ב (Bet) The Lord ¹  destroyed ²  mercilessly ³  all the homes of Jacob’s descendants. ⁴  In his anger he tore down the fortified cities ⁵  of Daughter Judah. He knocked to the ground and humiliated the kingdom and its rulers. ⁶ 

ג (Gimel) In fierce anger ¹  he destroyed ²  the whole army ³  of Israel. He withdrew his right hand ⁴  as the enemy attacked. ⁵  He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; ⁶  it consumed everything around it. ⁷ 

They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore ¹  the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name.

Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain; I myself put a fine yoke ¹ on her neck. I will harness Ephraim. Let Judah plow! ²  Let Jacob break up ³  the unplowed ground for himself!

Look, the sovereign Lord is watching ¹  the sinful nation, ²  and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will not completely destroy the family ³  of Jacob,” says the Lord.

But on Mount Zion there will be a remnant of those who escape, ¹  and it will be a holy place once again. The descendants ²  of Jacob will conquer ³  those who had conquered them. ⁴ 

Does the family ¹  of Jacob say, ²  ‘The Lord’s patience ³  can’t be exhausted – he would never do such things’? ⁴  To be sure, my commands bring a reward for those who obey them, ⁵ 

But I ¹  am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives, and have a strong commitment to justice. ²  This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion, and Israel with its sin. ³ 

May the Lord cut off from the community ¹  of Jacob every last person who does this, ²  as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ¹  He has tripped me up ²  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep ¹  with me because I have paid for your services ²  with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had marital relations ³  with her that night.

Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face ¹  the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.

Laban replied ¹  to Jacob, “These women ²  are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, ³  and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today ⁴  or the children to whom they have given birth?

“No, please take them,” Jacob said. ¹  “If I have found favor in your sight, accept ²  my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, ³  it is as if I have seen the face of God. ⁴ 

But Jacob ¹  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ²  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ³  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ¹  on me by making me a foul odor ²  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ³  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from ¹  Jacob his brother

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

But Jacob ¹  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ²  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ³  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁴