Study Desk

So Shechem said to Hamor his father, saying, "Get this girl for me as a wife."

Will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us give consent to them so they will live among us."

Then let us make ready and let us go up to Bethel, so that I can make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my trouble, and who has been with me on the way that I have gone."

So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the ornamental rings that were in their ears. And Jacob buried them under the oak which was near Shechem.

Then they set out on their journey, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, so that they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

For their possessions were too many to live together, so that the land of their sojourning was not able to support them on account of their livestock.

So Esau dwelled in the hill country of Seir (Esau, that is Edom).

And Reuben said to them, "You must not shed blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the desert, but do not lay a hand on him"—so that he might rescue him from their hand to return him to his father.

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be for him, so whenever he went in to the wife of his brother he would waste it on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother.

And what he did was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so he killed him also.

Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Stay a widow in your father's house until Shelah my son grows up," for he feared he would also die like his brother. So Tamar went and stayed in the house of her father.

So she removed the clothes of her widowhood and covered herself with the veil and disguised herself. And she sat at the entrance to Eynayim, which is on the way to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah was grown but she had not been given to him as a wife.

So he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where is that cult prostitute that was at Eynayim by the roadside?" And they said, "There is no cult prostitute here."

And it happened just as he interpreted to us, so it was. He restored me to my office, and him he hanged."

Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, but you will be kept in prison so that your words might be tested to see if there is truth with you. And if not, by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies."

You must bring your youngest brother to me, and then your words will be confirmed and you will not die." And they did so.

Then Judah said to his father Israel, "Send the boy with me, and let us arise and go, so that we will live and not die—you, we, and our children.

Then their father Israel said to them, "If it must be so then do this. Take some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and honey, aromatic gum and myrrh, and pistachios and almonds.

So the men took this gift, and they took double money in their hands, and Benjamin, and they rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

So they approached the man who was over Joseph's house and spoke to him at the doorway of the house.