When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors ¹  like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame – they became as detestable as what they loved.

Listen to this, you elders; ¹  pay attention, ²  all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life ³  or in the lifetime ⁴  of your ancestors? ⁵ 

For a son thinks his father is a fool, a daughter challenges ¹  her mother, and a daughter-in-law her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are his own servants. ² 

“For the Lord who rules over all says, ‘As I had planned to hurt ¹  you when your fathers made me angry,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘and I was not sorry,

From the days of your ancestors you have ignored ¹  my commandments ²  and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’

The king then told Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your property ¹  in Anathoth. You deserve to die, ²  but today I will not kill you because you did carry the ark of the sovereign Lord before my father David and you suffered with my father through all his difficult times.” ³ 

whose mother is a Danite and whose father is a Tyrian. ¹  He knows how to work with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stones, and wood, as well as purple, violet, white, and crimson fabrics. He knows how to do all kinds of engraving and understands any design given to him. He will work with your skilled craftsmen and the skilled craftsmen of my lord David your father.

When God made me wander ¹  from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: ²  Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”

“The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, ¹  promised me with a solemn oath, ²  ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel ³  before you so that you may find ⁴  a wife for my son from there.

Stay ¹  in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, ²  for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, ³  and I will fulfill ⁴  the solemn promise I made ⁵  to your father Abraham.

The Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done as you told me. Now sit up ¹  and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me.” ² 

Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left ¹  his father’s ²  presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt. ³ 

and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. ¹  I will give you and your descendants the ground ²  you are lying on.

He took ¹  away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac. ² 

I have ¹  the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’ ³ 

Rachel ¹  said to her father, “Don’t be angry, ²  my lord. I cannot stand up ³  in your presence because I am having my period.” ⁴  So he searched thoroughly, ⁵  but did not find the idols.

If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears ¹  – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, ²  and he rebuked you last night.”

While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with ¹  Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)