Instead, an underground stream would arise out of the earth and water the surface of the ground.

After the LORD God formed from the ground every wild animal and every bird that flies, he brought each of them to the man to see what he would call it. Whatever the man called each living creature became its name.

therefore the LORD God expelled the man from the garden of Eden so he would work the ground from which he had been taken.

The LORD told him, "This won't happen, because whoever kills you will suffer seven times the vengeance." Then the LORD placed a sign on Cain so that no one finding him would kill him.

So Abraham responded to God, "If only Ishmael would live in constant awareness that you're always with him!"

and said, "Look, my lords! Please come inside your servant's house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and be on your way." But they responded, "No, we would rather spend the night in the town square."

"I thought that there's no fear of God in this place," Abraham replied, "and that they would kill me because of my wife.

She also said, "Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? Yet I have given birth to a son in my husband's old age!"

"Listen to us, sir. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial tombs. None of us would refuse you his tomb for burying your dead."

"What have you done to us?" Abimelech asked. "Any minute now, one of the people could have had sex with your wife and you would have caused all of us to be guilty."

Rebekah also told herself, "Heth's daughters are making me tired of living. If Jacob marries one of Heth's daughters, and she turns out to be just like these other local women, what kind of life would there be left for me?"

and when all the flocks had been gathered there, they would roll away the stone from the opening of the well, water their flocks, and then return the stone to its place covering the opening of the well.

When the flocks mated in front of the branches, they would bear offspring that were striped, speckled, or spotted.

Jacob kept the lambs separate, facing the striped and entirely black ones that belonged to Laban's flock. He set his own herd by itself and would not let them be with Laban's flock.

Whenever the more vigorous of the flock came into heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the flock to make them mate by the branches.

Then Laban asked Jacob, "What did you do? You deceived me, carried off my daughters like you would war captives,

Then Jacob got angry and started an argument with Laban. "What have I done?" he demanded. "What's my crime that would cause you to come pursue me so violently?

If the God of my father the God of Abraham, the God whom Isaac feared had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty handed. But God saw my misery and how hard I've worked with my own hands and he rebuked you last night."

But Laban answered Jacob, "These women are my daughters. These children are my children. The flocks are mine. In fact, everything that you see belongs to me. But what would I do today to my daughters and the children they have borne?

Jacob would later call that place Peniel, because "I saw God face to face, but my life was spared."

They told them, "We can't do this. We can't give our sister to a man who isn't circumcised, because that would be insulting to us.

When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was helping his brothers tend their flocks. He was a young man at that time, as were the children of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. But Joseph would come back and tell his father that his brothers were doing bad things. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his brothers, since he was born to him in his old age, so he had made a richly-embroidered tunic for him.

But Onan knew that the offspring wouldn't be his own heir, so whenever he had sexual relations with his brother's wife, he would spill his semen on the ground to avoid fathering offspring for his brother.

She kept on talking to him like this day after day, but he wouldn't listen to her. Not only would he refuse to have sex with her, he refused even to stay around her.

Jacob would not send Joseph's brother Benjamin to accompany them, because he was saying, "I'm afraid that he'll come to some kind of harm."

"We're all guilty because of what we did to our brother!" they told each other. "We kept on watching his suffering while he pleaded with us! We're in this mess because we wouldn't listen!"

"Didn't I tell you!" Reuben replied. ""Don't wrong the kid!' I said, but would you listen? No! Now it's payback time!"

"The man specifically asked about us and our relatives," they responded. "He asked us, "Is your father still alive?' and "Do you have another brother?' So we answered his questions. How could we have known that he would tell us to bring our brother back with us?"

Joseph's staff served him by himself, his brothers separately, and the Egyptian staff members by themselves, because the Egyptians wouldn't take their meal with the Hebrews, since doing so was detestable for the Egyptians.

So we told Your Excellency, "The young man cannot leave his father, because if he were to do so, his father would die.'

I'll provide for you there, since there are still five years of famine left to go, and you, your households, and everything you own would have otherwise become impoverished.

Jacob sent Judah ahead of them to meet with Joseph, who would be guiding them to Goshen, and so they arrived.

Judah is a lion cub. My son, you have gone up from the prey. Crouching like a lion, he lies down, Like a lioness, who would dare rouse him?

At the conclusion of the mourning period, Joseph addressed Pharaoh's household. "If you're satisfied with me, would you please take this message to Pharaoh for me? Tell him,

As far as you're concerned, you were planning evil against me, but God intended it for good, planning to bring about the present result so that many people would be preserved alive.

Then his sister positioned herself some distance away in order to find out what would happen to him.

Meanwhile, the seven daughters of a certain Midianite priest would come to draw water in order to fill water troughs for their father's sheep.

Yet Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said would happen.

"It wouldn't be right to sacrifice in this way," Moses replied, "because if we do, we will sacrifice to the LORD our God what is offensive to the Egyptians. If we offer sacrifices that are offensive to the Egyptians in front of them, they'll stone us, won't they?

Then Pharaoh inquired and discovered that not a single one of the livestock of Israel had died, but Pharaoh's heart was stubborn and he would not let the people go.

The LORD made Pharaoh's heart stubborn so that he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had told Moses.

Indeed, by now I could have sent forth my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been destroyed from the earth.

The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on all the territory of Egypt in great swarms. There had never been locusts like this before nor would there ever be again.

Now, please forgive my sin only this time, and pray to the LORD your God that he would at least remove this from me."

But the LORD made Pharaoh's heart stubborn and he would not let the Israelis go.

Moses and Aaron did all these wonders in front of Pharaoh, but the LORD made Pharaoh's heart stubborn, and he would not let the Israelis go out from his land.

Is this not what we told you in Egypt, when we said, "Leave us alone!' and "Let us serve the Egyptians!'? Indeed, it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

while the name of the other was Eliezer, because he would say, "My father's God helped me and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword."

As the sound of the ram's horn grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer with thunder.

So the LORD changed his mind about the calamity he had said he would bring on his people.

The LORD had told Moses, "Say to the Israelis, "You are an obstinate people, and if for one moment I went up among you, I would put an end to you. Now take off your ornaments so I may decide what to do with you.'"

Moses used to take the tent and set it up outside the camp at a distance from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. When anyone sought the LORD, he would go out to the Tent of Meeting which was outside the camp.

When Moses would go out to the tent, all the people would get up, and each would stand in the doorway of his tent, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the doorway of the tent while God spoke with Moses.

When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the doorway of the tent, all of them would get up and prostrate themselves in worship, each one at the doorway of his tent.

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face just as a man speaks with his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, Nun's son Joshua, his young servant, would not leave the tent.

and then whenever Moses would come in the LORD's presence to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he left the LORD's presence. When he went out, he would tell the Israelis what he had been commanded.

The Israelis would see the face of Moses and that the skin of his face shone; then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with God.

He made 50 bronze clasps to join the tent together so it would be one piece.

They tied the breast piece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord so it would rest on the skillfully woven band of the ephod and so the breast piece would not come loose from the ephod.

The opening of the robe was in the middle, like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding around the opening so it would not be torn.

Whenever the cloud was lifted up from the tent, the Israelis would set out on their journey,

but if the cloud was not lifted up, they would not set out until it was lifted up,

But Aaron replied to Moses, "Today they've offered their sin and whole burnt offerings in the LORD's presence. Yet things such as these have happened to me. Had I eaten the sin offering today, would that have pleased the LORD?"

"I am the LORD. You are not to have sexual relations with a male as you would with a woman. It's detestable."

"If a man has sexual relations with another male as he would with a woman, both have committed a repulsive act. They are certainly to be put to death.

They placed him in custody until a decision would be made to them according to the word of the LORD.

from the tribe of the descendants of Kohath, everyone who would be serving at the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to what the LORD had said, under the supervision of Moses.

from the tribes of the descendants of Gershon, everyone who would be serving at the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to what the LORD had said.

I've set the descendants of Levi apart from the Israelis so that Aaron and his sons would work in service at the appointed place of meeting, making atonement on behalf of the Israelis so that there won't be a plague among the Israelis whenever they approach the sanctuary."

Whenever the cloud above the tent ascended, the Israelis would travel and encamp in the place where the cloud settled.

According to whatever the LORD said, the Israelis would travel. According to whatever the LORD said, they would camp as long as the cloud remained over the Tent of Meeting.

There were times when the cloud remained from evening until morning, but when the cloud ascended in the morning, they would journey. Whether by day or by night, they would travel whenever the cloud ascended.

Whether for two days, a month, or for longer periods, whenever the cloud would remain above the tent, the Israelis would remain in camp, not traveling. But whenever it ascended, then they would travel.

According to what the LORD said, they would remain in camp, and according to what the LORD said, they would travel. They kept the commands that the LORD had given through Moses.

Whenever the ark was ready to travel, Moses would say: "Arise, LORD, to scatter your enemies, so that whoever hates you will flee from your presence."

Whenever the ark was being readied to rest, he would say: "Return, LORD, to the countless thousands of Israel."

Meanwhile, certain riff-raff among the people had an insatiable appetite for food. As a result, they wept and turned back, and the Israelis cried out, "If only somebody would feed us some meat!

People would go out to gather it, then they would grind it in mills or pound it in mortars, and then they would boil it in pots or make cakes out of it that tasted like butter cakes.

Did I conceive this people or give birth to them, so that you would tell me to carry them near my heart like a wet nurse carries a suckling baby to the land that you promised to their forefathers?

What if we were to slaughter our entire inventory of flocks and herds for them? Would that be enough? What if we could gather all the fish in the sea in nets for them? Would that be enough, either?"

"Are you jealous on account of me?" Moses asked in reply. "I wish all of the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!"

But the LORD told Moses, "If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn't she be humiliated? She is to be placed in isolation for seven days. After that, she may be brought in."

What's the point in the LORD bringing us to this land? To die by the sword so our wives and children would become war victims? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"

However, I'll bring your little ones the ones whom you claimed would become war victims into the land so that they'll know by experience the land that you've rejected.

That's when the LORD enabled the donkey to speak. She asked Balaam, "What did I do to you that you would beat me in the space of only three footsteps?"

If she hadn't turned away from me, I would have killed you by now and left her alive!" At this, Balaam replied to the angel of the LORD, "I've sinned! I didn't know that you were standing to meet me on the road. So now, since it displeases you, let me go back."

He crouches, laying low like a lion. Who would awaken him? Those who bless you are blessed, and those who curse you are cursed."

Now get out of here! I had promised you that I would definitely honor you, but now the LORD has kept me from doing that!"

"Why would you discourage the Israelis from crossing over to the land that the LORD has given them?

Your little ones whom you said would be taken captive and your children who do not yet know right from wrong will enter the land. I will give it to them and they themselves will possess it.

Now from the time we left Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the Wadi Zered was 38 years. All of that generation, the soldiers in the camp, were destroyed just as the LORD swore they would be.

I stood at that time as mediator between the LORD and you to declare his message to you, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. He said:

If only they would commit to fear me and keep all my commands, then it will go well with them and their children forever.

He'll love you and increase your numbers. He'll bless the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your land (the grain, new wine, and oil), the offspring of your herds, and the lambs of your flock, in the land that the LORD promised your ancestors he would give you.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert, to humble and test you in order to make known what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

"You may slaughter and eat as much meat as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God, when he provides for you in all your cities. Both ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat it as they would gazelle and deer.

Only, you must not consume the blood; instead, pour it out on the ground as you would water.

You may eat them, just as you would gazelle and deer. Ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat them.

You must not consume it; instead, pour it on the ground as you would water.