Genesis 36–38

CHAPTER 36

The Generations of Esau

¹Now these are the generations of ^aEsau (that is, Edom).

²Esau ^atook his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and ^bOholibamah the daughter of Anah and the ^cgranddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite;

³also Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.

⁴And Adah bore ^aEliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel,

⁵and Oholibamah bore Jeush and Jalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

^6aThen Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and all ¹his household, and his livestock and all his cattle and all his acquired goods, which he had accumulated in the land of Canaan, and he went to a land away from his brother Jacob.

^7aFor their possessions had become too great for them to ¹live together, and the ^bland where they ^csojourned could not sustain them because of their livestock.

⁸So Esau lived in the hill country of ^aSeir; Esau is ^bEdom.

⁹These then are the generations of Esau the father of ¹the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.

¹⁰These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Esau’s wife Adah, Reuel the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, ¹Zepho and Gatam and Kenaz.

¹²Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore ^aAmalek to Eliphaz. These are the sons of Esau’s wife Adah.

¹³These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath.

¹⁴These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and the ¹granddaughter of Zibeon: ²she bore to Esau, Jeush and Jalam and Korah.

¹⁵These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau, are chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,

¹⁶chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These are the chiefs ¹descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah.

¹⁷These are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah. These are the chiefs ¹descended from Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Esau’s wife Basemath.

¹⁸These are the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah. These are the chiefs ¹descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

¹⁹These are the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these are their chiefs.

²⁰These are the sons of Seir ^athe Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah,

²¹and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan. These are the chiefs ¹descended from the Horites, the sons of Seir in the land of Edom.

²²The sons of Lotan were Hori and ¹Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna.

²³These are the sons of Shobal: ¹Alvan and Manahath and Ebal, ²Shepho and Onam.

²⁴These are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah—he is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was pasturing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.

²⁵These are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

²⁶These are the sons of ^1aDishon: ²Hemdan and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran.

²⁷These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan and ¹Akan.

²⁸These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

²⁹These are the chiefs of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah,

³⁰chief Dishon, chief Ezer, chief Dishan. These are the chiefs ¹descended from the Horites, according to their various chiefs in the land of Seir.

³¹Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any ^aking of the sons of Israel reigned.

^32aAnd Bela the son of Beor became king in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

³³Then Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah became king in his place.

³⁴Then Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites became king in his place.

³⁵Then Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who struck down Midian in the field of Moab, became king in his place; and the name of his city was Avith.

³⁶Then Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah became king in his place.

³⁷Then Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth on the ¹River became king in his place.

³⁸Then Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor became king in his place.

³⁹Then Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and ¹Hadar became king in his place; and the name of his city was ²Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, daughter of Mezahab.

⁴⁰Now these are the names of the chiefs ¹descended from Esau, according to their families and their places, by their names: chief Timna, chief ²Alvah, chief Jetheth,

⁴¹chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon,

⁴²chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar,

⁴³chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom (that is, Esau, the father of ¹the Edomites), according to their places of habitation in the land of their possession.

CHAPTER 37

The Generations of Jacob

¹Now Jacob lived in ^athe land ¹where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan.

²These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, when ^aseventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with ^bthe sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought back an ^cevil report about them to their father.

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was ^athe son of his old age; and he made him a ^1bvaricolored tunic.

⁴And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and so they ^ahated him and could not speak to him in peace.

Joseph’s Dreams

⁵Then Joseph ^1ahad a dream, and he told it to his brothers; so they hated him even more.

⁶And he said to them, “Please listen to this dream which I have ¹had:

⁷Indeed, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf rose up and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and ^abowed down to my sheaf.”

⁸Then his brothers said to him, “^aAre you really going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

⁹Then he ¹had still another dream and recounted it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have ²had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰And he recounted it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have ¹had? Shall I and your mother and ^ayour brothers really come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?”

^11aAnd his brothers were jealous of him, but his father ^bkept the saying in mind.

¹²Then his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock in Shechem.

¹³And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock in ^aShechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “¹I will go.”

¹⁴Then he said to him, “Go now and see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of ^aHebron, and he came to Shechem.

¹⁵And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field; and the man asked him, “¹What are you seeking?”

¹⁶And he said, “I am seeking my brothers; please tell me where they are pasturing the flock.”

¹⁷Then the man said, “They have journeyed from here; for I heard them saying, ‘Let us go to ^aDothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

¹⁸And they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them, they ^aplotted against him to put him to death.

¹⁹Then they said to one another, “¹Here comes this dreamer!

²⁰“So now, come and let us kill him and cast him into one of the pits; and ^awe will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams!”

²¹But ^aReuben heard this and delivered him out of their hands and said, “Let us not strike down his life.”

²²Reuben further said to them, “Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not put forth your hands against him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands to return him to his father.

²³Now it happened, when Joseph ¹reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his ²tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him;

²⁴and they took him and cast him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.

²⁵And they sat down to eat ¹a meal. Then they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of ^aIshmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing ^2baromatic gum and ^3cbalm and ⁴myrrh, going to bring them down to Egypt.

²⁶And Judah said to his brothers, “What gain is it that we kill our brother and ^acover up his blood?

²⁷“^aCome and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened.

²⁸Then some ^aMidianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and ^bsold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for ¹twenty shekels of silver. Thus ^cthey brought Joseph into Egypt.

²⁹Then Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he ^atore his garments.

³⁰Then he returned to his brothers and said, “^aThe boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?”

³¹So ^athey took Joseph’s tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood;

³²and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please recognize it—whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”

³³And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. ^aA wild beast has devoured him; ^bJoseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

³⁴So Jacob ^atore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.

³⁵Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, “Surely I will ^ago down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

³⁶Meanwhile, the ¹Midianites ^asold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard.

CHAPTER 38

Judah and Tamar

¹Now it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain ^a…