but when I rest ¹  with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” Joseph ²  said, “I will do as you say.”

They took forty days, for that is the full time needed for embalming. ¹  The Egyptians mourned ²  for him seventy days. ³ 

Shem and Japheth took the garment ¹  and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned ²  the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.

Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ¹  of the whole earth do what is right?” ² 

what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹  the whole city because five are lacking?” ²  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really ¹  your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.” ² 

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.

He said, “What pledge should I give you?” She replied, “Your seal, your cord, and the staff that’s in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had sex with her. ¹  She became pregnant by him.

But he refused, saying ¹  to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought ²  to his household with me here, ³  and everything that he owns he has put into my care. ⁴ 

There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do ¹  such a great evil and sin against God?”

They set a place for him, a separate place for his brothers, ¹  and another for the Egyptians who were eating with him. (The Egyptians are not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting ²  to do so.) ³ 

Indeed, ¹  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians ¹  came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Why should we die ²  before your very eyes because our money has run out?”

When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. ¹  So he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude ¹  of nations.”

When ¹  the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, ²  was attractive ³  to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, ⁴  she took some of its fruit and ate it. ⁵  She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. ⁶ 

“Out of our way!” ¹  they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, ²  and now he dares to judge us! ³  We’ll do more harm ⁴  to you than to them!” They kept ⁵  pressing in on Lot until they were close enough ⁶  to break down the door.

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” ¹  He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, ²  “The men of this place will kill me to get ³  Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)