But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world did you find it so quickly, my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” he replied.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you, my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau.”

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!”

“I have been with you for the past twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.

When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” “Why do you ask my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.

So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” “Why do that?” Jacob replied. “My lord has already been kind enough to me.”

When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.”

While she was giving birth, one child put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”

Doesn’t my master drink from this cup and use it for divination? You have done wrong!’”

If you take this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair in tragedy to the grave.’

For these past two years there has been famine in the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

opened it, and saw the child – a boy, crying! – and she felt compassion for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

He said to his daughters, “So where is he? Why in the world did you leave the man? Call him, so that he may eat a meal with us.”

Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Lord, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why did you ever send me?

“This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Each person is to gather from it what he can eat, an omer per person according to the number of your people; each one will pick it up for whoever lives in his tent.’”

Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered is to pay this: a half shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel weighs twenty gerahs). The half shekel is to be an offering to the Lord.

Moses spoke to the whole community of the Israelites, “This is the word that the Lord has commanded:

“‘These you can eat from all creatures that are in the water: Any creatures in the water that have both fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the streams, you may eat.