Genesis 36–38

36TH CHAPTER

The Origin of Edom—1 Chronicles 1:35–54

¹This is the account of Esau (that is, Edom) and his descendants. ²Esau chose his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah, daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite; ³also Basemath, daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. ⁴Adah gave birth to Eliphaz for Esau, and Basemath gave birth to Reuel. ⁵Oholibamah gave birth to Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born in Canaan. 

⁶Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the members of his household, his possessions, all his cattle, and everything he had accumulated in Canaan and went to another land away from his brother Jacob. ⁷He did this because they had too many possessions to live together. There wasn’t enough pastureland for all of their livestock. ⁸So Esau, who was also known as Edom, lived in the mountains of Seir. 

⁹This is the account of Esau and his descendants. He was the father of the people of Edom in the mountains of Seir. 

¹⁰These were the names of Esau’s sons: 

Eliphaz, son of Esau’s wife Adah, and Reuel, son of Esau’s wife Basemath. 

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were 

Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. ¹²Timna was a concubine^aof Esau’s son Eliphaz. She gave birth to Amalek for Eliphaz. These were the grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah. 

¹³These were Reuel’s sons: 

Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath. 

¹⁴These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon. She gave birth to Jeush, Jalam, and Korah for Esau. 

¹⁵These were the tribal leaders among Esau’s descendants: 

The sons of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn, were 

Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, ¹⁶Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These were the tribal leaders descended from Eliphaz in Edom. They were the grandsons of Adah. 

¹⁷These were the tribal leaders among the descendants of Esau’s son Reuel: 

Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the tribal leaders descended from Reuel in Edom. They were the grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath. 

¹⁸These were the tribal leaders among the descendants of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: 

Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the tribal leaders descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah, Anah’s daughter. 

¹⁹These were the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom), who were tribal leaders. 

²⁰These were the sons of Seir the Horite, the people living in that land: 

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These Horite tribal leaders were the sons of Seir in Edom. 

²²The sons of Lotan were 

Hori and Hemam. Lotan’s sister was Timna. 

²³These were the sons of Shobal: 

Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 

²⁴These were the sons of Zibeon: 

Aiah and Anah. (Anah found the hot springsin the desert while he was taking care of the donkeys that belonged to his father Zibeon.) 

²⁵These were the children of Anah: 

Dishon and Oholibamah, daughter of Anah. 

²⁶These were the sons of Dishon: 

Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. 

²⁷These were the sons of Ezer: 

Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. 

²⁸These were the sons of Dishan: 

Uz and Aran. 

²⁹These were the Horite tribal leaders: 

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, ³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the Horite tribal leaders in the land of Seir. 

³¹These were the kings who ruled Edom before any king ruled the people of Israel: 

³²Bela, son of Beor, ruled Edom. The name of his ⸤capital⸥ city was Dinhabah. 

³³After Bela died, Jobab, son of Zerah from Bozrah, succeeded him as king. 

³⁴After Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites succeeded him as king. 

³⁵After Husham died, Hadad, son of Bedad succeeded him as king. Hadad defeated the Midianites in the country of Moab. The name of his capital city was Avith. 

³⁶After Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah succeeded him as king. 

³⁷After Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth on the river succeeded him as king. 

³⁸After Shaul died, Baal Hanan, son of Achbor, succeeded him as king. 

³⁹After Baal Hanan, son of Achbor, died, Hadar succeeded him as king, and the name of his capital city was Pau. His wife’s name was Mehetabel, daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab. 

⁴⁰These were the names of the tribal leaders descended from Esau, by family, place, and name: 

Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³Magdiel, and Iram. 

These were the tribal leaders of Edom listed by the places where they lived and the property they owned. 

Esau was the father of the people of Edom. 

37TH CHAPTER

Joseph’s Brothers Sell Him into Slavery

¹Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived. 

²This is the account of Jacob and his descendants. 

Joseph was a seventeen-year-old young man. He took care of the flocks with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph told his father about the bad things his brothers were doing. 

³Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because Joseph had been born in Israel’s old age. So he made Joseph a special robe with long sleeves. ⁴Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them. They hated Joseph and couldn’t speak to him on friendly terms. 

⁵Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Please listen to the dream I had. ⁷We were tying grain into bundles out in the field, and suddenly mine stood up. It remained standing while your bundles gathered around my bundle and bowed down to it.” 

⁸Then his brothers asked him, “Are you going to be our king or rule us?” They hated him even more for his dreams and his words. 

⁹Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream: I saw the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowing down to me.” 

¹⁰When he told his father and his brothers, his father criticized him by asking, “What’s this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers come and bow down in front of you?” ¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about these things. 

¹²His brothers had gone to take care of their father’s flocks at Shechem. ¹³Israel then said to Joseph, “Your brothers are taking care of the flocks at Shechem. I’m going to send you to them.” 

Joseph responded, “I’ll go.” 

¹⁴So Israel said, “See how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring some news back to me.” Then he sent Joseph away from the Hebron Valley. 

When Joseph came to Shechem, ¹⁵a man found him wandering around in the open country. “What are you looking for?” the man asked. 

¹⁶Joseph replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they’re taking care of their flocks.” 

¹⁷The man said, “They moved on from here. I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. 

¹⁸They saw him from a distance. Before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹They said to each other, “Look, here comes that master dreamer! ²⁰Let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and say that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we’ll see what happens to his dreams.” 

²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to save Joseph from their plot. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. ²²“Let’s not have any bloodshed. Put him into that cistern that’s out in the desert, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben wanted to rescue Joseph from them and bring him back to his father. 

²³So when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his special robe with long sleeves. ²⁴Then they took him and put him into an empty cistern. It had no water in it. 

²⁵As they sat down to eat, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying the materials for cosmetics, medicine, and embalming. They were on their way to take them to Egypt. 

²⁶Judah asked his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up his death? ²⁷Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let’s not hurt him, because he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. 

²⁸As the Midianite merchants were passing by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern. They sold him to the Ishmaelites for eight ounces of silver. The Ishmaelites took him to Egypt. 

²⁹When Reuben came back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was no longer there, he tore his clothes in grief. ³⁰He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! What am I going to do?” 

³¹So they took Joseph’s robe, killed a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. ³²Then they brought the special robe with long sleeves to their father and said, “We found this. You better examine it to see whether it’s your son’s robe or not.” 

³³He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has eaten him! Joseph must have been torn to pieces!” ³⁴Then, to show his grief, Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son a long time. ³⁵All his other sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “No, I will mourn for my son until I die.” This is how Joseph’s father cried over him. 

³⁶Meanwhile, in Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials and captain of the guard. 

38TH CHAPTER

Judah’s Sin with Tamar

¹About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man from Adullam whose name was Hirah. ²There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man whose name was Shua. He married her and slept with her. ³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son named^aEr. ⁴She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, whom she named Onan. ⁵Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, whom she named Shelah. He was born at Kezib. 

⁶Judah chose a wife for his firstborn son Er. Her name was Tamar. ⁷Er angered the Lord. So the Lord took away his life. ⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Go sleep with your brother’s widow. Do your duty for her as a brother-in-law, and produce a descendant for your brother.” ⁹But Onan knew that the descendant wouldn’t belong to him, so whenever he slept with his…