Genesis 36–38

Esau’s Descendants

36:10–14pp—1Ch 1:35–37 36:20–28pp—1Ch 1:38–42

36This is the account^k of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).^l

²Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan:^m Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite,ⁿ and Oholibamah^o daughter of Anah^p and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite^q—³also Basemath^r daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.^s

⁴Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel,^{t 5}and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah.^u These were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.

⁶Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan,^v and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob.^{w 7}Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock.^{x 8}So Esau^y (that is, Edom)^z settled in the hill country of Seir.^a

⁹This is the account^b of the family line of Esau the father of the Edomites^c in the hill country of Seir.

¹⁰These are the names of Esau’s sons:

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

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz:^e

Teman,^f Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz.^g

¹²Esau’s son Eliphaz also had a concubine^h named Timna, who bore him Amalek.ⁱ These were grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah.^j

¹³The sons of Reuel:

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

¹⁴The sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah^l daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau:

Jeush, Jalam and Korah.^m

¹⁵These were the chiefsⁿ among Esau’s descendants:

The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau:

Chiefs Teman,^o Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,^{p 16}Korah,^a Gatam and Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz^q in Edom;^r they were grandsons of Adah.^s

¹⁷The sons of Esau’s son Reuel:^t

Chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the chiefs descended from Reuel in Edom; they were grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath.^u

¹⁸The sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah:^v

Chiefs Jeush, Jalam and Korah.^w These were the chiefs descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.

¹⁹These were the sons of Esau^x (that is, Edom),^y and these were their chiefs.^z

²⁰These were the sons of Seir the Horite,^a who were living in the region:

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,^{b 21}Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These sons of Seir in Edom were Horite chiefs.^c

²²The sons of Lotan:

Hori and Homam.^b Timna was Lotan’s sister.

²³The sons of Shobal:

Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho and Onam.

²⁴The sons of Zibeon:^d

Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs^ce in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys^f of his father Zibeon.

²⁵The children of Anah:^g

Dishon and Oholibamah^h daughter of Anah.

²⁶The sons of Dishon^d:

Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Keran.

²⁷The sons of Ezer:

Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.

²⁸The sons of Dishan:

Uz and Aran.

²⁹These were the Horite chiefs:

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,^{i 30}Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These were the Horite chiefs,^j according to their divisions, in the land of Seir.

The Rulers of Edom

36:31–43pp—1Ch 1:43–54

³¹These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king^k reigned:

³²Bela son of Beor became king of Edom. His city was named Dinhabah.

³³When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah^l succeeded him as king.

³⁴When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites^m succeeded him as king.

³⁵When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated Midianⁿ in the country of Moab,^o succeeded him as king. His city was named Avith.

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

³⁷When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth^p on the river succeeded him as king.

³⁸When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan son of Akbor succeeded him as king.

³⁹When Baal-Hanan son of Akbor died, Hadad^e succeeded him as king. His city was named Pau, and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.

⁴⁰These were the chiefs^q descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions:

Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied.

This is the family line of Esau, the father of the Edomites.^r

Joseph’s Dreams

37Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed,^s the land of Canaan.^t

²This is the account^u of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph,^v a young man of seventeen,^w was tending the flocks^x with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah^y and the sons of Zilpah,^z his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report^a about them.

³Now Israel^b loved Joseph more than any of his other sons,^c because he had been born to him in his old age;^d and he made an ornate^a robe^e for him.^{f 4}When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him^g and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵Joseph had a dream,^h and when he told it to his brothers,ⁱ they hated him all the more.^{j 6}He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷We were binding sheaves^k of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”^l

⁸His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?”^m And they hated him all the moreⁿ because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹Then he had another dream,^o and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars^p were bowing down to me.”^q

¹⁰When he told his father as well as his brothers,^r his father rebuked^s him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”^{t 11}His brothers were jealous of him,^u but his father kept the matter in mind.^v

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

¹²Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem,^{w 13}and Israel^x said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.^y Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

¹⁴So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers^z and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.^a

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, ¹⁵a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

¹⁷“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.^b’ ”

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. ¹⁸But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.^c

¹⁹“Here comes that dreamer!^d” they said to each other. ²⁰“Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns^e and say that a ferocious animal^f devoured him.^g Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”^h

²¹When Reubenⁱ heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.^{j 22}“Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern^k here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.^l

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe^m he was wearing—²⁴and they took him and threw him into the cistern.ⁿ The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites^o coming from Gilead.^p Their camels were loaded with spices, balm^q and myrrh,^r and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.^s

²⁶Judah^t said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?^{u 27}Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother,^v our own flesh and blood.^w” His brothers agreed.

²⁸So when the Midianite^x merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern^y and sold^z him for twenty shekels^b of silver^a to the Ishmaelites,^b who took him to Egypt.^c

²⁹When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.^{d 30}He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”^e

³¹Then they got Joseph’s robe,^f slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.^{g 32}They took the ornate robe^h back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

³³He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animalⁱ has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”^j

³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes,^k put on sackcloth^l and mourned for his son many days.^{m 35}All his sons and daughters came to comfort him,ⁿ but he refused to be comforted.^o “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son^p in the grave.^q” So his father wept for him.

³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites^cr sold Joseph^s in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.^t

Judah and Tamar

38At that time, Judah^u left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam^v named Hirah.^{w 2}There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua.^x He married her and made love to her; ³she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.^{y 4}She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.^{z 5}She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah.^a It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

⁶Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.^{b 7}But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight;^c so the Lord put him to death.^d

⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.”^{e 9}But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from…