Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ¹  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ²  but some survivors ³  fled to the hills. ⁴ 

The Lord ¹  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ¹  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ²  He will become the father of twelve princes; ³  I will make him into a great nation.

Then Isaac brought Rebekah ¹  into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took her ²  as his wife and loved her. ³  So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. ⁴ 

He entrusted them to ¹  his servants, who divided them into herds. ²  He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.”

Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild ¹  animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” ² 

But he refused, saying ¹  to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought ²  to his household with me here, ³  and everything that he owns he has put into my care. ⁴ 

Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, ¹  the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. ² 

He said, “I am God, ¹  the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment ¹  for the grain they were buying. Then Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. ² 

He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful ¹  and will multiply you. ²  I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants ³  as an everlasting possession.’ ⁴ 

the Angel ¹  who has protected me ²  from all harm – bless these boys. May my name be named in them, ³  and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”

O my soul, do not come into their council, do not be united to their assembly, my heart, ¹  for in their anger they have killed men, and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.

Pharaoh will not listen to you. ¹  I will reach into ²  Egypt and bring out my regiments, ³  my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning when ¹  he goes out to the water. Position yourself ²  to meet him by the edge of the Nile, ³  and take ⁴  in your hand the staff ⁵  that was turned into a snake.

Thus says the Lord: “By this you will know that I am the Lord: I am going to strike ¹  the water of the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood. ² 

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh, Moses threw it into the air, and it caused festering boils to break out on both people and animals.

and the Lord turned a very strong west wind, ¹  and it picked up the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. ²  Not one locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.

Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart ¹  by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.

The water returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh that was coming after the Israelites into the sea ¹  – not so much as one of them survived! ²