Look! You are driving me off the land ¹  today, and I must hide from your presence. ²  I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.”

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep ¹  burst open and the floodgates of the heavens ²  were opened.

So after Abram had lived ¹  in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, ²  to her husband to be his wife. ³ 

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 

But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world ¹  did you find it so quickly, ²  my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” ³  he replied. ⁴ 

When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob ¹  told Laban how he was related to him. ² 

But then he drew back his hand, and his brother came out before him. ¹  She said, “How you have broken out of the womb!” ²  So he was named Perez. ³ 

Now a young man, a Hebrew, a servant ¹  of the captain of the guards, ²  was with us there. We told him our dreams, ³  and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us. ⁴ 

Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. ¹  Simeon is gone. ²  And now you want to take ³  Benjamin! Everything is against me.”

But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money – the full amount ¹  – in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it. ² 

But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ¹  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ² 

Come, let’s deal wisely ¹  with them. Otherwise ²  they will continue to multiply, ³  and if ⁴  a war breaks out, they will ally themselves with ⁵  our enemies and fight against us and leave ⁶  the country.”

¹ In those days, ²  when ³  Moses had grown up, he went out to his people ⁴  and observed ⁵  their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking ⁶  a Hebrew man, one of his own people. ⁷ 

¹ During ²  that long period of time ³  the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites ⁴  groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry ⁵  because of their slave labor went up to God.

Every ¹  woman will ask her neighbor and the one who happens to be staying ²  in her house for items of silver and gold ³  and for clothing. You will put these articles on your sons and daughters – thus you will plunder Egypt!” ⁴ 

¹ When Pharaoh released ²  the people, God did not lead them ³  by the way to the land ⁴  of the Philistines, ⁵  although ⁶  that was nearby, for God said, ⁷  “Lest ⁸  the people change their minds ⁹  and return to Egypt when they experience war.”

I will harden ¹  Pharaoh’s heart, and he will chase after them. I will gain honor ²  because of Pharaoh and because of all his army, and the Egyptians will know ³  that I am the Lord.” So this is what they did. ⁴ 

Isn’t this what we told you ¹  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ²  because it is better for us to serve ³  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ⁴ 

“When you take a census ¹  of the Israelites according to their number, ²  then each man is to pay a ransom ³  for his life to the Lord when you number them, ⁴  so that there will be no plague among them when you number them.

“‘When a person sins ¹  in that he hears a public curse against one who fails to testify ²  and he is a witness (he either saw or knew what had happened ³ ) and he does not make it known, ⁴  then he will bear his punishment for iniquity. ⁵