Old/New Testament
Jacob Meets Esau
33 Jacob looked and saw Esau coming with 400 men. Jacob divided his family into four groups. Leah and her children were in one group, Rachel and Joseph were in one group, and the two maids and their children were in two groups. 2 Jacob put the maids with their children first. Then he put Leah and her children behind them, and he put Rachel and Joseph in the last place.
3 Jacob himself went out before them. While he was walking toward his brother Esau, he bowed down to the ground seven times.
4 When Esau saw Jacob, he ran to meet him. He put his arms around Jacob, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both cried. 5 Esau looked up and saw the women and children. He said, “Who are all these people with you?”
Jacob answered, “These are the children that God gave me. God has been good to me.”
6 Then the two maids and the children with them went to Esau. They bowed down before him. 7 Then Leah and the children with her went to Esau and bowed down. And then Rachel and Joseph went to him and bowed down.
8 Esau said, “Who were all those people I saw while I was coming here? And what were all those animals for?”
Jacob answered, “These are my gifts to you so that you might accept me.”
9 But Esau said, “You don’t have to give me gifts, brother. I have enough for myself.”
10 Jacob said, “No, I beg you! If you really accept me, please accept the gifts I give you. I am very happy to see your face again. It is like seeing the face of God. I am very happy to see that you accept me. 11 So I beg you to also accept the gifts I give you. God has been very good to me. I have more than I need.” Because Jacob begged Esau to take the gifts, he accepted them.
12 Then Esau said, “Now you can continue your journey. I will go with you.”
13 But Jacob said to him, “You know that my children are weak. And I must be careful with my flocks and their young animals. If I force them to walk too far in one day, all the animals will die. 14 So you go on ahead. I will follow you slowly. I will go slowly enough for the cattle and other animals to be safe and so that my children will not get too tired. I will meet you in Seir.”
15 So Esau said, “Then I will leave some of my men to help you.”
But Jacob said, “That is very kind of you, but there is no need to do that.” 16 So that day Esau started on his trip back to Seir. 17 But Jacob went to Succoth.[a] There he built a house for himself and small barns for his cattle. That is why the place was named Succoth.
18 Jacob safely ended his trip from Paddan Aram when he came to the town of Shechem in Canaan. He made his camp in a field near the city. 19 He bought the field where he camped from the family of Hamor, father of Shechem. He paid 100 pieces of silver for it. 20 He built an altar there to honor God. He named the place “El,[b] the God of Israel.”
The Rape of Dinah
34 One day, Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to see the women of that place. 2 She was seen by Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area. Shechem took Dinah and raped her. 3 But he was so attracted to her that he fell in love and began expressing his feelings to her. 4 He told his father, “Please get this girl for me so that I can marry her.”
5 Jacob learned that Shechem had done this very bad thing to his daughter. But all his sons were out in the fields with the cattle. So he did nothing until they came home. 6 Then Shechem’s father, Hamor, came out to talk with Jacob.
7 In the fields Jacob’s sons heard the news about what had happened. They were very angry because Shechem had brought shame to Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter. They came in from the fields as soon as they heard about the terrible thing Shechem had done.
8 But Hamor talked to Dinah’s brothers and said, “My son Shechem wants Dinah very much. Please let him marry her. 9 This marriage will show we have a special agreement. Then our men can marry your women, and your men can marry our women. 10 You can live in the same land with us. You will be free to own the land and to trade here.”
11 Shechem also talked to Jacob and to Dinah’s brothers and said, “Please accept me. I will do anything you ask me to do. 12 I will give you any gift[c] you want if you will only allow me to marry Dinah. I will give you anything you ask, but let me marry her.”
13 Jacob’s sons decided to lie to Shechem and his father because Shechem had done such a bad thing to their sister Dinah. 14 The brothers said to them, “We cannot allow our sister to marry you because you are not yet circumcised. That would bring us shame. 15 But we will allow you to marry her if you do this one thing: Every man in your town must be circumcised like us. 16 Then your men can marry our women, and our men can marry your women. Then we will become one people. 17 If you refuse to be circumcised, we will take Dinah away.”
18 This agreement made Hamor and Shechem very happy. 19 Shechem was very happy to do what Dinah’s brothers asked.
Shechem was the most honored man in his family. 20 Hamor and Shechem went to the meeting place of their city. They spoke to the men of the city and said, 21 “These people want to be friends with us. We want to let them live in our land and be at peace with us. We have enough land for all of us. We are free to marry their women, and we are happy to give them our women to marry. 22 But there is one thing that all our men must agree to do. They must agree to be circumcised as they are. 23 If we do this, we will become rich from all their cattle and other animals. We should make this agreement with them so that they will stay here with us.” 24 All the men who heard this in the meeting place agreed with Hamor and Shechem. And every man was circumcised at that time.
25 Three days later the men who were circumcised were still sore. Two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, knew that the men would be weak at this time. So they went to the city and killed all the men there. 26 Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, killed Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left. 27 Jacob’s sons went to the city and stole everything that was there because of what Shechem had done to their sister. 28 So the brothers took all their animals, all their donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. 29 The brothers took everything those people owned. They even took their wives and children.
30 But Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have caused me a lot of trouble. All the people in this place will hate me. All the Canaanites and the Perizzites will turn against me. There are only a few of us. If the people in this place gather together to fight against us, I will be destroyed. And all our people will be destroyed with me.”
31 But the brothers said, “Should we let these people treat our sister like a prostitute? They were wrong to do that to our sister!”
Jacob in Bethel
35 God said to Jacob, “Go to the town of Bethel.[d] That is where I appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau. Live there and make an altar to honor me as El,[e] the God who appeared to you.”
2 So Jacob told his family and all the other people with him, “Destroy all these foreign gods that you have. Make yourselves pure. Put on clean clothes. 3 We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to the God who has always helped me during times of trouble. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”
4 So the people gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and they gave him all the rings they were wearing in their ears. He buried everything under an oak tree near the town called Shechem.
5 Then Jacob and his sons left that place. The people in the surrounding cities wanted to follow and kill them, but God filled them with such great fear that they did not go after them. 6 So Jacob and his people went to Luz, which is now called Bethel. It is in the land of Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there. He named the place “El Bethel.”[f] Jacob chose this name because that is the place where God first appeared to him when he was running from his brother.
8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died there. They buried her under the oak tree at Bethel. They named that place Allon Bacuth.[g]
Jacob’s New Name
9 When Jacob came back from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again. God blessed Jacob 10 and said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but I will change that name. You will no longer be called Jacob. Your new name will be Israel.[h]” So God named him Israel.
11 God said to him, “I am God All-Powerful,[i] and I give you this blessing: Have many children and grow into a great nation. Other nations and other kings will come out of you. 12 I gave Abraham and Isaac some special land. Now I give the land to you and to all your people who will live after you.” 13 Then God left that place. 14-15 Jacob set up a memorial stone there. He made the rock holy by pouring wine and oil on it. This was a special place because God spoke to Jacob there, and Jacob named the place Bethel.
Rachel Dies Giving Birth
16 Jacob and his group left Bethel. Before they came to Ephrath, Rachel began giving birth to her baby. 17 She was having a lot of trouble with this birth. She was in great pain. When her nurse saw this, she said, “Don’t be afraid, Rachel. You are giving birth to another son.”
18 Rachel died while giving birth to the son. Before dying, she named the boy Benoni.[j] But Jacob called him Benjamin.[k]
19 Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Jacob put a special rock on Rachel’s grave to honor her. That special rock is still there today. 21 Then Israel continued his journey. He camped just south of Eder tower.[l]
22 Israel stayed there for a short time. While he was there, Reuben slept with Israel’s slave woman Bilhah. Israel heard about this, and he was very angry.[m]
The Family of Israel (Jacob)
These are the names of Jacob’s twelve sons:
23 His firstborn son was Reuben, whose mother was Leah. Jacob’s other sons by Leah were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24 His sons by Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
25 His sons by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, were Dan and Naphtali.
26 His sons by Zilpah, Leah’s maid, were Gad and Asher.
These were Jacob’s sons who were born in Paddan Aram.
27 Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba (Hebron). This is where Abraham and Isaac had lived. 28 Isaac lived 180 years. 29 Then Isaac became weak and died and went to be with his people. He had lived a long and full life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Jesus Sends His Apostles on a Mission(A)
10 Jesus called his twelve followers together. He gave them power over evil spirits and power to heal every kind of disease and sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles:
Simon (also called Peter),
Andrew, the brother of Peter,
James, the son of Zebedee,
John, the brother of James,
3 Philip,
Bartholomew,
Thomas,
Matthew, the tax collector,
James, the son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus,
4 Simon, the Zealot,
Judas Iscariot (the one who handed Jesus over to his enemies).
5 Jesus sent the twelve men out with these instructions: “Don’t go to the non-Jewish people. And don’t go into any town where the Samaritans live. 6 But go to the people of Israel. They are like sheep that are lost. 7 When you go, tell them this: ‘God’s kingdom is now very near.[a]’ 8 Heal the sick. Bring the dead back to life. Heal the people who have leprosy. And force demons out of people. I give you these powers freely, so help others freely. 9 Don’t carry any money with you—gold or silver or copper. 10 Don’t carry a bag. Take only the clothes and sandals you are wearing. And don’t take a walking stick. A worker should be given what he needs.
11 “When you enter a city or town, find some worthy person there and stay in his home until you leave. 12 When you enter that home, say, ‘Peace be with you.’ 13 If the people in that home welcome you, they are worthy of your peace. May they have the peace you wished for them. But if they don’t welcome you, they are not worthy of your peace. Take back the peace you wished for them. 14 And if the people in a home or a town refuse to welcome you or listen to you, then leave that place and shake the dust off your feet.[b] 15 I can assure you that on the judgment day it will be worse for that town than for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jesus Warns About Troubles(B)
16 “Listen! I am sending you, and you will be like sheep among wolves. So be smart like snakes. But also be like doves and don’t hurt anyone. 17 Be careful! There are people who will arrest you and take you to be judged. They will whip you in their synagogues. 18 You will be taken to stand before governors and kings. People will do this to you because you follow me. You will tell about me to those kings and governors and to the non-Jewish people. 19 When you are arrested, don’t worry about what to say or how you should say it. At that time you will be given the words to say. 20 It will not really be you speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International