Study Desk

"And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?" Esau asked. Jacob replied, "They are a gift, my lord, to ensure your friendship."

But Jacob replied, "You can see, my lord, that some of the children are very young, and the flocks and herds have their young, too. If they are driven too hard, even for one day, all the animals could die.

Meanwhile, Jacob's sons had come in from the field as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious that their sister had been raped. Shechem had done a disgraceful thing against Jacob's family, something that should never be done.

"These men are our friends," they said. "Let's invite them to live here among us and trade freely. Look, the land is large enough to hold them. We can take their daughters as wives and let them marry ours.

But they will consider staying here and becoming one people with us only if all of our men are circumcised, just as they are.

But three days later, when their wounds were still sore, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, who were Dinah's full brothers, took their swords and entered the town without opposition. Then they slaughtered every male there,

including Hamor and his son Shechem. They killed them with their swords, then took Dinah from Shechem's house and returned to their camp.

They seized all the flocks and herds and donkeys—everything they could lay their hands on, both inside the town and outside in the fields.

They looted all their wealth and plundered their houses. They also took all their little children and wives and led them away as captives.

Afterward Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have ruined me! You've made me stink among all the people of this land—among all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will join forces and crush us. I will be ruined, and my entire household will be wiped out!"

So they gave Jacob all their pagan idols and earrings, and he buried them under the great tree near Shechem.

Leaving Bethel, Jacob and his clan moved on toward Ephrath. But Rachel went into labor while they were still some distance away. Her labor pains were intense.

There was not enough land to support them both because of all the livestock and possessions they had acquired.

Magdiel, and Iram. These are the leaders of the clans of Edom, listed according to their settlements in the land they occupied. They all descended from Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites.

One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.

His brothers responded, "So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.

When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, "Your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them." "I'm ready to go," Joseph replied.

"Yes," the man told him. "They have moved on from here, but I heard them say, ‘Let's go on to Dothan.'" So Joseph followed his brothers to Dothan and found them there.

Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.