1
One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women.
2
When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her, he took her and raped her.
3
But he found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her and tried to win her affection.
4
He told his father, "I want you to get Dinah for me as my wife."
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Jacob learned that his daughter had been disgraced, but because his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back.
6
Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob,
7
just as Jacob's sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard about it, they were shocked and furious that Shechem had done such a thing and had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob's daughter.
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Hamor said to him, "My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter; please let him marry her.
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Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours.
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Then you may stay here in our country with us; you may live anywhere you wish, trade freely, and own property."
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Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Do me this favor, and I will give you whatever you want.
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Tell me what presents you want, and set the payment for the bride as high as you wish; I will give you whatever you ask, if you will only let me marry her."
13
Because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah, Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor in a deceitful way.
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They said to him, "We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us.
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We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males.
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Then we will agree to intermarriage. We will settle among you and become one people with you.
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But if you will not accept our terms and be circumcised, we will take her and leave."
18
These terms seemed fair to Hamor and his son Shechem,
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and the young man lost no time in doing what was suggested, because he was in love with Jacob's daughter. He was the most important member of his family.
20
Hamor and his son Shechem went to the meeting place at the city gate and spoke to the people of the town:
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"These men are friendly; let them live in the land with us and travel freely. The land is large enough for them also. Let us marry their daughters and give them ours in marriage.
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But these men will agree to live among us and be one people with us only on the condition that we circumcise all our males, as they are circumcised.
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Won't all their livestock and everything else they own be ours? So let us agree that they can live among us."
24
All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed, and all the males were circumcised.
25
Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men,
26
including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.
27
After the slaughter Jacob's other sons looted the town to take revenge for their sister's disgrace.
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They took the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields.
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They took everything of value, captured all the women and children, and carried off everything in the houses.
30
Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have gotten me into trouble; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I do not have many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed."
31
But they answered, "We cannot let our sister be treated like a common whore."
1
God said to Jacob, "Go to Bethel at once, and live there. Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau."
2
So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes.
3
We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone."
4
So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and also the earrings that they were wearing. He buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.
5
When Jacob and his sons started to leave, great fear fell on the people of the nearby towns, and they did not pursue them.
6
Jacob came with all his people to Luz, which is now known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan.
7
He built an altar there and named the place for the God of Bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he was running away from his brother.
8
Rebecca's nurse Deborah died and was buried beneath the oak south of Bethel. So it was named "Oak of Weeping."
9
When Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
10
God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but from now on it will be Israel." So God named him Israel.
11
And God said to him, "I am Almighty God. Have many children. Nations will be descended from you, and you will be the ancestor of kings.
12
I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and I will also give it to your descendants after you."
14
There, where God had spoken to him, Jacob set up a memorial stone and consecrated it by pouring wine and olive oil on it.
15
He named the place Bethel.
16
Jacob and his family left Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, the time came for Rachel to have her baby, and she was having difficult labor.
17
When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, Rachel; it's another boy."
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But she was dying, and as she breathed her last, she named her son Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.
19
When Rachel died, she was buried beside the road to Ephrath, now known as Bethlehem.
20
Jacob set up a memorial stone there, and it still marks Rachel's grave to this day.
21
Jacob moved on and set up his camp on the other side of the tower of Eder.
22
While Jacob was living in that land, Reuben had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, one of his father's concubines; Jacob heard about it and was furious. Jacob had twelve sons.
23
The sons of Leah were Reuben (Jacob's oldest son), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
24
The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
25
The sons of Rachel's slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.
26
The sons of Leah's slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These sons were born in Mesopotamia.
27
Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived.
28
Isaac lived to be a hundred and eighty years old
29
and died at a ripe old age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
1
These are the descendants of Esau, also called Edom.
2
Esau married Canaanite women: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Hivite;
3
and Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
4
Adah bore Eliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel;
5
and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.
6
Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the people of his house, along with all his livestock and all the possessions he had gotten in the land of Canaan, and went away from his brother Jacob to another land.
7
He left because the land where he and Jacob were living was not able to support them; they had too much livestock and could no longer stay together.
8
So Esau lived in the hill country of Edom.
9
These are the descendants of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites.
10
Esau's wife Adah bore him one son, Eliphaz, and Eliphaz had five sons: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. And by another wife, Timna, he had one more son, Amalek. Esau's wife Basemath bore him one son, Reuel, and Reuel had four sons: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.
14
Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah son of Zibeon, bore him three sons: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
15
These are the tribes descended from Esau. Esau's first son Eliphaz was the ancestor of the following tribes: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,
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Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These were all descendants of Esau's wife Adah.
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Esau's son Reuel was the ancestor of the following tribes: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were all descendants of Esau's wife Basemath.
18
The following tribes were descended from Esau by his wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.
19
All these tribes were descended from Esau.
20
The original inhabitants of the land of Edom were divided into tribes which traced their ancestry to the following descendants of Seir, a Horite: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.
22
Lotan was the ancestor of the clans of Hori and Heman. (Lotan had a sister named Timna.)
23
Shobal was the ancestor of the clans of Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
24
Zibeon had two sons, Aiah and Anah. (This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was taking care of his father's donkeys.)
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Anah was the father of Dishon, who was the ancestor of the clans of Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. Anah also had a daughter named Oholibamah.
27
Ezer was the ancestor of the clans of Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
28
Dishan was the ancestor of the clans of Uz and Aran.
29
These are the Horite tribes in the land of Edom: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.
31
Before there were any kings in Israel, the following kings ruled the land of Edom in succession: Bela son of Beor from Dinhabah Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah Husham from the region of Teman Hadad son of Bedad from Avith (he defeated the Midianites in a battle in the country of Moab) Samlah from Masrekah Shaul from Rehoboth-on-the-River Baal Hanan son of Achbor Hadad from Pau (his wife was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab)
40
Esau was the ancestor of the following Edomite tribes: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram. The area where each of these tribes lived was known by the name of the tribe.
1
One Sabbath Jesus went to eat a meal at the home of one of the leading Pharisees; and people were watching Jesus closely.
2
A man whose legs and arms were swollen came to Jesus,
3
and Jesus spoke up and asked the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, "Does our Law allow healing on the Sabbath or not?"
4
But they would not say a thing. Jesus took the man, healed him, and sent him away.
5
Then he said to them, "If any one of you had a child or an ox that happened to fall in a well on a Sabbath, would you not pull it out at once on the Sabbath itself ?"
6
But they were not able to answer him about this.
7
Jesus noticed how some of the guests were choosing the best places, so he told this parable to all of them:
8
"When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place. It could happen that someone more important than you has been invited,
9
and your host, who invited both of you, would have to come and say to you, 'Let him have this place.' Then you would be embarrassed and have to sit in the lowest place.
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Instead, when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that your host will come to you and say, 'Come on up, my friend, to a better place.' This will bring you honor in the presence of all the other guests.
11
For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great."
12
Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors---for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did.
13
When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind;
14
and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death."
15
When one of the guests sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, "How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!"
16
Jesus said to him, "There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people.
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When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell his guests, 'Come, everything is ready!'
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But they all began, one after another, to make excuses. The first one told the servant, 'I have bought a field and must go and look at it; please accept my apologies.'
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Another one said, 'I have bought five pairs of oxen and am on my way to try them out; please accept my apologies.'
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Another one said, 'I have just gotten married, and for that reason I cannot come.'
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The servant went back and told all this to his master. The master was furious and said to his servant, 'Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.'
22
Soon the servant said, 'Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is room for more.'
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So the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full.
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I tell you all that none of those who were invited will taste my dinner!' "
25
Once when large crowds of people were going along with Jesus, he turned and said to them,
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"Those who come to me cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and themselves as well.
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Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my disciples.
28
If one of you is planning to build a tower, you sit down first and figure out what it will cost, to see if you have enough money to finish the job.
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If you don't, you will not be able to finish the tower after laying the foundation; and all who see what happened will make fun of you.
30
'You began to build but can't finish the job!' they will say.
31
If a king goes out with ten thousand men to fight another king who comes against him with twenty thousand men, he will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king.
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If he isn't, he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace while he is still a long way off.
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In the same way," concluded Jesus, "none of you can be my disciple unless you give up everything you have.
34
"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again.
35
It is no good for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown away. Listen, then, if you have ears!"
