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Now Adam and Eve discovered the pleasures of lovemaking, and soon Eve conceived and gave birth to a son whom they named Cain. Eve (excited): Look, I have created a new human, a male child, with the help of the Eternal.
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Cain made love to his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Cain built a city there and named it Enoch after his son.
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Meanwhile, Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to another son and named him Seth. Eve (to herself): God has given me another child to replace Abel, since Cain killed him.
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As human beings began to multiply and spread across the surface of the earth as God commanded, they had lovely daughters.
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The sign that you and your family keep My covenant is this: each male who lives among you shall be circumcised. The circumcised flesh of your foreskins constitutes a special “sign” of the covenant I made with you, a relationship bonded together by loyalty and love.
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So Sarah laughed to herself, saying under her breath, “At my age—old and decrepit, as is my husband—both of us long past having any desire to engage in lovemaking?”
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Eternal One: Take your son, your only son Isaac whom I know you love deeply, and go to the land of Moriah. When you get there, I want you to offer Isaac to Me as a burnt offering on one of the mountains. I will show you which one.
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He said a prayer. Servant: O Eternal One, God of my master Abraham, please make me successful today and show Your loyal love to my master Abraham.
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Let the girl to whom I say, “Please dip your jar in the water that I may drink,” and who will reply, “Drink, and I will draw water for your camels”—let her be the one You have chosen to be a wife for Your servant Isaac. When You do this, I will know of Your loyal love for my master.
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Servant: Blessed be the Eternal One, the God of my master Abraham, who has not failed to show His loyal love and faithfulness to my master, for the Eternal has led me directly to the house of my master’s relatives.
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Now then, if you intend to show loyal love and faithfulness to my master, tell me. If not, also tell me, so that I know which way to go from here.
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Then Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took her as his wife and slept with her, and grew to love her deeply. In this way, Isaac found comfort in the wake of his mother’s death.
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There was no brightness to Leah’s eyes, but Rachel had a beautiful shape and was lovely to look at.
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Jacob truly loved Rachel. Jacob: I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll serve you for seven years in exchange for the hand of your younger daughter Rachel in marriage.
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So Jacob served Laban for seven years in exchange for Rachel. The years went by quickly and seemed to him to be only a few days because of the immense love he had for her.
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Then Jacob also slept with Rachel, and he clearly loved Rachel more than Leah. As agreed, he served Laban for another seven years.
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Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben. Leah: Because the Eternal One has been compassionate to me in my painful predicament, allowing me to bear this child, surely now my husband will love me.
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I know I am not worthy of even a little of all of the loyal love and faithfulness You have shown to me, Your servant. You have already blessed me because I left home and crossed the Jordan with nothing except my staff. Now I have grown into two large camps.
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His soul was drawn to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with her and spoke tenderly to her.
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God (to Jacob): Get up, go back to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar to Me, to the God who appeared to you when you ran away from your brother, Esau.
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Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other children because he came along when he was an old man. So Israel presented Joseph with a special robe he had made for him—a spectacularly colorful robe with long sleeves in it.
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But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than the rest, they grew to hate him and couldn’t find it in themselves to speak to him without resentment or argument.
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But the Eternal One remained with Joseph and showed him His loyal love and granted him favored status with the chief jailor.
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and we told you, “Yes. We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him dearly.”
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Naphtali is a beautiful doe, wild and free, that bears lovely fawns.
