Isaac began to shake violently ¹  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ²  He will indeed be blessed!”

I am with you! ¹  I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob ¹  told Laban how he was related to him. ² 

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Because the Lord heard that I was unloved, ¹  he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. ² 

Then Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will honor me because I have given him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. ¹ 

Indeed, ¹  you had little before I arrived, ²  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ³  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ⁴  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ⁵ 

Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining, ¹  “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich ²  at our father’s expense!” ³ 

If he said, ¹  ‘The speckled animals ²  will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring.

May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, ¹  the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared. 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.

So Jacob ¹  said to him, “Go now and check on ²  the welfare ³  of your brothers and of the flocks, and bring me word.” So Jacob ⁴  sent him from the valley of Hebron.

When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up ¹  and saw ²  a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt. ³ 

When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt, ¹  “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

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.

“Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain ¹  for your hungry households and go.

May the sovereign God ¹  grant you mercy before the man so that he may release ²  your other brother ³  and Benjamin! As for me, if I lose my children I lose them.” ⁴ 

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, “Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon.”

They had not gone very far from the city ¹  when Joseph said ²  to the servant who was over his household, “Pursue the men at once! ³  When you overtake ⁴  them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil?

But we replied, ‘We cannot go down there. ¹  If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go, ²  for we won’t be permitted to see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’

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.’