Joseph is a fruitful bough, ¹  a fruitful bough near a spring whose branches ²  climb over the wall.

He added, “Just name your wages – I’ll pay whatever you want.” ¹ 

May Dan be a snake beside the road, a viper by the path, that bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward. ¹ 

My father may touch me! Then he’ll think I’m mocking him ¹  and I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, ¹  my son! Just obey me! ²  Go and get them for me!”

But Jacob ¹  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ²  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ³  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, ¹  and I’ll give ²  whatever you ask ³  of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”

Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. ¹  Simeon is gone. ²  And now you want to take ³  Benjamin! Everything is against me.”

As for you, you meant to harm me, ¹  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ² 

Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? ¹  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ² 

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ¹  on me by making me a foul odor ²  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ³  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ¹  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ²