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Genesis 37

Joseph Sold into Egypt.

1Jacob settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan.^*

2This is the story of the family of Jacob.^* When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flocks with his brothers; he was an assistant to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and Joseph brought their father bad reports about them.

3Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long ornamented tunic.^*

4When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his brothers, they hated him so much that they could not say a kind word to him.

5^* Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more.^a

6He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had.

7There we were, binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose to an upright position, and your sheaves formed a ring around my sheaf and bowed down to it.”

8His brothers said to him, “Are you really going to make yourself king over us? Will you rule over us?” So they hated him all the more because of his dreams and his reports.^b

9Then he had another dream, and told it to his brothers. “Look, I had another dream,” he said; “this time, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10When he told it to his father and his brothers, his father reproved him and asked, “What is the meaning of this dream of yours? Can it be that I and your mother and your brothers are to come and bow to the ground before you?”

11So his brothers were furious at him but his father kept the matter in mind.

12One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem,

13Israel said to Joseph, “Are your brothers not tending our flocks at Shechem? Come and I will send you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph answered.

14“Go then,” he replied; “see if all is well with your brothers and the flocks, and bring back word.” So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron. When Joseph reached Shechem,

15a man came upon him as he was wandering about in the fields. “What are you looking for?” the man asked him.

16“I am looking for my brothers,” he answered. “Please tell me where they are tending the flocks.”

17The man told him, “They have moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, ‘Let us go on to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

18They saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19They said to one another: “Here comes that dreamer!

20Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We will see then what comes of his dreams.”^c

21^* But when Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: “We must not take his life.”

22Then Reuben said, “Do not shed blood! Throw him into this cistern in the wilderness; but do not lay a hand on him.” His purpose was to save him from their hands and restore him to his father.^d

23So when Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the long ornamented tunic he had on;

24then they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25Then they sat down to eat. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm, and resin to be taken down to Egypt.^e

26Judah said to his brothers: “What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood?^f

27Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed.

28Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver^* to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.^g

29When Reuben went back to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not in it, he tore his garments,^*

30and returning to his brothers, he exclaimed: “The boy is gone! And I—where can I turn?”

31They took Joseph’s tunic, and after slaughtering a goat, dipped the tunic in its blood.

32Then they sent someone to bring the long ornamented tunic to their father, with the message: “We found this. See whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”

33He recognized it and exclaimed: “My son’s tunic! A wild beast has devoured him! Joseph has been torn to pieces!”^h

34Then Jacob tore his garments, put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned his son many days.

35Though his sons and daughters tried to console him, he refused all consolation, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.”^* Thus did his father weep for him.ⁱ

36The Midianites, meanwhile, sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and his chief steward.^j

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Genesis 38

Judah and Tamar.^*

1About that time Judah went down, away from his brothers, and pitched his tent near a certain Adullamite named Hirah.

2There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; he married her, and had intercourse with her.^a

3She conceived and bore a son, whom she named Er.

4Again she conceived and bore a son, whom she named Onan.

5Then she bore still another son, whom she named Shelah. She was in Chezib^* when she bore him.^b

6Judah got a wife named Tamar for his firstborn, Er.

7But Er, Judah’s firstborn, greatly offended the LORD; so the LORD took his life.^c

8^d Then Judah said to Onan, “Have intercourse with your brother’s wife, in fulfillment of your duty as brother-in-law, and thus preserve your brother’s line.”^*

9Onan, however, knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid giving offspring to his brother.

10What he did greatly offended the LORD, and the LORD took his life too.

11Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he feared that Shelah also might die like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

12Time passed, and the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died. After Judah completed the period of mourning, he went up to Timnah, to those who were shearing his sheep, in company with his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

13Then Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

14So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a shawl, and having wrapped herself sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she was aware that, although Shelah was now grown up, she had not been given to him in marriage.^e

15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, since she had covered her face.

16So he went over to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me have intercourse with you,” for he did not realize that she was his daughter-in-law. She replied, “What will you pay me for letting you have intercourse with me?”

17He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” “Very well,” she said, “provided you leave me a pledge until you send it.”

18Judah asked, “What pledge should I leave you?” She answered, “Your seal and cord,^* and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had intercourse with her, and she conceived by him.

19After she got up and went away, she took off her shawl and put on her widow’s garments again.

20Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman; but he did not find her.

21So he asked the men of that place, “Where is the prostitute,^* the one by the roadside in Enaim?” But they answered, “No prostitute has been here.”

22He went back to Judah and told him, “I did not find her; and besides, the men of the place said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’”

23“Let her keep the things,” Judah replied; “otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you did not find her.”

24About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has acted like a harlot and now she is pregnant from her harlotry.” Judah said, “Bring her out; let her be burned.”

25But as she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It is by the man to whom these things belong that I am pregnant.” Then she said, “See whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

26Judah recognized them and said, “She is in the right rather than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” He had no further sexual relations with her.

27When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb.^f

28While she was giving birth, one put out his hand; and the midwife took and tied a crimson thread on his hand, noting, “This one came out first.”

29^g But as he withdrew his hand, his brother came out; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was called Perez.^*

30Afterward his brother, who had the crimson thread on his hand, came out; he was called Zerah.^{* h}

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Genesis 39

Joseph’s Temptation.

1When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, an Egyptian, Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and his chief steward, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

2^a The LORD was with Joseph and he enjoyed great success and was assigned to the household of his Egyptian master.

3When his master saw that the LORD was with him and brought him success in whatever he did,

4he favored Joseph and made him his personal attendant; he put him in charge of his household and entrusted to him all his possessions.^b

5From the moment that he put him in charge of his household and all his possessions, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the LORD’s blessing was on everything he owned, both inside the house and out.

6Having left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge, he gave no thought, with Joseph there, to anything but the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.

7After a time, his master’s wife looked at him with longing and said, “Lie with me.”

8But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, as long as I am here, my master does not give a thought to anything in the house, but has entrusted to me all he owns.

9He has no more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld from me nothing but you, since you are his wife. How, then, could I do this great wrong and sin against God?”

10Although she spoke to him day after day, he would not agree to lie with her, or even be near her.^c

11One such day, when Joseph came into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were then in the house,

12she laid hold of him by his cloak, saying, “Lie with me!” But leaving the cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

13When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand as he escaped outside,

14she cried out to her household servants and told them, “Look! My husband has brought us a Hebrew man to mock us! He came in here to lie with me, but I cried out loudly.

15When he heard me scream, he left his cloak beside me and escaped and ran outside.”

16She kept the cloak with her until his master came home.

17Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave whom you brought us came to me to amuse himself at my expense.

18But when I screamed, he left his cloak beside me and escaped outside.”

19When the master heard his wife’s story in which she reported, “Thus and so your servant did to me,” he became enraged.

20Joseph’s master seized him and put him into the jail where the king’s prisoners were confined.^d And there he sat, in jail.

21But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him kindness by making the chief jailer well-disposed toward him.^e

22The chief jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the jail. Everything that had to be done there, he was the one to do it.

23The chief jailer did not have to look after anything that was in Joseph’s charge, since the LORD was with him and was bringing success to whatever he was doing.

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Mark 6 :14-29

Herod’s Opinion of Jesus.^*

14King Herod^* heard about it, for his fame had become widespread, and people were saying,^f “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”^g

15Others were saying, “He is Elijah”; still others, “He is a prophet like any of the prophets.”^h

16But when Herod learned of it, he said, “It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.”

The Death of John the Baptist.^*

17Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.ⁱ

18John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”^j

19Herodias^* harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

20Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.

21She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.

22Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”

23He even swore [many things] to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.”^k

24She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”

25The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

26The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her.

27^l So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison.

28He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother.

29When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

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