Study Desk

Jacob answered, "You know that the children are weak, and I must think of the sheep and livestock with their young. If they are driven hard for even one day, the whole herd will die.

just 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.

But these men will agree to live among us and be one people with us only on the condition that we circumcise all our males, as they are circumcised.

Won't all their livestock and everything else they own be ours? So let us agree that they can live among us."

including Hamor and his son Shechem. Then they took Dinah from Shechem's house and left.

They took the flocks, the cattle, the donkeys, and everything else in the city and in the fields.

They took everything of value, captured all the women and children, and carried off everything in the houses.

Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have gotten me into trouble; now the Canaanites, the Perizzites, and everybody else in the land will hate me. I do not have many men; if they all band together against me and attack me, our whole family will be destroyed."

So 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.

When Jacob and his sons started to leave, great fear fell on the people of the nearby towns, and they did not pursue them.

Jacob 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 labor.

He 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.

One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.

"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.

The 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.

They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted against him and decided to kill him.

Then they took him and threw him into the well, which was dry.

While they were eating, they suddenly saw a group of Ishmaelites traveling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels were loaded with spices and resins.

Then they killed a goat and dipped Joseph's robe in its blood.

They took the robe to their father and said, "We found this. Does it belong to your son?"