So now the Lord says, the one who formed me from birth ¹  to be his servant – he did this ²  to restore Jacob to himself, so that Israel might be gathered to him; and I will be honored ³  in the Lord’s sight, for my God is my source of strength ⁴  –

Twist and strain, ¹  Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver ²  you from the power ³  of your enemies.

Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies. ¹ 

God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” ¹  It was so.

Now Sarai, ¹  Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, ²  but she had an Egyptian servant ³  named Hagar. ⁴ 

They must indeed be circumcised, ¹  whether born in your house or bought with money. The sign of my covenant ²  will be visible in your flesh as a permanent ³  reminder.

All the men of his household, whether born in his household or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ²  have a child when I am old?’

She went on to say, ¹  “Who would ²  have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”

After these things Abraham was told, “Milcah ¹  also has borne children to your brother Nahor –

The first came out reddish ¹  all over, ²  like a hairy ³  garment, so they named him Esau. ⁴ 

She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with ¹  her so that she can bear ²  children ³  for me ⁴  and I can have a family through her.” ⁵ 

(Deborah, ¹  Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named ²  Oak of Weeping.) ³ 

Timna, a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons ¹  of Esau’s wife Adah.

Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came. ¹  Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother. ² 

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “All sons ¹  that are born you must throw ²  into the river, but all daughters you may let live.” ³ 

Amram married ¹  his father’s sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. (The length of Amram’s life was 137 years.)

Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ households ¹  of Levi according to their clans.

¹ It happened ²  at midnight – the Lord attacked all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.