“‘He gave it to be polished, to be grasped in the hand – the sword is sharpened, it is polished – giving it into the hand of the executioner.

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height,

Early in the morning Abraham took ¹  some food ²  and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, ³  and sent her away. So she went wandering ⁴  aimlessly through the wilderness ⁵  of Beer Sheba.

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Because the Lord heard that I was unloved, ¹  he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. ² 

So that day Laban ¹  removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care ²  of his sons.

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.

The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing. ¹ 

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He clothed him with fine linen ¹  clothes and put a gold chain around his neck.

Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. ¹  He also gave him Asenath ²  daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, ³  to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of ⁴  all the land of Egypt.

Joseph ¹  collected all the excess food ²  in the land of Egypt during the seven years and stored it in the cities. ³  In every city he put the food gathered from the fields around it.

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses, the livestock of their flocks and herds, and their donkeys. ¹  He got them through that year by giving them food in exchange for livestock.

(Now the Lord granted the people favor with ¹  the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh’s servants and by the Egyptian people.) ² 

Moses chose capable men from all Israel, and he made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

and he slaughtered it. ¹  Moses then took the blood and put it all around on the horns of the altar with his finger and decontaminated the altar, ²  and he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and so consecrated it to make atonement on it. ³ 

Next he brought Aaron’s sons forward, and Moses put some of the blood on their right earlobes, on their right thumbs, and on the big toes of their right feet, and Moses splashed the rest of the blood against the altar’s sides.

Then Aaron’s sons presented the blood to him and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.

And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses ¹  and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, ²  they prophesied, ³  but did not do so again. ⁴ 

So Aaron did ¹  as Moses commanded ²  and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.

From the Israelites’ share Moses took one of every fifty people and animals and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

So Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the realm of King Sihon of the Amorites, and the realm of King Og of Bashan, the entire land with its cities and the territory surrounding them. ¹