This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, ¹  whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.

She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with ¹  her so that she can bear ²  children ³  for me ⁴  and I can have a family through her.” ⁵ 

Then Leah said, “God has granted me a reward ¹  because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife.” ²  So she named him Issachar. ³ 

He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

then you must say, ¹  ‘They belong ²  to your servant Jacob. ³  They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. ⁴  In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’” ⁵ 

The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

The servant in charge ¹  brought the men into Joseph’s house. He gave them water, and they washed their feet. Then he gave food to their donkeys.

“So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers.

¹ “If you buy ²  a Hebrew servant, ³  he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free ⁴  without paying anything. ⁵ 

But if the servant should declare, ¹  ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out ²  free,’

However, if the injured servant ¹  survives one or two days, the owner ²  will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss. ³ 

However, if the servant ¹  says to you, “I do not want to leave ²  you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,

“Moses my servant is dead. Get ready! ¹  Cross the Jordan River! ²  Lead these people into the land which I am ready to hand over to them. ³ 

Joshua captured all these royal cities and all their kings and annihilated them with the sword, ¹  as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded.

The other half of Manasseh, ¹  Reuben, and Gad received their allotted tribal lands beyond the Jordan, ²  just as Moses, the Lord’s servant, had assigned them.

and told them: “You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the Lord’s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you. ¹ 

He said to his servant, ¹  “Come on, we will go into one of the other towns ²  and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab.

She said, “You really are being kind to me, ¹  sir, ²  for you have reassured ³  and encouraged ⁴  me, your servant, ⁵  even though I am ⁶  not one of your servants!” ⁷ 

Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, ¹  for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”