The Living Bible (14 page)

Genesis
36

Here is a list of the descendants of Esau (also called Edom):
^2-3
 Esau married three local girls from Canaan: Adah (daughter of Elon the Hethite), Oholibamah (daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite), Basemath (his cousin
*
—she was a daughter of Ishmael—the sister of Nebaioth).

    
⁴
 Esau and Adah had a son named Eliphaz. Esau and Basemath had a son named Reuel.

    
⁵
 Esau and Oholibamah had sons named Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.

    
^6-8
 Then Esau took his wives, children, household servants, cattle and flocks—all the wealth he had gained in the land of Canaan—and moved away from his brother Jacob to Mount Seir. (For there was not land enough to support them both because of all their cattle.)

    
⁹
 Here are the names of Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, born to him in Mount Seir:

    
^10-12
 Descended from his wife Adah, born to her son Eliphaz were: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Kenaz, Amalek (born to Timna, Eliphaz’ concubine).

    
^13-14
 Esau also had grandchildren from his wife Basemath. Born to her son Reuel were: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah.

    
^15-16
 Esau’s grandchildren
*
became the heads of clans, as listed here: the clan of Teman, the clan of Omar, the clan of Zepho, the clan of Kenaz, the clan of Korah, the clan of Gatam, the clan of Amalek.

    
The above clans were the descendants of Eliphaz, the oldest son of Esau and Adah.

    
¹⁷
 The following clans were the descendants of Reuel, born to Esau and his wife Basemath while they lived in Canaan: the clan of Nahath, the clan of Zerah, the clan of Shammah, the clan of Mizzah.

    
^18-19
 And these are the clans named after the sons of Esau and his wife Oholibamah (daughter of Anah): the clan of Jeush, the clan of Jalam, the clan of Korah.

    
^20-21
 These are the names of the tribes that descended from Seir, the Horite—one of the native families of the land of Seir: the tribe of Lotan, the tribe of Shobal, the tribe of Zibeon, the tribe of Anah, the tribe of Dishon, the tribe of Ezer, the tribe of Dishan.

    
²²
 The children of Lotan (the son of Seir) were Hori and Heman. (Lotan had a sister, Timna.)

    
²³
 The children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, Onam.

    
²⁴
 The children of Zibeon: Aiah, Anah. (This is the boy who discovered a hot springs in the wasteland while he was grazing his father’s donkeys.)

    
²⁵
 The children of Anah: Dishon, Oholibamah.

    
²⁶
 The children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, Cheran.

    
²⁷
 The children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, Akan.

    
^28-30
 The children of Dishan: Uz, Aran.
*

    
^31-39
 These are the names of the kings of Edom (before Israel had her first king):

    
King Bela (son of Beor), from Dinhabah in Edom.

    
Succeeded by:
*
King Jobab (son of BoZerah), from the city
*
of Bozrah.

    
Succeeded by: King Husham, from the land of the Temanites.

    
Succeeded by: King Hadad (son of Bedad), the leader of the forces that defeated the army of Midian when it invaded Moab. His city was Avith.

    
Succeeded by: King Samlah, from Masrekah.

    
Succeeded by: King Shaul, from Rehoboth-by-the-River.

    
Succeeded by: King Baal-hanan (son of Achbor).

    
Succeeded by: King Hadad, from the city of Pau.

    
King Hadad’s wife was Mehetabel, daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab.

    
^40-43
 Here are the names of the subtribes of Esau, living in the localities named after themselves: the clan of Timna, the clan of Alvah, the clan of Jetheth, the clan of Oholibamah, the clan of Elah, the clan of Pinon, the clan of Kenaz, the clan of Teman, the clan of Mibzar, the clan of Magdiel, the clan of Iram.

    
These, then, are the names of the subtribes of Edom, each giving its name to the area it occupied. (All were Edomites, descendants of Esau.)

Genesis
37

So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived.

    
²
 Jacob’s son Joseph was now seventeen years old. His job, along with his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, was to shepherd his father’s flocks. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things they were doing.
³
 Now as it happened, Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other children, because Joseph was born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob gave him a special gift—a brightly colored coat.
*
⁴
 His brothers of course noticed their father’s partiality, and consequently hated Joseph; they couldn’t say a kind word to him.
⁵
 One night Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing even deeper hatred.

    
⁶
 “Listen to this,” he proudly announced.
⁷
 “We were out in the field binding sheaves, and my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves all gathered around it and bowed low before it!”

    
⁸
 “So you want to be our king, do you?” his brothers derided. And they hated him both for the dream and for his cocky attitude.

    
⁹
 Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Listen to my latest dream,” he boasted. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”
¹⁰
 This time he told his father as well as his brothers; but his father rebuked him. “What is this?” he asked. “Shall I indeed, and your mother and brothers come and bow before you?”
¹¹
 His brothers were fit to be tied concerning this affair, but his father gave it quite a bit of thought and wondered what it all meant.

    
¹²
 One day Joseph’s brothers took their father’s flocks to Shechem to graze them there.
^13-14
 A few days later Israel called for Joseph, and told him, “Your brothers are over in Shechem grazing the flocks. Go and see how they are getting along, and how it is with the flocks, and bring me word.”

    
“Very good,” Joseph replied. So he traveled to Shechem from his home at Hebron Valley.
¹⁵
 A man noticed him wandering in the fields.

    
“Who are you looking for?” he asked.

    
¹⁶
 “For my brothers and their flocks,” Joseph replied. “Have you seen them?”

    
¹⁷
 “Yes,” the man told him, “they are no longer here. I heard your brothers say they were going to Dothan.” So Joseph followed them to Dothan and found them there.
¹⁸
 But when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him!

    
^19-20
 “Here comes that master-dreamer,” they exclaimed. “Come on, let’s kill him and toss him into a well and tell Father that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we’ll see what will become of all his dreams!”

    
^21-22
 But Reuben hoped to spare Joseph’s life. “Let’s not kill him,” he said; “we’ll shed no blood—let’s throw him alive into this well here; that way he’ll die without our touching him!” (Reuben was planning to get him out later and return him to his father.)
²³
 So when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly colored robe,
²⁴
 and threw him into an empty well—there was no water in it.
²⁵
 Then they sat down for supper. Suddenly they noticed a string of camels coming towards them in the distance, probably Ishmaelite traders who were taking gum, spices, and herbs from Gilead to Egypt.

    
^26-27
 “Look there,” Judah said to the others. “Here come some Ishmaelites. Let’s sell Joseph to them! Why kill him and have a guilty conscience? Let’s not be responsible for his death, for, after all, he is our brother!” And his brothers agreed.
²⁸
 So when the traders
*
came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver, and they took him along to Egypt.
²⁹
 Some time later, Reuben (who was away when the traders came by)
*
returned to get Joseph out of the well. When Joseph wasn’t there, he ripped at his clothes in anguish and frustration.

    
³⁰
 “The child is gone; and I, where shall I go now?” he wept to his brothers.
³¹
 Then the brothers killed a goat and spattered its blood on Joseph’s coat,
³²
 and took the coat to their father and asked him to identify it.

    
“We found this in the field,” they told him. “Is it Joseph’s coat or not?”
³³
 Their father recognized it at once.

    
“Yes,” he sobbed, “it is my son’s coat. A wild animal has eaten him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces.”

    
³⁴
 Then Israel tore his garments and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son in deepest mourning for many weeks.
³⁵
 His family all tried to comfort him, but it was no use.

    
“I will die in mourning for my son,” he would say, and then break down and cry.

    
³⁶
 Meanwhile, in Egypt, the traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh—the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard, the chief executioner.