And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹  and our children are just like their children, ²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁵ 

hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ¹  and enter into a curse and an oath ²  to adhere to ³  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ⁴  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ⁵  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Do not stare at me because ¹  I am dark, for ²  the sun has burned my skin. ³  My brothers ⁴  were angry ⁵  with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards. Alas, my own vineyard ⁶  I could not keep! ⁷ 

Hear the word of the Lord, you who respect what he has to say! ¹  Your countrymen, ²  who hate you and exclude you, supposedly for the sake of my name, say, “May the Lord be glorified, then we will witness your joy.” ³  But they will be put to shame.

They will bring back all your countrymen ¹  from all the nations as an offering to the Lord. They will bring them ²  on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels ³  to my holy hill Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the Israelites bring offerings to the Lord’s temple in ritually pure containers.

In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, ¹  in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, ²  along with the rest of their associates, ³  the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed ⁴  the Levites who were at least twenty years old ⁵  to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple.

He retrieved all the stolen property. ¹  He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, as well as the women and the rest of ²  the people.

Laban overtook Jacob, and when Jacob pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead, Laban and his relatives set up camp there too. ¹ 

Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully when they spoke because Shechem ¹  had violated their sister Dinah.

because they had too many possessions to be able to stay together and the land where they had settled ¹  was not able to support them because of their livestock.

Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it! ¹  He tore his clothes,

So they approached the man who was in charge of Joseph’s household and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

The servant in charge ¹  brought the men into Joseph’s house. He gave them water, and they washed their feet. Then he gave food to their donkeys.

They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival ¹  at noon, for they had heard ²  that they were to have a meal ³  there.

They answered him, “Why does my lord say such things? ¹  Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! ² 

Then the man ¹  searched. He began with the oldest and finished with the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack!

He gave sets of clothes to each one of them, ¹  but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothes. ² 

Joseph lived in Egypt, along with his father’s family. ¹  Joseph lived 110 years.

“‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. ¹ 

and serves in the name of the Lord his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord.