Bible Reading Plan – Day 11

₁₆Jacob and his family left Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, the time came for Rachel to have her baby, and she was having difficult labour. ₁₇When her labour pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, “Don't be afraid, Rachel; it's another boy.” ₁₈But she was dying, and as she breathed her last, she named her son Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin.

₁₉When Rachel died, she was buried beside the road to Ephrath, now known as Bethlehem. ₂₀Jacob set up a memorial stone there, and it still marks Rachel's grave to this day. ₂₁Jacob moved on and set up his camp on the other side of the tower of Eder.

₂₂While Jacob was living in that land, Reuben had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, one of his father's concubines; Jacob heard about it and was furious.

Jacob had twelve sons. ₂₃The sons of Leah were Reuben (Jacob's eldest son), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ₂₄The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. ₂₅The sons of Rachel's slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali. ₂₆The sons of Leah's slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These sons were born in Mesopotamia.

₂₇Jacob went to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. ₂₈Isaac lived to be 180 years old ₂₉and died at a ripe old age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

₁These are the descendants of Esau, also called Edom. ₂Esau married Canaanite women: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite; Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Hivite; ₃and Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. ₄Adah bore Eliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel; ₅and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.

₆Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the people of his house, together with all his livestock and all the possessions he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went away from his brother Jacob to another land. ₇He left because the land where he and Jacob were living was not able to support them; they had too much livestock and could no longer stay together. ₈So Esau lived in the hill country of Edom.

₉These are the descendants of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites. _10-13Esau's wife Adah bore him one son, Eliphaz, and Eliphaz had five sons: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. And by another wife, Timna, he had one more son, Amalek.

Esau's wife Basemath bore him one son, Reuel, and Reuel had four sons: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

₁₄Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah son of Zibeon, bore him three sons: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

₁₅These are the tribes descended from Esau. Esau's first son Eliphaz was the ancestor of the following tribes: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, ₁₆Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These were all descendants of Esau's wife Adah.

₁₇Esau's son Reuel was the ancestor of the following tribes: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were all descendants of Esau's wife Basemath.

₁₈The following tribes were descended from Esau by his wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. ₁₉All these tribes were descended from Esau.

_20-21The original inhabitants of the land of Edom were divided into tribes which traced their ancestry to the following descendants of Seir, a Horite: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.

₂₂Lotan was the ancestor of the clans of Hori and Heman. (Lotan had a sister named Timna.)

₂₃Shobal was the ancestor of the clans of Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

₂₄Zibeon had two sons, Aiah and Anah. (This is the Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness when he was taking care of his father's donkeys.) _25-26Anah was the father of Dishon, who was the ancestor of the clans of Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. Anah also had a daughter named Oholibamah.

₂₇Ezer was the ancestor of the clans of Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

₂₈Dishan was the ancestor of the clans of Uz and Aran.

_29-30These are the Horite tribes in the land of Edom: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.

_31-39Before there were any kings in Israel, the following kings ruled over the land of Edom in succession:

_40-43Esau was the ancestor of the following Edomite tribes: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram. The area where each of these tribes lived was known by the name of the tribe.

₁Jacob continued to live in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived, ₂and this is the story of Jacob's family.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, took care of the sheep and goats with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's concubines. He brought bad reports to his father about what his brothers were doing.

₃Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he had been born to him when he was old. He made a long robe with full sleeves for him. ₄When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother so much that they would not speak to him in a friendly manner.

₅One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more. ₆He said, “Listen to the dream I had. ₇We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat, when my sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle round mine and bowed down to it.”

₈“Do you think you are going to be a king and rule over us?” his brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them.

₉Then Joseph had another dream and said to his brothers, “I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me.”

₁₀He also told the dream to his father, and his father scolded him: “What kind of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, your brothers, and I are going to come and bow down to you?” ₁₁Joseph's brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept thinking about the whole matter.

₁₂One day when Joseph's brothers had gone to Shechem to take care of their father's flock, ₁₃Jacob said to Joseph, “I want you to go to Shechem, where your brothers are taking care of the flock.”

Joseph answered, “I am ready.”

₁₄His father said, “Go and see if your brothers are safe and if the flock is all right; then come back and tell me.” So his father sent him on his way from the Valley of Hebron.

Joseph arrived at Shechem ₁₅and was wandering about in the country when a man saw him and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

₁₆“I am looking for my brothers, who are taking care of their flock,” he answered. “Can you tell me where they are?”

₁₇The man said, “They have already left. I heard them say that they were going to Dothan.” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

₁₈They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted against him and decided to kill him. ₁₉They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer. ₂₀Come on now, let's kill him and throw his body into one of the dry wells. We can say that a wild animal killed him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams.”

₂₁Reuben heard them and tried to save Joseph. “Let's not kill him,” he said. ₂₂“Just throw him into this well in the wilderness, but don't hurt him.” He said this, planning to save him from them and send him back to his father. ₂₃When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long robe with full sleeves. ₂₄Then they took him and threw him into the well, which was dry.

₂₅While they were eating, they suddenly saw a group of Ishmaelites travelling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were loaded with spices and resins. ₂₆Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother and covering up the murder? ₂₇Let's sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we won't have to hurt him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed, ₂₈and when some Midianite traders came by, the brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

₂₉When Reuben came back to the well and found that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes in sorrow. ₃₀He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there! What am I going to do?”

₃₁Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood. ₃₂They took the robe to their father and said, “We found this. Does it belong to your son?”

₃₃He recognized it and said, “Yes, it is his! Some wild animal has killed him. My son Joseph has been torn to pieces!” ₃₄Jacob tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. He mourned for his son a long time. ₃₅All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “I will go down to the world of the dead still mourning for my son.” So he continued to mourn for his son Joseph.

₃₆Meanwhile, in Egypt, the Midianites had sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of the king's officers, who was the captain of the palace guard.

₁About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam. ₂There Judah met a young Canaanite woman whose father was named Shua. He married her, ₃and she bore him a son, whom he named Er. ₄She became pregnant again and bore another son and named him Onan. ₅Again she had a son and named him Shelah. Judah was at Achzib when the boy was born.

₆For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar. ₇Er's conduct was evil, and it displeased the LORD, so the LORD killed him. ₈Then Judah said to Er's brother Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother's widow. Fulfil your obligation to her as her husband's brother, so that your brother may have descendants.” ₉But Onan knew that the children would not belong to him, so whenever he had intercourse with his brother's widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, so that there would be no children for his brother. ₁₀What he did displeased the LORD, and the LORD killed him also. ₁₁Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Return to your father's house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up.” He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.

₁₂After some time Judah's wife died. When he had finished the time of mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared. ₁₃Someone told Tamar that her father-in-law was going to Timnah to shear his sheep. ₁₄So she changed from the widow's clothes she had been wearing, covered her face with a veil, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, a town on the road to Timnah. As she well knew, Judah's youngest son Shelah had now grown up, and yet she had not been given to him in marriage.

₁₅When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, because she had her face covered. ₁₆He went over to her at the side of the road and said, “All right, how much do you charge?” (He did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.)

She said, “What will you give me?”

₁₇He answered, “I will send you a young goat from my flock.”

She said, “All right, if you will give me something to keep as a pledge until you send the goat.”

₁₈“What shall I give you as a pledge?” he asked.

She answered, “Your seal with its cord and the stick you are carrying.” He gave them to her. Then they had intercourse, and she became pregnant. ₁₉Tamar went home, took off her veil, and put her widow's clothes back on.

₂₀Judah sent his friend Hirah to take the goat and get back from the woman the articles he had pledged, but Hirah could not find her. ₂₁He asked some men at Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who was here by the road?”

“There has never been a prostitute here,” they answered.

₂₂He returned to Judah and said, “I couldn't find her. The men of the place said that there had never been a prostitute there.”

₂₃Judah said, “Let her keep the things. We don't want people to laugh at us. I did try to pay her, but you couldn't find her.”

₂₄About three months later someone said to Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a whore, and now she is pregnant.”

Judah ordered, “Take her out and burn her to death.”

₂₅As she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man who owns these things. Look at them and see whose they are — this seal with its cord and this stick.”

₂₆Judah recognized them and said, “She is in the right. I have failed in my obligation to her — I should have given her to my son Shelah in marriage.” And Judah never had intercourse with her again.

₂₇When the time came for her to give birth, it was discovered that she was going to have twins. ₂₈While she was in labour, one of them put out an arm; the midwife caught it, tied a red thread round it, and said, “This one was born first.” ₂₉But he pulled his arm back, and his brother was born first. Then the midwife said, “So this is how you break your way out!” So he was named Perez. ₃₀Then his brother was born with the red thread on his arm, and he was named Zerah.