For those who are new to the faith or simply desiring an introduction to the Scriptures, In the Beginning has been written to briefly tell the story from the beginning, of how God created and populated the earth, and how he chose His people. Part II will continue the story of how the Israelites were taken into slavery, and subsequently set free.

~ The Creation ~

         “When God began to create heaven and earth -- the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water -- God said, ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.”
(Genesis 1:1-5)

~ The Earth was Populated ~

         “And God said ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.’ And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, ‘Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.”’
         “God said, ‘See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. And to all the animals on land, to all the birds of the sky, and to everything that creeps on earth, in which there is the breath of life, [I give] all the green plants for food.’ And it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
(Genesis 1:26-31)

         “The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. On the seventh day God finished the work that He had been doing, and He ceased on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had done. Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created.”
(Genesis 2:1-4)

         “The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.’
         “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.’”
(Genesis 2:15-18)

         “So the LORD God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. And the LORD God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man.”
(Genesis 2:21-22)

         “The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, yet they felt no shame. Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’ The woman replied to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden. It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said: “You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.”’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You are not going to die, but God knows that as soon as you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like divine beings who know good and bad.’ When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they perceived that they were naked; and they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves loincloths.
         “They heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the man and his wife hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. The LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ Then He asked, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman You put at my side --she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done!’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent duped me, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the serpent,

‘Because you did this,
More cursed shall you be
Than all cattle
And all the wild beasts:
On your belly shall you crawl
And dirt shall you eat
All the days of your life.
I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your offspring and hers;
They shall strike at your head,
And you shall strike at their heel.’

         “And to the woman he said,

‘I will make most severe
Your pangs in childbearing;
In pain shall you bear children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.’

         “To Adam He said,

‘Because you did as your wife said
and ate of the tree about which I commanded you,
“You shall not eat of it,”’
‘Cursed be the ground because of you;
By toil shall you eat of it
All the days of your life:
Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you.
But your food shall be the grasses of the field;
By the sweat of your brow
Shall you get bread to eat,
Until you return to the ground --
For from it you were taken.
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”’
(Genesis 2:25-3:19)

         “The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. And the LORD God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
         “And the LORD God said, ‘Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!’ So the LORD God banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
         “Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have gained a male child with the help of the LORD.’ She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil; and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The LORD paid heed to Abel and his offering, but to Cain and his offering He paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell. And the LORD said to Cain,

‘Why are you distressed,
And why is your face fallen?
Surely if you do right,
There is uplift.
But if you do not do right
Sin couches at the door;
Its urge is toward you,
Yet you can be its master.’

“Cain said to his brother Abel ... and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him. The LORD said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And he said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Then He said, ‘What have you done? Hark, your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth.’
         “Cain said to the LORD, ‘My punishment is too great to bear! Since You have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid Your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth -- anyone who meets me may kill me!’ The LORD said to him, ‘I promise, if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be taken on him.’ And the LORD put a mark on Cain lest anyone who met him should kill him. Cain left the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

         “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded a city, and named the city after his son Enoch.”
(Genesis 3:20-4:17)

         “Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, meaning, ‘God has provided me with another offspring in place of Abel,’ for Cain had killed him. And to Seth, in turn, a son was born, and he named him Enosh. It was then that men began to invoke the LORD by name.”
(Genesis 4:25-26)

         “This is the record of Adam’s line.-- When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God; male and female He created them. And when they were created, He blessed them and called them Man. -- When Adam had lived 130 years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth. After the birth of Seth, Adam lived 800 years and begot sons and daughters. All the days that Adam lived came to 930 years; then he died.”
(Genesis 5:1-5)

         “When men began to increase on earth and daughters were born to them... The LORD said, ‘My breath shall not abide in man forever, since he too is flesh; let the days allowed to him be one hundred and twenty years.’
         “The LORD saw how great was mans wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened. The LORD said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created--men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.’ But Noah found favor with the LORD.”
(Genesis 6:1-3,5-8)

         “God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make it an ark with compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it... Put the entrance to the ark in its side; make it with bottom, second, and third decks.’
         “‘For My part, I am about to bring the Flood--waters upon the earth--to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath of life; everything on earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. And of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take two of each into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female. From birds of every kind, cattle of every kind, every kind of creeping thing on earth, two of each shall come to you to stay alive. For your part, take of everything that is eaten and store it away, to serve as food for you and for them.’ Noah did so; just as God commanded him, so he did.
         “Then the LORD said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, with all your household, for you alone have I found righteous before Me in this generation. Of every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, males and their mates, and of every animal that is not clean, two, a male and its mate; of the birds of the sky also, seven pairs, male and female, to keep seed alive upon all the earth...’ And Noah did just as the LORD commanded him.”
(Genesis 6:13-7:5)

         “The Flood continued forty days on the earth, and the waters increased and raised the ark so that it rose above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark drifted upon the waters. When the waters had swelled much more upon the earth, all the highest mountains everywhere under the sky were covered. Fifteen cubits higher did the waters swell, as the mountains were covered. ... All existence on earth was blotted out--man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.”
(Genesis 7:15-23)

         “In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the waters began to dry from the earth; and when Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the surface of the ground was drying. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
         “God spoke to Noah, saying, ‘Come out of the ark, together with your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds, animals and everything that creeps on earth; and let them swarm on the earth and be fertile and increase on earth.’ So Noah came out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that stirs on earth came out of the ark by families.
         “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the pleasing odor, and the LORD said to Himself: ‘Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.

“So long as the earth endures,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
Day and night
Shall not cease.

         “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth... Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these. You must not, however, eat flesh witFi its life-blood in it.”’
(Genesis 8:13-9:4)

         “And God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘I now establish My covenant with you and your offspring to come, and with every living thing that is with you--birds, cattle, and every wild beast as well--all that have come out of the ark, every living thing on earth. I will maintain My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never ‘again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’
         “God further said, ‘This is the sign that I set for the covenant between Me and you, and every living creature with you, for all ages to come. I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature among all flesh, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures, all flesh that is on earth. That,’ God said to Noah, ‘shall be the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and all flesh that is on earth.”’
(Genesis 9:8-17)

         “At that time, Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.’--Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.--And they said, ‘Come let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.’ The LORD came down to look at the city and tower that man had built, and the LORD said, ‘If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.’ Thus the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
(Genesis 11: 1-9)

~ God Chooses His People ~

         “The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth--Ham being the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole world branched out.”
(Genesis 9:18)

         “This is the line of Shem. Shem was 100 years old when he begot Arpachshad, two years after the Flood. After the birth of Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and begot sons and daughters. When Arpachshad had lived 35 years, he begot Shelah. After the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and begot sons and daughters...

“Shem begot Arpachshad,...
Arpachshad begot Shelah,...
Shelah begot Eber,...
Eber begot Peleg,...
Peleg begot Reu,...
Reu begot Serug,...
Serug begot Nahor,...
Nahor begot Terah...”
(Genesis 11:10-24)

         “Now this is the line of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Ha-ran; and Haran begot Lot. Haran died in the lifetime of his father Terah, in his native land, Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took to themselves wives, the name of Abram’s wife being Sarai and that of Nahor’s wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren, she had no child.
         “Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan; but when they had come as far as Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah came to 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.”
(Genesis 11:27-32)

         “The LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

‘I will make of you a great nation,
And I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
And curse him that curses you;
And all the families of the earth
Shall bless themselves by you.’

         “Abram went forth as the LORD had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the wealth that they had amassed, and the persons that they had acquired in Ha-ran; and they set out for the land of Canaan...
         “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘I will assign this land to your heirs.’ And he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him... There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.”
(Genesis 12:1-10)

         “From Egypt, Abram went up into the Negeb, with his wife and all that he possessed, together with Lot. Now Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold. And he proceeded by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been formerly, between Bethel and Ai, the site of the altar that he had built there at first; and there Abram invoked the LORD by name.”
(Genesis 13:1-4)

         “And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him, ‘Raise your eyes and look out from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west, for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring too can be counted. Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I give it to you. And Abram moved his tent, and came to dwell at the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron; and he built an altar there to the LORD.”
(Genesis 13:14-18)

         “Some time later, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said,

‘Fear not, Abram,
I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.’

“But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in charge of my household in Dammesek Eliezer!’ Abram said further, ‘Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.’ The word of the LORD came to him in reply, ‘That one shall not be your heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He added, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And because he put his trust in the LORD, He reckoned it to his merit.
         “Then He said to him, ‘I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.’ And he said, ‘O Lord God, how shall I know that 1 am to possess it?’ He answered, ‘Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird.’ He brought Him all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird. Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him. And He said to Abram, ‘Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth. As for you,

‘You shall go to your fathers in peace;
You shall be buried at a ripe old age.

And they shall return here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’
         “When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking over, and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:”’
(Genesis 15:1-18)

         “Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, ‘Look, the LORD has kept me from bearing. Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a son through her.’ And Abram heeded Sarai’s request. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her maid Hagar the Egyptian -- after Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan ten years -- and gave her to her husband Abram as concubine. He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had, her mistress was lowered in her esteem. And Sarai said to Abram, ‘The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. The LORD decide between you and me!’ Abram said to Sarai, ‘Your maid is in your hands. Deal with her as you think right.’ Then Sarai treated her harshly, and she ran away from her.
         “An angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur, and said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ And she said ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai.’ And the angel of the LORD said to her, ‘Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh treatment.’ And the angel of the LORD said to her,

‘I will greatly increase your offspring,
And they shall be too many to count.’

         “The angel of the LORD said to her further,

‘Behold you are with child And shall bear a son;
You shall call him Ishmael,
For the LORD has paid heed to your suffering.
He shall be a wild ass of a man;
His hand against everyone,
and everyone’s hand against him;
He shall dwell alongside of all his kinsmen.’

“And she called the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You Are El-roi,’ by which she meant, ‘Have I not gone on seeing after He saw me!’ ... Hagar bore a son to Abram, and Abram gave the son that Hagar bore him the name Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.”
(Genesis 16:1-16)

         “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am El Shaddai. Walk in My ways and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.’
         “Abram threw himself on his face; and God spoke to him further, ‘As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceeding fertile, and make nations of you; and kings shall come forth from you. I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come. I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God.’
         “God further said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant. Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days.”’
(Genesis 17:1-12b)

         “And God said to Abraham, ‘As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.”’
(Genesis 17:15-16)

         “The LORD took note of Sarah as He had promised, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken. Abraham gave his newborn son, whom Sarah had borne him, the name of Isaac. And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”
(Genesis 21:1-5)

         “Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him, ‘Abraham’ and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.’ So early next morning, Abraham saddled his ass and took with him two of his servants and his son lsaac. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he set out for the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his servants, ‘You stay here with the ass. The boy and I will go up there; we will worship and we will return to you.’
         “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. He himself took the firestone and the knife; and the two walked off together. Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘Father!’ And he answered ‘Yes, my son.’ and he said, ‘Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, ‘God will see to the sheep for His burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them walked on together.
         “They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son. Then an angel of the LORD called to him from heaven: ‘Abraham! Abraham! And he answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said ‘Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.’ When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that site Adoni-yireh, whence the present saying, ‘On the mount of the LORD there is vision.’
         “The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, ‘By Myself I swear, the LORD declares: Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your favored one, 1 will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command.’ Abraham then returned to his servants, and they departed together for Beer-sheba; and Abraham stayed in Beer-sheba.
         “Some time later, Abraham was told, ‘Milcah too has borne children to your brother Nahor: Uz the firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram; and Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel’--Bethuel being the father of Rebekah.”
(Genesis 22:1 -23a)

         “Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said to the senior servant of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, ‘Put your hand under my thigh and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife from my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac.”’
(Genesis 24:1-4)

         “The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. lsaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. lsaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death.”
(Genesis 24:66-67)

         “This is the story of Isaac, son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddanaram, sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD responded to his plea, and his wife Rebekah conceived.”
(Genesis 25:19-21)

         “When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau. Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob.”
(Genesis 25:24-26a)

         “Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am disgusted with my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like these, from among the native women, what good will life be to me?’ So Isaac sent for Jacob and blessed him. He instructed him, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife from among the Canaanite women. Up, go to Paddanaram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take a wife there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples. May He grant the blessing of Abraham to you and your offspring, that you may possess the land where you are sojourning, which God assigned to Abraham.
(Genesis 27:46-27:4)

         “Now Jacob was settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan. This, then, is the line of Jacob:
         “At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father. Now Israel (another name for Jacob, thus the name Israelites refer to his descendants) loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him an ornamented tunic. And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him.”
(Genesis 37:1-4)

         “When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he was wearing, and took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it....
         “When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt.”
(Genesis 37:23-28)

         “When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, a certain Egyptian, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh as his chief steward, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.”
(Genesis 39:1)

         “... Joseph emerged in charge of the land of Egypt.-- Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt.-- Leaving Pharaoh’s presence, Joseph traveled through all the land of Egypt.”
(Genesis 41:45b-46)

         “... All the world came to Joseph in Egypt to procure rations, for the famine had become severe throughout the world.
         “Now Joseph was the vizier of the land; it was he who dispensed rations to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed low to him, with their faces to the ground.”
(Genesis 41:57,42:6)

         “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come forward to me.’ And when they came forward, he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.”’
(Genesis 45:4-8)

         “So Joseph settled his father and his brothers, giving them holdings in the choicest part of the land of Egypt...
         “So Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt.”
(Genesis 47:11, 50:22)

                  SAW

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