Adam’s Godly Descendants—Adam to Enosh

Adam made love to his wife again. She gave birth to a son and named him Seth, because she said, “Elohim has given me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

Noah’s Family and the Ship

This is the account of Noah and his descendants. Noah had God’s approval and was a man of integrity among the people of his time. He walked with Elohim.

God Remembers Noah

Elohim remembered Noah and all the wild and domestic animals with him in the ship. So Elohim made a wind blow over the earth, and the water started to go down.

God Blesses Noah and His Sons

Elohim blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fertile, increase in number, and fill the earth.

God’s Promise—The Sign of the Rainbow

Elohim also said to Noah and his sons,

Then the Messenger of Yahweh said to her, “You are pregnant, and you will give birth to a son. You will name him Ishmael [God Hears], because Yahweh has heard your cry of distress.

I will make my promise to you and your descendants for generations to come as an everlasting promise. I will be your Elohim and the God of your descendants.

God Provides for Hagar and Ishmael

Yahweh came to help Sarah and did for her what he had promised.

God Tests Abraham

Later Elohim tested Abraham and called to him, “Abraham!” “Yes, here I am!” he answered.

Jacob’s First Encounter with God

Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.

He named that place Bethel [House of God]. Previously, the name of the city was Luz.

Jacob’s Second and Third Encounters with God

Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father and has gained all his wealth from him.”

Now you have left for your father’s home because you were so homesick. But why did you steal my gods?”

If you find your gods, the one who has them will not be allowed to live. In the presence of our relatives, search as much as you want through what I have, and take what is yours.” (Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen the gods.)

Jacob’s Fourth Encounter with God—He Wrestles with God

During that night he got up and gathered his two wives, his two slaves and his eleven children and crossed at the shallow part of the Jabbok River.

The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob but Israel [He Struggles With God], because you have struggled with Elohim and with men—and you have won.”

So Jacob named that place Peniel [Face of God], because he said, “I have seen Elohim face to face, but my life was saved.”

Jacob’s sons came in from the open country as soon as they heard the news. The men felt outraged and very angry because Shechem had committed such a godless act against Israel’s family by raping Jacob’s daughter. This shouldn’t have happened.

Jacob’s Fifth Encounter with God

Then Elohim said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there. I am the El who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

So Jacob said to his family and those who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods which you have, wash yourselves until you are ritually clean, and change your clothes.

So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had in their possession as well as the earrings that they had on. Jacob buried these things under the oak tree near Shechem.

He built an altar there and called that place El Bethel [God of the House of God]. That’s where Elohim had revealed himself to Jacob when he was fleeing from his brother.

Jacob’s Sixth Encounter with God—His Name Changed to Israel

Then Elohim appeared once more to Jacob after he came back from Paddan Aram, and he blessed him.

Jacob named the place where Elohim had spoken with him Bethel [House of God].

As Joseph looked around, he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son. “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” he asked. “God be gracious to you, my son,” he said.