To The Word – Day 10

₁Jacob saw Esau coming with his 400 men, so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two concubines. ₂He put the concubines and their children first, then Leah and her children, and finally Rachel and Joseph at the rear. ₃Jacob went ahead of them and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother. ₄But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms round him, and kissed him. They were both crying. ₅When Esau looked round and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?”

“These, sir, are the children whom God has been good enough to give me,” Jacob answered. ₆Then the concubines came up with their children and bowed down; ₇then Leah and her children came, and last of all Joseph and Rachel came and bowed down.

₈Esau asked, “What about that other group I met? What did that mean?”

Jacob answered, “It was to gain your favour.”

₉But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have.”

₁₀Jacob said, “No, please, if I have gained your favour, accept my gift. To see your face is for me like seeing the face of God, now that you have been so friendly to me. ₁₁Please accept this gift which I have brought for you; God has been kind to me and given me everything I need.” Jacob kept on urging him until he accepted.

₁₂Esau said, “Let's prepare to leave. I will go ahead of you.”

₁₃Jacob answered, “You know that the children are weak, and I must think of the sheep and cattle with their young. If they are driven hard for even one day, the whole herd will die. ₁₄Please go on ahead of me, and I will follow slowly, going as fast as I can with the livestock and the children until I catch up with you in Edom.”

₁₅Esau said, “Then let me leave some of my men with you.”

But Jacob answered, “There is no need for that for I only want to gain your favour.” ₁₆So that day Esau started on his way back to Edom. ₁₇But Jacob went to Sukkoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was named Sukkoth.

₁₈On his return from Mesopotamia Jacob arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan and set up his camp in a field near the city. ₁₉He bought that part of the field from the descendants of Hamor father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. ₂₀He put up an altar there and named it after El, the God of Israel.

₁One day Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, went to visit some of the Canaanite women. ₂When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who was chief of that region, saw her, he took her and raped her. ₃But he found the young woman so attractive that he fell in love with her and tried to win her affection. ₄He said to his father, “I want you to get this woman for me as my wife.”

₅Jacob learnt that his daughter had been disgraced, but because his sons were out in the fields with his livestock, he did nothing until they came back. ₆Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob, ₇just as Jacob's sons were coming in from the fields. When they heard about it, they were shocked and furious that Shechem had done such a thing and had insulted the people of Israel by raping Jacob's daughter. ₈Hamor said to him, “My son Shechem has fallen in love with your daughter; please let him marry her. ₉Let us make an agreement that there will be intermarriage between our people and yours. ₁₀Then you may stay here in our country with us; you may live anywhere you wish, trade freely, and own property.”

₁₁Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, “Do me this favour, and I will give you whatever you want. ₁₂Tell me what presents you want, and set the payment for the bride as high as you wish; I will give you whatever you ask, if you will only let me marry her.”

₁₃Because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah, Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor in a deceitful way. ₁₄They said to him, “We cannot let our sister marry a man who is not circumcised; that would be a disgrace for us. ₁₅We can agree only on the condition that you become like us by circumcising all your males. ₁₆Then we will agree to intermarriage. We will settle among you and become one people with you. ₁₇But if you will not accept our terms and be circumcised, we will take her and leave.”

₁₈These terms seemed fair to Hamor and his son Shechem, ₁₉and the young man lost no time in doing what was suggested, because he was in love with Jacob's daughter. He was the most important member of his family.

₂₀Hamor and his son Shechem went to the meeting place at the city gate and spoke to the people of the town: ₂₁“These men are friendly; let them live in the land with us and travel freely. The land is large enough for them also. Let us marry their daughters and give them ours in marriage. ₂₂But these men will agree to live among us and be one people with us only on condition that we circumcise all our males, as they are circumcised. ₂₃Won't all their livestock and everything else they own be ours? So let us agree that they can live among us.” ₂₄All the citizens of the city agreed with what Hamor and Shechem proposed, and all the males were circumcised.

₂₅Three days later, when the men were still sore from their circumcision, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took their swords, went into the city without arousing suspicion, and killed all the men, ₂₆including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left. ₂₇After the slaughter Jacob's other sons looted the town to take revenge for their sister's disgrace. ₂₈They took the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields. ₂₉They took everything of value, captured all the women and children, and carried off everything in the houses.

₃₀Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I haven't many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed.”

₃₁But they answered, “We cannot let our sister be treated like a common whore.”

₁God said to Jacob, “Go to Bethel at once, and live there. Build an altar there to me, the God who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

₂So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that you have; purify yourselves and put on clean clothes. ₃We are going to leave here and go to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who helped me in the time of my trouble and who has been with me everywhere I have gone.” ₄So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and also the earrings that they were wearing. He buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem.

₅When Jacob and his sons started to leave, great fear fell on the people of the nearby towns, and they did not pursue them. ₆Jacob came with all his people to Luz, which is now known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan. ₇He built an altar there and named the place after the God of Bethel, because God had revealed himself to him there when he was running away from his brother. ₈Rebecca's nurse Deborah died and was buried beneath the oak south of Bethel. So it was named “Oak of Weeping”.

₉When Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again and blessed him. ₁₀God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but from now on it will be Israel.” So God named him Israel. ₁₁And God said to him, “I am Almighty God. Have many children. Nations will be descended from you, and you will be the ancestor of kings. ₁₂I will give you the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and I will also give it to your descendants after you.” ₁₃Then God left him. ₁₄There, where God had spoken to him, Jacob set up a memorial stone and consecrated it by pouring wine and olive oil on it. ₁₅He named the place Bethel.

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.

₁After Jesus had said this prayer, he left with his disciples and went across the brook called Kidron. There was a garden in that place, and Jesus and his disciples went in. ₂Judas, the traitor, knew where it was, because many times Jesus had met there with his disciples. ₃So Judas went to the garden, taking with him a group of Roman soldiers, and some temple guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees; they were armed and carried lanterns and torches. ₄Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward and asked them, “Who is it you are looking for?”

₅“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.

“I am he,” he said.

Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. ₆When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they moved back and fell to the ground. ₇Again Jesus asked them, “Who is it you are looking for?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.

₈“I have already told you that I am he,” Jesus said. “If, then, you are looking for me, let these others go.” ₉(He said this so that what he had said might come true: “Father, I have not lost even one of those you gave me.”)

₁₀Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the High Priest's slave, cutting off his right ear. The name of the slave was Malchus. ₁₁Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back in its place! Do you think that I will not drink the cup of suffering which my Father has given me?”

₁₂Then the Roman soldiers with their commanding officer and the Jewish guards arrested Jesus, bound him, ₁₃and took him first to Annas. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year. ₁₄It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish authorities that it was better that one man should die for all the people.

₁₅Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That other disciple was well known to the High Priest, so he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the High Priest's house, ₁₆while Peter stayed outside by the gate. Then the other disciple went back out, spoke to the girl at the gate, and brought Peter inside. ₁₇The girl at the gate said to Peter, “Aren't you also one of the disciples of that man?”

“No, I am not,” answered Peter.

₁₈It was cold, so the servants and guards had built a charcoal fire and were standing round it, warming themselves. So Peter went over and stood with them, warming himself.

₁₉The High Priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. ₂₀Jesus answered, “I have always spoken publicly to everyone; all my teaching was done in the synagogues and in the Temple, where all the people come together. I have never said anything in secret. ₂₁Why, then, do you question me? Question the people who heard me. Ask them what I told them — they know what I said.”

₂₂When Jesus said this, one of the guards there slapped him and said, “How dare you talk like that to the High Priest!”

₂₃Jesus answered him, “If I have said anything wrong, tell everyone here what it was. But if I am right in what I have said, why do you hit me?”

₂₄Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the High Priest.

₂₅Peter was still standing there keeping himself warm. So the others said to him, “Aren't you also one of the disciples of that man?”

But Peter denied it. “No, I am not,” he said.

₂₆One of the High Priest's slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, spoke up. “Didn't I see you with him in the garden?” he asked.

₂₇Again Peter said “No” — and at once a cock crowed.

₂₈Early in the morning Jesus was taken from Caiaphas' house to the governor's palace. The Jewish authorities did not go inside the palace, for they wanted to keep themselves ritually clean, in order to be able to eat the Passover meal. ₂₉So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What do you accuse this man of?”

₃₀Their answer was, “We would not have brought him to you if he had not committed a crime.”

₃₁Pilate said to them, “Then you yourselves take him and try him according to your own law.”

They replied, “We are not allowed to put anyone to death.” ₃₂(This happened in order to make the words of Jesus come true, the words he used when he indicated the kind of death he would die.)

₃₃Pilate went back into the palace and called Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?” he asked him.

₃₄Jesus answered, “Does this question come from you or have others told you about me?”

₃₅Pilate replied, “Do you think I am a Jew? It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?”

₃₆Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!”

₃₇So Pilate asked him, “Are you a king, then?”

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.”

₃₈“And what is truth?” Pilate asked.

Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, “I cannot find any reason to condemn him. ₃₉But according to the custom you have, I always set free a prisoner for you during the Passover. Do you want me to set free for you the King of the Jews?”

₄₀They answered him with a shout, “No, not him! We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a bandit.)

₁Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. ₂The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him ₃and came to him and said, “Long live the King of the Jews!” And they went up and slapped him.

₄Pilate went out once more and said to the crowd, “Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him.” ₅So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look! Here is the man!”

₆When the chief priests and the temple guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him.”

₇The crowd answered back, “We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

₈When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ₉He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?”

But Jesus did not answer. ₁₀Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified.”

₁₁Jesus answered, “You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin.”

₁₂When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, “If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor's friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!”

₁₃When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement”. (In Hebrew the name is “Gabbatha”.) ₁₄It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, “Here is your king!”

₁₅They shouted back, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!”

Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to crucify your king?”

The chief priests answered, “The only king we have is the Emperor!”

₁₆Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

So they took charge of Jesus. ₁₇He went out, carrying his cross, and came to “The Place of the Skull”, as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called “Golgotha”.) ₁₈There they crucified him; and they also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus between them. ₁₉Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”, is what he wrote. ₂₀Many people read it, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. ₂₁The chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews’, but rather, ‘This man said, I am the King of the Jews.’ ”

₂₂Pilate answered, “What I have written stays written.”

₂₃After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took the robe, which was made of one piece of woven cloth without any seams in it. ₂₄The soldiers said to one another, “Let's not tear it; let's throw dice to see who will get it.” This happened in order to make the scripture come true:

₂₅Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ₂₆Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “He is your son.”

₂₇Then he said to the disciple, “She is your mother.” From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

₂₈Jesus knew that by now everything had been completed; and in order to make the scripture come true, he said, “I am thirsty.”

₂₉A bowl was there, full of cheap wine; so a sponge was soaked in the wine, put on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted up to his lips. ₃₀Jesus drank the wine and said, “It is finished!”

Then he bowed his head and died.

₃₁Then the Jewish authorities asked Pilate to allow them to break the legs of the men who had been crucified, and to take the bodies down from the crosses. They requested this because it was Friday, and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses on the Sabbath, since the coming Sabbath was especially holy. ₃₂So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other man who had been crucified with Jesus. ₃₃But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs. ₃₄One of the soldiers, however, plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at once blood and water poured out. ₃₅(The one who saw this happen has spoken of it, so that you also may believe. What he said is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth.) ₃₆This was done to make the scripture come true: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” ₃₇And there is another scripture that says, “People will look at him whom they pierced.”

₃₈After this, Joseph, who was from the town of Arimathea, asked Pilate if he could take Jesus' body. (Joseph was a follower of Jesus, but in secret, because he was afraid of the Jewish authorities.) Pilate told him he could have the body, so Joseph went and took it away. ₃₉Nicodemus, who at first had gone to see Jesus at night, went with Joseph, taking with him about thirty kilogrammes of spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes. ₄₀The two men took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen with the spices according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial. ₄₁There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been put to death, and in it there was a new tomb where no one had ever been buried. ₄₂Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus' body there.