because we are about to destroy it. The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord that he has sent us to destroy it.”

He replied, “You must take these seven ewe lambs from my hand as legal proof that I dug this well.”

“I left secretly because I was afraid!” Jacob replied to Laban. “I thought you might take your daughters away from me by force.

“No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.”

for I really was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon.”

Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.

They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to have a meal there.

Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life!

When he sees a good resting place, and the pleasant land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and become a slave laborer.

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women – for the Hebrew women are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!”

Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.

They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

You must eat it in a holy place because it is your allotted portion and the allotted portion of your sons from the gifts of the Lord, for this is what I have been commanded.

for I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, and you are to be holy because I am holy.

for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life.

You must sanctify him because he presents the food of your God. He must be holy to you because I, the Lord who sanctifies you all, am holy.

For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”

Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land that flows with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Now do you want to make yourself a prince over us?

Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will.