the deep waters! Grain from the Shihor region, crops grown near the Nile she receives; she is the trade center of the nations.

“You, my servant Israel, Jacob whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my friend,

I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah people to take possession of my mountains. My chosen ones will take possession of the land; my servants will live there.

I planted you in the land like a special vine of the very best stock. Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes?

He took one of the seedlings of the land, placed it in a cultivated plot; a shoot by abundant water, like a willow he planted it.

Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, I will restore them and show mercy to them.”

The land produced vegetation – plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

and also seven of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the earth.

“While the earth continues to exist, planting time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate the land.

“‘When a man has a seminal emission, he must bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until evening,

and he must wash in water any clothing or leather that has semen on it, and it will be unclean until evening.

Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, and you will live securely in your land.

“‘If a man consecrates to the Lord some of his own landed property, the conversion value must be calculated in accordance with the amount of seed needed to sow it, a homer of barley seed being priced at fifty shekels of silver.

and a man has sexual relations with her without her husband knowing it, and it is hidden that she has defiled herself, since there was no witness against her, nor was she caught –

Why have you brought us up from Egypt only to bring us to this dreadful place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink!”

In fact, days are coming when I will remove your strength and the strength of your father’s house. There will not be an old man in your house!

With the stones he constructed an altar for the Lord. Around the altar he made a trench large enough to contain two seahs of seed.

When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she was determined to destroy the entire royal line.

So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.