And the Lord God said, “Now ¹  that the man has become like one of us, ²  knowing ³  good and evil, he must not be allowed ⁴  to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Your ¹  servant has found favor with you, ²  and you have shown me great ³  kindness ⁴  by sparing ⁵  my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because ⁶  this disaster will overtake ⁷  me and I’ll die. ⁸ 

“This pile of stones and the pillar are reminders that I will not pass beyond this pile to come to harm you and that you will not pass beyond this pile and this pillar to come to harm me. ¹ 

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.

There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do ¹  such a great evil and sin against God?”

Then ¹  seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows ²  as these in all the land of Egypt!

They had not gone very far from the city ¹  when Joseph said ²  to the servant who was over his household, “Pursue the men at once! ³  When you overtake ⁴  them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil?

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “All ¹  the years of my travels ²  are 130. All ³  the years of my life have been few and painful; ⁴  the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors.” ⁵ 

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.”

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay ¹  us in full ²  for all the harm ³  we did to him?”

‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept. ¹ 

“‘If a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. Just as the priest establishes its conversion value, thus it will stand. ¹ 

and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or fortified cities,

Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ¹  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ²  I will go back home.” ³ 

‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ¹  the commandment ²  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ³  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, ¹  and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, ²  will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him.

Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you – in one of your villages ¹  that the Lord your God is giving you – who sins before the Lord your God ²  and breaks his covenant

you must bring to your city gates ¹  that man or woman who has done this wicked thing – that very man or woman – and you must stone that person to death. ² 

The person who pays no attention ¹  to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict – that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel.