For the household gods have spoken wickedness, the soothsayers have seen a lie, and as for the dreamers, they have disclosed emptiness and give comfort in vain. Therefore the people set out like sheep and become scattered because they have no shepherd.

So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do, and Lot went with him. (Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.)

So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!”

And let me get a bit of food so that you may refresh yourselves since you have passed by your servant’s home. After that you may be on your way.” “All right,” they replied, “you may do as you say.”

Abraham spoke to him again, “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”

Then Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak! What if thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

Finally Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

“Very well,” he replied, “I will grant this request too and will not overthrow the town you mentioned.

Early in the morning Abimelech summoned all his servants. When he told them about all these things, they were terrified.

Then he said to them, “If you agree that I may bury my dead, then hear me out. Ask Ephron the son of Zohar

Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. Our wishes are of no concern.

Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back,

Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father tell your brother Esau,

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, “Be careful that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.”

But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully when they spoke because Shechem had violated their sister Dinah.

So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it.

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly.

Even though she continued to speak to Joseph day after day, he did not respond to her invitation to have sex with her.