Study Desk

"He said, 'Look up and see, all the rams which are mating [with the flock] are streaked, speckled, and spotted; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

Laban answered Jacob, "These women [that you married] are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, these flocks are [from] my flocks, and all that you see [here] is mine. But what can I do today to these my daughters or to their children to whom they have given birth?

"If you should mistreat (humiliate, oppress) my daughters, or if you should take other wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us [as a witness], see and remember, God is witness between you and me."

and you shall say, 'Look, your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he said [to himself], "I will try to appease him with the gift that is going ahead of me. Then afterward I will see him; perhaps he will accept and forgive me."

Jacob replied, "No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then accept my gift [as a blessing] from my hand, for I see your face as if I had seen the face of God, and you have received me favorably.

But Joseph dreamed still another dream, and told it to his brothers [as well]. He said, "See here, I have again dreamed a dream, and lo, [this time I saw] eleven stars and the sun and the moon bowed down [in respect] to me!"

Then Jacob said to him, "Please go and see whether everything is all right with your brothers and all right with the flock; then bring word [back] to me." So he sent him from the Hebron Valley, and he went to Shechem.

"Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits (cisterns, underground water storage); then we will say [to our father], 'A wild animal killed and devoured him'; and we shall see what will become of his dreams!"

While she was being brought out, she [took the things Judah had given her and] sent [them along with a message] to her father-in-law, saying, "I am with child by the man to whom these articles belong." And she added, "Please examine [them carefully] and see [clearly] to whom these things belong, the seal and the cord and staff."

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "See, I have set you [in charge] over all the land of Egypt."

Yet he said to them, "No, you have come to see the undefended parts of our land."

"Send one of you [back home], and let him bring your brother [here], while [the rest of] you remain confined, so that your words may be tested, [to see] whether there is any truth in you [and your story]; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, certainly you are spies."

But Judah said to him, "The man [representing Pharaoh] solemnly and sternly warned us, saying, 'You will not see my face [again] unless your brother is with you.'

"But if you will not send him, we will not go down there; for the man said to us, 'You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.'"

"Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me that I may actually see him.'

"You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you shall not see my face again.'

"But we said, 'We cannot go down [to Egypt]. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down [there]; for we [were sternly told that we] cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'

"How can I go up to my father if the young man is not with me—for fear that I would see the tragedy that would overtake my [elderly] father [if Benjamin does not return]?"

"Look! Your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that I am speaking to you [personally in your language and not through an interpreter].

So he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, "See that you do not quarrel on the journey [about how to explain this to our father]."