When ¹  Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, ²  he called his older ³  son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” Esau ⁴  replied.

You will live by your sword but you will serve your brother. When you grow restless, you will tear off his yoke from your neck.” ¹ 

May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ¹  so that you may possess the land ²  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ³ 

When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob ¹  told Laban how he was related to him. ² 

In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! ¹  So Jacob ²  said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! ³  Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked ⁴  me?”

When the stronger females were in heat, ¹  Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

But Onan knew that the child ¹  would not be considered his. ²  So whenever ³  he had sexual relations with ⁴  his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely ⁵  so as not to give his brother a descendant.

After three months Judah was told, ¹  “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, ²  and as a result she has become pregnant.” ³  Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”

When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Return, buy us a little more food.”

When you gather in the crop, ¹  give ²  one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and the rest ³  will be yours for seed for the fields and for you to eat, including those in your households and your little children.”

After these things Joseph was told, ¹  “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.

¹ In those days, ²  when ³  Moses had grown up, he went out to his people ⁴  and observed ⁵  their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking ⁶  a Hebrew man, one of his own people. ⁷ 

In the morning watch ¹  the Lord looked down ²  on the Egyptian army ³  through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw the Egyptian army ⁴  into a panic. ⁵ 

As Aaron spoke ¹  to the whole community of the Israelites and they looked toward the desert, there the glory of the Lord ²  appeared ³  in the cloud,

On ¹  the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense ²  cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud ³  horn; ⁴  all the people who were in the camp trembled.

The next day Moses said to the people, ¹  “You have committed a very serious sin, ²  but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement ³  on behalf of your sin.”

¹ When Moses had completed setting up the tabernacle, ²  he anointed it and consecrated it and all its furnishings, and he anointed and consecrated the altar and all its utensils.

And do this ¹  to them to purify them: Sprinkle water of purification ²  on them; then have them shave ³  all their body ⁴  and wash ⁵  their clothes, and so purify themselves. ⁶ 

On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ¹  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ² 

In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred ¹  from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage.