Genesis 36–38

Esau’s Descendants

36These are the generations of Esau (that is, ^gEdom). ²Esau ^htook his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, ⁱOholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter¹ of Zibeon the Hivite, ³and ^jBasemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. ⁴And Adah bore to Esau, ^kEliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel; ⁵and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

⁶Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. ^7lFor their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. ^mThe land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. ⁸So Esau settled in ⁿthe hill country of Seir. (^oEsau is Edom.)

⁹These are the generations of Esau the father of ^pthe Edomites in the hill country of Seir. ¹⁰These are the names of Esau’s sons: ^qEliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Basemath the wife of Esau. ¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. ¹²(Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son; she bore ^rAmalek to Eliphaz.) These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. ¹³These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. ¹⁴These are the sons of ^sOholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵These are ^tthe chiefs of the sons of Esau. ^uThe sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: the chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, ¹⁶Korah, Gatam, and Amalek; these are the chiefs of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah. ¹⁷These are the sons of ^vReuel, Esau’s son: the chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah; these are the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife. ¹⁸These are the sons of ^wOholibamah, Esau’s wife: the chiefs Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the chiefs born of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife. ¹⁹These are the sons of Esau (^xthat is, Edom), and these are their chiefs.

^20yThese are the sons of ^zSeir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; these are the chiefs of the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom. ²²The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. ²³These are the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. ²⁴These are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; he is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he pastured the donkeys of Zibeon his father. ²⁵These are the children of Anah: Dishon and ^aOholibamah the daughter of Anah. ²⁶These are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. ²⁷These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. ²⁸These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran. ²⁹These are the chiefs of the Horites: the ^bchiefs Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan; these are the chiefs of the Horites, chief by chief in the land of Seir.

^31cThese are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites. ³²Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom, the name of his city being Dinhabah. ³³Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place. ³⁴Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place. ³⁵Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his place, the name of his city being Avith. ³⁶Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place. ³⁷Samlah died, and Shaul of ^dRehoboth on the Euphrates² reigned in his place. ³⁸Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place. ³⁹Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his place, the name of his city being Pau; his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, daughter of Mezahab.

⁴⁰These are the names of the chiefs of Esau, according to their clans and their dwelling places, by their names: the chiefs Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, ^ePinon, ⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³Magdiel, and Iram; these are the chiefs of Edom (that is, Esau, the father of ^fEdom), according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession.

Joseph’s Dreams

37Jacob lived in ^gthe land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

²These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought ^ha bad report of them to their father. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was ⁱthe son of his old age. And he made him ^ja robe of many colors.^{1 4}But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

⁵Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: ⁷Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, ^kmy sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and ^lbowed down to my sheaf.” ⁸His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

⁹Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and ^myour mother and your brothers indeed come ⁿto bow ourselves to the ground before you?” ¹¹And ^ohis brothers were jealous of him, ^pbut his father kept the saying in mind.

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

¹²Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near ^qShechem. ¹³And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” ¹⁴So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of ^rHebron, and he came to Shechem. ¹⁵And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” ¹⁶“I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” ¹⁷And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to ^sDothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at ^sDothan.

¹⁸They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them ^tthey conspired against him to kill him. ¹⁹They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰Come now, ^ulet us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.² Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” ²¹But when ^vReuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” ²²And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—^wthat he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. ²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, ^xthe robe of many colors that he wore. ²⁴And they took him and ^ythrew him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a ^zcaravan of ^aIshmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing ^bgum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it ^cif we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and ^dlet not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. ²⁸Then ^eMidianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and ^fsold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels³ of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.

²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he ^gtore his clothes ³⁰and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy ^his gone, and I, where shall I go?” ³¹Then they took ⁱJoseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. ³²And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” ³³And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. ^jA fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” ³⁴Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and all his daughters ^krose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, ^lI shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. ³⁶Meanwhile ^mthe Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, ⁿthe captain of the guard.

Judah and Tamar

38It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and ^oturned aside to a certain ^pAdullamite, whose name was Hirah. ²There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was ^qShua. He took her and went in to her, ³and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name ^rEr. ⁴She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name ^rOnan. ⁵Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name ^rShelah. Judah¹ was in Chezib when she bore him.

⁶And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷But Er, Judah’s firstborn, ^swas wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. ⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to ^tyour brother’s wife and ^uperform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” ⁹But Onan knew that…