To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase ¹  your labor pains; ²  with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, ³  but he will dominate ⁴  you.”

The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants ¹  I will give this land.” So Abram ²  built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Then the Lord’s angel said to her, “You are now ¹  pregnant and are about to give birth ²  to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, ³  for the Lord has heard your painful groans. ⁴ 

I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ¹  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ²  possession. I will be their God.”

I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ¹  Kings of countries ²  will come from her!”

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.

You will be free from your oath ¹  if you go to my relatives and they will not give her to you. Then you will be free from your oath.’

Here I am, standing by the spring. ¹  When ²  the young woman goes out to draw water, I’ll say, “Give me a little water to drink from your jug.”

“Before I finished praying in my heart, ¹  along came Rebekah ²  with her water jug on her shoulder! She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll give your camels water too.’ So I drank, and she also gave the camels water.

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.

May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ¹  so that you may possess the land ²  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” 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.

At the time ¹  of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants ²  in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Then we will give ¹  you our daughters to marry, ²  and we will take your daughters as wives for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people.

But Onan knew that the child ¹  would not be considered his. ²  So whenever ³  he had sexual relations with ⁴  his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely ⁵  so as not to give his brother a descendant.

He said, “What pledge should I give you?” She replied, “Your seal, your cord, and the staff that’s in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had sex with her. ¹  She became pregnant by him.

Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright ¹  than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.” He did not have sexual relations with her ²  again.

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 

Then Joseph gave orders to fill ¹  their bags with grain, to return each man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. His orders were carried out. ²