} So he left the land of the Kasdim and lived in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this land where you are living now. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it, not even space for one foot;^[b] yet he promised to give it to him as a possession and to his descendants after him,^[c] even though at the time he was childless. ⁶ What God said to him was, ‘Your descendants will be aliens in a foreign land, where they will be in slavery and oppressed for four hundred years. ⁷ But I will judge the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.’^{[d] 8} And he gave him b’rit-milah. So he became the father of Yitz’chak and did his b’rit-milah on the eighth day, and Yitz’chak became the father of Ya‘akov, and Ya‘akov became the father of the Twelve Patriarchs.

⁹ “Now the Patriarchs grew jealous of Yosef and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But Adonai was with him;^{[e] 10} he rescued him from all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him chief administrator over Egypt and over all his household.^{[f] 11} Now there came a famine that caused much suffering throughout Egypt and Kena‘an^{[g] 12} But when Ya‘akov heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ The second time, Yosef revealed his identity to his brothers,^[h] and Yosef’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Yosef then sent for his father Ya‘akov and all his relatives, seventy-five people. ¹⁵ And Ya‘akov went down to Egypt; there he died, as did our other ancestors. ¹⁶ Their bodies were removed to Sh’khem and buried in the tomb Avraham had bought from the family of Hamor in Sh’khem for a certain sum of money.

¹⁷ “As the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise God had made to Avraham, the number of our people in Egypt increased greatly, ¹⁸ until there arose another king over Egypt who had no knowledge of Yosef.^{[i] 19} With cruel cunning this man forced our fathers to put their newborn babies outside their homes, so that they would not survive.

²⁰ “It was then that Moshe was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. For three months he was reared in his father’s house; ²¹ and when he was put out of his home, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. ²² So Moshe was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became both a powerful speaker and a man of action.

²³ “But when he was forty years old, the thought came to him to visit his brothers, the people of Isra’el. ²⁴ On seeing one of them being mistreated, he went to his defense and took revenge by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed his brothers would understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn’t understand. ²⁶ When he appeared the next day, as they were fighting, and tried to make peace between them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why do you want to hurt each other?’ ²⁷ the one who was mistreating his fellow pushed Moshe away and said, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me, the way you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’^{[j] 29} On hearing this, Moshe fled the country and became an exile in the land of Midyan, where he had two sons.

³⁰ “After forty more years, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flames of a burning thorn bush. ³¹ When Moshe saw this, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to get a better look, there came the voice of Adonai, ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.’ But Moshe trembled with fear and didn’t dare to look. ³³ Adonai said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have clearly seen how My people are being oppressed in Egypt, I have heard their cry, and I have come down to rescue them, and now I will send you to Egypt.’^[k]

³⁵ “This Moshe, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ is the very one whom God sent as both ruler and ransomer by means of the angel that appeared to him in the thorn bush. ³⁶ This man led them out, performing miracles and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is the Moshe who said to the people of Isra’el, ‘God will raise up a prophet like me from among your brothers’^{[l] 38} This is the man who was in the assembly in the wilderness, accompanied by the angel that had spoken to him at Mount Sinai and by our fathers, the man who was given living words to pass on to us.

³⁹ “But our fathers did not want to obey him. On the contrary, they rejected him and in their hearts turned to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aharon, ‘Make us some gods to lead us; because this Moshe, who led us out of Egypt — we don’t know what has become of him.’^{[m] 41} That was when they made an idol in the shape of a calf and offered a sacrifice to it and held a celebration in honor of what they had made with their own hands. ⁴² So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars^[n] — as has been written in the book of the prophets,

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the Tent of Witness in the wilderness. It had been made just as God, who spoke to Moshe, had ordered it made, according to the pattern Moshe had seen. ⁴⁵ Later on, our fathers who had received it brought it in with Y’hoshua when they took the Land away from the nations that God drove out before them.

“So it was until the days of David. ⁴⁶ He enjoyed God’s favor and asked if he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Ya‘akov ⁴⁷ and Shlomo did build him a house. ⁴⁸ But Ha‘Elyon does not live in places made by hand! As the prophet says,

⁵¹ “Stiffnecked people,^[q] with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^[r] You continually oppose the Ruach HaKodesh!^[s] You do the same things your fathers did! ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who told in advance about the coming of the Tzaddik, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers! — ⁵³ you! — who receive the Torah as having been delivered by angels — but do not keep it!”

⁵⁴ On hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Ruach HaKodesh, looked up to heaven and saw God’s Sh’khinah, with Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look!” he exclaimed, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”^[t]

⁵⁷ At this, they began yelling at the top of their voices, so that they wouldn’t have to hear him; and with one accord, they rushed at him, ⁵⁸ threw him outside the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.

⁵⁹ As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰ Then he kneeled down and shouted out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” With that, he died;