喬碩諾爸碎碎念

Bible reading note

Genesis 21

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba. God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. Abraham said, “I swear it.” Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized. So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty. So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there. After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines.

Genesis 22

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba. Some time later Abraham was told, “Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor

Genesis 23

Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, The Hittites replied to Abraham, Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.” Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants. Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 24

Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?” So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter. Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. After she had given him a drink, she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.” When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels. Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, The young woman ran and told her mother’s household about these things. So the man went to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and fodder were brought for the camels, and water for him and his men to wash their feet. And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, “He replied, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked faithfully, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father’s family. Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord. So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Genesis 25

Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was Keturah. She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi. This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s slave, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 26

Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.” Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. From there he went up to Beersheba. Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Genesis 27

When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered. Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.” So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?” Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.

Genesis 28

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Genesis 29

Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Harran,” they replied. While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

Genesis 30

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.” But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” “What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.” Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.