Study Desk

Leah gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben. She named him this because she said, "The Lord has seen my troubles. My husband does not love me. So now maybe my husband will love me."

Then Leah gave birth to another son. She named this son Judah. Leah named him this because she said, "Now I will praise the Lord ." Then Leah stopped having children.

She said, "God has given me a reward because I gave my slave to my husband." So she named her son Issachar.

She said, "God has given me a fine gift. Now surely Jacob will accept me, because I have given him six sons." So she named this son Zebulun.

Laban said to him, "Please, let me say something. I know that the Lord has blessed me because of you.

Jacob answered, "I left without telling you, because I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me.

Then the man said, "Your name will not be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel. I give you this name because you have fought with God and with men, and you have won."

Then the sun came up as Jacob left Peniel. He was limping because of his leg.

So even today, the people of Israel don't eat the muscle that is on the hip joint, because this is the muscle where Jacob was hurt.

So I beg you to also accept the gifts I give you. God has been very good to me. I have more than I need." Because Jacob begged Esau to take the gifts, he accepted them.

In the fields Jacob's sons heard the news about what had happened. They were very angry because Shechem had brought shame to Israel by raping Jacob's daughter. They came in from the fields as soon as they heard about the terrible thing Shechem had done.

Jacob's sons decided to lie to Shechem and his father because Shechem had done such a bad thing to their sister Dinah.

The brothers said to them, "We cannot allow our sister to marry you because you are not yet circumcised. That would bring us shame.

Jacob's sons went to the city and stole everything that was there because of what Shechem had done to their sister.

Jacob built an altar there. He named the place "El Bethel." Jacob chose this name because that is the place where God first appeared to him when he was running from his brother.

Jacob set up a memorial stone there. He made the rock holy by pouring wine and oil on it. This was a special place because God spoke to Jacob there, and Jacob named the place Bethel.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated their brother because of this. They refused to say nice things to him.

His brothers said, "Do you think this means that you will be a king and rule over us?" His brothers hated Joseph more now because of the dreams he had about them.

After Joseph was made the ruler over the house, the Lord blessed the house and everything that Potiphar owned. The Lord also blessed everything that grew in Potiphar's fields. The Lord did this because of Joseph.

The commander of the guards trusted Joseph with everything that was in the prison. This happened because the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord helped Joseph be successful in everything he did.