&#8220;Listen, sir,<n id="1" /> you are a mighty prince<n id="2" /> among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you<n id="3" /> from burying your dead.&#8221;p>

I am the God of Bethel,<n id="1" /> where you anointed<n id="2" /> the sacred stone and made a vow to me.<n id="3" /> Now leave this land immediately<n id="4" /> and return to your native land.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up<n id="1" /> and saw<n id="2" /> a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt.<n id="3" />

While she was giving birth, one child<n id="1" /> put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, &#8220;This one came out first.&#8221;

Early in the morning the men made a treaty with each other.<n id="1" /> Isaac sent them off; they separated on good terms.<n id="2" />p>

They got their gifts ready for Joseph&#8217;s arrival<n id="1" /> at noon, for they had heard<n id="2" /> that they were to have a meal<n id="3" /> there.p>

<p class="bodytext">But he urged<n id="1" /> 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.

He looked out toward<n id="1" /> Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region.<n id="2" /> As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace.<n id="3" />p>

My master made me swear an oath. He said, &#8216;You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,

Joseph said to them, &#8220;What did you think you were doing?<n id="1" /> Don&#8217;t you know that a man like me can find out things like this by divination?&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">To Sarah he said, &#8220;Look, I have given a thousand pieces of silver<n id="1" /> to your &#8216;brother.&#8217;<n id="2" /> This is compensation for you so that you will stand vindicated before all who are with you.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

Here I am, standing by the spring.<n id="1" /> When<n id="2" /> the young woman goes out to draw water, I&#8217;ll say, &#8220;Give me a little water to drink from your jug.&#8221;

He reached a certain place<n id="1" /> where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down.<n id="2" /> He took one of the stones<n id="3" /> and placed it near his head.<n id="4" /> Then he fell asleep<n id="5" /> in that place

<p class="bodytext">Early<n id="1" /> in the morning Jacob<n id="2" /> took the stone he had placed near his head<n id="3" /> and set it up as a sacred stone.<n id="4" /> Then he poured oil on top of it.

So Leah became pregnant<n id="1" /> and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,<n id="2" /> for she said, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> has looked with pity on my oppressed condition.<n id="3" /> Surely my husband will love me now.&#8221;p>

she called for her household servants and said to them, &#8220;See, my husband brought<n id="1" /> in a Hebrew man<n id="2" /> to us to humiliate us.<n id="3" /> He tried to have sex with me,<n id="4" /> but I screamed loudly.<n id="5" />

His sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. This is the field Abraham purchased as a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite.

<p class="bodytext">So Joseph made it a statute,<n id="1" /> which is in effect<n id="2" /> to this day throughout the land of Egypt: One-fifth belongs to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh&#8217;s.p>

He said to me, &#8216;I am going to make you fruitful<n id="1" /> and will multiply you.<n id="2" /> I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants<n id="3" /> as an everlasting possession.&#8217;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">And God said, &#8220;This is the guarantee<n id="1" /> of the covenant I am making<n id="2" /> with you<n id="3" /> and every living creature with you, a covenant<n id="4" /> for all subsequent<n id="5" /> generations: