<p class="bodytext">Lot looked up and saw<n id="1" /> the whole region<n id="2" /> of the Jordan. He noticed<n id="3" /> that all of it was well-watered (before the <sc>Lordsc> obliterated<n id="4" /> Sodom and Gomorrah)<n id="5" /> like the garden of the <sc>Lordsc>, like the land of Egypt,<n id="6" /> all the way to Zoar.

<p class="bodytext">After Lot had departed, the <sc>Lordsc> said to Abram,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Look<n id="2" /> from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west.

Then Sarai said to Abram, &#8220;You have brought this wrong on me!<n id="1" /> I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you,<n id="2" /> but when she realized<n id="3" /> that she was pregnant, she despised me.<n id="4" /> May the <sc>Lordsc> judge between you and me!&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">When Abram was 99 years old,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> appeared to him and said,<n id="2" /> &#8220;I am the sovereign God.<n id="3" /> Walk<n id="4" /> before me<n id="5" /> and be blameless.<n id="6" />

Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot<n id="1" /> away; for she thought,<n id="2" /> &#8220;I refuse to watch the child die.&#8221;<n id="3" /> So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Abraham looked up<n id="1" /> and saw<n id="2" /> behind him<n id="3" /> a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he<n id="4" /> went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

When he saw the bracelets on his sister&#8217;s wrists and the nose ring<n id="1" /> and heard his sister Rebekah say,<n id="2" /> &#8220;This is what the man said to me,&#8221; he went out to meet the man. There he was, standing<n id="3" /> by the camels near the spring.

<p class="bodytext">After Isaac<n id="1" /> had been there a long time,<n id="2" /> Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed<n id="3" /> Isaac caressing<n id="4" /> his wife Rebekah.

The <sc>Lordsc> appeared to him that night and said, &#8220;I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there.<n id="1" /> As he blessed him,<n id="2" /> Isaac commanded him, &#8220;You must not marry a Canaanite woman.&#8221;<n id="3" />

He saw<n id="1" /> in the field a well with<n id="2" /> three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now<n id="3" /> a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban,<n id="1" /> and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he<n id="2" /> went over<n id="3" /> and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she<n id="1" /> became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, &#8220;Give me children<n id="2" /> or I&#8217;ll die!&#8221;

If the God of my father &#8211; the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears<n id="1" /> &#8211; had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked,<n id="2" /> and he rebuked you last night.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Laban replied<n id="1" /> to Jacob, &#8220;These women<n id="2" /> are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren,<n id="3" /> and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today<n id="4" /> or the children to whom they have given birth?

You must also say, &#8216;In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" /> Jacob thought,<n id="2" /> &#8220;I will first appease him<n id="3" /> by sending a gift ahead of me.<n id="4" /> After that I will meet him.<n id="5" /> Perhaps he will accept me.&#8221;<n id="6" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Jacob looked up<n id="1" /> and saw that Esau was coming<n id="2" /> along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

When Esau<n id="1" /> looked up<n id="2" /> and saw the women and the children, he asked, &#8220;Who are these people with you?&#8221; Jacob<n id="3" /> replied, &#8220;The children whom God has graciously given<n id="4" /> your servant.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then God said to Jacob, &#8220;Go up at once<n id="1" /> to Bethel<n id="2" /> and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.&#8221;<n id="3" />

<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" />