When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do.

Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”

God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.

“God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together.

Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.

God paid attention to Leah; she became pregnant and gave Jacob a son for the fifth time.

Then Leah said, “God has granted me a reward because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife.” So she named him Issachar.

God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.

Jacob named the place where God spoke with him Bethel.

Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.”

So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, one in whom the Spirit of God is present?”

He named the second child Ephraim, saying, “Certainly God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am!”

But Joseph answered them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

God created the great sea creatures and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.”

Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?”

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over the earth and the waters receded.

So when God destroyed the cities of the region, God honored Abraham’s request. He removed Lot from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed the cities Lot had lived in.