The Holy Bible Current English Language Version The Book of Genesis Chapter Outlines
The First Book of Moses Called GENESIS
Genesis: the Revelation of Our Own Origin
THE
Book of Genesis is the first book of the Holy Bible, and the first book of the first five books that are collectively known as the Pentateuch.
Consisting of fifty chapters, the Book of Genesis contains the record of sacred history from the first day of the Creation Week through to the death of the central Hebrew figure Joseph in the land of Egypt.
This amazing book is central to the spiritual health and vitality of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, for the material it contains effectively lays down the foundation for the belief structures of these great global religions.
The Book of Genesis is of vital interest to all mankind and is completely relevant to all life on earth, for it contains the only authentic accounts of the Divine Creation of the earth and the Great Flood of Noah that come down to us from antiquity.
The Origin of the Name ‘Genesis’
The title of the book in the Hebrew Bible is Bereshit. This is the first word the book opens with in the Hebrew, which being translated means literally ‘in the beginning’. The title of Genesis means the ‘birth’, ‘origin’, or, ‘coming into being’. It was assigned to the book by the translators of the ancient Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament known as the Septuagint (commonly abbreviated to LXX), because they thought the title was entirely appropriate to the book’s contents.
From ancient times Jewish and Christian scholars have consistently correctly credited the early Hebrew leader Moses with writing the book, but from about half way through the eighteenth century critical scholarship (theologians and scholars from related disciplines) began attacking the authenticity of the books of the Holy Bible as a Divine revelation, and as a reliable history of antiquity. These so-called religious experts set about undermining the credibility of the Book of Genesis before the masses by claiming that it is merely a composite work, that is made up of documents written by different authors in different time periods, which were then later combined into the present form by one or more editors.
The basis that critical scholars chose for their attacks on the authenticity of the Book of Genesis at that time was the use of different names for God. In some sections God is call Elohim, translated into English as ‘God’, and in other sections ‘Yahweh’, commonly written in various Scriptural translations as ‘Lord’
Critical scholars claimed that this was an indication of different authors, and that the authorship of a given section of the book could be determined by the name used. But intense studies of ancient versions such as the Septuagint have proved conclusively that the ancient Hebrew scholars who wrote the Scriptures used these terms interchangeably. Thus the argument contrived by these scholarly cynics based on their own imaginary distinctions has been shown to be invalid.
Historically, critics of the Holy Bible have labelled the Book of Genesis as just a collection of myths and legends. However, the relatively modern field of archaeology over the last century has verified the historical accuracy of passage after passage of the Scriptures that have formerly been challenged by critics.
Among the passages of the Book of Genesis that have formerly been subject to scholarly attack are those that refer to the existence and history of both the Hittites and the Philistines, and the use of iron and camels in the age of the Hebrew Patriarchs. The final section of the book presents an account of Egypt that shows an extreme measure of familiarity with the country, language, culture, customs, and traditions of the ancient Egyptian nation.
Yet for all the many attacks made on the authenticity of the Book of Genesis, the field of archaeology has displayed information that confirms the Genesis accounts as historically accurate in every detail that has been subjected to investigation.
The Reasons for the Composition of Genesis
The Book of Genesis was written with the objective of enlightening the Hebrew people to their high calling as the chosen race of the Almighty God, and to their historic national duty as the keepers of the sacred covenant between God and mankind.
The Book of Genesis was also intended to preserve for future generations a reliable record of sacred history, of Creation, and of God’s dealings with His faithful people on earth up until that time.
Therefore, the Book of Genesis stands alone as the only authentic written record of Creation, and the sequences manner by which God created life on earth. Equally it contains the only reliable accounts of the history of the antediluvian world and the Great Flood of Noah. The Great Flood has had, of course, the result of entirely erasing mankind’s knowledge of the world that existed before the Great Flood, and is unknown except for the Genesis accounts, and also by some ancient legends recorded on tablets that have been found and deciphered by archaeologists working in the Middle East.
The Book of Genesis tells of the origin of man, the entrance of sin into the world, and the Lord God’s promise of salvation; laying down the foundation for future faith in God, and the fulfilment of God’s promises.
An Outline of Genesis Contents
The Book of Genesis is logically divided into four major sections:
The first section describes the history of the earth from Creation to the Great Flood, and the repopulating of the earth after the Great Flood (Genesis chapter 1, verse 1—chapter 11, verse 26).
The second section describes the patriarchs Abraham and his son Isaac (Genesis chapter 11, verse 27—chapter 26, verse 35).
The third section describes the life of the patriarch Jacob (chapters 27—36).
The fourth and final section of the book details the account of Joseph (chapters 37—50).
A Guide to the Individual Chapters
The first major division of the Book of Genesis commences with a brief but succinct description of Creation.
Chapters 1 and 2 documents the transformation of the earth at Creation.
The earth was changed from a planet described as being ‘formless and void’ to one perfectly created and ideal for life, complete with all the lifeforms God had created, and perfectly adapted to be the home and habitation of mankind. The account details the first home of the Garden of Eden given by God to the original couple He had created, and the observance of the first Sabbath day.
Chapter 3 presents the account of the beguiling of the woman, and the fall of man into sin. The contents of the chapter describes the initial consequences of their first sin, and contains the first promise of salvation.
Chapters 4 and 5 documents the birth of the first children Cain and Abel, and the tragedy of the murder of the godly Abel by his brother Cain.
The next few chapters outline the history of Adam’s descendants through antediluvian times to the post-flood world.
Chapters 6 through to 9 contain the account of the destruction of the antediluvian world in an act of Divine judgment by the Almighty God because of wickedness.
The sacred narrative describes the means by which human and animal life was preserved, along with a brief account of the lives of Noah and his sons after the Great Flood.
Chapter 10 records by name the original clans, tribes, and nations that arose on the earth after the Great Flood was ended, popularly described as the table of nations.
The second major division details the life of the patriarch Abraham.
This historical account records the events that took place whereby the Lord God set Abraham and his descendants apart to be His chosen representatives on earth.
God sent Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and guided him to the land of Canaan (Genesis chapter 11, verse 27 to chapter 12, verse 9).
After waiting many years, Abraham received the promised son Isaac, who became the heir of the covenant promises.
The experiences of Abraham from the time God called him out of Ur are well documented in the Book of Genesis (Genesis chapter 11, verse 27 through to chapter 25, verse 18), while the life of Isaac, a far less forceful and illustrious figure than his father Abraham, is passed over in comparative silence (Genesis chapter 25, verse 19 to chapter 26, verse 35).
Isaac’s primary role appears to be providing a link to Jacob his son.
The third major division of the Book of Genesis relates the life story of the patriarch Jacob.
Two sons were born to Isaac, named Esau and Jacob.
Jacob deceived his brother Esau in obtaining the sacred birthright, and consequently was compelled to flee to Haran, where he married and raised a large family, and amassed extensive wealth (Genesis chapter 27-30).
Eventually Jacob returned to the land of Canaan as a wealthy nomadic pastoralist, and moved from place to place with his family according to the prevailing circumstances (Genesis chapters 31-35).
Genesis chapter 36 lists Esau’s descendants.
The fourth and final major division of the Book of Genesis contains the details of the Hebrew migration to Egypt, with Joseph as the central figure of the account in the last 14 chapters of Genesis.
Chapter 37 describes how Joseph was captured and sold as a slave to Egypt by his older brothers.
His early experiences in Egypt are recorded in chapters 39 and 40.
Chapters 41-47 tell of the famine in Egypt that gave rise to the preeminence of Joseph in Egyptian society, and of the migration of Jacob and his sons to Egypt.
Chapters 48 and 49 record the last blessings Jacob proclaimed on his sons and extended family.
The book closes in chapter 50 with the death of the patriarch Jacob, and then Joseph.
Moses the Author
The Book of Genesis is a deeply impressive and highly inspirational ancient manuscript, and it is of major eternal significance and importance to both God and mankind.
Moses himself may not have even fully realised the great work he was doing, nor of the enormous impact of these precious and sacred Genesis accounts on mankind for all time after he had finished writing them some 3,500 years ago.
The five books that Moses, the man of God wrote, today stand at the centre of three major world religions, and have reached the lives of countless millions of people over some 140 generations since they written.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are the first five books of the Holy Bible, and as such are known as the Pentateuch.
The monumental writings of Moses, the man who was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter when he was a Hebrew baby in ancient Egypt, and much later talked with God face to face, are the grand opening to the Holy Bible.
Those who have found Jesus Christ in the pages of the Holy Bible, and love the moving accounts it contains, can find joy in the fact that the Holy Bible is by far the largest all time selling book today, with sales still exceeding 100 million copies a year!
In fact, since the invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg around 1450 it is estimated that in excess of six billion copies of the Holy Bible have now been printed, a fitting tribute to its absolute authenticity.
I. Creation through to the patriarch Abraham, Genesis 1:1 to 11:26. A. The creation of the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1:1 to 2:25.1. The six days of creation, Genesis 1:1–31. 2. The institution of the Sabbath day, Genesis 2:1–3. 3. Man’s creation and the Garden in Eden, Genesis 2:4–25. B. The history of the Fall and the immediate results, Genesis 3:1 to 5:32.1. The temptation and Fall, Genesis 3:1–8. 2. The expulsion from the garden, Genesis 3:9–24. 3. Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:1–15. 4. The descendants of Cain, Genesis 4:16–24. 5. The generations from Adam to Noah, Genesis 4:25 to 5:32. C. The Great Flood, Genesis 6:1 to 9:17.1. The violence on earth, and the degeneracy of the antediluvians, Genesis 6:1–13. 2. Noah builds of the ark, Genesis 6:14–22. 3. The narrative of the Flood, Genesis 7:1 to 8:14. 4. God’s new covenant with the world, Genesis 8:15 to 9:17. D. Noah through to Abraham, Genesis 9:18 to 11:26.1. The accounts of Noah’s sons, Genesis 9:18-29. 2. The table of nations, Genesis 10:1–32. 3. The confusion of languages at Babel, Genesis 11:1–9. 4. The generations from Shem to Abraham, Genesis 11:10–26. II. The Patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, Genesis 11:27 to 26:35. A. Abram, Genesis 11:27 to 16:16.1. The call of Abram and his journey to Canaan, Genesis 11:27 to 12:9. 2. His experience in Egypt, Genesis 12:10–20. 3. His parting with Lot, Genesis 13:1–18. 4. His rescue of Lot, and his meeting with Melchizedek, Genesis 14:1–24. 5. God’ covenant with Abram, Genesis 15:1–21. 6. His marriage with Hagar, and the birth of Ishmael, Genesis 16:1–16. B. Abraham, Genesis 17:1 to 25:18.1. God’s renewed covenant, Abram becomes Abraham, circumcision introduced, Genesis 17:1–27. 2. Abraham and the angels, Sodom’s destruction along with the neighbouring cities, Genesis 18:1 to 19:38. 3. His experiences at Gerar, the birth of Isaac, and the expulsion of Ishmael, Genesis 20:1 to 21:34. 4. Abraham’s supreme test, Genesis 22:1–24. 5. His wife Sarah’s death and burial, Genesis 23:1–20. 6. Isaac is married to Rebekah, Genesis 24:1–67. 7. The descendants of Abraham, Genesis 25:1–18. C. Isaac, Genesis 25:19 to 26:35.1. Isaac’s sons, Genesis 25:19–34. 2. Isaac and Abimelech at Gerar, Genesis 26:1–35. III. The Patriarch Jacob, Genesis 27:1 to 36:43. A. Jacob, the deceiver, Genesis 27:1 to 31:55.1. Jacob takes his older brother’s blessing by deception, Genesis 27:1–46. 2. Jacob’s flees to Haran, and the vision at Bethel, Genesis 28:1–22. 3. Jacob works for his wives and raises his family, Genesis 29:1 to 30:43. 4. Jacob’s flees from Laban, Genesis 31:1–55. B. Jacob in Canaan, Genesis 32:1 to 36:43.1. Jacob moves back to Canaan, and wrestles with God at Peniel, Genesis 32:1 to 33:20. 2. The carnage and family disgrace at Shechem, Genesis 34:1 to 35:29. 3. The descendants of Esau, Genesis 36:1–43. IV. Joseph saves his family, Genesis 37:1 to 50:26. A. Joseph and his brothers, Genesis 37:1–36.B. Judah’s disgrace, Genesis 38:1–30.C. Joseph stands by his principles, Genesis 39:1 to 40:23.D. Joseph saves Egypt from famine calamity, Genesis 41:1–57.E. Joseph and his brothers in Egypt, Genesis 42:1 to 45:28.F. Jacob moves to Egypt, Genesis 46:1 to 47:31.G. Jacob’s blessings, Genesis 48:1 to 49:33.H. The death of Jacob and of Joseph, Genesis 50:1–26.
The Book of Genesis opens with the brief and succinct, yet phenomenally powerful account of God’s magnificent creation of the heavens and the earth.
The first chapter outlines the rapid steps of progress that God used in preparation for the outpouring of His creative genius, as He built the planetary macro and micro systems essential for life.
Through the phenomenal hyper-intelligent outpouring of His great supernatural power, God utilised His fully developed and defined plan to transform the earth from a dark, barren and desolate rocky sphere into a magnificent living gem of a planet.
• Genesis chapter 1 opens with the brief statement correctly crediting God with the creation of the heavens and the earth (verse 1).
• The earth lies in darkness without any features, with the Spirit of God hovering over the surface of the waters (verse 2).
• On the first day of creation God creates light, and He separates the light from the darkness for day and night (verses 3-5).
• On the second day of creation God creates the expanse between above the waters of the earth and names the expanse sky (verses 6-8).
• On the third day of creation God raises dry ground from the waters and names the dry ground land, and the waters seas (verses 9, 10).
• Then God creates vegetation on the earth (verses 11, 12), thus completing the third day of creation (verse 13).
• On the fourth day of creation God creates the sun and the moon and the stars to give light to the earth, and to establish seasons and days and years (verses 14-18), thus completing the fourth day of creation (verse 19).
• On the fifth day of creation God creates living creatures to teem in the waters, according to their kind, and birds to fly above the earth, according to their kind (verses 20, 21), and commands them to increase in number in the waters and on the earth (verse 22), thus completing the fifth day of creation (verse 23).
• On the sixth day of creation God creates living creatures to live on the land, according to their kind (verses 24, 25).
• God then creates man in God’s own image, male and female, with dominion over the earth, and instructs them to increase in number (verses 26-28).
• God gives man seed-bearing plants and fruit for food (verse 29), and green plants for food to the other creatures of the earth (verse 30).
• God surveys his handiwork, and sees that it is very good (verse 31), thus completing the sixth day of creation.
• By the seventh day, God has completed the creation of the heavens and the earth, so He rests from His labours. To commemorate the beginning of life on earth, Creation, God blesses the seventh day of the week, and He sets the day apart as holy. For this reason, the seventh day of the week remains the Sabbath of the Living God (verses 1-3).
• God forms the first man of Creation from the dust of the ground, and sets him in God’s own garden at a place called Eden (verses 7, 8, 15), a land rich in abundant God-given resources (verses 9-14).
• In the garden God makes two special trees, one that perpetuates life, the tree of life, and one that brings knowledge of corruption and ultimately death, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (verses 16, 17).
• God gives the man dominion over all the earth, and He then brings the animals and birds to the man to give names to (verses 19, 20).
• But God has not at that stage given the man a female companion, so He put the man into a deep sleep. Then He takes one of the man’s ribs, and from the man’s rib God creates the first woman for the man to be with him as his friend, mutual helper, and companion (verses 21-24).
• The wily serpent meets the woman at the forbidden tree and commences his malevolent temptation (verse 1), which the woman finds seductive (verses 2, 3). Gaining the advantage over the woman, the serpent immediately presses home his advantage (verses 4, 5). The woman quickly succumbs and eats the forbidden fruit, and then the man also (verse 6), thus giving the serpent the victory.
• When the man and his wife eat of the forbidden fruit, their eyes are opened. They realise they are naked, so they make clothes to cover their nakedness (verse 7).
• God comes to the garden looking for the man and his wife, but they hide from Him (verses 8, 9). Then God questions them about their sin (verses 10-13).
• God censures the serpent for his actions (verses 14, 15), then the woman (verse 16), and finally Adam [the name Adam in Hebrew means ‘man’](verses 17-20).
• Adam names his wife Eve [the name Eve in Hebrew means ‘woman’](verse 20). God makes clothing of skins for them, (verse 21) and He banishes them from Eden (verses 22-24).
• By way of introduction, the creation of Adam and Eve is briefly recapped (verses 1,2).
• The genealogical records of the original generations of patriarchs from Adam through to Methuselah are listed in order. These records state the name and age at the time of death for each of the patriarchs listed (verses 3-21).
• A brief account is given of the godly patriarch Enoch, who walks with God for three hundred years, before God takes Enoch (verses 22-24).
• The genealogical records continue through from Methuselah to Noah and his sons (verses 25-32).
• As human populations increase, the sons of God take wives from among earth’s women (verses 1, 2).
• God becomes grieved about the corruption of the antediluvian world (verse 3).
• The Nephilim are on the earth, and the sons of God have children with the antediluvian women (verse 4).
• God is distressed and grieved by the debauchery of the antediluvians (verses 5, 6), so He commits Himself to destroying the world (verse 7), but Noah finds favour in the sight of God (verse 8).
• Noah is counted by God as a righteous man, and he walks with God (verse 9). Noah is also the father of three sons (verse 10).
• God reveals His intention to Noah of destroying the earth (verse 13), and instructs him to build an ark, supplying Noah with all the specifications and dimensions of the vessel he is to construct (verses 14-16).
• God warns Noah of the coming deluge and the impending death of all earth’s creatures (verse 17), but Noah is assured that he and his family will receive mercy from God’s new covenant with Noah (verse 18).
• Noah is instructed to take on board the ark two of every kind of living creature with him to keep them alive (verse 20), and to gather together food and store it on board the ark, to last through the period of the global deluge (verse 21).
• Noah has done everything that God commanded him (verse 22).
• God commands Noah to go into the ark with his family because Noah is righteous before God (verse 1).
• Noah is instructed to take with him into the ark seven pairs of every clean animal, and one pair of every unclean animal (verse 2), and seven pairs of every kind of bird (verse 3), for God is going to send flooding rains on the earth in seven days time (verse 4).
• Noah obeys God and enters the ark with his family and all of the living creatures (verses 5-9), then the waters of the flood comes upon the earth (verse 10).
• In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, the floodwaters pour forth on the whole earth (verse 11) for forty days and nights (verse 12).
• Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives enter the ark (verse 13), along with all the living creatures (verses 14, 15), then God shuts them inside the ark (verse 16).
• The floodwaters increase on the earth for forty days, until the ark floats free (verses 17, 18).
• The waters of the flood overtake the earth and prevail, until even the mountains are covered (verses 19, 20).
• Every person and every living creature on the earth perish in the floodwaters (verses 21-23), except Noah and those who are with him in the ark (verse 23).
• The floodwaters continue on the earth for a hundred and fifty days (verse 24).
• God remembers Noah and the ark, and He sends a wind to pass over the earth and make the floodwaters subside (verse 1).
• The waters cease pouring forth over the earth (verse 2), and then steadily recede (verse 3).
• On the seventh month the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat (verse 4).
• The waters over the earth recede until the tenth month, when the tops of the mountains become visible (verse 5). After forty days Noah sends out a raven and then a dove, to find out if the waters have receded (verses 6-10).
• Eventually the dove returns with an olive leaf in her beak (verse 11), then after seven days the dove did not return back to the ark again (verse 12).
• Eleven months after the Great Flood commences Noah removes the covering from the ark and he sees that the surface of the ground is dry (verse 13), and again after nearly two months the earth is dry (verse 14)
• God instructs Noah to come out of the ark, along with his family and all the living creatures (verses 15-17), so Noah comes out, along with his family and all the living creatures onboard the ark (verses 18, 19).
• After Noah leaves the ark, he builds an altar to God and sacrifices burnt offerings on it (verse 20). Then God vows that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood of waters (verses 21, 22).
• God blesses Noah and his sons, and they are instructed to increase in number and fill the earth (verse 1).
• God comforts Noah and his sons with the sure knowledge that He is going to place the fear and dread of man into all the creatures of the earth (verse 2).
• Everything that lives and moves is given to man for food (verse 3), but the consumption of meat with the lifeblood in it is forbidden (verse 4).
• God demands a reckoning for the lifeblood of every animal and from man (verse 5), and He affirms the certainty of revenge for murder (verse 6).
• Noah and his family are instructed to be productive, increase in number, and spread out over the earth (verse 7).
• God establishes His new covenant with Noah, his descendants, and all the living creatures of the earth to never again destroy all life with a flood of waters (verses 8-11).
• God will remember this covenant between God, man, and all the living creatures each time a rainbow appears in the clouds over the earth (verses 12-17).
• Noah and his sons become the progenitors of mankind on earth after the Great Flood (verses 18, 19).
• Noah plants a vineyard and drinks of the wine, until he passes out from the intoxication (verses 20, 21).
• As Noah lays uncovered in his tent, his son Ham sees him and does nothing (verse 22), but his sons Shem and Japheth honourably cover their father together (verse 23).
• Noah is angry when his awakes, and he curses Canaan son of Ham to slavery (verse 24), but blesses Shem and Japheth (verses 26, 27).
• Noah lives for a considerable period of time after the Great Flood is over before his death, and his lifespan and death are thereby recorded (verses 28, 29).
• The family records of Noah and the report of sons being born after the flood (verse 1).
• The family records of Japheth to the third generation (verses 2-4). From these, the coastal nations developed around the eastern Mediterranean Sea (verse 5).
• The family records of Ham to the fourth generation (verses 6, 7).
• The account of the legendary figure Nimrod son of Cush (verses 8-12).
• The descendants of Ham, their clans, territories, and nations (verses 13-20).
• The descendants of Shem, their clans, territories, and nations (verses 21-31).
• The summary of these ancient genealogical records (verse 32).
• The people of the earth all have a common language (verse 1).
• A settlement grew in Shinar (verse 2). The people begin building a city with a great tower, from fired bricks and mortar (verses 3, 4).
• God comes down to see the city and tower being built there (verse 5), and He decides to confound the workers and stop their construction (verses 6, 7).
• God defeats the men of Shinar and He scatters them abroad by confusing their language, hence the name Babel, meaning ‘confusion’ (verses 8, 9).
• The genealogical records of the generations of people descended from Shem son of Noah, the patriarch and survivor of the Great Flood, down to Terah and his sons Abram, Nahor, and Haran (verses 10-26).
• God instructs Abram to leave his own country, his family, and his father’s household and migrate to another land (verse 1). God promises to make a great nation from Abram’s descendants, and to bless Abram and keep him safe (verses 2, 3).
• Abram obeys God and he leaves Haran with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his household and possessions (verses 4, 5).
• When Abram arrives in Canaan, God appears to him and promises the land to his descendants. So Abram builds an altar to God there (verse 7).
• Abram is a nomadic pasturalist, and he shifts around Canaan as needed (verses 6, 8, 9).
• The land of Canaan becomes gripped in a severe famine, so Abram moves down to Egypt (verse 10).
• His wife Sarai is very beautiful, and Abram fears being murdered in Egypt because of his wife’s beauty. So Abram makes an arrangement with Sarai to only say that she is Abram’s brother (verses 11-13).
• Pharaoh receives reports from his officials about Sarai’s beauty, and she is taken into his palace (verses 14, 15).
• Abram is treated well because of Sarai, and Pharaoh gives him livestock, donkeys, slaves, and camels as a result (verse 16).
• God strikes Pharaoh with severe plagues because he had taken Abram’s wife Sarai for himself (verse 17), so Pharaoh confronts Abram (verse 18), and sends him away with Sarai and everything he owns (verses 19, 20).
• Abram shifts from Egypt to the Negev region of Canaan with Sarai and Lot (verse 1). Abram was now very wealthy, owning many livestock and much silver and gold (verse 2).
• Abram moves on from the Negev, going from place to place as far as the pastoral country near Bethel (verse 3), where he builds an altar, and calls on the name of God (verse 4).
• Lot also owns many livestock and has amassed considerable wealth (verse 5), but the land cannot support the livestock of both Abram and Lot (verse 6).
• Land pressures cause strife to arise between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen, while Canaanites and Perizzites are also living in the same area at that time (verse 7).
• Abram hastens to settle the dispute (verse 8), suggesting he and Lot separate to divide their livestock and possessions. Abram then generously gives Lot the first choice where he wishes to dwell, and states that he will accept Lot’s decision and move elsewhere (verse 9).
• Lot chooses to move eastward to the plain of the Jordan, for it is well watered (verses 10, 11), while Abram lives in Canaan (verse 12).
• Lot encamps near the city of Sodom, but the men of Sodom are wicked and very sinful before God (verses 12, 13).
• God speaks to Abram, and He promises to Abram that the land where Abram is living will belong to him and to his descendants forever (verses, 14, 15, and 17). God also confirms to Abram that Abram will have a vast number of descendants (verse 16).
• Abram moves on to Hebron, and he builds an altar to God there (verse 18)..
• Four kings (verse 1) go to war against the king of Sodom and four allied kings (verse 2).
• The five kings rally their forces together at the Salt Sea (verse 3), and they rebel against Chedorlaomer king of Elam after twelve years of oppression (verse 4).
• King Chedorlaomer and three allied kings carry out a successful military campaign across Canaan, conquering numerous tribes, territories, and peoples (verses 5-7).
• The five kings of the Salt Sea region are defeated in battle by the four invading kings at the Valley of Siddim (verses 8-10).
• After the battle, these four allied kings loot Sodom and Gomorrah, take captives, and seize goods and food as plunder (verse 11). Among the captives, they also seize Abram’s nephew Lot (verse 12).
• When the report of Lot’s capture reaches Abram, he assembles a military force and sets off in pursuit of the armies of the four kings (verses 13, 14), and he attacks and defeats them in battle during the night (verse 15).
• Abram rescues Lot and all the other captives, and he returns them, along with the plundered goods (verse 16).
• When Abram returns, he meets with the king of Sodom (verse 17), and then receives the blessing of Melchizedek king of Salem and priest of God Most High, and Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything (verses 18-20).
• The king of Sodom asks only for the return of the captives, but Abram insists on returning all of the goods as well (verses 21-24).
• God speaks with Abram in a vision, promising him safekeeping and rich reward (verse 1).
• Abram complains to God that since he has no children, his heir is not even one of his own children (verse 2), and that since God has withheld a son from Abram, his heir is a mere servant (verse 3). But God promises Abram that Abram’s servant won’t be his heir, but that Abram will have his own son as his heir (verse 4).
• Then God brings Abram outside under the night sky and reveals to him that Abram’s descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens (verse 5). Abram believes God, and God credits it to Him as righteousness (verse 6).
• God promises Abram possession of the lands where Abram is dwelling (verse 7). When Abram asks God about how he can be sure of this (verse 8), God directs Abram to bring Him animals and birds to sacrifice (verse 9), with which Abram complies (verses 10, 11).
• God places Abram in a deep and dreadful sleep, and speaks to him of the future hardship of Abram’s descendants, and the long lifespan that Abram will enjoy (verses 12-16).
• God displays to Abram that He accepts Abram’s sacrifices by the powerful sign that He renders (verse 17).
• On that day God makes a covenant with Abram, and He promises that the lands where many tribes and peoples now dwell will belong to Abram’s descendants forever (verses 18-20).
• Sarai offers her maidservant Hagar to Abram as a wife to bear children for him (verses 2, 3).
• Sarai’s maidservant Hagar becomes pregnant to Abram (verse 4).
• Hagar and Sarai clash, and Hagar flees the camp and goes into the wilderness (verses 5, 6).
• God appears to Hagar and tells her to return to Sarai (verses 7-9).
• God reveals to Hagar she will be the forebear of many descendants (verse 10).
• God instructs Hagar to name her son Ishmael [the name Ishmael in Hebrew means ‘God hears’], and He foretells Ishmael’s future life to Hagar (verses 11, 12).
• Hagar is deeply affected by her encounter with God (verses 13, 14).
• Hagar bore Abram his firstborn son Ishmael in Abram’s latter years (verses 15, 16).
• When Abram is ninety-nine years old, God appears to Abram and instructs him to lead a godly life (verse 1), and God confirms the renewal of His covenant with Abram (verse 2).
• Abram falls prostrate to the ground and listens (verse 3) while God testifies to Abram that he is the honoured recipient of the Divine covenant between God and man, and Abram will be the ancestral forefather of many nations (verse 4).
• God gives Abram [the name Abram in Hebrew means ‘exalted father’, or, ‘exalted ancestor’] the new name of Abraham [the name Abraham in Hebrew means ‘father or ancestor of a multitude’], for God has appointed Abraham to be the “father of many nations”(verse 5).
• God confirms to Abraham his exalted status as the founding ancestral forefather of many peoples and nations (verse 6), and the founding covenant holder of a national group of people who will form the nucleus, and the core facility, for the perpetual transmission of the will of the all-powerful God of Creation to fallen mankind (verse 7). God then confirms that this nation will continually possess the land of Canaan (verse 8).
• God instructs Abraham that he and his descendants must abide by the Divine covenant (verse 9), signified by the institution of male circumcision (verses 10-13), with exclusion being the penalty for all who do not abide by this practise (verse 14).
• God gives Sarai [the name Sarai in Hebrew means ‘noblewoman’, or, ‘princess’, but possibly also ‘striving’, or, ‘contentious’] the new name of Sarah [the name Sarah in Hebrew means ‘princess’, or, ‘noblewoman’](verse 15), for she will bear a son to Abraham, and become the mother of nations (verse 16).
• Sarah, however, is well advanced in years, and Abraham does not believe Sarah can give birth to a son (verse 17), and he asks God to appoint his firstborn son Ishmael instead (verse 18).
• But God confirms that Sarah will definitely give birth to a son named Isaac (verses 19, 21), and he will be the holder of the Divine covenant (verse 19). Ishmael, however, will himself become the ancestral founder of a great nation (verse 20). Then God ascends up from Abraham (verse 22).
• That same day Abraham, Ishmael, and every male member of his house are circumcised (verses 23-27). This event takes place when Abraham is ninety-nine years old (verse 24), and his son Ishmael is thirteen years old (verse 25).
• God comes down with two of his servants to meet with Abraham, and they appear to Abraham at Mamre (verse 1).
• When Abraham sees God and His two servants, he enthusiastically welcomes them and offers them food and water (versus 2-5).
• Abraham hastily organises the preparation of the meal of meat and bread (verse 7), and presents the food to God and His servants (verse 8).
• God declares to Abraham that Sarah will give birth to a son the following year (verses 9-10).
• Sarah was listening nearby, and as she and Abraham were very old, she laughs to herself when she heard God say this (verses 10-12).
• Perceiving the thoughts and actions of Sarah, God asks Abraham why Sarah has laughed at Him (verse 13), and again confirms that He will give them a son the following year (verses 13-14). Sarah, however, denies laughing at God, to which God firmly states that she, Sarah, in fact, did laugh (verse 15).
• As God’s servants are about to leave, they all look toward Sodom (verse 16). Then God confirms to Abraham his exalted status as God’s appointed forebear of a great and powerful nation (verses 17-19).
• God tells Abraham of the perilous situation for Sodom and Gomorrah because of the great iniquity in these cities (verses 21, 22).
• As God’s servants leave for Sodom to destroy the city and its occupants (verse 22), Abraham commences attempting mediation to save Sodom from destruction (verse 23) if fifty righteous people are found there (verses 24, 25), which God agrees to do (verse 26).
• Abraham continues negotiating with God, and he reduces the number of righteous people needed before God will spare Sodom from destruction by five, then ten persons at each stage of the negotiations (verses 27-32).
• By the close of the negotiations, God agrees to spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous persons, and then He departs from Abraham (verses 32-33).
• Two angels meet Lot at the gates of Sodom (verse 1), and he invites them to his house (verse 2) and prepares a feast for them (verse 3).
• The men of Sodom surround Lot’s house intending to rape his visitors (verses 4, 5), but Lot begs them not to and instead offers his two daughters for the men to violate (verses 6-8).
• The men of Sodom refuse to back down and they become angry and violent (verse 9), but the angels pull Lot back inside the house (verse 10) and strike the men of Sodom with blindness (verse 11).
• The angels warn Lot of the impending destruction of the city, and they urge him to leave with his family (verses 12, 13), so Lot gathers his family together to evacuate Sodom (verses 14, 15), but he hesitates and begins quibbling with the angels, so they thrust him out of the city (verses 16-22), and Lot flees to Zoar with his family (verse 23).
• God rains down burning sulphur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 24), destroying the whole region (verse 25), but Lot’s wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt (verse 26).
• Abraham looks on from afar at the destruction and smoke (verses 27, 28), but God remembers Abraham and He rescues Lot from the destruction (verse 29).
• Lot lives in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters (verse 30).
• Lot’s daughters decide to deceive their father to get themselves pregnant to him (verses 31, 32). So they trick Lot into becoming intoxicated with wine, and the firstborn daughter then impregnates herself (verse 33).
• The next day Lot’s daughters decide to deceive their father again, so the second daughter can also become pregnant to him (verse 34). So that night the daughters trick Lot into becoming intoxicated with wine again, and the second daughter impregnates herself also (verse 35).
• Lot’s daughters both become pregnant to their father, and they give birth to sons who become the founders of their own nations (verses 36-38).
Abraham meets King Abimelech and passes off Sarah as his sister. Abimelech, however, is challenged by God, and he sends Abraham away with a substantial tribute payment.
• Abraham moves to Gerar in the Negev (verse 1), where he passes off his wife Sarah as his sister. So King Abimelech takes Sarah to himself (verse 2).
• God comes to King Abimelech in a dream at night and warns him of his approaching death for taking for himself the wife of God’s prophet (verse 3).
• King Abimelech had not gone into Sarah, and he protests his innocence in the matter to God (verse 4).
• God accepts King Abimelech’s explanation and his innocence, and He warns Abimelech to return Sarah to Abraham under threat of death, because Abraham is God’s prophet (versus 6, 7).
• King Abimelech summons Abraham and demands an explanation for bringing such guilt on himself and his kingdom (versus 8-10), and Abraham explains the situation in an attempt to justify himself (versus 11-13).
• King Abimelech seeks closure on the issue with a substantial payment to Abraham of slaves, livestock, and silver (verse 14), and permits Abraham to settle in the land (verse 15). The king also settles the issue with Sarah (verse 16).
• Abraham prays to God, and God heals Abimelech’s women, so they can again become pregnant and bear children (verse 17), because God has closed up their wombs on account of Abraham’s wife Sarah (verse 18).
• God visits Sarah and opens her womb, (verse 1), and she becomes pregnant to Abraham and gives birth to a son, at the very time God promised (verse 2).
• Abraham names his son Isaac (verse 3), and circumcises the newborn boy eight days after he is born, as God commanded him (verse 4). Abraham is a hundred years old when Isaac is born (verse 5).
• Sarah is delighted at the birth of Isaac in her old age, and she laughs, rejoices, and celebrates over the birth of her son (verses 6, 7).
• Abraham makes a great feast to celebrate the weaning of his son Isaac (verse 8), however Sarah sees Hagar’s son Ishmael mocking (verse 9), and she tells Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael (verse 10).
• Abraham is distressed about the matter (verse 11), but God consoles Abraham and instructs him to accept Sarah’s decision (verse 12), for God will make a nation from Ishmael (verse 13).
• Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away, and they wander through the Wilderness of Beer-sheba (verse 14).
• When the water runs out, Hagar sets down Ishmael to die (verse 15), and as she sits weeping (verse 16), God comforts and reassures Hagar and tells her He will make a great nation from Ishmael (verses 17, 18), and gives her water (verse 19).
• God stays with Ishmael (verse 20) as he lives and grows up in the Wilderness of Paran, and Ishmael marries a woman from Egypt (verse 21).
• King Abimelech acknowledges God’s protection to Abraham (verse 22), and he asks Abraham for an assurance of kindness and mutual respect, as they both live in the same region (verse 23), to which Abraham agrees (verse 24).
• Abraham and Abimelech discuss a disputed well of water (verses 25, 26), then Abraham gives Abimelech livestock and they make a covenant (verses 27-30), naming the place in remembrance of their treaty together (verse 31), before Abimelech leaves with his men (verse 32).
• Abraham plants a tamarisk tree there and calls on the name of the Lord(verse 33), and he lives as a foreigner in the land for a long time afterward (verse 34).
• God speaks to Abraham (verse 1), and instructs him to journey to Moriah and sacrifice Isaac there as a burnt offering (verse 2).
• Abraham makes all the necessary preparations and travels with Isaac to Moriah (verses 3-8).
• Abraham builds an altar and is about to sacrifice Isaac (verses 9, 10), when God intervenes. He stays Abraham from slaying his son and commends him for his extreme loyalty and obedience (verse 12). Then God gives Abraham a ram for the burnt offering (verse 13), and Abraham names that place after the event (verse 14).
• God again commends Abraham for his loyalty and obedience, and assures Abraham that his descendants will be vast in number, and they will be blessed and prevail over their enemies (verses 15-18). Abraham then returns home (verse 19).
• Abraham receives news about his brother Nahor’s family (verses 20-24).
• Sarah lives a hundred and thirty-seven years (verse 1), before she dies at Kiriath-arba in the land of Canaan, and Abraham weeps for her (verse 2).
• Abraham approaches some of the local Hittite residents honourably, seeking to purchase a parcel of land at Machpelah containing a cave where he can bury his deceased wife (verses 3, 4).
• The Hittite people hold Abraham in high regard, calling him a “mighty prince”, and express immediate approval for his proposal to purchase a burial site for Sarah (verses 5, 6).
• Rather than directly engaging Ephron son of Zohar, who is the owner of the piece of ground at Machpelah containing the cave that Abraham wishes to purchase, he honourably submits the request through the members of the Hittite community (verses 7-9).
• Ephron son of Zohar, the wealthy owner of the city with its gates where they all gathered, offers Abraham the parcel of land, inclusive with the field and the cave for a burial site, ostensibly as an outright gift, although he evidently really does expect payment (verses 10, 11).
• Abraham honours the Hittites, bowing down before them, and he courteously offers payment to Ephron for the parcel of ground to bury Sarah (verses 12, 13).
• Ephron places a price of four hundred shekels of silver for the parcel of land at Machpelah (verses 14, 15), to which Abraham immediately agrees and weighs out the silver in payment (verse 16).
• The parcel of land at Machpelah containing the field and the cave becomes Abraham’s possession in the presence of the Hittite residents gathered there (verses 17, 18).
• Afterward Abraham buries his deceased wife Sarah, interring her corpse in a cave in the field at Machpelah, in the land of Canaan (verse 19). Abraham purchases the parcel of land with the cave from the Hittites, to use the cave as a burial place, and he receives finalization for the transaction (verse 20).
• Abraham is very old, and God has blessed him in every aspect of his life (verse 1).
• Abraham places his trusted servant under oath (verse 2), and instructs him to seek and find a wife for his son Isaac, although not from among the local Canaanite peoples (verse 3), but from Abraham’s original homeland [Aram-naharaim in Mesopotamia](verse 4).
• The servant asks what Abraham would have him do if the woman will not come with him to Canaan, and whether he should take Isaac to meet the woman there instead (verse 5)
• Abraham strictly refuses permission for Isaac to be taken there (verse 6), for he is the of the Promised Land, and God will send His angel to accompany Abraham’s servant on his important quest (verse 7). However, if the woman is unwilling to return with Abraham’s servant, then he is released from his oath, as long as he doesn’t take Isaac back to the land where the woman lives (verse 8). Abraham’s servant accepts these commands, and he confirms this under oath (verse 9).
• Abraham’s servant departs on his journey on camels, taking choice gifts with him. Afterward he arrives at his destination of the town of Nahor (verse 10). When he arrives there, he stops at a well of water outside the town (verse 11). Then he prays and asks God for a particular sign to show who the chosen girl is (verses 12-14).
• Before Abraham’s servant has even finished praying, Rebekah, the girl whom God has chosen, comes out to collect water (verse 15). She is a virgin and very beautiful, and she goes to the spring of water and fills her jar (verse 16).
• Abraham’s servant approaches her and asks for a drink of water (verse 17), and she obliges him (verse 18). Then she offers to draw water for the camels to drink (verse 19), and she goes and fills the water trough (verse 20), while the servant watches on to see if God has made his journey successful (verse 21).
• Abraham’s servant immediately gives the girl gifts of gold jewellery (verse 22), and asks of her identity, and then for a place of lodging for the night (verse 23).
• The girl identifies herself as the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor (verse 24), and offers Abraham’s servant a place to lodge for the night (verse 25).
• Abraham’s servant bows his head and worships God (verse 26), and blesses God for his kindness to Abraham, and for leading him to the house of his master’s relatives (verse 27).
• The girl immediately runs back to her mother’s household to tell of this (verse 28). When the girls brother Laban sees the gold jewellery and hears her report, he runs out to meet Abraham’s servant at the spring (verse 30).
• Laban speaks with Abraham’s servant and invites him back to his house (verse 31). So he goes back there, where the camels are unloaded and fed, and water is brought for him and his men to wash their feet (verses 32, 33).
• Food is set before Abraham’s servant, but he refuses to eat until he has told of his reasons for being there (verse 33).
• He tells of being the servant of Abraham (verse 34), and of how God has blessed his master, giving him livestock, wealth, and many servants (verse 35).
• Abraham’s servant explains that his master’s wife, Sarah, has borne Abraham a son in her old age, and Abraham has given the son everything he owns (verse 36). Then he tells of how he has sworn Abraham an oath not to get a wife for Abraham’s son from among the Canaanites (verse 37), but from among Abraham’s own clan (verse 38).
• The servant tells of how when he asked Abraham what to do if the woman will not come back with him (verse 39), Abraham told him that God would send an angel with him to make his journey a success, so he would find a wife for Abraham’s son (verse 40). Then he will be freed from this oath, even if her family refuses to let him take the girl back to Isaac (verse 41). And he then tells of how on his arrival, he prayed to God for a sign, and Rebekah came out and through her deeds and her kindness she fulfilled the sign he had prayed for. That was why he put the gifts of gold jewellery on her, and then bowed his head in worship, praising God (verses 42-47).
• The servant of Abraham then asks Rebekah’s brother Laban and father Bethuel for a decision (verse 49), and they state that they believe this thing is from God. Therefore give their consent for Rebekah to leave them and go back with Abraham’s servant and marry Abraham’s son (verses 50, 51).
• When he hears their reply, Abraham’s servant bows to the ground before God (verse 52), then he gives Rebekah and her family gifts of jewellery and clothing (verse 53).
• The next morning, when Abraham’s servant is about to depart, Rebekah’s brother Laban and mother Milcah request that she remains with them for ten more days (verse 55), but he insists that he does not wish to be detained, for God has granted him success in his journey; therefore he must leave straight away and return to his master (verse 56).
• Laban and Milcah ask Rebekah what she wishes to do, and she confirms that she will leave with Abraham’s servant (verses 57. 58).
• Rebekah’s family sends away Rebekah and her nurse, along with Abraham’s servant men and (verse 59), and her family blesses her (verse 60) as they all depart (verse 61).
• Isaac is living in the region of the Negev (verse 62), and one evening he sees camels approaching (verse 63).
• When Rebekah sees Isaac, she gets down from the camel (verse 64) and asks a servant about the identity of a man coming to meet them, and he tells her that the man is his master. So she covers her face with a veil (verse 65).
• On arriving from his long journey, the servant tells Isaac of all that has happened (verse 66).
• Isaac loves Rebekah, and he marries her. And he is comforted after his mother’s death (verse 67).
• Abraham marries Keturah (verse 1), and she bears six children to Abraham (verse 2). Abraham and Keturah are the forebears of more descendants (verses 3, 4).
• Abraham leaves everything he owns to Isaac (verse 5), and he gives gifts to the sons of his concubines and sends them away eastward (verse 6).
• Abraham lives 175 years (verse 7), and he dies an old man and full of years (verse 8).
• His sons Isaac and Ishmael bury his body by interment in the cave of Machpelah (verse 9), with his wife Sarah (verse 10).
• After the death of Abraham, God blesses Abraham’s son Isaac (verse 11).
• Ishmael, the son of Abraham through Hagar (verse 12), is the father of twelve sons (verses 13-15), who become the leaders of their own tribal clans (verse 16).
• Ishmael lives 137 years, and then he breathes his last and is gathered to his people (verse 17). His descendants live in the Middle East near Egypt, and during his life, Ishmael lives in hostility toward all his brothers (verse 18).
• The account of Isaac the son of Abraham (verse 19).
• Isaac is forty years old when he marries Rebekah (verse 20).
• Isaac prays for Rebekah because she cannot conceive, and God grants him his request (verse 21), but the children in her womb struggle together (verse 22).
• When Rebekah inquires of God, He tells her that two nations will come forth from her womb, and the older son will serve the younger son (verse 23).
• Rebekah gives birth to twins (verse 24). The first son born is red and hairy, so he is named Esau (verse 25), and the second son is named Jacob, because he grasps Esau’s heel. Isaac is sixty years old when Rebekah gives birth to them (verse 26).
• Esau grows up to be a skilful hunter and a man of the open country, while Jacob is a quiet man who stays around the camp (verse 27).
• Isaac loves Esau, because he has a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loves Jacob (verse 28).
• One day when Jacob is cooking some stew, Esau is very hungry when he comes in from the open country (verse 29). When he asks Jacob for some of the red stew, Jacob demands Esau’s firstborn birthright as payment (verses 30, 31). Esau hesitates (verse 32), but Jacob demands Esau sells his birthright to Jacob under oath (verse 33).
• So Esau sells his birthright to Jacob under oath (verse 33), and Jacob gives Esau a meal of bread and lentil stew in exchange, which Esau eats and then leaves. So in this way Esau forever despises his birthright (verse 34).
• There is a famine in the land of Canaan, so Isaac goes to Philistia, to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar (verse 1).
• Isaac is apparently set on going down to Egypt, however God appears to Isaac and forbids him from moving to Egypt. God instructs Isaac to live as a foreigner in the land He has given to Isaac’s father, to Abraham (verse 2). God will bless Isaac there and confirm the oath of the covenant, and He will give all of the land [of Canaan] to Isaac and to his descendants (verse 3).
• God promises to Isaac that He will multiply Isaac’s descendants, and make them in number as numerous as the stars of the heavens, and they will occupy all of the land [of Canaan] also. For through Isaac’s descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed (verse 4) because Abraham was completely obedient to God (verse 5). So Isaac settles in Gerar (verse 6).
• The men of Gerar ask Isaac about Rebekah, for she is beautiful. Isaac lies to them by saying Rebekah is his sister, because he is frightened they will kill him if he tells them Rebekah is his wife (verse 7).
• Some time later Abimelech king of the Philistines sees Isaac caressing Rebekah (verse 8), so he summons Isaac, and confronts him about passing off Rebekah as his sister, when in reality she is his wife. Isaac tells Abimelech he did so out of fear for his own life (verse 9).
• Abimelech expresses concern that guilt may have been brought upon his people if one of them had unknowingly slept with Rebekah (verse 10). So Abimelech decrees that anyone who harms Isaac or Rebekah shall be put to death (verse 11).
• Isaac sows a crop in Philistia and reaps a hundredfold the same year because God blesses him (verse 12), so Isaac prospers and becomes very wealthy (verse 13).
• Isaac has so many livestock and such large numbers of servants that the Philistines envy him (verse 14), and they fill in the wells of water that Isaac’s father Abraham built in the past (verse 15).
• Abimelech king of the Philistines sends Isaac away, for Isaac has become too powerful (verse 16).
• Isaac moves from there and encamps in the Valley of Gerar (verse 17).
• Isaac reopens the wells of water dug in the days of his father Abraham, and he names them by the same names again (verse 18). His servants dig other wells in the valley and find water, and the herdsmen from Gerar again claim the water belongs to them, so they quarrel with Isaac’s herdsmen over the water (verses 19-21).
• These disputes over access to water proves too much for Isaac, and he shifts camp and moves on from there and digs another well of water elsewhere, naming it Rehoboth and giving thanks to God (verse 22).
• From there Isaac moves to Beer-sheba (verse 23), where God appears to him and comforts him, guaranteeing Isaac His watch care, safekeeping, and the multiplying of his descendants for the sake of Isaac’s father Abraham (verse 24). So Isaac builds an altar there and calls on the name of his God. Then he encamps there and his servants dig a well of water (verse 25).
• King Abimelech goes from Gerar with his officials to meet with Isaac (verse 26).
• Isaac asks the king and his officials why they have come to see him (verse 27), and they declare their belief that Isaac is under the protection of God. So, for the sake of peace, they want to make a treaty with Isaac (verses 28, 29).
• Isaac agrees to the proposal, and he confirms the treaty with a feast, so they all eat and drink together (verse 30). The next day the king and his officials exchange an oath with Isaac, and they leave in peace (verse 31).
• That same day Isaac’s servants tell him about a well of water they have dug (verse 32), which he names Shibah [the name Shibah in Hebrew means ‘oath’.] So afterward the name of the city there is called Beer-sheba [the name Beer-sheba in Hebrew means ‘well of the oath’](verse 33).
• When Esau is forty years old, he marries two Hittites women,Judith and Basemath (verse 34). These Hittites women then become a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah (verse 35).
• Isaac is old and blind, and he called in to himself his oldest son Esau (verse 1).
• Isaac acknowledges his approaching death to Esau (verse 2). So he sends Esau out hunting (verse 3), to fetch and prepare him a meal of tasty game meat. Then Isaac will eat the tasty meal and give Esau the blessing of the firstborn (verse 4).
• Rebekah overhears Isaac speaking to Esau (verse 5), and when Esau is off hunting, she informs Jacob of the situation (verses 6, 7).
• Rebekah intends deceiving Isaac, so her favoured son Jacob receives the blessing of the firstborn. So she instructs Jacob (verse 8) to bring her two choice young goats to prepare a meal of tasty cooked meat for Isaac (verse 9), so Jacob can take the tasty food to Isaac, and deceive him to give Jacob the firstborn blessing (verse 10).
• Jacob is concerned the scam will not work, because Esau is a hairy man and Jacob is not (verse 11). Jacob is worried that if Isaac touches him and realises he is not Esau, then Isaac will curse him and not give him the blessing (verse 12), but Rebekah presses Jacob to continue on with the deception, and just follow her instructions (verse 13).
• Jacob brings the goats to Rebekah, and she prepares the meal of tasty cooked meat that Isaac loves (verse 14). Then she clothes Jacob in Esau’s garments (verse 15), and covers Jacob’s hands and part of his neck with the skin of the goats (verse 16), and hands him the tasty food and bread she has prepared (verse 17).
• Jacob goes in and greets Isaac, but Isaac, being blind, asks who is speaking (verse 18).
• Jacob lies to his father Isaac, claiming that he is Esau, Isaac’s firstborn, and that he has followed Isaac’s instructions. Jacob tells Isaac to sit up and eat his tasty game meat, and then give Jacob his firstborn blessing (verse 19).
• Isaac, however, is not so easily fooled, and he asks Jacob how he obtained the meal of tasty game meat so quickly. Jacob again lies to Isaac, by crediting God for his quick success (verse 20).
• Isaac tells Jacob to come near, so he can touch him and feel if it really is Esau who is speaking to him [since Esau is hairy, but Jacob is not](verse 21).
• When Isaac feels Jacob’s hand with the goatskin over it, he speaks of the voice being the voice of Jacob, but with the hands of Esau (verse 22).
• Because the hands of Jacob were hairy like Esau’s, Isaac is deceived and he blesses Jacob (verse 23). Then he asks again whether it is really Esau speaking to him not, to which Jacob lies again, saying he is Esau (verse 24).
• Isaac tells Jacob to bring him the meal of tasty game meat, so he can eat this food and then give his blessing (verse 25). So Isaac eats the tasty food and drinks wine, and he calls Jacob near so he can kiss him and give his blessing (verse 26). So Jacob kisses his father Isaac.
• When Isaac smells Esau’s clothes. he believes that it truly is Esau who is present with him there, and he commences giving his blessing of the firstborn. Isaac dedicates his son Jacob before God with an oration spoken using Hebrew poetic language form, and Jacob receives the blessing of the firstborn and the inheritance of the Divine covenant.
• Isaac praises his son for his earthy smell, like that of a fruitful field blessed by God (verse 27). He commends his son before God to receive the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine (verse 28); for the submission of many peoples and nations, and dominion over his brothers; and for a curse to come down on those who curse his s, and a blessing on those who bless (verse 29).
• No sooner does Isaac finish blessing his son Jacob, than his firstborn son Esau comes in from hunting (verse 30). He prepares tasty game food and takes it in to his father. Then Esau asks his father to eat the wild game that he has hunted and prepared, so Isaac may then blessing (verse 31).
• Isaac asks which son it is he is speaking to, and Esau answers that it is Esau, his firstborn son (verse 32).
• Isaac is overwhelmed at this turn of events, and he trembles violently. Esau asks his father Isaac who it was that hunted game and brought it to him, before he ate and gave him his blessing (verse 33).
• When Esau hears the words of his father, he erupts with a loud and bitter cry, and asks his father to bless also (verse 34).
• But Isaac tells Esau that his brother has come and taken his blessing deceitfully (verse 35).
• Esau affirms his brother is correctly named Jacob [the name Jacob in Hebrew means ‘he grasps the heel’, or figuratively ‘he supplants’, or, ‘he deceives’], for Jacob took his birthright, and now he has taken his blessing also. Then Esau asks Isaac for at least some form of blessing (verse 36).
• Isaac, however, affirms the he has given Jacob dominion over Esau and his descendants and an abundance of grain and the new wine of the harvest, and now nothing remains to give (verse 37).
• Esau begs his father Isaac for a blessing also, and in his grief Esau weeps loudly (verse 38).
• Then Isaac speaks in Hebrew poetic form of his son Esau’s future. He foretells that Esau will live in a thirsty and barren land (verse 39) in a way of life beset with violence and trouble, and under the dominion of Jacob, until he rebels and breaks free (verse 40).
• Esau holds a grudge against Jacob for stealing his father’s blessing, so he makes up his mind to murder Jacob after his father Isaac passes away (verse 41).
• Rebekah learns of Esau’s plan to murder Jacob, so she warns Jacob (verse 42) and tells him to flee immediately to her brother Laban in her homeland of Haran [in Mesopotamia](verse 43), and stay there until Esau’s fury subsides (verse 44). Then she will send word to Jacob, so he can return back then. Otherwise she risks losing both her sons in the selfsame day (verse 45).
• Rebekah tells Isaac of her disappointment with the Hittite women she has to constantly contend with. She fears she would be weary of life itself should Jacob also marry Hittites wives (verse 46).
• Isaac summons his son Jacob, and he blesses Jacob and warns him not to marry a Canaanite woman (verse 1), and he instructs Jacob to go to the household of Rebekah’s family at Paddan-aram and marry a daughter of Laban (verse 2). Then Isaac blesses Jacob by the name of God to have children and increase into a community of people (verse 3), under the covenant blessing of Abraham and occupy the whole land that God has given to Abraham (verse 4).
• Then Isaac sends Jacob away on his journey to the former homeland household of his mother Rebekah in Paddan-aram, to his uncle, Laban son of Bethuel (verse 5).
• Esau learns his father Isaac has sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, instructing him not to marry a Canaanite woman (verse 6), and that Jacob has obeyed his mother and father (verse 7). Then he realises how displeasing the Canaanite women are to his father Isaac (verse 8), so he marries a daughter of his uncle, of Ishmael (verse 9).
• As Jacob journeys from Beer-sheba toward Haran (verse 10), he stops at a certain place for the night, sleeping with his head on a stone (verse 11). During the night he has a dream of the visions of God, where he witnesses the angels of God ascending and descending on a stairway between heaven and earth, and between God and Jacob (verse 12).
• God confirms the Divine covenant with Jacob, guaranteeing possession of the Promised Land to him and to his descendants (verse 13), who will be like the dust of the earth for number, and through whom God will bless mankind (verse 14). God promises Jacob His faithful watchcare and protection, and that He will bring Jacob back to the land that God has promised him (verse 15).
• When Jacob awakes, he realises God is in that place (verse 16), and he is afraid and filled with awe. So he proclaims that place the house of God and the gate of heaven (verse 17). Jacob sets up a stone as a marker for that place (verse 18), and renames it Bethel [the place name Bethel in Hebrew means ‘House of God’](verse 19).
• Jacob makes a vow, that if God does provide his faithful watchcare and protection (verse 20), and Jacob safely returns to his father’s house, then God will be Jacob’s God (verse 21), and the stone he set up as a marker will be God’s house, and he will give God a tenth of everything he owns (verse 22).
• Jacob journeys eastward, until he encounters some of the people of the land (verse 1)—some shepherds, who have brought their flocks to a well of water, with its covering being large and made of stone (verse 2). The shepherds would roll away the stone covering from the well, give their sheep water to drink, then return the stone cover to its place (verse 3).
• Jacob engages the shepherds in conversation, asking where they are from. When he finds out they are from Haran (verse 4), he asks after his uncle, Laban (verse 5).
• The shepherds inform Jacob that Laban is well, and his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep (verse 6). Jacob is himself a pastoralist and shepherd by occupation, and he gives the shepherds some information about watering and feeding the sheep (verse 7), to which they outline their situation (verse 8).
• While Jacob is still speaking with the shepherds, Rachel, who is a shepherdess, arrives at the well of water with her father’s sheep (verse 9). So Jacob goes over to Rachel, and he removes the stone cover from the mouth of the well of water and waters his uncle Laban’s sheep (verse 10).
• Then Jacob kisses Rachel and he tells her is her father’s relative and the son of Rebekah, and she runs and tells her father the news (verse 12).
• Straight away Laban runs to meet Jacob, and he greets Jacob warmly and brings him to his house. Jacob tells Laban of everything that has happened (verse 13), and Laban confirms Jacob as his own flesh and blood.
• After Jacob had stayed a month (verse 14), Laban discussed with Jacob what his wages should be (verse 15). Laban has two daughters—Leah, the older of the two, and Rachel (verse 16). Leah is relatively unattractive, but Rachel is shapely and beautiful (verse 17).
• Jacob has fallen in love with Rachel, so he offers to serve Rachel’s father Laban for seven years to marry Rachel (verse 18).
• Laban agrees to Jacob’s offer, and he invites Jacob to live there (verse 19). So Jacob works for Laban seven years, yet this time seems like only a few days for Jacob, for he is deeply in love with Rachel (verse 20).
• When Jacob’s time of service is completed, he asks Laban to give him Rachel as his wife (verse 21). Laban holds a wedding celebration and provides a feast (verse 22). But when the darkness of evening comes, Laban deceives Jacob by putting Leah in with Jacob to lie with, instead of Rachel (verse 23). [Laban gives his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah for a maidservant (verse 24).]
• Jacob is alarmed when he finds that Leah is the woman in bed with him after his wedding night and not Rachel, so he confronts Laban (verse 25). Laban claims is it customary for the older daughter to be given in marriage before the younger (verse 26), and Jacob should complete the bridal week with Leah, then work for Laban another seven years as the bridal price for Rachel (verse 27).
• Jacob finishes the bridal week with Leah, then Laban also gives his daughter Rachel to Jacob to be his wife (verse 28). Laban also gave his servant girl Bilhah to Rachel for a maidservant (verse 29). So Jacob consummates his marriage to Rachel, whom he loves more than Leah, and he serves Laban another seven years (verse 30).
• God sees Leah is unloved, so He makes her fertile for conception, however Rachel remains barren (verse 31).
• Leah becomes pregnant, and she gives birth to Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn son. Leah recognizes the hand of God in the birth of her first child, and she desperately wants her husband Jacob to love her. Therefore she names her firstborn son Reuben [the name Reuben in Hebrew means ‘see, a son’; but also sounds like the Hebrew for ‘he has seen my misery’; that is, ‘raa beonyi’](verse 32).
• Leah again becomes pregnant, and she gives birth to her second son, Simeon. Leah again recognizes the hand of God in the birth of her second child, for her husband Jacob still does not love her. So Leah names her son Simeon, because God has listened to Leah and given her a son [the name Simeon in Hebrew sounds like the word for ‘one who hears’; that is, ‘shama’](verse 33).
• Leah again becomes pregnant, and she gives birth to her third son, Levi. Leah hopes that now, at last, her husband Jacob will become attached to her, so she names her son Levi, after the longings of her own heart [the name Levi in Hebrew sounds like the word for ‘attached’; that is, ‘lawah’](verse 34).
• Leah again becomes pregnant, and she gives birth to her fourth son,Judah. WhenJudah is born, Leah marks the birth with a vow of praise to God, and she names her son in honour of her vow [the name Judah sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘praise’; that is, ‘yadah’.] Then Leah ceases bearing children (verse 35).
• Rachel finds herself unable to conceive children, and she is envious of Leah. In her frustration, she demands children from her husband Jacob (verse 1).
• Jacob becomes angry with Rachel, and he rebukes her (verse 2). Rachel then asks Jacob to build a family for her through her maidservant Bilhah (verse 3).
• Jacob takes Bilhah as a wife (verse 4), and she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son (verse 5). Rachel is thrilled that at last a child is born she is bound up with. She says that God has vindicated her, so she names the boy Dan [the name Dan in Hebrew means ‘he vindicates’, or, ‘he provides justice’](verse 6).
• Bilhah again conceives, and she gives birth to a second son to Jacob (verse 7). Rachel and Leah continue to compete and struggle with each other over their husband Jacob. Leah has given birth to four sons for Jacob, but he does not love her; while Rachel is loved by Jacob, but she remains barren. When the boy is born to her maidservant Bilhah, Rachel says that she has wrestled with her sister and prevailed, so she names the newborn baby boy Naphtali [the name Naphtali in Hebrew sounds like the word for ‘my struggle’, or, ‘my wrestling’; that is, ‘niphtal’](verse 8).
• Leah sees she has stopped bearing children, so she gives her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife (verse 9), and Zilpah gives birth to a son (verse 10). Leah says the birth represents good fortune for her, so she names the boy Gad [the name Gad in Hebrew means ‘good fortune’](verse 11).
• Leah’s maidservant Zilpah has a second son to Jacob (verse 12). At this, Leah says she is very happy, and women will call her happy also, so she names the boy Asher [the name Asher in Hebrew means ‘happy’](verse 13).
• At the time of the wheat harvest, Leah’s firstborn son Reuben finds some mandrakes, and Rachel asks for some of them [she probably believes they may raise her fertility and help her fall pregnant](verse 14). Leah objects, so Rachel offers to have Jacob sleep with Leah that night and not herself, in exchange for some of the mandrakes (verse 15).
• In the evening, when Jacob returns from his days labours, Leah ushers him to sleep with her that night (verse 16). God listens to Leah, and she becomes pregnant and gives birth to her fifth son (verse 17). Leah says that God has rewarded her for giving her maidservant to Jacob [for a wife], so she names the baby boy Issachar [the name Issachar in Hebrew sounds like the word for ‘reward’, or, ‘hire’; that is, ‘sakar’](verse 18).
• Leah again becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son. At the birth of her sixth son to Jacob (verse 19), Leah says that God has given her a precious gift, and her husband will honour her for the birth of her son. So Leah names her newborn son Zebulun [the name Zebulun sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘honour’; that is, ‘zabal’.](verse 20). Afterward Leah gives birth to a daughter whom she names Dinah (verse 21).
• When the time is right, God remembers Rachel. God listens to Rachel in her daily life, and He opens her womb (verse 22). Rachel becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son (verse 23). She says that God has taken away her reproach [for being unable to have any children.] She names her newborn son Joseph [the name Joseph in Hebrew means ‘may he add’], saying, “May the Lord add to me another son”(verse 24).
• After the birth of Joseph, Jacob speaks to Laban of leaving and returning to his own homeland (verse 25), with his wives and children, for whom he toiled for Laban many years (verse 26).
• Laban does not want Jacob to depart, for he has found out through divination that God has blessed Laban because of Jacob (verse 27), so he invites Jacob to name his own wages if he will stay (verse 28).
• Jacob answers by recalling his years of responsible and reliable servitude for Laban (verse 29), and of Laban’s subsequent increase and prosperity, and under God’s blessing as well, yet Jacob needs an asset base of livestock to provide for his own wives and children (verse 30).
• Laban seeks to buy Jacob’s loyalty and continued service, but Jacob declines and offers to continue tending Laban’s flocks (verse 31), so long as he is permitted to keep the inferior-coloured livestock as his wages, and start up his own flocks from these animals (verse 32). Later, Jacob’s honesty can be straightforwardly gauged from the inferior-coloured livestock and their offspring (verse 33).
• Laban agrees to Jacob’s terms (verse 34), so he separates out the inferior-coloured livestock, and places under the care of his own sons (verse 35). Then he puts a three day journey between Jacob and Laban’s livestock he is shepherding, and Laban and his sons and the inferior-coloured livestock they are shepherding (verse 36).
• Jacob commences his strategy of selectively breeding the livestock to produce offspring with inferior colouration, which then become Jacob’s. He prepares fresh amber-coloured tree branches (verse 37), and places them in front of the watering troughs when the livestock are breeding (verse 38), causing the offspring to be born with inferior colouring (verse 39), and he separates out his livestock from Laban’s (verse 40).
• When the stronger livestock are breeding, Jacob puts these tree branches in the watering troughs and they breed there (verse 41). However when the feeble livestock are breeding, Jacob refrained from putting out the tree branches, thus ensuring Laban ends up with the bloodlines of the feeble livestock (verse 42). So Jacob becomes wealthy, owning large flocks, servants, and camels and donkeys (verse 43).
• Laban and his sons are opposed to Jacob’s increasing wealth (verses 1, 2).
• God tells Jacob to return to his own homeland, and promises Jacob His watchcare and faithfulness there (verse 3).
• Jacob summons Rachel and Leah (verse 4), and outlines to them his deteriorating situation with their father Laban (verse 5). Jacob has worked studiously for Laban (verse 6), but Laban has cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times, yet God has not permitted Laban to harm Jacob (verse 7). Jacob explains how Laban’s livestock have been born with inferior colouring, and therefore because of the agreement between Jacob and Laban, they have become Jacob’s (verse 8); so God has taken away Laban’s livestock and given them to him (verse 9).
• Jacob describes a dream he had to Rachel and Leah, where the male goats were of interior colouring (verse 10), and God calls to Jacob (verse 11) and tells him to look at the goats, for God has seen what Laban is doing to Jacob (verse 12). He tells Jacob that He is the God of Bethel, and He instructs Jacob to leave the land of Haran and return to his own homeland (verse 13).
• Rachel and Leah speak of their own subordinate family status (verse 14), and of their father’s poor regard for them. They feel that their father has sold his daughters and spent the proceeds (verse 15), so the wealth that God has taken from their father belongs to them and their children, and they should do whatever God has told Jacob to do (verse 16).
• Jacob sets his wives and sons on camels (verse 17), and sets out with his family and his livestock and possessions to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan (verse 18).
• When Laban is away, Rachel steals his household gods (verse 19), and Jacob deceives Laban by not telling him he intends to flee (verse 20). Then he leaves with his family and everything he owns and heads toward the hill country of Gilead (verse 21).
• Laban finds out Jacob has fled three days later (verse 22), so he and his relatives pursue Jacob for seven days and overtake them in the hill country of Gilead (verse 23), but God warns Laban against harming Jacob (verse 24).
• When Laban overtakes Jacob, Jacob is encamped in the hill country of Gilead, and Laban and his relatives encamp there also (verse 25).
• Laban rebukes Jacob, claiming Jacob has deceived him and fled with Laban’s daughters (verse 26), and without Laban being able to hold a send-off for everyone (verse 27), or bid his daughters and grandchildren farewell. Laban claims Jacob has been foolish (verse 28), and it is in his power to harm Jacob, but the previous night God warned Laban not to harm Jacob (verse 29). Then Laban asks Jacob why he has stolen Laban’s household gods (verse 30).
• Jacob explains that he thought Laban would take his wives away by force (verse 31), and if Laban finds his household gods with anyone they will not live. Then Jacob challenges Laban to point out and take back anything that belongs to him from Jacob’s possessions [for Jacob does know that Rachel stole Laban’s household gods](verse 32).
• Laban searches Jacob’s tents, but fails to find his household gods (versus 33, 34).
• Rachel lies to her father when he is searching her tent, claiming that because she is menstruating she cannot stand up for him to search the camel saddle she is sitting on. So Laban does not find his household gods in Rachel’s tent (verse 35).
• Jacob becomes enraged, and he complains angrily to Laban (verse 36), telling Laban to produce what was stolen and put it in front of everyone to see (verse 37).
• Jacob then summarises the twenty years of his service to Laban. Jacob has been loyal and responsible to Laban while he has shepherded Laban’s livestock (verse 38). Jacob has carried the loss for any of Laban’s livestock killed by wild animals, and paid himself for any that have been stolen (verse 39). Jacob has been consumed by heat during the day, and by the cold at night, and frequently missed out on sleep (verse 40). Jacob has worked for Laban fourteen years to marry Laban’s two daughters, and six years for his flocks, yet Laban has changed Jacob’s wages ten times (verse 41), and would willingly have sent Jacob away empty-handed, if God did not intervene with Laban on behalf of Jacob (verse 42).
• The unrighteous Laban retorts with the claim that everything of Jacob’s belongs to Laban, yet he is powerless to take them back (verse 43), and he offers to make a covenant with Jacob (verse 44).
• So Jacob sets up a stone as a pillar (verse 45), and everyone piles stones there in a heap and then they eat together by the pillar of stones (verse 46), and Jacob and Laban both name that place ‘The Heap of Witness’ in their own respective languages (verse 47).
• Laban proclaims the terms of their treaty, namely that the heap of stones is a witness between Laban and Jacob (verse 48), that God may watch between both of them while they are apart (verse 49). Then if Jacob mistreats Laban’s daughters or marries others, God will be a witness between Jacob and Laban (verse 50).
• Laban also tells Jacob that the heap and the pillar he has set up (verse 51) are both witnesses that neither of them will pass these landmarks to harm each other (verse 52). Laban then makes an invocation to the God of their fathers to judge between Laban and Jacob. So Jacob swears an oath by the Fear of his father Isaac (verse 53).
• Then Jacob offers a sacrifice on the mountain, and they finish the sacrificial service with a meal together, and spent the night on the mountain (verse 54).
• The next morning Laban rises early, kisses his daughters and grandchildren farewell and blesses them, and he leaves to return to his home (verse 55).
• Jacob sets off toward Canaan, and he is met on the way by holy angels (verse 1), and he said, “This is God’s camp.” So he names the place Mahanaim [the name Mahanaim in Hebrew means ‘two camps’.]
• Jacob sends messengers ahead to his brother Esau with news of Jacob’s circumstances (verse 4), hoping that he can find favour with Esau (verse 5).
• Jacob’s messengers return, reporting to him that Esau is coming to meet Jacob with 400 men (verse 6).
• Jacob is alarmed, so he divides the people into two groups, along with the livestock (verse 7), hoping that if Esau attacks one group, the other may escape (verse 8).
• Jacob prays about his dangerous predicament, for God, the God of his fathers, has told Jacob to return to his own homeland and promised Jacob He will protect Jacob and treat him kindly (verse 9), and Jacob counts himself unworthy, and now he has his own family and dependents (verse 10). Jacob prays for deliverance from his brother Esau, for he is afraid Esau will attack him and his family (verse 11), and God has promised Jacob prosperity and many descendants (verse 12).
• Jacob stays the night there, and he selects a gift for his brother Esau from his flocks (verse 13)—200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams (verse 14), 30 lactating camels with their calves, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys (verse 15).
• Jacob entrusts to his servants the livestock by type he is giving as a gift to his brother Esau, and instructs them to go on ahead of him, leaving some space between the herds (verse 16).
• Jacob instructs the servant at the front of the procession to answer Esau’s questions (verse 17) by telling him the livestock belongs to Jacob, and they are being sent as a gift to Esau, and Jacob is coming behind (verse 18). The other servants are instructed to also say the same to Esau (verse 19), for Jacob is seeking to appease his brother Esau with the gifts of livestock, so afterward Esau might accept him (verse 20). So Jacob’s servants move on ahead with the livestock, while he stays in the camp that night (verse 21).
• During the night Jacob sets out with his wives and sons and he crosses the ford of the Jabbok River (verse 22). After they had crossed over, Jacob sent over everything else he had (verse 23), and then Jacob was left alone on the other side of the river.
• Jacob is assailed by a man that same night, and he wrestles with the man until daybreak (verse 24). When the man cannot prevail against Jacob, He touches the socket of Jacob’s hip, and puts it out of joint (verse 25).
• The man tells Jacob to let Him go, but Jacob, being aware of whom he has been wrestling with, refuses to release his grip until the man blesses him (verse 26). Then the man asks Jacob his name, which Jacob gives (verse 27), and God tells Jacob his new name will be Israel [the name Israel in Hebrew means ‘he struggles with God’], because Jacob has struggled with God and with men, and he has prevailed (verse 28).
• Jacob asks God for His name, but He does not tell His name, and he blesses Jacob there (verse 29). Jacob calls the name of that place Peniel [the name Peniel in Hebrew means ‘face of God’], because Jacob says he has seen God face to face, yet his life has been spared (verse 30).
• The sun is rising as Jacob limps away from that place (verse 31), and to this day the Israelites don't eat the thigh of the tendon at the hip socket, because God struck the socket of Jacob’s hip on the thigh tendon (verse 32).
• Jacob is afraid of meeting his brother Esau, because Esau vowed to murder Jacob before he fled to Paddan-aram. Jacob attempts to protect his family as best he can he sees Esau approaching with 400 men, so he divides his family into three separate groups and goes on ahead of them (verse 1). Jacob places the maidservants and their children in front, then Leah and her children, and last Rachel and her son Joseph (verse 2).
• As Esau draws near, Jacob bows to the ground seven times until Esau reaches him (verse 3). However Esau is not hostile to Jacob. Esau embraces Jacob and kisses him and they weep together (verse 4). Then Esau asks after Jacob’s family who are there with him, and Jacob tells Esau they are his children (verse 5).
• So the maidservants come forward with their children first and they bow down before Esau (verse 6), then Leah and her children come near and bow down also, and last of all Rachel and Joseph do the same (verse 7).
• Esau asks Jacob his reason for the droves of livestock that met Esau as he approached, to which Jacob answers that these are to assist Jacob finding Esau’s favour (verse 8). But Esau declines the gift of livestock from his brother, saying he has enough already (verse 9). However, Jacob insists Esau accepts the gift of livestock, since seeing Esau’s face when he has received Jacob so favourably is to Jacob like seeing the face of God Himself (verse 10). Jacob tells his brother Esau God has dealt graciously with Jacob, and so he has all he needs. Then Jacob urges Esau to accept his gift until Esau agrees (verse 11).
• Esau offers to accompany Jacob on the journey (verse 12), but Jacob declines Esau’s offer, saying that his children are tender, and also that he has to care for the sheep and cattle with their young or the animals will die if they are driven hard (verse 13). Jacob then tells Esau he will continue on slowly until he meets up with him in Seir (verse 14).
• Esau offers to leave some men behind to assist Jacob, but Jacob says to Esau he has no need, and he only wants to find favour with Esau (verse 15), so Esau departs that same day with his men and he returns to Seir (verse 16). However, Jacob travels to Succoth and builds a house and stalls for his animals there, so the place is called Succoth [the name Succoth in Hebrew means ‘shelters’, or, ‘stalls’, or, ‘huts’](verse 17).
• From Succoth Jacob travels to Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he encamps outside the city (verse 18) and purchases the plot of land where he has set up camp for a hundred pieces of silver (verse 19). Jacob sets up an altar there and calls it El-Elohe-Israel [the Hebrew name El-Elohe-Israel can mean ‘God, the God of Israel’, or, ‘mighty is the God of Israel’. The word El in Hebrew translates to ‘God’ in English](verse 20).
• Jacob’s daughter Dinah goes off to visit some of the young women in the surrounding area (verse 1).
• The son of a local chieftain, Shechem son of Hamor, seizes Dinah and rapes her (verse 2), but he falls in love with her (verse 3), and demands his father obtains Dinah so he can marry her (verse 4).
• Jacob’s sons are out in the fields with the livestock when Jacob finds out his daughter Dinah has been violated (verse 5). Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor goes to speak with Jacob (verse 6), and Jacob’s sons return from the fields, grieved and very angry (verse 7).
• Hamor explains to Jacob and his sons that his son Shechem has his heart set on Dinah and wants to marry her (verse 8). So he proposes that Jacob’s clan should join with the Shechemites, intermarry with them (verse 9), and live together as an integrated and prosperous community (verse 10).
• Shechem asks Jacob and his sons to view him and his proposal favourably, and give him what he asks (verse 11). Shechem says he will willingly pay any bride price, so long as he is given Dinah for a wife (verse 12).
• Jacob’s sons then answer Shechem and Hamor deceitfully (verse 13), declaring their sister Dinah cannot be joined to an uncircumcised man, for that would be a disgrace (verse 14). However, if Shechem, Hamor, and all the men of their town were to be circumcised, then Jacob’s sons would give their consent to the proposal (verse 15), and they will intermarry and become one people with the Shechemites (verse 16), but if this condition of circumcision is refused, they will take their sister Dinah and leave (verse 17).
• Shechem and his father Hamor are delighted to hear the proposal of circumcision and integration by Jacob’s sons (verse 18). Shechem is Hamor’s most honoured son and he is thoroughly delighted with Dinah, so he hurries to fulfil the obligation of circumcision proposed by Jacob’s sons (verse 19).
• Hamor and his son Shechem meet with the men of the city of Shechem at the city gates (verse 20), and propose that they should all allow Jacob’s clan to live among them. Then they will trade with them, and integrate with them by intermarrying their daughters with the daughters of Jacob’s clan (verse 21). The only catch is, however, that all the men must be circumcised, as this is the strict custom of Jacob’s clan (verse 22). They say that the men of Shechem will benefit greatly, for they will become enriched with all of the livestock, animals, goods, and wealth of Jacob’s clan (verse 23). The men of Shechem agree to Hamor’s proposal, and they are all circumcised (verse 24).
• Three days after the men of the city of Shechem are circumcised and still in pain, Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, take their swords and attack and kill all the men of Shechem (verse 25), including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they take their sister Dinah from Shechem’s house and leave (verse 26). Then Jacob’s sons return to the city and plunder it (verse 27), and they seize all the livestock, animals, and valuables from the city and surrounding fields (verse 28). They loot the houses, and carry off the spoil, and the women and children also (verse 29).
• Jacob tells Simeon and Levi that they have brought much trouble on him, and he is now odious to the people of the land, the Canaanites and Perizzites. If these peoples unite together and attack them, Jacob and his clan are few in number and they will be destroyed (verse 30). Simeon and Levi, in an attempt to justify their actions, then refer to their sister Dinah previously being treated like a prostitute (verse 31).
• God commands Jacob to shift camp to Bethel, and build an altar there to God (verse 1).
• Jacob carries out a reformation among his clan. He commands his household to get rid of their foreign gods, purify themselves, and change their clothes, (verse 2), for they were shifting camp to Bethel. There Jacob was going to build an altar to God, for God had saved Jacob in his times of trouble and stayed with him throughout his days (verse 3).
• The members of Jacob’s household give their foreign gods and their earrings to Jacob, and he buries those items under an oak tree near Shechem (verse 4).
• After Jacob’s sons kill all the people at Shechem, Jacob’s clan is in danger of being slaughtered in revenge by the Canaanites from the surrounding region. So when Jacob and all the people with him break camp and set out from Shechem, God rescues them by putting terror into the hearts of all the Canaanites from the surrounding cities, so they do not pursue and attack Jacob’s sons (verse 5).
• Jacob and his people arrive at Bethel in the land of Canaan (verse 6), and Jacob builds an altar there to God, commemorating his earlier experience when he was fleeing from his brother Esau, and the names that place El-bethel [the name El-bethel in Hebrew means ‘God of Bethel’](verse 7).
• Deborah, the nurse of Jacob’s mother Rebekah, dies and is buried under an oak tree south of Bethel, so that location is named Allon-bacuth [the name Allon-bacuth in Hebrew means ‘oak of weeping’](verse 8).
• After Jacob arrives from Paddan-arum, God appears to Jacob and blesses him (verse 9), and God tells Jacob that he will no longer be called Jacob [the name Jacob in Hebrew means ‘he grasps the heel’, or figuratively ‘he supplants’, or, ‘he deceives’], but his name will be Israel [the name Israel in Hebrew means ‘he struggles with God’](verse 10).
• God also commands Jacob to multiply and increase in number, for a nation and an assembly of nations and their kings will descend through Jacob’s own lineage (verse 11). Then God affirms to Jacob that he and his descendants will inherit the land of Canaan that He gave to Abraham and Isaac (verse 12).
• When God finishes speaking to Jacob, He ascends from that place (verse 13), and Jacob sets up a pillar of stone in commemoration, and he pours out a drink offering and oil upon it (verse 14), and names the place Bethel [the place name Bethel in Hebrew means ‘House of God’](verse 15).
• Jacob and his people move on from Bethel. When they are getting toward their destination of Ephrath, Rachel begins giving birth, but she has difficulty in labour (verse 16). When her labour is at its most severe, the midwife tells her she has given birth to a son (verse 17), and as Rachel lays dying she names her newborn son Ben-oni [the name Ben-oni in Hebrew means ‘son of my trouble’, or, ‘son of my sorrow’], but Jacob names him Benjamin [the name Benjamin in Hebrew means ‘son of my right hand’. It has been customary for God from the beginning to employ the practice of showing favour to an individual by keeping that person at His right hand, whether literally or figuratively. This practice was then historically adopted by the Hebrew people; hence the name given by Jacob to his youngest son—‘Benjamin’](verse 18).
• Rachel dies and is buried on the way as they journey to Ephrath [ known later as Bethlehem ](verse 19). Jacob sets up a pillar over her grave that is known as the Pillar of Rachel’s Tomb (verse 20).
• Jacob, who is now known as Israel, moves on from Ephrath and he encamps near Eber (verse 21), and while he is living in that region, his son Reuben lays with his father Israel’s wife, and Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah. Israel finds out about this, and this shameful act is a source of extreme disgrace for Reuben (verse 22).
• Jacob has twelve sons in all (verse 22). Leah is the mother of six of Jacob’s sons (verse 23). Rachel is the mother of two of Jacob’s sons (verse 24). Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah is the mother of two of Jacob’s sons (verse 25). Leah’s maidservant Zilpah is the mother of two of Jacob’s sons. Jacob’s sons were born to him in Paddan-aram (verse 26).
• Jacob comes home to his father Isaac at Mamre (verse 27). Isaac is very old, 180 years of age (verse 28) when he dies, and his sons Esau and Jacob bury him (verse 29).
• Genesis 36 is a listing of the family records of Esau (verse 1).
• Esau takes his three wives from among the Canaanite inhabitants: Adah daughter of Elon, Oholibamah daughter of Anah (verse 2), and Basemath daughter of Ishmael (verse 3).
• Esau’s wives give birth to five of Esau’s sons in the land of Canaan (verses 4, 5).
• Esau gathers together his wives, children, livestock, animals, and all his possessions he has accumulated in the land of Canaan and he moves away from his brother Jacob (verse 6), for Jacob and Esau have too many livestock, animals, and possessions to both remain living in the land of Canaan (verse 7). So Esau moves to the hill country of Seir (verse 8).
• Esau becomes the patriarchal ancestor of the Edomites, as recorded by name in this chapter of the book of Genesis (verse 9).
• Through his sons and grandsons, Esau becomes the founding figure of the Edomite nation, fifteen of whom are listed by name in verses 10–14.
• Through Esau’s sons and grandsons, tribal clans arise in the land of Edom. The leaders of the Edomite clans descended from Esau are given the designation of chiefs of their clans, fifteen of whom are listed by name in verses 15–19.
• The founding ancestral figurehead of the indigenous Horite peoples of the land of Seir is himself named Seir the Horite (verse 20). The designated name for the region, known as Seir, also [apparently later] is known as Edom after Esau and his clan settle there, and, as such, the inhabitants are called Edomites.
• In the Semitic languages, of which the Hebrew language is part of, the word for ‘son’ is also used for any male descendent, whether of the next generation, or subsequent generations [even through many generations in antiquity], or can include a famous, renowned, and/or illustrious ruler, leader, or individual person, of a hereditary or traditional homeland, nation, region, or military power.
• The founding ancestral figure named Seir the Horite of the indigenous inhabitants of the region of Seir or Edom is credited as the father of seven sons, who become ‘chiefs’ of Horite tribes or clans in the land of Edom (verses 20, 21). These seven chiefs become the father figures of nineteen sons and two daughters who are recorded by name in verses 22–28. These genealogical records of the indigenous Horite inhabitants conclude with a relisting of the same Horite chiefs recorded in verses 20 and 21 (verses 29, 30).
• The Edomites used the monarchical system of government, whereby the land of Edom is ruled by a king. These historical records include a listing of the Edomite kings, who held the status of legal head of the nation, and also organised the military forces, before the Israelites themselves later adopted a similar system of government (verse 31). These records list the names and royal cities of eight Edomite kings (verses 32–39).
• The records of Esau’s descendants and the indigenous Seirite inhabitants listed in Genesis chapter 36 conclude with a second list of eleven tribal or clan chiefs descended from Esau (verses 40–43).
• Jacob stays living in the land of Canaan after the death of his father Isaac (verse 1).
• When Jacob’s son Joseph is seventeen years old, he brings his father a bad report about his brothers (verse 2).
• Jacob loves his son Joseph more than any of Joseph’s brothers, and Jacob makes Joseph a robe of many colours (verse 3). But when his brothers see this, they hate Joseph and will not speak peaceably with him (verse 4).
• Joseph has a dream, and his brothers hate him all the more for it (verse 5) when he tells his brothers about the dream (verse 6). In Joseph’s dream, he and his brothers are binding sheaves of grain, when suddenly his sheave stands upright, and his brother’s sheaves then bow down to Joseph’s sheaf (verse 7). Joseph’s brothers speak harshly to him, and they hate him all the more for his dream (verse 8).
• Joseph has a another dream, and he tells his brothers about it. In Joseph’s second dream, he sees the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him (verse 9). When Joseph tells his father Jacob about the dream, Jacob rebukes Joseph (verse 10), and although Joseph’s brothers are jealous of him, his father Jacob [who has had many dealings with God] keeps the issue in mind (verse 11).
• Joseph’s brothers have gone to pasture their father Jacob’s flocks near Shechem (verse 12), and Jacob sends Joseph out to them (verse 13) to find out how everything is going, so he can bring back word to Jacob. So Joseph leaves from the valley at Hebron, and he goes across to Shechem (verse 14), but when he arrives there cannot find his brothers. A man who sees Joseph wandering in the fields asks him what he is looking for (verse 15), so Joseph asks the man if he has seen his brothers with their flocks (verse 16). The man tells Joseph he has seen Joseph’s brothers, and he heard them say they were moving on to Dothan. So Joseph goes over to Dothan and he finds his brothers there (verse 17).
• When Joseph’s brothers see him coming in the distance, they conspire together to kill Joseph (verse 18). They say to one another that Joseph is a dreamer (verse 19), and they discuss the potential of killing Joseph and throwing his body into one of the pits, and then telling others he was devoured by a wild animal. For the brothers, this would then be the end of Joseph, and he and his dreams will come to nothing (verse 20).
• However, Joseph’s oldest brother Reuben tries to save Joseph from being murdered by his brothers (verse 21). He tells his brothers that they should not kill Joseph, but only throw him into one of the pits, for Reuben intended to then rescue Joseph and return him safely to his father Jacob (verse 22).
• When Joseph meets his brothers, they seize him and strip him of the robe of many colours that his father Jacob made (verse 23), and they throw Joseph into an empty pit (verse 24).
• After Joseph’s brothers throw him into the pit, they sit down and eat a meal together. Just then they see a caravan of Ishmaelites coming toward them on camels loaded with trading goods. The Ishmaelites are Midianite traders from Gilead, who are going down to Egypt with a load of merchandise (verse 25).
• Joseph’s brother Judah suggests to his brothers that they refrain from killing Joseph (verse 26), and instead sell him to the Ishmaelites, because Joseph is their brother, and their own flesh and blood. And the brothers agree with Judah (verse 27). So when the Midianite traders come past, they pull Joseph from the pit and sell him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. The Midianite traders then take Joseph down to Egypt with them [as a slave](verse 28).
• When Joseph’s brother Reuben returns to the pit to rescue Joseph and sees he is not there, Reuben is distressed and he tears his clothes. [In the ancient Middle East, the widespread practice of a person tearing their own clothes commonly done at a time of extreme distress, as clothing was difficult to make or obtain and expensive to purchase](verse 29). Then Reuben went back in a distressed state and told his brothers (verse 30).
• In order to deceive their father Jacob, Joseph’s brothers slaughter a goat and dip Joseph’s robe in the blood (verse 31), and they then take Joseph’s bloodied robe and present it to their father Jacob (verse 32).
• When Jacob sees his son Joseph’s bloodstained robe, he recognizes it and believes his son Joseph has been torn to pieces by a wild animal and devoured (verse 33). Jacob is extremely grieved at the loss of his son Joseph, and he tears his clothes [in the ancient Middle East, the widespread practice of a person tearing their own clothes was done at a time of extreme distress, as clothing was difficult to make or obtain and expensive to purchase], puts on sackcloth, and mourns for his son Joseph for many days. [The wearing of sackcloth by the ancients across the Middle East was a common practice in times of extreme grief and distress. Sackcloth was made from goats hair or similar, and consequently the clothing was hot, scratchy, and uncomfortable to wear, making the individual’s suffering all the more painful](verse 34).
• When Jacob’s sons and daughters try to comfort Jacob, he refuses to be consoled, saying he will go down to Sheol [that is, the grave, or the place of nothingness where the dead go], to his son Joseph in mourning. So Jacob weeps bitterly for the [supposed] death of his son Joseph (verse 35).
• Meanwhile, Joseph is very much alive, and the Ishmaelite Midianite traders take Joseph to Egypt and sell him as a slave to a prominent man named Potiphar, who is one of Pharaoh’s officials (verse 36).
Jacob’s son Judah is the founding patriarch and ancestor of the most preeminent and enduring tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribal group of Judah survived in their own kingdom in Palestine continually for some 1,500 years, and it formed the basis of the Jewish race that continues on to this day. The tribe of Judah has been central to God’s efforts in preserving and maintaining His connection and relationship with the human race on earth, and as such, He expressly appointed, preserved, and protected this core racial group throughout antiquity. Ultimately, it was through the tribe of Judah that our Lord Jesus Christ descended and came to earth, to concrete God’s own Messianic connection with fallen mankind forever and ever. Thus for these reasons, Jacob’s son Judah was very significant and important in the sight of God when he lived on earth. God was closely linked and directly involved with Judah and his offspring, in order to develop and refine the tribe of Judah, and then afterward through this racial group bring about God’s own ability for all time to Himself continually directly intervene, uplift, and support the human race on earth through to this present day.
• Judah moves away from his brothers, and he stays at Adullam with a man named Hirah (verse 1).
• Judah arranges for a woman named Tamah to marry his firstborn son Er (verse 6), but Er is wicked in the sight of God, so God puts him to death (verse 7).
• Judah requires his son Onan to fulfil his duty of brother-in-law to Tamah, and produce children for his brother Er (verse 8). But Onan, knowing the children would not be his own, repeatedly spills his seed so as not to inseminate Tamah (verse 9), and as such, he wilfully commits wickedness before God, so God puts him to death also (verse 10).
• Judah is concerned for the survival of his youngest son Shelah, so he tells Tamah to remain a widow and live in the house of her own father until his son Shelah grows up[so Shelah can then fulfil his duty of brother-in-law to Tamah, and father children for his brother Er](verse 11).
• After a lengthy period of time, Judah’s wife Shua passes away. When Judah has finished his period of mourning, he goes to Timnah with his friend Hirah the Adullamite to join the men who are shearing his sheep (verse 12).
• When Tamah hears that Judah is going to Timnah to shear his sheep (verse 13), she disguises herself as a prostitute in an attempt to deceive Judah, and then she waits at the side of the road for him to pass by, outside Enaim. Tamah realises that although Judah’s son Shelah has reached manhood, Judah has not fulfilled his promise to Tamah to marry his son Shelah to her, and she has waited a long time for this to happen (verse 14).
• When Judah sees his daughter-in-law Tamah sitting at the side of the road, she is dressed as a prostitute and her face is covered with a veil (verse 15). Judah does not recognize his daughter-in-law, and thinking she is a prostitute, he goes over to her to solicit sex. Tamah then asks Judah what he will pay her in exchange for sex (verse 16), and he offers a young goat as payment. As Judah does not have the young goat on hand, Tamah rightly tells Judah that he needs to give her something as a pledge until he pays her (verse 17). So Judah, unaware that it is his daughter-in-law Tamah who he is negotiating with, asks Tamah what he should give her as a pledge. So Tamah asks for Judah’s signet and its cord and the staff Judah is carrying. Judah agrees to these terms, and he gives Tamah the items she requires as a pledge, before he has sex with her. Then Tamah becomes pregnant to Judah (verse 18).
• After Judah leaves, Tamah removes the prostitute’s clothing and the veil over her face that she was wearing in order to deceive Judah, and puts back on her widow’s clothing (verse 19).
• When Judah’s friend, the Adullamite, takes the young goat back to pay the prostitute and get Judah’s pledge back, the prostitute is nowhere to be found (verse 20). So he asks some of the local men if they know where the cult prostitute is who was beside the road at Enaim (verse 21), but they tell him that there has been no cult prostitute there (verse 22).
• When Judah hears that the prostitute cannot not be found, he is concerned that he will become a laughingstock if word gets around about his sexual misconduct. So he decides to let the prostitute keep his pledge of his signet and its cord and the staff he was carrying, and let the matter rest and take no further action. Anyway, he has sent the goat along afterward as he promised, and the prostitute was nowhere to be found (verse 23).
• About three months later Judah is told that his daughter-in-law Tamah has been living like a prostitute, and she is now pregnant. When Judah hears this news, he demands that Tamah is brought out in the open and burned to death as punishment (verse 24).
• As Tamah is being brought out for execution, she sends a message to her father-in-law Judah that she is pregnant to the man who owns the signet and its cord and staff, and asks if he recognizes them (verse 25). And when Judah recognizes these items, he acknowledges his guilt, saying that Tamah is more righteous than he, because he did not give Tamah to his son Shelah for a wife, and Judah does not have sex with her again (verse 26).
• When the time comes for Tamah to give birth, there are twins in her womb (verse 27). As she starting to give birth, the first child puts out his hand, and the midwife ties a scarlet thread on the hand, saying that this child came out first (verse 28). But when the child draws his hand back, and his brother is born first she asks how the baby has broken through, and declares that this breach be upon the boy. So the boy is named Perez [the name Perez in Hebrew means ‘breaking out’](verse 29). Then the second boy is born with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and they name him Zerah [the name Zerah in Hebrew means ‘dawning’, or, ‘shining’ ](verse 30).
• Jacob’s son, Joseph, is taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelites, and sold as a slave to Potiphar, the captain of the guard and an officer of Pharaoh (verse 1).
• God is with Joseph in Egypt, and God makes Joseph successful in his role as a servant in the house of his Egyptian master (verses 2, 3). Joseph finds favour with his master Potiphar, and he is soon put in charge of Potiphar’s household (verse 4).
• From that time Joseph is put in charge of Potiphar’s household, God blesses the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. God’s blessing is on everything Potiphar owns, both in his house and in his fields (verse 5). Potiphar puts everything he owns under Joseph’s charge, and concerns himself with nothing except the food he eats (verse 6).
• Joseph is well-built and handsome, and Potiphar’s wife tries seducing Joseph to comment adultery with her (verse 7). But Joseph refuses her temptation, and he speaks out about being entrusted with the responsibility for his master’s household and possessions (verse 8), and his exalted position. So Joseph refuses to have an affair with his master’s wife, saying that doing such a wicked thing would be betraying his master’s trust and sinning against God (verse 9), even though Potiphar’s wife harasses Joseph day after day (verse 10).
• One day when no other servants are present there with Joseph in Potiphar’s house (verse 11), Potiphar’s wife attempts to force Joseph to have sex with her. She grabs his cloak, but Joseph escapes her grasp and flees the house, leaving the garment in her hand (verse 12).
• When Potiphar’s wife sees that Joseph has fled the house and she still has his garment in her hand (verse 13), she tells the household servants that Joseph has tried to make sport of her, but she screamed (verse 14). She claims that when she screamed for help, Joseph left his garment there and ran out of the house (verse 15).
• Potiphar’s wife then keeps Joseph’s garment beside her until Potiphar comes home (verse 16), and she tells her husband that Joseph has tried making sport of her (verse 17), but when she screamed for help, he left his garment behind and ran from the house (verse 18).
• When Joseph’s master, Potiphar, hears his wife’s story, he is furious (verse 19), and he takes Joseph and puts him in prison, in the place where the king’s prisoners are confined (verse 20).
• But God is with Joseph when he is in prison, and God is kind to Joseph and He grants Joseph favour in the eyes of the prison warden (verse 21), and the prison warden puts Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, and he makes Joseph responsible for everything that is done there (verse 22). The prison warden pays no attention to anything under Joseph’s authority, because God is with Joseph and He makes everything Joseph does successful (verse 23).
• Later, the cupbearer and the baker of Pharaoh king of Egypt offend their master (verse 1). Pharaoh is angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker (verse 2), and he throws them into prison, in the custody of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph is confined (verse 3). The captain of the guard assigns Joseph to attend to them, and they remain in custody for some time (verse 4).
• One night, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker each have a dream, and both dreams each have their own meaning (verse 5).
• The next morning, Joseph sees that the cupbearer and the baker are both dejected (verse 6), so Joseph asks both of them why they are so sad (verse 7).
• The cupbearer and the baker tell Joseph that they have both had dreams the previous night, but there is no one who can interpret them. Joseph tells them that the interpretations of dreams belongs to God, and he asks them to both tell him their dreams (verse 8).
• So the chief cupbearer tells his dream to Joseph. In his dream, he saw a vine (verse 9)with three branches, and the vine blossomed and produced grapes (verse 10). In his hand he held Pharaoh’s cup, and he squeezed grapes into the cup and then he placed the cup into Pharaoh’s hand (verse 11).
• Joseph tells the chief cupbearer the interpretation of his dream. The three branches he saw in his dreams represents three days (verse 12), and in three days the chief cupbearer will be restored to his office and he will again put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand as he did previously (verse 13). Joseph asks the chief cupbearer to remember him and show him kindness, and to mention him to Pharaoh and get him out of prison (verse 14), for he was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and has done nothing that he should be put in this dungeon (verse 15).
• When the chief baker hears Joseph’s favourable interpretation of the chief cupbearer’s dream, he also begins telling Joseph his dream. In his dream, he, the chief baker, has three bread baskets on his head (verse 16), and in the uppermost basket there was all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but birds were eating them (verse 17).
• Joseph tells the chief baker the interpretation of his dream. The three baskets he saw in his dream represents three days (verse 18), and in three days Pharaoh will lift his head from off him and hang him on a tree, and birds will eat away his flesh (verse 19).
• Then three days later, Pharaoh celebrates his birthday by making a feast for his servants. During the feast, Pharaoh has the chief cupbearer and the chief baker brought in before all the people gathered there (verse 20). Then Pharaoh restores the chief cupbearer to his former position, so he again puts the cup into Pharaoh’s hand (verse 21), but Pharaoh executes the chief baker by hanging, just as Joseph had interpreted to both of them from their dreams (verse 22)
• Afterward, Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer does not remember Joseph to repay him the kindness, he just forgets about Joseph (verse 23).
• Two years after Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his position, one night Pharaoh has two troubling dreams. In his first dream, Pharaoh sees himself standing beside the Nile River (verse 1), when seven cows, sleek and fat, come out of the river and graze among the reeds (verse 2). Then seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, come up out of the Nile after them, and they stand beside the other cows on the bank of the river (verse 3). Then the seven ugly and gaunt cows eat up the seven sleek and fat cows. After this, Pharaoh wakes up from his dream (verse 4).
• Pharaoh falls back to sleep, and he has a second dream. In the next dream Pharaoh sees seven heads of grain, plump and good, growing on a single stalk (verse 5). Then seven heads of grain, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprout after them (verse 6), and the seven thing heads of grain swallow up the seven plump and full heads of grain. After his dream has finished, Pharaoh wakes up (verse 7).
• The morning after Pharaoh had his dreams, his mind is troubled, so he summons all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh tells them his dreams, but no one is able to interpret them for him (verse 8).
• After this, Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer remembers Joseph, and he tells Pharaoh of his experience with the Hebrew servant Joseph. He says how he is reminded of his own faults that same day (verse 9). Once Pharaoh was angry with his two servants, and he imprisoned his chief cupbearer and his chief baker in the prison of the captain of the guard (verse 10). One night while they were in prison both of Pharaoh’s servants had a dream, and each dream had its own interpretation (verse 11). Afterward both of them told their dream to a young Hebrew, a servant of the guard, who was in prison with them. He interpreted their dreams for both of them, each according to his own dream (verse 12), and everything turned out according to his interpretation. He himself, the chief cupbearer was restored to his former position, while the other man, Pharaoh’s chief baker, was hanged (verse 13).
• When Pharaoh hears this report, he sends for Joseph, and Joseph is brought out of the dungeon. So Joseph shaves himself, changes his clothes, and goes in before Pharaoh (verse 14).
• Pharaoh tells Joseph that he has had a dream, but there is no one who can interpret it for him (verse 15). Joseph tells Pharaoh that it is not in him to interpret dreams, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he seeks (verse 16).
• So Pharaoh tells Joseph his dream. In his dream, Pharaoh is standing on the bank of the Nile River (verse 17) when he sees seven cows, fat and sleek, come up out of the river and graze among the reeds (verse 18). Then seven other cows come up out of the river after them. The cows are scrawny, very ugly, and gaunt ; more ugly than any other cows that Pharaoh has ever seen in the land of Egypt (verse 19). And the gaunt and ugly cows eat up the seven cows that came up from the river first (verse 20). Yet after they have eaten up the other cows, they remain as gaunt and ugly as before. Then Pharaoh wakes up from his dream (verse 21).
• Then Pharaoh tells Joseph his next dream. In the next dream, Pharaoh sees seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk (verse 22), and seven heads of grain, withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind, sprout after them (verse 23). And the thin, withered heads of grain swallow up the seven good heads, and that was the end of the dream. Yet when Pharaoh told this dream to the magicians, there was no one who could explain it to him (verse 24).
• After Pharaoh has told Joseph his dream, Joseph gives Pharaoh the interpretation. Joseph says that the dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same, and God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do (verse 25). The seven good cows that Pharaoh saw in his dream represent seven good years, and the seven heads of grain, seven good years, for the dreams are one and the same (verse 26). The seven gaunt and ugly cows that came up after them represent seven years, and the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind represent seven years of famine.
• Joseph again confirms what he has already said to Pharaoh, that is, that God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do (verse 28). For there will come seven years of great abundance throughout the whole land of Egypt (verse 29), but after them seven years of famine will arise, and the famine will be so severe in the land of Egypt that the time of abundance will be forgotten, and the famine will consume the land (verse 30). The abundance in the land will not be remembered because of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe (verse 31), and the reason God has given Pharaoh the dream twice is because the thing is established by God, and He will soon carry it out (verse 32).
• Joseph counsels Pharaoh to select a man who is discerning and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt (verse 33). Pharaoh should also appoint overseers over the land, and take the fifth part of the harvest of Egypt during the seven plentiful years (verse 34), and this grain for food gathered during those good years should be stored up in the cities, under the authority of Pharaoh (verse 35). Then this food will be a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine that will come upon the land of Egypt, so the country will not be wiped out during the famine (verse 36).
• Pharaoh and his servants are impressed with this proposal (verse 37), so Pharaoh asks his servants if they are able to find anyone like Joseph, a man who has the Spirit of God in him (verse 38). And Pharaoh declares to Joseph that since God has made all this known to him, there is no one as discerning and wise as Joseph is (verse 39).
• Pharaoh tells Joseph that he will be in charge of Pharaoh’s house [i.e affairs and domain], and all Pharaoh’s people will be subject to Joseph’s commands. Only in respect to the throne will Pharaoh be greater than Joseph (verse 40). Then Pharaoh says to Joseph that he is hereby appointed to be in charge over all of the land of Egypt (verse 41). Pharaoh then takes off his signet ring and puts it on Joseph’s hand, and he clothes Joseph in garments of fine linen and puts a gold chain around his neck (verse 42). Pharaoh also appoints Joseph to ride in Pharaoh’s second chariot and have the citizens bow before him. So Pharaoh places Joseph in authority over the whole land of Egypt (verse 43).
• Pharaoh gives Joseph absolute power over the land of Egypt, so that none of the citizens of the land may do anything without Joseph’s consent (verse 44). Pharaoh also gives Joseph the new name of Zaphenath-paneah [the name Zaphenath-paneah in Hebrew likely means ‘the one who furnishes the sustenance of the land’. Hebrew: tsaphenath-pa], and marries him to an Egyptian woman named Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Then afterward Joseph has great authority, and he travels at will freely throughout Egypt (verse 45).
• Joseph is thirty years old when he enters the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. With the authority granted to him by Pharaoh, Joseph is able to access Pharaoh freely, and pass throughout the whole land of Egypt at will (verse 46). During the first seven years the land produces abundantly and the harvests are plentiful (verse 47), and Joseph organises the collection and storage of the grain of Egypt. In every city storage facilities are established, and the grain from the surrounding fields is collected and stored there (verse 48). Such is the abundance of grain, it becomes like the sand of the sea, and Joseph is unable to continue measuring the quantity, because it is so great (verse 49).
• Before the dreadful famine comes, Joseph’s wife Asenath gives birth to their two sons. Joseph names his firstborn son Manasseh [the name Manasseh in Hebrew is probably based on the root words for ‘forget’: ‘nas ah’], because God has enabled Joseph to forget all his hardship and his father Jacob’s household and family (verse 51). Joseph names his second son Ephraim [the name Ephraim in Hebrew sounds like the words for ‘double fruitful’, or, ‘twice fruitful’], because God has made Joseph fruitful in the land of his affliction (verse 52).
• Eventually the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt comes to an end (verse 53), and the seven years of famine begins, just as Joseph had said. There is famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there is still food (verse 54). When the whole land of Egypt becomes famished, the people cry out to Pharaoh for food, and he tells them to go to Joseph and obey him in whatever he says (verse 55).
• When the famine spreads across all of Egypt, Joseph opens the storehouses and sells the grain to the Egyptians, because the famine is very severe (verse 56). And people from the other countries travelled to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine is severe across all of the earth (verse 57).
• [There is famine in the land of Canaan, and when] Jacob learns that there is grain in Egypt, he criticises his sons for sitting around idly looking at each other (verse 1). He tells them that he has heard there is grain in Egypt, and he wants them to go down to Egypt and buy grain so that they can all survive (verse 2).
• Ten of Jacob’s sons go down to Egypt to buy grain (verse 3), however Jacob does not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin along with them, lest harm should come to him (verse 4). The famine was in all of the land of Canaan, so Israel’s sons were only some of the many people journeying down to Egypt to buy grain (verse 5).
• Joseph is governor over Egypt, so he is the administrator responsible for selling grain to all of the people. Consequently, when his brothers arrive in Egypt, they as foreigners must negotiate and attempt to entreat favour with Joseph in order to buy Egyptian grain. So before they attempt to commence their request for grain, they bow down before Joseph with their faces to the ground (verse 6). Joseph recognizes his brothers, but he treats them like strangers and speaks harshly to them, demanding to know where they have come from. They tell Joseph that they have come from the land of Canaan to buy food (verse 7).
• Joseph recognizes his brothers when they come to him, but they do not recognize Joseph (verse 8). When Joseph sees them there, he remembers the dreams that he had dreamed of them in the past [bowing down to him.] So Joseph tests them severely, and he commences by accusing them of being spies who have come to Egypt to find out where the land is unprotected and vulnerable (verse 9).
• The brothers deny being spies, saying that they are Joseph’s servants and they have come to Egypt to buy food (verse 10). They tell Joseph they are all the sons of one man, and they are honest men and not spies (verse 11).
• Joseph rejects the claims of innocence that his brothers are making, and he again accuses them of coming to find out where the land is vulnerable [Joseph is making an extremely serious accusation here, for spying out the land beforehand is the ploy that an enemy might do before launching a military invasion, and as such anyone caught for spying would be put to death](verse 12).
• The brothers tell Joseph that they are twelve brothers, all of whom are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and the youngest remains with their father this day, and one is no more [that is, Joseph](verse 13).
• Straight away Joseph rejects their claims of innocence, and he again accuses them of being spies (verse 14). Then he declares to them that, by the life of Pharaoh, they will not be permitted to leave there until their youngest brother is brought to Joseph first [as proof of their innocence](verse 15). Joseph tells them to send one of their number back to fetch their brother and bring him back, while the rest of them remain in prison. That way, Joseph declares, their words will be tested to see whether they are telling the truth, and if they are not, by the life of Pharaoh, they are definitely spies (verse 16). Then Joseph puts all his brothers in prison together for three days (verse 17).
• On the third day, Joseph tells the brothers that he fears God, and they will survive [Joseph’s harsh testing, and through the famine also] if they do as he says (verse 18). So if they are honest men, one of the brothers is to remain confined in prison in Egypt [as a pledge], while the other brothers are free to leave, and take the grain back to feed their households (verse 19). Joseph tells them that one of the brothers must return with their youngest brother so their claims of innocence are verified, and none of them will die. So they do as Joseph told them (verse 20).
• While they are still in the presence of Joseph, they begin discussing their own situation [in the Hebrew language], talking about how they are being punished for what they did to their brother Joseph. They speak of seeing Joseph deeply distressed and yet refusing to listen to the boy, so now all this trouble has come upon them (verse 21) Reuben protests to his brothers that he told them not to sin against the boy at the time but they would not listen, and now they must give an accounting for his blood. [That is, the incident that took place when Joseph was aged seventeen, and his brothers plotted to kill him. At the time they were pasturing their sheep out in the open country near Dothan when they seized Joseph, and instead of killing him they sold him off as a slave to a passing caravan of Ishmaelite Midianite merchants on their way to trade goods down in Egypt](verse 22).
• While Joseph’s brothers were saying all these things, Joseph understood what they were saying yet he did not let on. And because Joseph spoke to them through an interpreter, they thought that he himself did not understand the Hebrew language, nor did they recognize him as their long-lost brother Joseph (verse 23). When Joseph hears what his brothers have been saying, he moves away the presence of his brothers and weeps, and after he has finished weeping and he gains control over his emotions, he returns and speaks to his brothers again. Then he has one of the brothers, Simeon, taken from among them, and Simeon is restrained with bindings before their eyes [for Simeon is the brother that Joseph has chosen to remain in prison until their youngest brother Benjamin is brought to Joseph in Egypt](verse 24).
• Then Joseph commands his men to fill the brother’s sacks with grain, return each man’s money to his own sack, and give the brothers provisions for their journey, which Joseph’s servants do (verse 25). Then the brothers load their donkeys with their sacks of grain and provisions, and they leave Egypt to return to Canaan (verse 26).
• When the brothers stop to lodge for the night, one of them opens his sack to feed his donkey some of the grain, and he finds his money there in his sack (verse 27). When he tells his brothers about this, they are alarmed and distressed, and they question why God has done this to them (verse 28).
• When the brothers arrives back in the land of Canaan, they tell their father Jacob about everything that has happened to them (verse 29). They say to Jacob how the man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to them and accused them of spying out the country (verse 30). So they told the man that they were honest men and not spies (verse 31), and that they are twelve brothers, the sons of one father, although one of the brothers is no more, and the youngest brother remains with his father in the land of Canaan (verse 32). At this, they continue, the man who is lord over the land said to them that if they are honest men, one of the brothers was to remain there in Egypt, while the rest of them were leave and take the food back to their starving households (verse 33). Then when they bring back the youngest brother to the man who is lord over the land, he will return their brother to them and allow them to trade in the land [of Egypt](verse 34).
• When the brothers opened their sacks of grain they brought back from Egypt, each man’s money was still in his own sack, and when Jacob and his sons see this, they are dismayed (verse 35). Jacob then tells his sons that they have bereaved him of his children, for Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and now his sons want to take Benjamin away from him, and he is certainly distressed about this turn of circumstances (verse 36).
• Reuben tells his father Jacob that he can kill Reuben’s two sons if he doesn’t bring Benjamin back, and he asks that Benjamin be entrusted to his care, for he will certainly bring Benjamin back to his father Jacob (verse 37). But Jacob refuses Reuben’s request, and he tells Reuben that his son Benjamin will not go down to Egypt with him, for Benjamin’s brother is dead, and Benjamin alone remains alive [out of the two sons of his favourite wife Rachel.] For if harm comes to Benjamin on the journey Reuben is taking, Jacob tells Reuben that Reuben he will bring his gray head down to Sheol [in Hebrew thought Sheol is the place of the dead, where there is no life and only darkness] in sorrow (verse 38).
• The famine is severe in the land of Canaan (verse 1), and when Jacob and his family finish eating all of the grain bought in Egypt, Jacob tells his sons to go back there and buy some more food (verse 2).
• Judah speaks up for himself and his brothers, telling his father Jacob that the man in charge of selling the grain in Egypt implicitly warned the brothers that would not see his face again unless their youngest brother was with them the next time (verse 3). Therefore, they can only go back to Egypt to buy food, is if Jacob will send their youngest brother Benjamin back to Egypt with them (verse 4). However if Jacob will not send their youngest brother Benjamin with them, they will not go back there, because the man told them that they would not see his face again unless they had the youngest brother with them the next time (verse 5).
• Jacob is alarmed at the situation, so he questions his sons why they have brought so much trouble on him, and then why they even told the man that they have another brother (verse 6).
• Jacob’s sons tell him that the man questioned them closely about themselves and their family, asking if their father was still alive, and if they had another brother. All they did was answer his questions, for they did not know he would tell them to bring their brother back with them the next time (verse 7).
• Judah tells his father Israel to send the boy along with Judah [that is, the youngest brother Benjamin.] Then they will be on their way, so that they may all live and not die [from starvation]: that is, the brothers, and Jacob, and their children (verse 8). Judah guarantees Benjamin’s safety to his father Jacob, for which Judah will be held personally responsible. Then, Judah declares, if he does not return his brother Benjamin back to his father Jacob safely, then he will bear the blame forever (verse 9). What is more, Judah says, if they hadn’t wasted so much time, they could have gone there and returned twice by now (verse 10).
• Israel eventually concedes, so he tells his sons that they should prepare a gift for the man from the best products of the land—some balm, honey, spices, and myrrh, and pistachio nuts and almonds (verse 11). They should also take double the amount of money, as well as the money they returned with from Egypt that they found in their sacks, in case it was a mistake (verse 12), and they were to also take their brother Benjamin along with them, and go back to the man in Egypt (verse 13).
• Israel calls down God’s mercy for his sons, when they appear before the man in Egypt, so that so man in Egypt will send back Israel’s sons, along with their other brother Simeon, and with Benjamin also. Israel then concedes that if he ends up bereaved of any of his children, then he will be bereaved (verse 14). So the sons of Israel set out and go down to Egypt, and they meet with Joseph there (verse 15).
• When Joseph sees Benjamin with his brothers, he tells his steward to take the men to his house and slaughter an animal and prepare it, for he is going to eat a meal with the men at midday (verse 16). So the steward does as Joseph has instructed, and he takes the men back to Joseph’s house (verse 17).
• Joseph’s brothers are afraid because they are being taken to Joseph’s house. They talk among themselves about their situation, worried that they are being taken to Joseph’s house because of the money that was returned in their sacks after the first visit to Egypt. They are afraid that they will be attacked and overpowered at Joseph’s house, and seized and sold as slaves, and their donkeys will also be taken (verse 18).
• The brothers speak to Joseph’s steward at the doorway of Joseph’s house (verse 19), and they explain their situation. They tell him that after they came to Egypt to buy food the first time (verse 20), they found the money they had paid inside each man’s sack, when they stopped to lodge the first night after they had left Egypt. As it was the full weight of money, they have brought it back with them (verse 21), as well as additional money to buy more food. They explain that they do not know who previously put their money in their sacks (verse 22).
• Joseph’s steward answers the brothers kindly, by giving them a blessing of peace and telling them not to be afraid. For, he says, their God and the God of their father has given them treasure in their sacks, and the steward himself was the one who received their money. Then Joseph’s steward returns their brother Simeon to them (verse 23), and he takes them all into Joseph’s house and gives them water to wash their feet, and fodder for their donkeys (verse 24). So the brothers prepare the gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to eat there (verse 25).
• When Joseph arrives home, the brothers present him with the gifts they had carried into the house, and they bow before him to the ground (verse 26). Joseph asks the brothers if they are well, and if their father, the old man of whom they had spoken, is also alive and well (verse 27).
• The brothers tell Joseph that his servant, their father, is in good health and still alive. Then they bow their heads and honour Joseph (verse 28).
• When Joseph sees his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s own son, he asks the brothers if Benjamin is the youngest brother of whom they had told him about, and Joseph then bestows upon Benjamin God’s blessing of grace (verse 29). Joseph becomes unable to contain his himself any longer, for he is overcome with emotion at the sight of his brother Benjamin, and he rushes out looking for somewhere private to weep. So he enters his own private room and weeps there (verse 30). Then Joseph washes his face and returns to the brothers, and, controlling himself, he orders the meal to be served (verse 31).
• Joseph’s servants serve Joseph by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who eat with Joseph by themselves, because Egyptians cannot eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians (verse 32). The brothers are then seated before Joseph in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest, and at this, they look at each other in astonishment (verse 33), and when the portions are served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion is five times as much as any of theirs. So they drink and make merry with Joseph (verse 34).
• The famine is severe in the land of Canaan, so Joseph’s brothers return to Egypt to buy more grain for their starving households. The master of the land, Joseph, was betrayed by his brothers and sold as a slave at the tender age of seventeen years. By now, many years have passed since they committed this terrible crime against their brother, and they do not recognize Joseph dressed in his Egyptian attire. Although Joseph wants to be reunited with his brothers, he has to find out if they are trustworthy. Joseph decides to set a trap for them and severely test them, so he can find out if he will ever be able to trust them again. All the time that this testing is taking place to them, the brothers are oblivious to the fact that the harsh man in authority, with whom they have to deal in order to purchase grain for food, is actually their long lost brother Joseph.
• Joseph commands his steward to fill his brothers’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, but to put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack (verse 1). Then the steward is to put Joseph’s silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest brother, as well as his money for the grain. So the steward does as Joseph commands him (verse 2).
• At dawn the next morning the brothers are sent off on their donkeys (verse 3). However, Joseph sends his steward after the brothers, instructing him to overtake them on their journey, and then accuse them of repaying evil for good, because they have stolen the silver cup (verse 4) that his lord drinks from and uses for divination. So what they have done is wrong (verse 5).
• Joseph’s steward catches up with the brothers while they are on their journey back to Canaan, and he repeats the words to them that Joseph commanded him to say (verse 6). The brothers ask why their lord [that is, Joseph] should say such a thing, for they are the steward’s servants, and they would never do such a thing (verse 7). They say that they even brought back to him from the land of Canaan the money they found in their sacks after their previous visit (verse 8). So if any of his servants is found to have the cup in his possession, that person must die, and the rest of them will become their lord’s slaves (verse 9).
• Joseph’s steward confirms that what the brothers have just said will be done, that whoever is found with the cup will become his slave, while the rest of the brothers will be free from blame (verse 10).
• Each of the brothers lowers his sack to the ground and opens it (verse 11), and Joseph’s steward searches each man’s sack, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And Joseph’s cup is found in Benjamin’s sack (verse 12). At this grievous turn of events, the brothers tear their clothes [in the ancient Middle East, the common practice of a person tearing their own clothes was done in a time of extreme distress, as clothing was difficult to make or obtain and expensive to purchase], and each man loads his donkey and they return to the city (verse 13)
• Joseph is still at his house when his brothers arrive, and they fall to the ground before him (verse 14). Joseph then speaks to them harshly, asking them what they have done, and questioning whether they knew that a man like him can find things out by divination (verse 15).
• Judah speaks up before Joseph on behalf of himself and his brothers. Acting as their spokesman, Judah speaks to Joseph about this issue. He asks what can be said [in their defence], and how can they prove their innocence? Judah says that God has exposed the iniquity of all of the brothers, and they are Joseph’s servants. Here they are, now become slaves of their lord, the brothers and the one with whom the cup was found (verse 16).
• Joseph declares he would never do such a thing as making all of them slaves, but only the man in whose possession the cup was found. As for the rest of them, they can go back to their father in peace (verse 17).
• When Judah hears Joseph’s answer, he draws near and respectfully says to Joseph that he, Joseph’s servant, would like to speak a word in his lord’s ear. He asks that Joseph would not be angry with his servant, for Joseph is like Pharaoh himself (verse 18).
• Judah then delivers an extensive dialogue, where he defends all of his brothers as best he can. He commences by recalling to Joseph the conversation they had held, where Joseph, whom Judah addresses by the honourable title of ‘lord’, asked if they had a father or brother (verse 19). So they told Joseph at the time that they have a father who is an old man, and a young brother, who is a child born to their father in his old age. Their young brother also had another brother who is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him (verse 20).
• Judah continues speaking to Joseph, saying how ‘my lord’ [that is, Joseph] told them to bring their youngest brother down to him, so he can set his eyes on the boy (verse 21), but they said in reply that the boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father will die (verse 22). But then ‘my lord’ [Joseph] told the brothers that unless the youngest brother came down with them [to Egypt], they would not see his face again (verse 23).
• Judah continues speaking to Joseph, saying that when the brothers went back to their father, they told their father the words of ‘my lord’ [that is, Joseph](verse 24), and their father told them to go back and buy some more food (verse 25), but they told their father that they cannot to Egypt unless the youngest brother is with them, then they will go down. They cannot see the man’s face unless their youngest brother is with them (verse 26).
• Judah continues speaking to Joseph, saying that his father said to the brothers that his wife bore him two sons (verse 27), and one left him, who had surely been torn to pieces, for he has not has seen him since (verse 28), and how if we take the other son from him and harm comes to him, then we will bring his gray head down to Sheol in sorrow (verse 29).
• Judah continues speaking to Joseph, saying that if he returns to his father without the boy, his father will die when he sees that the boy has not come back with the brothers, for the life of his father is bound up with the boy’s life (verse 31). So he, Judah, guaranteed the boy’s safety to his father, telling him that if he does not bring the boy back to his father, then he will bear the blame before his father forever (verse 32).
• Judah continues speaking to Joseph, asking that he be allowed to remain behind as a slave to ‘my lord’ [that is, Joseph], instead of the boy, and the boy would then go back with his brothers [to the land of Canaan](verse 33) Judah asks how he could go back to his father, if the boy is not with him. For then he could not bear to see the grief that would overwhelm his father (verse 34).
• Joseph has just put his brothers through a difficult testing, yet Judah and his brothers still do not know that the master of the land, before whom they are gathered, is none other than their long-lost brother Joseph. At the commencement of this chapter, Judah has just finished speaking to Joseph in defence of Benjamin and the brothers. As part of Joseph’s testing of his brothers, Benjamin has been caught with Joseph’s stolen cup, and Joseph has said he is going to make Benjamin a slave, but that the brothers can go free.
• Joseph is unable to control himself any longer before all his attendants, so he commands them to leave his presence. When no one else is left, Joseph finally makes himself known to his brothers (verse 1). Joseph weeps so loudly that the Egyptians hear him, and news gets back to Pharaoh’s household (verse 2).
• Joseph tells his brothers that he is Joseph, and he asks if his father is still alive. But his brothers are not able to answer him, for they are terrified at his presence (verse 3).
• Joseph tells his brothers to come close, and so they do. And he says to them that he is their brother Joseph, the one whom they sold into Egypt (verse 4).
• Joseph comforts his brothers, telling them not to be distressed or angry with themselves because they sold him into Egypt, for God has sent Joseph ahead of them to preserve life (verse 5). Joseph then tells his brothers that the famine has been in the land two years, and there will be five more years where there will be neither ploughing nor harvesting (verse 6). God, Joseph says, has sent him ahead of them, to preserve for them a remnant on earth, and to save their lives by a great deliverance (verse 7). Joseph then relieves his brothers of their overwhelming burden of guilt, by telling them that it was not the brothers who sent Joseph to Egypt, but God. Now God has made Joseph a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and the ruler over the whole land of Egypt (verse 8).
• Joseph then tells his brothers to hurry back to his father Jacob, and tell him what Joseph has said: that is, that God has made Joseph lord over all of Egypt, and to come down to him without delay (verse 9). And his father Jacob shall live in the land of Goshen and be near Joseph; along with Jacob’s children and grandchildren, flocks and herds, and everything he has (verse 10). Joseph says that he will provide for Jacob there, for there are still five more years of famine to follow. Otherwise Jacob and his household and all who belong to him will become destitute (verse 11).
• Joseph tells his brothers that they can with their own eyes, and his own [full] brother Benjamin can see with his own eyes, that it really is Joseph speaking to them (verse 12), and they must tell Joseph’s father how greatly he is honoured in Egypt, and of all they have seen. Joseph also tells his brothers to bring his father back quickly (verse 13).
• Then Joseph throws his arms around his brother Benjamin and weeps, and Benjamin weeps on Joseph’s shoulder also (verse 14). And Joseph also kisses all his brothers and weeps over them, and afterward his brothers talk with him (verse 15).
• When the news is reported in Pharaoh’s house that Joseph’s brothers have come, Pharaoh and his servants are pleased (verse 16). Pharaoh tells Joseph to say to his brothers that they are to load their animals and go back to the land of Canaan (verse 17), and bring their father and their households, and come back to Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh will give them the best of the land of Egypt, and they can all eat from the richness of the land (verse 18).
• Pharaoh also instructs Joseph to say to his brothers that they can take carts from the land of Egypt for their children and their wives, and to get their father and come (verse 19), and not to concern themselves about their possessions, for the best of the whole land of Egypt is theirs (verse 20).
• So the sons of Israel do as Pharaoh has offered. Joseph gives his brothers carts, as Pharaoh has commanded, and he also gives them provisions for the journey (verse 21). Joseph also gives each of his brothers a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gives three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothing (verse 22). Joseph also sends his father ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and other provisions for his journey (verse 23). Then Joseph sends his brothers away, and he tells them as they are leaving not to quarrel along the way (verse 24).
• Joseph’s brothers go up from Egypt, and they come to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan (verse 25). When the brothers tell their father Jacob that Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over the whole land of Egypt, Jacob is stunned, and he does not believe them (verse 26). But when the brothers tell their father Jacob all that Joseph has said to them, and Jacob sees the carts that Joseph has sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revives (verse 27). Then Israel [that is, Jacob] believes, and he says that for him it is enough, that Joseph his son is still alive, so he will go and see Joseph before he himself dies (verse 28).
• Israel sets out with all he has, and when he arrives at Beer-sheba he offers sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac (verse 1). That night God speaks to His servant Israel in a vision, and God calls out to Jacob [that is, Israel] by name. So Jacob answers God, affirming that he is submissive and attentive to God (verse 2).
• God affirms to Jacob that He is the God of Jacob’s father, and that Jacob does not need to be afraid of going to Egypt, for God will make Jacob into a great nation there (verse 3). God promises that He will accompany Jacob to Egypt, and bring him back again, and Jacob’s son Joseph will close Jacob’s eyes with his own hand [that is, when he dies](verse 4).
• Jacob sets out from Beer-sheba, and his sons carry their father, their children, and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh has sent from Egypt to transport Jacob there (verse 5). They also take with them their livestock and possessions that they have acquired in the land of Canaan; so Jacob and all his offspring move with him to Egypt (verse 7).
• The names of the male descendants [recorded in the Hebrew as the sons] of Israel, that is, Jacob, who go to Egypt are as follows:
• Jacob’s descendants through his wife Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn son (verse 8), and the four sons of Reuben, Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi (verse 9); the six sons of Simeon, Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman (verse 10); the three sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari (verse 11); the five sons of Judah, Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died previously in the land of Canaan); the two sons of Judah’s son Perez, Hezron and Hamul (verse 12); the four sons of Issachar, Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron (verse 13); and the three sons of Zebulun, Sered, Elon, and Jahleel (verse 14). These are recorded as Jacob’s sons born to Leah in Paddan-aram, besides his daughter Dinah—thirty-three persons in all (verse 15).
• [Jacob’s descendants through his wife Zilpah]: the six sons of Gad, Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli (verse 16); the four sons of Asher, Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah; and the two sons of Asher’s son Beriah, Heber and Malchiel (verse 17). These are recorded as Jacob’s sons born to Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah for a maidservant—sixteen persons in all (verse 18).
• The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin (verse 19). Joseph has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, born in the land of Egypt to Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On (verse 20). Benjamin is the father of ten sons, Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard (verse 21). These are recorded as the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob—fourteen persons (verse 22).
• The son of Dan: Hushim (verse 23); and the four sons of Naphtali, Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem (verse 24). These are recorded as Jacob’s sons born to Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel for a maidservant—seven persons in all (verse 25).
• All the people who go with Jacob to Egypt, and are his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons, are recorded as sixty-six persons in all (verse 25). Joseph’s sons who are born to him in Egypt are two persons. All the persons of Jacob’s household who go to Egypt are recorded as seventy persons in all (verse 27).
• As Jacob is on his journey to the land of Egypt, he sends his son Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to the land of Goshen, and when they arrive there (verse 28), Joseph prepares his chariot and he goes up to Goshen to meet his father. When Joseph arrives, he presents himself to his father Jacob, and he throws his arms around his father and weeps for a long time (verse 29).
• Israel [that is, Jacob] tells his son Joseph that he is now ready to die, because he has seen for himself that his son Joseph is still alive (verse 30).
• Joseph tells his brothers and his father’s household that he will go up and speak to Pharaoh, and tell him that his brothers and his father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to him [in Egypt](verse 31), and the men are shepherds, keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they own (verse 32).
• Joseph instructs his brothers to say to Pharaoh, when Pharaoh calls them in and asks what their occupation is (verse 33), that they are Pharaoh’s servants and they are keepers of livestock, from the youth until now, as were their fathers. Joseph tells them that they will then be able to settle in the land of Goshen, because all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians (verse 34).
• Joseph announces to Pharaoh that Joseph’s father and brothers have come from Canaan and are now in the land of Goshen, and have brought their livestock and all that they own. (verse 1).
• Joseph takes five of his brothers and presents them to Pharaoh (verse 2). Pharaoh asks the brothers their occupation, and they answer that they are shepherds, as their fathers were (verse 3).
• Joseph’s brothers tell Pharaoh that they have come to live in the land [of Egypt] for a while, because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan, and there is no pasture for their flocks there. They ask Pharaoh to let his servants [that is, the brothers] settle in the land of Goshen (verse 4).
• Pharaoh declares to Joseph, that as Joseph’s father and brothers have come to Joseph (verse 5), and the land of Egypt is open before Joseph, he can settle his father and brothers in the best part of the land. Pharaoh instructs Joseph to have his family live in the land of Goshen, and if any of them are capable, Joseph can put them in charge of Pharaoh’s livestock also (verse 6),
• Joseph brings his father Jacob in, and presents him to Pharoah, and Jacob blesses Pharaoh (verse 7). Pharaoh asks Jacob how many years he has been alive (verse 8), and Jacob tells Pharaoh that the years of his pilgrimage are hundred and thirty, and the years of his life have been few and difficult, and they have not equalled the years of his fathers during their pilgrimages (verse 9). Then Jacob blesses Pharaoh and goes out from his presence (verse 10).
• Joseph settles his father and his brothers in the land of Egypt, and he gives them property in the best part of the land—the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh has commanded (verse 11) Joseph also provides his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependants (verse 12).
• There is no food in the whole region, because the famine is very severe, and both Egypt and Canaan have wasted away because of the famine (verse 13). Joseph collects up all the money to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain the people have bought, and he brings the money to Pharaoh’s palace (verse 14).
• When the money was all spent in Egypt and Canaan, the Egyptians come to Joseph and ask for food. They ask Joseph why they should die before his eyes, for their money is all used up (verse 15). Joseph tells them to give him their livestock, and he will give them food in exchange, because their money is all gone (verse 16). So the people bring their livestock to Joseph, and that year he provides them with food in exchange for all their horses, flocks, herds, and donkeys.
• When that year has ended, the people of the land come to Joseph the following year and tell him that their money is all gone, and their livestock belongs to the lord [of the land.] They have nothing left for their lord [to buy food with], except their bodies and their land (verse 18). They ask why they should perish before Joseph’s eyes, along with their land. In desperation they ask Joseph to buy them and their land in exchange for food, and then they and their land will become slaves to Pharaoh; and for seed, so they can live and not die, and the land will not become desolate (verse 19).
• So Joseph buys all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sells his fields, because the famine is too severe for them; so all the land becomes Pharaoh’s (verse 20), and Joseph moves all the people of Egypt to the cities, from one end of Egypt to the other (verse 21). The only land in Egypt that Joseph doesn't buy is that of the priests, because they receive a regular allotment from Pharaoh to live on, therefore they do not sell their land (verse 22).
• Joseph tells the Egyptians that they are to understand that he has bought them and their land for Pharaoh. However, seed will be given them to sow the ground (verse 23), but at harvest they must give a fifth to Pharaoh. Then the other four-fifths will be their own, as seed for their fields and as food for themselves, their households, and their children (verse 24). The Egyptians are grateful to Joseph, and they tell him he has saved their lives. They ask for favour in the sight of their lord, and they will be slaves to Pharaoh (verse 25).
• So Joseph establishes a standing law over the land of Egypt, that a fifth part of the produce belongs to Pharaoh [as a form of national taxation.] It is only the land of the priests that does not become Pharaoh’s property (verse 26).
• The Israelites live in Goshen in the land of Egypt, and they acquire property there and become fruitful and very numerous (verse 27).
• After Jacob has lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, the years of his life are a hundred and forty-seven years (verse 28). When the time draws near for Israel [that is, Jacob] to die, he calls for his son Joseph and tells him that if he has found favour in Joseph’s eyes, to put his hand under Jacob’s thigh, and promise to deal kindly and faithfully with him. Then Jacob instructs Joseph not to bury him in Egypt (verse 29), but when he lies down with his fathers [that is, in the sleep of death], to carry Jacob out of Egypt and bury him in the burial place of his fathers. Joseph tells his father Jacob that he will do as Jacob has asked (verse 30). Jacob then tells Joseph to swear to this [oath], so Joseph swears to keep the oath. Then Israel, [that is, Jacob] bows himself in worship at the head of his bed (verse 31).
• Shortly after Joseph has previously visited his father Jacob and Jacob made arrangements with Joseph for his own burial, Joseph is told of his father’s final illness. So Joseph sets out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to visit his father Jacob (verse 1).
• When Jacob is told of his son Joseph’s visit, he rallies his strength and sits up on the bed (verse 2). Jacob tells Joseph of the episode that happened at Luz, where God Almighty appeared to Jacob in the land of Canaan and blessed him (verse 3). Then God promised to Jacob that He would make Jacob fruitful, and multiply the number of his descendants into a community of peoples, and Jacob’s descendants would inherit the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession (verse 4).
• Jacob then declares to Joseph that the two sons born to Joseph in the land of Egypt before Jacob came there now belong to Jacob. Ephraim and Manasseh are now Jacob’s, just as Reuben and Simeon are also Jacob’s (verse 5). Jacob declares that any children that are born after Ephraim and Manasseh will belong to Joseph, and they will be recorded under the names of their brothers with regard to their inheritance [in Israel](verse 6).
• Jacob recalls to his son Joseph the account of the death and burial of Joseph’s mother Rachel. Jacob tells Joseph that when he was returning from Paddan, to his sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan when they were still on their way, a short distance from Ephrath. So Jacob buried her there beside the road to Ephrath [that is, Bethlehem](verse 7).
• When Israel [that is, Jacob] sees Joseph’s sons, he asks who they belong to (verse 8). Joseph answers that they are his sons, whom God has given him here [in Egypt.] Then Israel tells Joseph to bring him his sons, so he can bless them (verse 9).
• Israel’s eyes are failing because of his old age, and he can hardly see. So Joseph brings his sons close to Israel [that is, Jacob], and Israel kisses them and embraces them (verse 10). He tells Joseph that he never expected to see Joseph’s face again, and now God has let him see Joseph’s children also (verse 11). Then Joseph removes his sons from his father’s knees, and he bows down with his face to the ground (verse 12).
• Then Joseph takes both his sons, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s [that is, Jacob’s] left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and he brings them close to Israel (verse 13). But Israel reaches out his right hand [the right hand is the symbol of favour here ] and lays it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand he lays on Manasseh’s head, crossing his arms knowingly, even though Manasseh was the firstborn (verse 14).
• Israel [that is, Jacob] then blesses Joseph in the name of the God of his fathers, the God of Israel, who has been Israel’s shepherd all his life (verse 15), the Angel who has redeemed Israel from all harm. Israel asks that God bless the two boys, and Israel’s name be carried on in them, and also the names of Israel’s fathers Abraham and Isaac, and they grow to be a multitude upon the earth (verse 16).
• When Joseph sees that his father Jacob has placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he is displeased, so he takes hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head (verse 17). Joseph expresses his disapproval, telling his father that the other son is the firstborn, and he should put his right hand on the boy’s head (verse 18).
• Jacob confirms that he knows what he is doing, but although the firstborn son will become a people, and he too will be great, nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations (verse 19). So Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons that day, and he pronounces blessings in his own name, from God toward those who would be blessed like Ephraim and Manasseh. So Israel [that is, Jacob] puts Ephraim before the firstborn son Manasseh (verse 20).
• Israel [that is, Jacob] tells Joseph that he, Israel, is about to die, but God will be with Joseph and take him back to the land of his fathers (verse 21). Then Jacob allots to Joseph, because he is over his brothers, the ridge of land that Jacob took from the Amorites with his sword and his bow (verse 22).
• Jacob is dying, and in his last few moments of life, he has a powerful prophetic message to deliver to his sons about what the future holds for them and the tribes that will descend from them.
Jacob is a foundational patriarch and a prophet, and as such he is a person of extreme significance to both mankind and to God. His standing and contribution in the sight of God is without equal among the ancients, for he is founding father of the nation that bore his name—the nation assembled and constructed by the Almighty God to bear witness to the will of God to mankind on earth.
From the very beginning of his life, Jacob had been inexorably drawn to the God of his fathers, and indelibly imbued with the nature and characteristics of one who was deeply involved in a life-long association and even a personal one-on-one intermingling with the Almighty, through to the extent that Jacob even wrestled with the Divine and exalted Son of the Most High in the incident at Peniel (see Genesis 32:22), the place where God gave Jacob the new name of Israel [the name Israel in Hebrew means ‘he struggles with God’.]
• Jacob summons his sons, and he instructs them to gather around and he will tell them what will happen to them in the days to come (verse 1). Then addressing them as his sons, he instructs them to listen to their father Israel (verse 2).
• Jacob delivers his prophetic message, imparting to each of his sons that which God has revealed. In his final speech, Jacob speaks to each of his sons individually in turn, using the Hebrew poetic form of rhythmic repetition, commencing with his testimony to his firstborn son Reuben and finishing with his youngest son Benjamin.
• Jacob commences his prophetic message to his sons and to their descendants by addressing Reuben first. He tells Reuben that he is Jacob’s firstborn [son], and the first issue of his manhood. Yet although Reuben could have excelled in honour and power as the firstborn son [and received the due prestige, privileges, and leadership of the firstborn](verse 3), he is of unstable and turbulent character, therefore he will no longer prevail [over his brothers, with the hereditary rights normally reserved for the firstborn son.] Reuben remains disgraced, because he climbed up on his father’s bed and defiled it [by his crime of committing fornication with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine and Rachel’s maidservant (see Genesis 35:22)](verse 4).
Jacob banished Reuben from his position as the firstborn son of prominence and leadership over Reuben’s siblings. Therefore, because of Reuben’s own moral weakness and flawed character, Reuben and his descendants forever lost their elite position of prominence and leadership over the nation of Israel. Even though the tribe of Reuben flourished afterward (see Deuteronomy 33:6), no one ever attained a position of significance or influence in the nation. Not one individual from the tribe of Reuben is recorded in the historical records of the Old Testament as holding a position of power and national significance in Israel—no judge, no king, no prophet. Although the long-term survival of the Jewish state and dominion over the nation of Israel afterward in the land of Canaan was largely centred around the tribe of Judah, its cities, and its territories, nevertheless Reuben’s birthright passed firstly to Joseph (see 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2).
• Jacob then addresses his sons Simeon and Levi, telling them that they are brothers, and their swords are weapons of violence. [It was Simeon and Levi who massacred the people of Shechem, putting them all to the sword (see Genesis 34:25-29)](verse 5). Jacob absolves himself of the crimes and misdeeds of these two sons, declaring he would never be part of their council, or be joined to their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger, and hamstrung oxen as they pleased (verse 6). Jacob curses his sons for their anger [for it is fierce], and their wrath [for it is cruel.] He predisposes their offspring to be scattered in [the heritage of] Jacob, and dispersed throughout [the descendants and lands of] Israel (verse 7).
• Jacob then addresses his son Judah.
Judah, the original ancestor of the tribe of Judah of the nation of Israel, was very important in the sight of God. For the tribe of Judah remained the pre-eminent tribe in Israel before God, with whom He was directly involved with in the land of Canaan [later known as Palestine] for more than a thousand years. It was through the descendants of Judah that the Jewish nation survived as the lightbearers of the will of God for mankind, culminating in the outpouring of the Kingdom of God upon the earth in the days when our Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth. The Lord Himself based and focused His messianic ministry upon the remnant Jewish peoples largely descended from Judah and living in Palestine, and it was the priestly leaders of this nation who facilitated the torture and execution of Jesus Christ by the brutality and cruelty of scourging and Roman crucifixion.
Jacob commences addressing his son Judah by telling Judah his brothers will praise him [the name Judah in Hebrew sounds like and may be derived from the word for ‘praise’; that is, ‘yadah’.]
Jacob bestows victory on Judah, in keeping with God’s high calling for Judah and his descendants, and Jacob foretells Judah’s might. Judah’s hand will be on the neck of his enemies, and Jacob’s own sons will bow down before Judah (verse 8). Judah is a young lion, one that returns from the prey, who crouches and lies down like a lion, and like a lioness that no one would dare to disturb (verse 9).
Jacob foretells the kingly power of the elite of Judah’s descendants, saying that the sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom the staff belongs, and the obedience of the nations is His [Jacob speaking under inspiration, is prophesying the power and authority of the coming Messiah](verse 10).
Jacob then outlines the future prosperity of Judah and his descendants, saying that he [that is, Judah] tethers his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, and washes his garments in wine and his robes in the blood of grapes (verse 11). His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk (verse 12)
• Jacob then addresses his son Zebulun. Speaking prophetically, Jacob tells Zebulun that his descendants, the tribe of Zebulun, will live by the seashore, become a haven for ships, and his border will be at Sidon (verse 13).
It was not until several hundred years had passed, that the tribes of Israel conquered and inhabited the land of Canaan after Jacob had shifted to Egypt. The tribe of Zebulon was granted occupational rights from Joshua over a portion of Canaan that roughly corresponded to Jacob’s outline to Zebulun (see Joshua 19:10–16).
• Jacob then addresses his son Issachar. Jacob tells Issachar that he is like a strong donkey lying down between two saddlebags.
This analogy Jacob has used to describe Issachar is probably indicative of Issachar’s own attributes and temperament. The ancients in the Middle East typically used donkeys to carry burdens, as is still the case in parts of the world. A donkey laying down between the saddlebags would normally be an indication of an animal recovering its strength after bearing a heavy load, and Issachar was therefore probably a good and reliable worker (verse 14).
Jacob continues his analogy, saying that Issachar, like the strong donkey, reacts to a favourable environment. For when he sees that a resting place is good, he will bend his shoulder to the burden, and become a slave and forced labour (verse 15).
When Jacob delivered his final testimony to each of his sons, he does not appear to have been speaking to each one according to their own current personal circumstances, but speaking under inspiration, he was apparently outlining the future for the descendants of each of his sons also. The tribe of Issachar remained a largely agriculturally based subnational group, living comfortably with their allotted traditional division within Canaan of lower Galilee, including the pleasant and productive country on the tablelands of Jezreel. It is possible Jacob’s reference to a period of slavery for the descendants of Issachar may well have been achieved through the time of intense hardship and slavery that the nation of Israel suffered before God’s miraculous delivery of the Exodus.
The tribe of Issachar did not excel in military conquests or political successes at home, although for a time they were noted for their military achievements in the Israelite conquest of the land of Canaan at the end of the Exodus. Afterward the people of the tribe of Issachar were apparently contented with their agricultural lifestyles, for they remained out of the limelight throughout most of the Old Testament narratives.
• Jacob then addresses his son Gad, telling him that Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack them at their heels (verse 19).
Although the tribe of Gad remains of secondary significance in the Old Testament Scriptures, and the extent of the fulfilment of Jacob’s prediction to his son Gad cannot be readily gauged, the account recorded in 1 Chronicles 5:18-22 illustrates the bravery the Gadites displayed when necessary. The illustrious King David describes the Gadites who came to David as lions, and in 1 Chronicles 12:8-15 David compares their swiftness to that of the gazelle.
• Jacob then addresses his son Asher, saying that Asher’s food will be rich, and he will provide royal delicacies (verse 20).
After the Exodus and conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelites, the tribe of Asher was allotted for their tribal inheritance the fertile and productive lowlands of Carmel, bordering the Mediterranean Sea as far north as the territory of the Sidonians. The agricultural bounty of their territory ensured abundant harvests year after year, from which King Solomon traded wheat and olive oil with Hiram king of Tyre for fine timbers from Lebanon (see 1 Kings 5:10, 11).
• Jacob then addresses his son Naphtali, saying that Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns (verse 21).
The Old Testament records are virtually silent regarding Naphtali and the history of the tribe of Naphtali that descended from him afterward. The tribe of Naphtali is recorded as winning a great victory over the Canaanite king Jabin, which the prophetess Deborah commemorated in her celebrated song (see Judges chapters 4, 5).
• Jacob then addresses his most famous and favourite son Joseph. Jacob heaps praises and many blessings on the firstborn son of his deceased wife Rachel, the beautiful young woman he first fell in love with in the days of his youth, and who became his most cherished and beloved wife.
Joseph had saved Jacob and all his family and people from the decimation being caused across the ancient Middle East at that time, when for seven years the rains failed. And with the failure of the seasonal rains calamity loomed. Crops failed, and animals and people starved. All alike were faced with the slow and agonising process of death by starvation. Yet the transformation of Joseph from the shepherd’s son in a foreign land, into the primary ruling power of what was then the world’s most advanced civilisation, only came to Joseph at great personal cost and through much privation and suffering.
Yet it was not of Joseph’s own doing to choose his own temporal destiny, for the ruling Power of the universe had Himself chosen Joseph and powerfully worked behind the scenes, as He does, that this should be so. God Himself selected and preordained Joseph for the special work that He had in mind for the shepherd’s son. Through the fires of many painful trials and much suffering, God tempered, conditioned, and transformed Joseph into the strong, yet compassionate and godly figurehead of salvation that he became. And Jacob himself, from his own knowledge, personal involvement, and experiences with God, intimately knew and understood all that this meant.
From his deathbed, Jacob describes his pre-eminent son Joseph as being like a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine beside a spring, large and heavily branched (verse 22).
Being intimately knowledgeable of the adversity Joseph has suffered in the past, Jacob continues by saying that archers bitterly attacked Joseph, and shot at him with hostility (verse 23). Yet Joseph’s bow remained steady, and his hands and strong arms were made agile, by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob; by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel (verse 24); by the God of his father, who helps him; by the Almighty, who blesses him—with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep below, and blessings of the successful mother (verse 25).
Jacob further blesses his much-beloved son Joseph, telling him that the blessings of his father surpass the blessings of the ancient mountains, and the bounty of the everlasting hills. Jacob concludes his extended period of blessings lavished on his son Joseph, when before God and before his own sons, he calls for these blessings to rest on the head of Joseph, on the crown of the prince of his brothers (verse 26).
• To Benjamin, the last son whom Jacob addresses, he describes Benjamin as a ravenous wolf, one that devours the prey in the morning, and in the evening divides the plunder (verse 27).
The final testimony of Jacob to his son Benjamin, with regards to the tribe descended from Benjamin, later came to be fittingly accurate and true. The warlike characteristics and temperament that Jacob attributes to his son Benjamin became devastatingly fulfilled in the actions manifested by his descendants later in the nation of Israel.
Because of their own wickedness in Gibeah, the tribe of Benjamin waged war against their own kinspeople, the other tribes of Israel (see Judges chapters 20 and 21), and at other times also (Judges 5:14). What is more, in their defence of the homeland of Israel, the fighting men of the tribe of Benjamin distinguished themselves with their skilled use of the bow and the sling (Judges 20:16; 1 Chronicles 8:40; 1 Chronicles 12:2; 2 Chronicles 14:8; 2 Chronicles 17:17). From the tribe of Benjamin also, came the blooded judge Ehud, who rescued the nation of Israel from subjugation to the nation of Moab and her allies, in the account of Ehud recorded in Judges 3:12-30. Saul, the first king of Israel, and his brave and chivalrous warrior son Jonathon were also from the tribe of Benjamin (1 Samuel 11, 1 Samuel 13, 2 Samuel 1:17-27).
• The narrator concludes the last prophetic testimony of the dying Jacob to his sons, confirming his appropriate blessing on each of the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolically and personally represented by his own sons, the forebears of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel (verse 28).
• Jacob tells his sons that he is about to die, and they are to bury him with his fathers in the cave located in the field of Ephron the Hittite (verse 29), in the cave in the field at Machpelah, near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site (verse 30), where Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, and Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and where Jacob buried his wife Leah (verse 31). The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites (verse 32).
• When Jacob finishes giving his instructions to his sons, he lays down and draws his feet up onto the bed. Then Jacob takes his final breath and dies, and is gathered to his people (verse 33).
• Jacob dies, and Joseph throws himself over his father’s face, and he weeps for his father and kisses him (verse 1). Then Joseph commands his physicians to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalm Jacob (verse 2), taking forty days, the time required for embalming. The Egyptians also mourn for Jacob, for seventy days (verse 3).
• When the days for mourning the death of Jacob have ended, Joseph asks Pharaoh’s household to speak to Pharaoh on behalf of Joseph. Joseph asks that they tell Pharaoh (verse 4) that Joseph’s father Jacob made Joseph swear an oath to bury him in the tomb he dug for himself in the land of Canaan. So Joseph asks for Pharaoh’s permission to go up and bury his father, and then return back to Egypt (verse 5).
• Pharaoh grants Joseph leave from his official duties to go up to Canaan and bury his father Jacob, as Jacob made Joseph swear an oath to do (verse 6).
• Joseph journeys to Canaan to bury his father, along with all Pharaoh’s officials (verse 7), all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds remain in the land of Goshen (verse 8). Both chariots and horsemen also accompany the very large funeral procession going to Canaan to bury Jacob (verse 9).
• When the funeral procession reaches the threshing floor of Atad, across the Jordan River, they lament loudly and bitterly, and Joseph mourns for his father there for seven days (verse 10). When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land witness the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they speak with each other about the grievous mourning of the Egyptians. So that place is named Abel-mizraim [the name Abel-mizraim in Hebrew means ‘mourning of Egypt’.] It is located across the Jordan River (verse 11).
• Jacob’s sons do as he commanded them before he died (verse 12). They carry his body to the land of Canaan, and bury him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham bought as a burial site from Ephron the Hittite (verse 13).
• After Joseph has buried his father, he returns back to Egypt, along with his brothers and everyone who had gone with him to bury his father Jacob (verse 14).
• After the death of Jacob, his sons, the brothers of Joseph, are concerned that Joseph may be holding a grudge against them, and get his revenge against them for all the wrongs that they have done to him in the past (verse 15).
• Joseph’s brothers send a messenger to tell Joseph about Jacob’s instructions, that he gave before he died (verse 16). The messenger is instructed to say to Joseph, on behalf of their father Jacob, to forgive his brothers for their transgression and their sin that they wronged Joseph with, for they treated him badly, and to forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of his father. And Joseph weeps when he receives the message (verse 17).
• When Joseph’s brothers meet with him, they fall down before him and tell him that they are his slaves (verse 18). But Joseph comforts them, telling them not to be afraid, for he is not in the place of God (verse 19), and although they planned evil against him, God intended it for good to accomplish the present result, the survival of many people (verse 20). Then Joseph tells his brothers not to be afraid of him, and he will provide for them and their children. Thus Joseph reassures his brothers, and he speaks kindly to them (verse 21).
• Afterward, Joseph and his father’s household remain in Egypt. Joseph lives a hundred and ten years (verse 22), and he sees Ephraim’s children to the third generation. Also the children of Machir son of Manasseh are placed at birth on Joseph’s knees [this practice counted to the ancient Hebrews as a legitimising form of direct hereditary adoption](verse 23).
• Joseph tells his brothers that he is about to die, and God will visit them and bring them out of that land [of Egypt] to the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [that is, the land of Canaan](verse 24). Joseph makes his brothers swear an oath that when God came to their aid, they will carry Joseph’s bones out of Egypt (verse 25).
• Joseph dies at the age of a hundred and ten years. His body is then embalmed, and he is placed in a coffin in Egypt (verse 26).
