(Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle ¹  and sat on them.) ²  Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them. ³ 

I am not worthy of all the faithful love ¹  you have shown ²  your servant. With only my walking stick ³  I crossed the Jordan, ⁴  but now I have become two camps.

Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild ¹  animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” ² 

So Potiphar ¹  left ²  everything he had in Joseph’s care; ³  he gave no thought ⁴  to anything except the food he ate. ⁵  Now Joseph was well built and good-looking. ⁶ 

So Abram left, ¹  just as the Lord had told him to do, ²  and Lot went with him. (Now ³  Abram was 75 years old ⁴  when he departed from Haran.)

So there were quarrels ¹  between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. ²  (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.) ³ 

Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes, squeezed them into his ¹  cup, and put the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” ² 

Now ¹  the man had marital relations with ²  his wife Eve, and she became pregnant ³  and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created ⁴  a man just as the Lord did!” ⁵ 

Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. ¹  When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, ² 

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ¹  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ²  but some survivors ³  fled to the hills. ⁴ 

Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac ¹  named it ²  Rehoboth, ³  saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.”

Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. ¹  An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, ²  purchased him from ³  the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. ¹  Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down ²  before him with ³  their faces to the ground.

When the men got up to leave, ¹  they looked out over ²  Sodom. (Now ³  Abraham was walking with them to see them on their way.) ⁴ 

(Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite ¹  replied to Abraham in the hearing ²  of the sons of Heth – before all who entered the gate ³  of his city –

Now swear to me right here in God’s name ¹  that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. ²  Show me, and the land ³  where you are staying, ⁴  the same loyalty ⁵  that I have shown you.” ⁶ 

So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser ¹  to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My father, my brothers, their flocks and herds, and all that they own have arrived from the land of Canaan. They are now ¹  in the land of Goshen.”

The young man did not delay in doing what they asked ¹  because he wanted Jacob’s daughter Dinah ²  badly. (Now he was more important ³  than anyone in his father’s household.) ⁴ 

Then the Lord’s angel said to her, “You are now ¹  pregnant and are about to give birth ²  to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, ³  for the Lord has heard your painful groans. ⁴