But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?”

But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.

Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house.

Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness. The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door.

For the Lord had caused infertility to strike every woman in the household of Abimelech because he took Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh

“Whose daughter are you?” he asked. “Tell me, is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

So Abraham’s servant went to the house and unloaded the camels. Straw and feed were given to the camels, and water was provided so that he and the men who were with him could wash their feet.

He answered, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you. He will make your journey a success and you will find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

Leave immediately for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”

Then this stone that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely give you back a tenth of everything you give me.”

Indeed, you had little before I arrived, but now your possessions have increased many times over. The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?”

When you searched through all my goods, did you find anything that belonged to you? Set it here before my relatives and yours, and let them settle the dispute between the two of us!

But Jacob traveled to Succoth where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called Succoth.

The young man did not delay in doing what they asked because he wanted Jacob’s daughter Dinah badly. (Now he was more important than anyone in his father’s household.)

They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left.

They captured as plunder all their wealth, all their little ones, and their wives, including everything in the houses.

So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.