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Barkly Bible Portions

The Holy Bible in the Barkly dialect of English, spoken in Australia

copyright © 2024 Bible Society of Australia
Language: Barkly English (English)
Dialect: Barkly

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2026-04-14

ePub generated by Haiola 8 Aug 2026 from source files dated 2 May 2026

a970e1a9-7059-592c-b481-cf954f658c46

Genesis

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Genesis

The first stories in the Holy Bible

1

God made everything

1 First of all God made everything. He made the earth and the sky.* 2 The ground was there but it was covered with deep water and it was really dark everywhere. But God's spirit was moving around over the water.

This is what happened on day 1

3 God said, “I want light,” and straight away light was shining everywhere.* 4 God looked at the light, and he saw that it was good. Then God cut the light away from the dark. 5 He called the light, day time and he called the dark, night time.

Night time came, and that was the end of day one.

This is what happened on day 2

6-8 God said, “I want to cut all the water that I made into 2 parts, and I will put air in between them, and I will call the air, sky. One lot of water will be on top of the sky and the other lot of water will be under the sky.”

Night time came, and that was the end of day 2.

This is what happened on day 3

9 God said. “I want all the water under the sky to come together in one place, so that dry ground comes up.” And that is what happened. The water moved to one place, and dry ground came up. 10 God called the dry ground, land. And he called the water, sea. God looked at the land and the sea and he saw that they were good. 11 Then God said, “I want the ground to grow all kinds of plants. I want grass that has seeds, and I want all kinds of trees that grow fruit that have seeds in them. I will make every seed that falls into the ground grow up like the plant that it came from.” And that is the way God made it happen. 12 He made all the grass and the trees grow up from the ground. He made grass with seeds, and trees with fruit that have seeds in them. God looked at what he had made, and he saw that it was good. 13 Night time came, and that was the end of day 3.

This is what happened on day 4

14-16 God said, “I want 2 big lights up in the sky. I want one light for the day time and the other light for the night time. Those lights show people when it will be cold weather time and when it will be hot weather time every year. Yes, I will put those lights up in the sky to shine on the earth.”

So, God made 2 big lights. He made one big light and one small light. The big light is called the Sun, and it shines in the day time. The small light is called the Moon and it shines in the night time. God made all the stars too.

17 So God put all those lights up in the sky to shine down onto the earth. 18 One light shines in the day time and the other light shines at night time. Those lights show people when it is day time and when it is night time. God looked at all the lights and he saw that they were good. 19 Night time came, and that was the end of day 4.

This is what happened on day 5

20 Then God said, “I want the water to be full of fish and all sorts of animals that live in water. And I want birds to fly up in the sky too.” 21 So God made everything that lives and moves in the sea. He made the great big sea animals and all the little animals that live in the sea. And God made all the birds too. God looked at all the things he had made, and he saw that they were good.

22 God blessed them, and he did that by doing good things for them. God made them strong and he said, “I want all living things to have lots of young ones, so that the sea will be full of fish and other animals that live in water. And I want lots of birds too.” 23 Night time came, and that was the end of day 5.

This is what happened on day 6

24-25 Then God said, “I want the world to be full of different kinds of animals. I want wild animals and quiet animals. And I want different kinds of little animals that move around on the ground.” And that is what happened. God looked at all those animals, and he saw that they were good.

26 Then God said, “We are going to make people. They will be like us. They will be the boss over the fish and everything that lives in the sea. They will be the boss over all the birds that fly in the sky. They will be the boss over all the wild animals, and all the quiet animals. And they will be the boss over all the little animals that move around on the ground. Yes, people will be the boss over all of them.” 27 So God made people to be like himself. He made them man and woman.*

28 God blessed them, and he did that by doing good things for them. God made them strong and he said to them, “I want you to have lots of children so that they go everywhere all over the world, and they will be the boss over everything. They will be the boss over all the country, the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that move on the ground.”

29 Then God said to the man and the woman, “Look, I made lots of different kinds of things for you to eat. I made grasses that have seeds in them, and I made trees that have fruit. You can eat the seeds from those grasses and you can eat food from the bushes and the trees. 30 And I made green plants for all the animals to eat.”

31 God looked at all the things he made, and he saw that they were really good.

Night time came. That was the end of day 6.

2

This is what happened on day 7

1 And so God finished making the earth and the sky. 2 He made everything in 6 days, and on day 7, God rested and he stopped making things*. 3 God made day 7 a special day. That means it was different from all the other days. God said, “I have finished making everything now, and that is why I am resting from my work.”*

God made the first man and put him into the Garden of Eden

4 This story is about what happened after the Lord God made the earth and the sky. 5 At that time the Lord God had not sent any rain to fall on the ground and so nothing was growing yet. No grass or any kind of tree grew anywhere, and there weren't any people to dig the ground to get it ready for things to grow. 6 But spring water came up from the earth and wet the ground.

7 Then the Lord God took some ground and made a man from it. When he finished, God blew wind into the man's nose, and that wind made the man come alive. That is how the man became a living person.*

8 Then the Lord God made a garden on the east side, at a place called Eden, and then God put the man that he just made, into the garden. 9 The Lord God made lots of different trees to grow in that garden. They looked really nice and they had fruit that was good to eat. And God put 2 special trees right in the middle of the garden. If anybody ate fruit from the first tree, they lived forever. And if anybody ate fruit from the second tree, they would know what is good and what is bad.*

10 There was a river that watered the Garden of Eden. It started from inside the garden but after it left the garden, 4 different rivers came from it. 11 The first river was called Pishon. It went across the country called Havilah. And in that country there was a lot of gold, 12 and it was really good gold. In that country there was a pretty stone called Onyx. And there were some trees that gave out a nice smelling bush medicine.

13 The second river was called the Gee-hon. It went everywhere across the country called Cush.

14 The third river was called Tigris. It went along the east side of the country called Assyria.

And the fourth river was called Yoo-fray-tees (Euphrates).

15 The Lord God put the man into the garden to dig the ground and to take care of everything. 16 The Lord God said to the man, “You can eat fruit from any of the trees in this garden. 17 But you must not eat fruit from the tree that lets people know what is good and what is bad. If you eat fruit from that tree you will die.”

God made the first woman

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to live by himself. I am going to make a partner to help him with his work.”

19 So the Lord God took ground and made all the animals and all the birds. Then he took them to the man to find out what he would call them. Whatever the man called an animal, that was its name. 20 So that is how every animal got its name. The man gave names to all the wild animals, all the quiet animals and all the birds. The man's name was Adam, but when he looked around at all the animals and birds, he could not find the right kind of partner for himself.

21 So the Lord God made the man go into a really deep sleep, and while he was asleep, God took out one of the man's rib bones, and closed the hole in his side. 22 Then the Lord God used that rib bone to make a woman. And when the man woke up, God took the woman to the man. 23 The man looked at the woman and said,

“Now I have a partner for myself.

She was made from one of my bones.

She has come from a man's body,

so I am going to call her woman.”

24 Yes, God made the woman out of the man's body. This is why when a man gets married, he leaves his mother and father and lives with his wife. They join together, and it is like they are one body.* 25 The man and the woman did not have any clothes on, but they didn't feel any shame.

3

The snake tricked the woman

1 God made lots of animals, but the snake was the most sneaky of all the wild animals. One day the snake went up to the woman and said, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any of the trees in this garden? Is that true?”*

2 The woman said, “No, that is not true. We can eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden. 3 But God did say, ‘You must not eat any of the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and don't even touch the fruit. If you do, you will die.’ ” *

4 The snake said to the woman, “No. That's not right. You will not die. 5 God knows that if you eat fruit from that tree, you will be like God and you will know what is good and what is really bad.”

The man and the woman turned away from God

6 The woman looked at the tree. It looked really nice, and the fruit on that tree looked really good to eat. And she said to herself, “If I eat some of that fruit, I will know and understand everything.” So the woman picked some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some of the fruit to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. 7 Straight away the man and the woman could think in a different way. It was like their eyes were opened for the first time and they found out that they had nothing on. They were feeling shamed, and wanted to cover themselves up, so they picked some big leaves from a tree. Then they put the leaves together to make some clothes for themselves.

The man and the woman tried to hide from God

8 Late in the afternoon, the man and the woman heard the Lord God coming their way, so they got behind some trees and tried to hide from him. 9 But the Lord God called out, “Where are you?” 10 The man said, “When I heard you walking in the garden, I was frightened. I had no clothes on, and I was shamed. That is why I tried to hide from you.” 11 God asked the man, “Why are you shamed to have no clothes on? Did you eat some of the fruit that I told you not to eat?” 12 The man answered, “Yes, I did eat the fruit. That woman you gave me. She's the one, she gave it to me.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “Why did you do that?”

The woman said, “That snake tricked me. That is why I ate the fruit.” *

God judged the snake

14 Then the Lord God said, “Snake, you have tricked this woman and so I will put a curse on you. I curse you more than I will ever curse any other animal. From now on you are going to move around on your belly, and everything you eat will have dirt on it. 15 You and the woman will always be enemies. The family that will come from her will always hate you. And snake, the family that comes from you will always hate the woman's family too. You will always be enemies. And I tell you straight, someone from her family will smash your head, but you will bite his foot.” *

God judged the woman

16 Then God said to the woman, “You did the wrong thing and so I am going to give you a lot of trouble and a lot of pain when your babies are born. You will want to have a husband and try to be his boss, but he will be your boss.”

God judged the man

17 Then God said to Adam, “You listened to your wife. Remember, I told you, ‘You must not eat that fruit,’ but you still ate it. Now that you have gone against what I said to you, I am going to put a curse on the ground. And for the rest of your life you will have to work really hard to get your food. 18 When you grow food plants there will always be lots of weeds and prickles growing there too. 19 For the rest of your life you will have to work very hard to get your food, and you will get hot and sweaty. And when you die, someone will bury your body in the ground. I made you from the ground and so your body will turn back into the ground that I made you from.”

God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden

20 Adam's wife was the first woman, and so all the people in the world came from her. That is why Adam named her Eve. That name means that life came from her. 21 Then the Lord God killed some animals and used their skins to make clothes for Adam and his wife.

22 Then the Lord God said, “The man is like us now. He knows what is good and what is bad. We have to stop him from eating any fruit from the other tree in the middle of the garden. If anyone eats fruit from that tree, they will live forever.”* 23 So the Lord God sent the man out of the garden of Eden so that he had to work the ground that he was made from. 24 God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden and he put some of his angels to block the east side of the garden. Those angels had big knives with flames coming out of them, and those angels waved those knives everywhere to block anybody from getting to the fruit that makes people live forever.

4

Cain and Abel took presents to God

1 Adam slept with his wife Eve and at the right time she had a baby boy and Eve named him Cain. She said, “The Lord helped me to have a son.” 2 Later on Eve had another son, and she named him Abel.

When the boys were grown up, Abel looked after sheep, and Cain got the ground ready to grow food plants. 3 One day, Cain wanted to show respect to the Lord, so he took some food from his garden and gave it to the Lord. 4 Abel wanted to show respect to the Lord too, so he went and took some of the first born sheep. He killed them, and gave the best parts to the Lord. *

God was happy with Abel and he was happy with what Abel gave him. 5 But God was not happy with Cain, and he was not happy with what Cain gave him. And so, Cain got very angry and his face had an ugly look.

6 The Lord said “Cain, why are you angry? Why do you look so sad? 7 If you do the right thing, I will be happy with you. But, if you don't do the right thing, look out. You are thinking the wrong way. It is like you have a wild animal inside your head that wants you to do all sorts of bad things. You have to be the boss of your thinking.”

8 But Cain went and found his brother Abel and said to him, “Let's go for a walk.” And while they were walking, Cain hit his brother and killed him.*

9 Later on, the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

Cain said, “I don't know. It's not my job to look after him.” 10 The Lord said to Cain, “Why have you done this really bad thing? I can see your brother's blood on the ground, and it is like his blood is calling out to me. That blood is telling me that you killed your brother.* 11 You killed your brother and the ground soaked up his blood. And so I am going to put a curse on you. From now on the ground will be your enemy. 12 And if you try to grow plants in the ground, nothing will grow for you. You will always go from place to place, and you will never settle down anywhere.”

13 Cain said to the Lord, “You are too hard on me. 14 You are forcing me away from you and this country and I will not be able to grow food for myself. I will have to walk around from place to place and never settle down. And anyone that finds me will kill me. Yes God, you are being too hard on me.”

15 Then the Lord said, “Cain, I promise you, that if someone kills you, I will punish that person 7 times more than I punished you.” Then the Lord put a special mark on Cain to stop anyone from killing him.

The family that came from Cain

16 Then Cain went away from the Lord and lived in a country called Nod. Nod was on the east side of the Garden of Eden. 17 Cain slept with his wife, and they had a baby son and they named him Enock. Cain built a town, and he called the town, Enock for his son. 18 Enock grew up and he had a son named Irad.

Irad grew up and he had a son named Methu-jayel.

Methu-jayel grew up, and he had a son named Methu-shayel.

Methu-shayel grew up and had a son named Larmek. 19 Larmek grew up and married 2 women. The name of one wife was Adah. The name of the other wife was Zillah. 20 Larmek's wife Adah had a baby boy named Jabal.

Jabal grew up and he was the first person to live in a tent and look after sheep and bullocks. 21 Adah had another son, a brother for Jabal. His name was Jubal.

Jubal grew up and he was the first person to play music on an instrument like a guitar and other instruments that had pipes. 22 Larmek's other wife Zillah had a son named Tubal-Cain, and a daughter named Naymah.

Tubal-Cain grew up and made tools from iron and another brown metal called bronze.

23-24 One day Larmek said to his 2 wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me.

A long time ago, Cain killed his brother,

And God punished him.

If anyone killed Cain,

God said he would punish that person 7 times more.

Well, I killed a man that hurt me.

But, if someone kills me,

that person must get payback 77 times more.”*

Adam and Eve had another son

25 Adam slept with his wife again, and they had another son. Eve named him Seth. She said, “God has given me another son to take Abel's place in the family.” 26 Seth grew up and had a son and they named him Enosh.

It was about this time that people started to pray to the Lord and show him respect.

5

The family that came from Adam

1 This is the story of Adam's family. When God made people, he made them to be like himself. * 2 He made them to be a man and a woman, and he blessed them*. That means that he was good to them, he made them strong and he called them humans

This is a list of people that were in Adam's family line. 3 Adam was alive for 130 years and then he had a son that he named Seth. When Seth was born, he was just like Adam and looked like him too. 4 Adam lived for another 800 years after Seth was born and Adam had more sons and daughters. 5 Adam died when he was 930 years old.

6 When Seth was 105 years old he had a son named Enosh. 7 Seth lived for another 807 years, and he had more sons and daughters. 8 Seth died when he was 912 years old.

9 When Enosh was 90 years old he had a son named Keynan. 10 Enosh lived for another 815 years, and he had more sons and daughters. 11 Enosh died when he was 905 years old.

12 When Keynan was 70 years old he had a son named Maha-lalel. 13 Keynan lived for another 840 years, and he had more sons and daughters. 14 Keynan died when he was 910 years old.

15 When Maha-lalel was 65 years old he had a son named Jared. 16 Maha-lalel lived for another 830 years, and he had more sons and daughters. 17 Maha-lalel died when he was 895 years old.

18 When Jared was 162 years old he had a son named Enock. 19 Jared lived for another 800 years, and he had more sons and daughters. 20 Jared died when he was 962 years old.

21 When Enock was 65 years old he had a son named Methu-selah. 22 Enock lived for another 300 years after Methu-selah was born, and he had more sons and daughters. 23-24 Enock was a good man who spent a lot of time with God. Enock lived until he was 365 years old, then one day, people didn't see him anymore. He did not die, God took him straight up to heaven. *

25 When Methu-selah was 187 years old he had a son named Larmek. 26 Methu-selah lived for another 782 years, and he had more sons and daughters. 27 Methu-selah died when he was 969 years old.

28 When Larmek was 182 years old he had a son. 29 Larmek named his son Noah. Larmek said, “The Lord has cursed the ground, and that is why we have to work really hard to get our food. But I will call my son Noah. He will make us feel better.”

The name Noah sounds like the Hebrew word that means, He will make us feel better. 30 Then Larmek lived for another 595 years and he had more sons and daughters. 31 Larmek died when he was 777 years old.

32 When Noah was 500 years old he had 3 sons, named Shem, Ham and Jay-feth.

6

There were big, strong fighting men

1 The time came when there were a lot of people living on the earth, and some of the women were very beautiful.

2 And in those days there were some spirit men, called the Sons of God. When they saw some of those beautiful women, they married the ones they wanted. 3-4 Their children grew up to be big strong fighting men called Nef-ilim (Nephilim). And then for a lot of years, people told stories about what those great fighters did.*

But the Lord looked at what was happening and said, “I put my life spirit into people to keep them alive, but I will not let that spirit stay in them forever. They will only live for 120 years and then they will die.”

People were really bad

5 The Lord looked at the people on the earth and saw that they were getting worse and worse. They were always thinking the wrong way and working out ways to do bad things all the time.* 6 And so the Lord was really sad. It was like a pain in his heart, and he said to himself, “I am really sorry that I made people. 7 I made all those people, but now, I am going to kill them all, and I will kill all the animals that I made too. I will even kill all the little animals that move around on the ground, and I will kill all the birds that fly in the sky.”

8 But the Lord was pleased with Noah.

The story about Noah

9 This is the story about Noah and his family.

Noah was a good man. At that time, Noah was the only man on the earth that lived God's way and so God was really happy with him.* 10 Noah had 3 sons named Shem, Ham, and Jay-feth.

11 Everyone else on the earth was living in a rubbish way. They were fighting and hurting each other all the time. 12 So when God looked and saw that all the people were doing really bad things, 13 he said to Noah, “Look, nobody is living the way I want them to live. They are fighting all the time and people are getting hurt. I have made up my mind, I am going to kill everybody and every other living thing on this earth.”

God told Noah to build a big boat called an Ark

14 Then God said to Noah, “I want you to make a really big boat called an Ark. Make it out of wood and make rooms inside it. Then paint it on the inside and on the outside with tar to keep the water out.

15 Listen Noah, this is how big I want you to make the boat. It has to be 140 metres long, and 23 metres wide, and 14 metres high. 16 I want you to put a roof over it and just under the roof make a window half a metre high all the way around. And put a big door in the side of the boat. Make 3 floors inside the boat, one floor for the bottom and 2 more floors upstairs.

17 Soon I will send a lot of flood water, and it will cover the whole earth and everything that breathes will die.* 18 But don't worry, Noah, I am making a strong promise to you. I will look after you, your wife, your sons, and their wives too. You will all be safe inside that boat.*

19-20 Take one boy one and one girl one of every kind of animal and bird into the boat with you. I will make all those animals come to you so that they can be safe too.

21 Go out into the countryside and pick up as much food as you can and put it inside the boat. You will need a lot of food for your family and a lot of food for all the animals too.” 22 Then Noah did everything that God said.*

7

God told Noah to get ready for a flood

1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “You are the only man alive today that lives the right way. It is time for you to take your family into the really big boat called the Ark. 2 And take every kind of animal with you. There are 2 groups of animals that I want you to take into the boat. In the first group there are animals that I call clean animals. Those clean animals are the animals that you can kill and burn to show me respect. Take 7 boy ones and 7 girl ones of those clean animals into the boat.

But the second group of animals, I call them unclean. You are not allowed to kill them and burn them to show me respect. Take only 1 boy one and 1 girl one of those unclean animals. 3 Take 7 boy ones and 7 girl ones of each kind of bird from all over the world with you into the boat.

All those animals and birds will be safe with you. That way, after the flood, there will always be animals and birds living on the earth.

4 I am going to make rain fall down from the sky in 7 days time. It will rain for 40 days and 40 nights so that everything I made will die and be washed away.”

5 So Noah did everything the Lord said to him.

The flood water came

6-7 Noah was 600 years old when he and his wife, his 3 sons and their wives all went into the boat to be safe from the floodwaters. 8-9 A lot of animals came to Noah. There were boy and girl animals of every kind and Noah took them into the boat too. There were clean and unclean animals, as well as birds and small animals that move along the ground. Noah did everything that God said.

10 Then 7 days later, the flood water came. 11-16 Noah was 600 years old at the time that the flood water came. And it came on the 17th day of the 2nd month of that year.

On the same day that the rain started, Noah and his wife, and his sons, Shem, Ham and Jay-feth, and their wives went into the boat. All the animals went with them into the boat. There were wild animals and quiet animals, big animals and small animals. All the birds went into the boat too. Just like God told Noah, there were boys, and girls of every kind of animal, and they went in 2 at a time. When the last animal went into the boat with Noah and his family, God shut the door.

And it rained really hard for 40 days and 40 nights. It was just like God opened up a big window in the sky to let all the water out. Spring water came up from deep down under the ground too. 17-18 The flood water kept getting higher and higher for 40 days, and the boat started to float on the water, high above the ground.

19 The water got so high that it covered all the really big hills everywhere. 20 It covered the tops of those hills with about 7 metres of water. 21 Every living thing that was outside the boat died. The flood water killed all the birds, all the wild animals, all the quiet animals, all the little animals that move along the ground and every living person. * 22 Yes, everything that breathed air and lived on the earth died. 23 There was nothing left alive on the earth. There were no birds, big animals, little animals, or people. God killed them all and washed them away. Noah, his family and all the animals and birds inside the boat were the only ones that were still alive.

24 The flood water covered the earth for 5 months.

8

The flood water went down

1-2 God did not forget about Noah and the animals in that big boat called the Ark. So God stopped the water from coming up from under the ground. He stopped the rain falling from the sky and he made a strong wind blow on the floodwater to help it go down.

3-4 The flood water got lower and lower, and 5 months after the flood started, the water was so low that the boat sat down on some very high hills. Those hills were called the Ararat Mountains. 5 The flood water went down until the tops of the really high hills were sticking up out of the water.

Noah let some birds go out of the boat

6 Six weeks later, Noah opened the window in the top of the boat. 7 He let a black bird called a crow fly out from the boat to see what would happen. Every day the crow flew out and came back to the boat until all the floodwater had dried up.

8-9 And Noah let a bird called a pigeon fly out of the window to see if the flood water still covered all the ground. But the water was still too high and the pigeon could not find a place to sit down, so it went back to the boat. Noah picked it up and took it inside.

10 Noah waited for 7 more days and then he let the pigeon fly out of the boat again. 11 And just before the sun went down, the pigeon came back. It had a new leaf from an olive tree in its mouth. Then Noah knew that the flood water was getting lower and the trees were growing leaves again.

12 Noah waited another 7 days, then he sent the pigeon out again. This time it did not come back.

Everyone left the boat

13 By the time Noah was 601 years old, nearly all the water was gone. And on the first day of the new year Noah took the roof off the boat and looked around. He saw that the ground was starting to get dry. 14 Two months later, the earth was really dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “You can go out of the boat now. Take your wife, your sons and their wives with you. 17 And take all the animals, the birds, and every little animal that moves around on the ground, out of the boat. Then they can go and live all over the earth and have lots of young ones.”

18-19 So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives all came out of the boat. All the animals and all the birds went out of the boat too, each group of animals came out together.

Noah said “Thank you” to the Lord and God made a promise

20 Then Noah got some big stones and made them into a table with a flat top, called an Altar for the Lord. Then he went and found some of the animals and birds that the Lord said were clean. They were the right ones to use to show him respect. He killed the animals, and burned them on the altar to say, “Thank you Lord for keeping us all safe.”

21 The Lord smelled the meat cooking on the altar and he was happy. He said to himself, “People always think the wrong way all their lives, right from the time they are little until they die. But I will never again kill off every living thing like I did this time. I will never curse the earth again for what people do.

22 While the earth is still here, everything will be the same. There will always be day time and night time, and every year there will be a hot weather time and a cold weather time, wet weather time and dry weather time. There will always be a right time to plant seeds for food and a right time to get the food from those plants.”

9

God made a promise to Noah

1 God was good to Noah and his sons. God blessed them. He did good things for them and made them strong and said, “I want you to have lots of children so that the earth is full of people again.* 2 And I am making you the boss over everything that lives on the ground, all the animals, all the birds, and all the fish in the sea too. But they will be frightened of you.

3 Before now, I gave you plants to eat, but from now on you can eat anything that is alive. 4 But do not eat meat that still has blood in it. That blood keeps an animal alive, so let all the blood run out.*

5-6 A person's life is so special that if an animal kills someone, that animal has to die. And if somebody murders another person, the murderer has to die.

I made people like myself,

and that is why they are special to me*.

7 But you Noah and your family, I want you to have a lot of children so that the earth is full of people again.”*

8 Then God said to Noah and his sons, 9 “Right now I am going to make a strong promise to you and to all the family that will come from you. 10 And I am making the same promise to all the animals that live on the earth too, all the birds, all the quiet animals, and all the wild animals. I promise this to all of the animals that came out of the boat with you. 11 This is my promise. I will never again send a flood that kills everything.”

God sent a rainbow to help people remember what he promised

12-13 Then God said, “I am going to put a rainbow up in the sky. It will be a sign for everyone that I have made a strong promise to you and to everything that lives on the earth. That promise will last forever. 14-15 So, when I make the clouds come across the sky and there is a rainbow that everyone can see, I will remember the promise I made to you and to everything that is alive. That promise is that I will never again send a flood that kills every living thing on the earth. 16 Yes, when I see a rainbow in the sky, I will remember my promise to you and to everything that lives on the earth. That promise will last forever.” 17 Then God said to Noah, “This is very important. That rainbow will show us that I made this promise to every living thing that lives on the earth.”

Noah got drunk

18-19 When Noah went out of the boat, his 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Jay-feth went with him. The sons and their wives had children and grandchildren until there were a lot of people living on the earth again. One of Ham's sons was named Canaan.

20 Noah was a farmer, and so he started to grow food in a garden. He planted some grape vines and later on, he used the grapes to make wine. 21 One day Noah drank too much of the wine and got drunk. He took off all his clothes and went to sleep in his tent. 22 Ham went into the tent and saw his father sleeping with no clothes on. But Ham, the father of Canaan, did not respect his father. He went outside and told his brothers. 23 When Shem and Jay-feth heard what Ham said, they got a coat to cover their father. They held it between them and walked backwards into the tent and put the coat over their father and covered him up. They made sure they did not turn around and look at their father's body.

24 Noah woke up and when he was sober, he found out what his youngest son Ham did. 25 And so Noah said, “I am putting a curse on Ham's son, Canaan. He will be forced to work really hard for his relations and he will not get paid. He will be a slave. 26 I know that Shem respects God and so I am going to ask the Lord to make Canaan a slave for Shem. 27 I am going to ask God to make Jay-feth's country much bigger. Jay-feth and Shem will live together in that country, and Canaan will work hard as a slave for both Jay-feth and Shem.”

28 Noah lived for another 350 years after the flood. 29 He died when he was 950 years old.

10

The story about Noah's family

1 This story is about Shem, Ham and Jay-feth, the sons of Noah. It is a list of the children that were born after the flood.

The tribes that came from Jay-feth

2 Jay-feth's sons were named Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Me-shek and Tiras. 3 Gomer's sons were named Ash-ken-az, Rif-ath and Togar-mah. 4 Javan's sons were named Elishah, Tar-shish, Kittim and Rod-anim. 5 All of the people that came from Jay-feth had families and they ended up being different tribes. Every tribe had their own language and their own country. Some of these tribes lived in country next to the Mediterranean Sea.

The tribes that came from Ham

6 Ham's sons were Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

7 Cush's sons were named Seba, Havi-lah, Sab-tah, Rarmah and Sab-teca.

And the sons of Rarmah were named Sheba and Dedan. 8-9 One of Cush's sons was named Nimrod. When Nimrod grew up he was a strong fighter, and with God's help he became a really good hunter. Whenever people talked about good hunters, they said things like, “That man is a really good hunter like Nimrod.”

10 Later on, Nimrod was the boss of all the towns called Bab-y-lon, Erech, Accad and Cal-nar All these towns were in a country called Shinah, which is another name for Bab-y-lonia. 11-12 From there Nimrod went to another country called Assyria and he built the towns called Nineva, Re-ho-both Ir, Calah, and a big town called Resen. Resen was between Nineva (Ninevah) and Calah.

A list of Ham's sons

13-14 Ham had a son named Egypt. This is a list of Egypt's sons. Lud, Anam, Lehab, Naf-tuh, Path-rus, Cas-luh and Caf-tor. All these sons had families and their families grew so big they were called tribes. The Filistine nation came from the Cas-luh tribe.

15-18 Ham's other son, Canaan, named his first son Sidon. These are the names of Canaan's other sons, Heth, Jebus, Amor, Girgash, Hiv, Arrk, Sinn, Arvad, Zemar, and Hamath.

All these sons had families and their families grew so big they were called tribes. Later on, the tribes that came from Canaan split up and went to different places. 19 The tribes that came from Canaan were called Canaanites. Those tribes lived in country that went as far north as a town called Sidon and as far south as the town of Gaza, and as far east as the towns called Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboy-im and Lasha.

20 Yes, all these people were part of Ham's family. All the sons had their own tribes, languages and their own country.

The tribes that came from Shem

21 Shem was Jay-feth's older brother and Eber's family were part of Shem's family. 22 Shem's sons were Elam, Ashur, Ar-faxad, Lud, and Aram.

23 Aram's sons were named Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.

24 Ar-faxad's son was named Shelah, and he had a son named Eber. 25 Eber had 2 sons. The first son was Peleg and his younger brother was Joktan. The name Peleg means split up. And Peleg was still alive when all the people split up into different tribes and went all over the world.

26-30 Joktan was the father of Almo-dad, Shelef, Hazarm-aveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimale, Sheba, Ofir, Havi-lah, and Jobab.

All of these people came from Joktan, and lived in the east hill country that goes from a place called Mesha all the way to another place called Seffar.

31 All these people came from Shem. They were all different tribes and had their own country and their own language.

32 And so this is a list of all the families and tribes that came from Noah. They split up into their own nations and spread out all over the earth after the big flood.

11

People tried to build a high building in Babylon

1 Right from the time Noah and his family came out of the really big boat called the Ark, everyone talked the same language. 2 When people started to move further east, they came to plain country called Babylonia, and they stayed there. 3-4 They said to each other, “Hey, let's build a big town here on this plain country. We can use the ground to make bricks. Then we will put them into a fire so that they get really hard and we will use tar to put them together. And we will make a really high building that goes right up to the sky. If we do that everyone will say that we are a great people. And we can stay right here in this country and we will not have to spread out all over the earth.”

God made people talk in different languages

5 The Lord came down from heaven to look at the big town and the tall building that the people were making. 6 He said, “These people are like one big tribe and they all talk the same language. This is just the start of what they will do. If they keep on going this way, nothing will stop them from doing anything they want to do. 7 Come on, we will go down and we will make them talk in different languages so that they cannot understand each other.”

8 So God made all the people talk in different languages. They could not understand each other and so they stopped building their big town and they all moved away to different places, all over the world. 9 The town was called Babel or Babylon and those names sound like a word that means mixed up. That is where God mixed up the languages and forced everyone to leave Babylon and go to live in different places all over the world.

The story of Shem's family

10 This is the story of Shem's family.

Shem was 100 years old when he had a son named Ar-fax-ad. This was 2 years after the big flood. 11 Shem lived for 500 years after he had Ar-fax-ad, and he had more sons and daughters.

12 Ar-fax-ad was 35 years old when he had a son named Shelah. 13 Ar-fax-ad lived for 403 years after he had Shelah, and he had more sons and daughters.

14 Shelah was 30 years old when he had a son named Eber. 15 Shelah lived for 403 years after he had Eber, and he had more sons and daughters.

16 Eber was 34 years old when he had a son named Peleg. 17 Eber lived for 430 years after he had Peleg, and he had more sons and daughters.

18 Peleg was 30 years old when he had a son named Reu. 19 Peleg lived for 209 years after he had Reu, and he had more sons and daughters.

20 Reu was 32 years old when he had a son named Serug. 21 Reu lived for 207 years after he had Serug, and he had more sons and daughters.

22 Serug was 30 years old when he had a son named Nahor. 23 Serug lived for 200 years after he had Nahor and he had more sons and daughters.

24 Nahor was 29 years old when he had a son named Terah. 25 Nahor lived for 119 years after he had Terah and he had more sons and daughters.

26 Terah had 3 sons after he was 70 years old. Their names were Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Terah's family

27-29 This is the story of Terah's family. Terah had 3 sons named Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Haran, Terah's son, was born in a place called Ur, in a country called Kaldea. And so the people that lived in that country were called Kaldeans.

Haran had a son named Lot and 2 daughters named Milcah and Iscah. Terah was still alive when Haran died. He died in the same country that he was born in.

Nahor married Milcah and Abram married Sarai. 30 But Sarai could not have a baby. 31 Terah left Ur, in the Kaldea country with his son Abram, Sarai, and his grandson Lot. They wanted to go to the country called Canaan, but stopped at a town called Harran and stayed there.

32 Terah died in Harran when he was 205 years old.

12

God picked Abram

1 Abram was living in a big town called Harran when the Lord said to him, “Abram, I want you to leave your country, your family and all your relations. I am going to take you to live in a new country.* 2 I am going to bless you. That means I will do good things for you and make you strong. Everyone will know about you and respect your name. I will give you a big family and this family will grow into a strong nation. Your family will do good things for all the other nations on the earth. 3 If anyone looks after you and does good things for you, I will look after them and be kind to them. But, if anyone puts a curse on you and makes life hard for you, I will put a curse on them and I will make their life very hard. I will use your family to do good things for all the people in the world.”*

4-5 Abram was 75 years old when he left Harran to go to the country of Canaan. This was the country the Lord told him to go to. Abram took his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot. Before Abram left Harran he picked some men and women to work for him. Abram took all his workers and everything he had with him to Canaan.

6 When Abram got to the Canaanite country, he walked right across that country until he got to a place called Shekem. In that place there was a special tree called Moreh. 7 Then the Lord visited Abram and made a strong promise to him. God said to Abram, “You are the first person in my new family. I promise that I will give this country to the family that comes from you.”* The Lord had visited Abram and so Abram piled up some stones to make a special table called an altar. And then he burned some animals on that altar to show respect to the Lord.

8 Later on, Abram left Shekem and went down south to the hill country that was on the east side of a town called Bethel. And he made his camp between Bethel and another town called Ai. Ai was on the east side and Bethel was on the west side of his camp. Right there Abram built another stone altar and prayed to God using God's name.

9 Then Abram travelled further south to a dry country called “The Negev.”

Abram and Sarai go to Egypt

10 At that time, there was not much food in that country, and so Abram and everyone with him went to live for a short time in the country called Egypt.

11-12 Just before they got to the border of Egypt, Abram said to Sarai, “You are a beautiful woman and when the Egyptian people see you, they will say, ‘That woman is married to Abram. Let's kill him so that we can have her for ourselves.’ They will kill me but they will let you live. 13 You have to tell everyone that you are my sister so they will not kill me.”*

14 What Abram said came true. When they got into Egypt, the Egyptian people saw that Sarai was really beautiful. 15 And when the king's workers saw Sarai, they told the king how beautiful she was, and they took her to live with him.

16 The king thought Abram was Sarai's brother and so he was very kind to him. The king gave Abram, sheep, cows, donkeys, and camels as well as men and women workers.

17 But God was not pleased that Sarai had gone to live with the king of Egypt. God made the king and everyone who lived in his house really sick.

18-19 When the king found out that Sarai was married to Abram, he got really wild and sent someone to get Abram. The king said to him, “What have you done to me? Sarai is your wife! Why did you trick me? You said, ‘She is my sister’ and you let me marry her. Now, here is your wife. Take her away, and then, you and all your people, get out of my country!”

20 The king told his soldiers what to do with Abram. He said, “Take Abram, Sarai, all his people, animals and workers out of Egypt and make them go back to where they came from!” And the soldiers did what the king said.

13

Abram and his nephew Lot split up

1-2 Abram, Sarai, and Lot left Egypt and went back to the dry country called The Negev with everything they owned. Abram was very rich now, he had a lot of silver and gold and a big mob of animals.

3-4 When they had been in The Negev for a while, they left that dry country and went north. They moved from place to place until they got back to where they had camped between the towns of Bethel and Ai. That was where Abram had built the stone altar to show respect to God. That was where he prayed using the Lord's name.

5 Abram and his nephew Lot were still travelling together. And just like Abram, Lot had a big mob of sheep, goats, cattle and workers with him.

6-7 But there was a problem. Abram and Lot had too many animals for that country to feed. And so the workers that looked after Abram's animals started to fight the workers that looked after Lot's animals. They were fighting about whose animals should get all the grass and water.

The traditional owners of that country were called the Canaanite and Perrizite people and they were still living there.

8 Abram said to Lot, “I don't like this trouble. You and I are close relations, and I do not want any trouble between us. And I don't want our workers arguing and fighting one another. 9 I think we should split up. Take a look at all this country and you will see that there is plenty of room for both of us. I want you to pick which part of the country you want to live in and I will go somewhere else. If you pick the country to the east side, then I will take the country to the west but if you pick the west country, then I will take the country to the east.”

10-12 Lot looked towards a town called Zoar in the plain country that was around the Jordan River.* He saw that there was plenty of grass and water. He thought it looked just like God's Garden, and the country in Egypt too. So Lot picked all the plain country to the east, and Abram stayed up in the hill country called Canaan. Lot moved away from Abram and there was no more trouble.

In the plain country around the Jordan River there were a lot of towns, and Abram's nephew made his camp near one of those towns called Sodom. When Lot picked that country next to the Jordan River it was really beautiful. But some time later the Lord burnt the 2 towns called Sodom and Gomorrah. And he burnt all the plain country around them too. 13 The people that lived in Sodom were very bad. They were always going against God and doing bad things all the time.*

God made a promise to Abram

14 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Look at all the country around you. Look to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west. 15 I am going to give you all the country that you can see. All that country will be for you, your children, your grandchildren and all the families that will come from you. It will be their country forever.* 16 Look at the ground you are standing on Abram, there is a lot dirt. Your family will be like that dirt, there will be so many people that no-one can count them.* 17 Abram, get up, walk everywhere and look at all the country that I am giving to you.”

18 So Abram went to live near the Great Trees of Mamre near a town called Hebron. Abram made his camp there, and he built another altar of stones so that he could burn animals to show respect to God.

14

Abram saved Lot

1-10 In that country there were 2 groups of kings. In the first group there were 4 kings and they worked together. And there were 5 kings in the second group and they worked together. Every king had their own army of fighting men.

King Kedor-lay-omer was the boss over all the kings in both groups and he lived in a place called Elam. Here are the names of the other 3 kings in the first group, and where they lived,

King Amrafel of Babylonia,

King Arioch of Ellasar, and

King Tidal of Goy-im.

Here is a list of the 2nd group of kings and where they lived,

King Bera of Sodom,

King Birsha of Gomorrah,

King Shinab of Admah,

King Shem-eber of Zeboy-im, and the

King of Bela. Zoar is the other name for Bela.

King Kedor-lay-omer was the boss over all the kings for 12 years. Then, at the end of the 12 years, the group of 5 kings turned against King Kedor-lay-omer.

King Kedor-lay-omer and the other 3 kings in his group got really upset about that and a year later they went down to fight the group of 5 kings. On the way they stopped to fight with some other people groups.

This is a list of those people and where they lived.

The Refaites in Ash-ter-oth Karnay-im,

the Zuzites in Ham,

the Emites in Shar-vay Kiriath-ay-im,

and the Hoorites in the hill country of Edom.

King Kedor-lay-omer's men went on fighting those people all the way to a place called El-Paran, near the dry country.

King Kedor-lay-omer and his group were the winners over all these people and they went back to the town of En-Mishpat, the other name for that town was Kadesh.

They took all the land that belonged to the Amal-kite (Amalekite) people. And then they had a fight with the Amorite people who were living in Hazezon-Tamar. King Kedor-lay-omer and his group were the winners.

When all those fights were finished, they marched to the Dead Sea that is in the plain country called the Valley of Siddim. The armies of the 5 kings that had turned away from King Kedor-lay-omer were waiting for him and the other 3 kings and their armies.

Both groups of armies lined up and faced each other ready to fight. It was 4 kings and their armies against 5 kings and their armies.

Kedor-lay-omer and his group of 3 kings were the winners over the 5 kings and their armies.

In that plain country called the Valley of Siddim there were a lot of holes in the ground full of sticky black stuff called tar. When the fight was finished, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their armies ran away. Some of the men fell into those tar pits and the rest of the men ran away up into the hills.

11 King Kedor-lay-omer and his soldiers went to Sodom and Gomorrah and grabbed all the people that lived there. Kedor-lay-omer's men took everything the people owned, even their food, and then they started to go back to their own country.

12 Lot and his family were living in Sodom at that time, and so the soldiers grabbed them too and took all their things.

Abram saved Lot and everything that was stolen

13-14 A man got away from the fight and ran to tell Abram what had happened to Lot. At that time, Abram was living near the Great Trees that belonged to a man named Mamre. Abram, the Hebrew man, was good friends with Mamre and his 2 brothers named Eshcol and Aner. They belonged to a group of people named Amorites.

Abram, Mamre and his brothers were from different tribes but they had promised to look after each other.

Abram had 318 fighting men in his camp. These men had lived with Abram all their lives. So Abram and his men joined up with the 3 Amorite brothers and their fighting men. Together they chased King Kedor-lay-omer and the 3 other kings all the way north to a place called Dan.

15 That night Abram split up all the men with him into groups to fight King Kedor-lay-omer and the other 3 kings. Abram and all his men won that fight and they chased the kings and their men all the way to a place called Hobah that is north of a town called Damascus.

16 So Abram saved Lot, and he saved the women and all the other people that had been taken from Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram took back all the things the kings had stolen from Lot and all the things that were stolen from the people that lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Abram met Mel-kiz-edek the king of Salem

17 Abram and all his fighting men started to go back home after they beat Kedor-lay-omer and the other kings.

The king of Sodom went out to meet them when they got to the Valley of Shevah, the low country between the hills. That low country was called the King's Valley.

18-19 In that country there was a man named Mel-kiz-edek who was the king of a town called Salem. And he was the people's ceremony man for the One True God. And like the king of Sodom, Mel-kiz-edek went out to meet Abram. Mel-kiz-edek gave Abram and all the fighting men some bread and wine and he blessed Abram.

This is the way Mel-kiz-edek blessed Abram.

Mel-kiz-edek prayed and said,

“God, you are more powerful than any other god.

You are the one who made heaven and earth.

And I ask you to do good things for Abram and to make him strong.

20 God, I want to thank you and tell everyone how great you are.

You are the one who helped Abram to be the winner over his enemies.”

When Mel-kiz-edek finished saying this, Abram got all the things that the kings had stolen from the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and split them up into 10 heaps. He gave one of those heaps to Mel-kiz-edek.*

21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “I only want my people back. You can keep everything else.”

22-23 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I tell you and I make a strong promise to God, the God who made heaven and the earth, I will not take anything that belongs to you. I will not even take a piece of string or a shoelace that belongs to you. I do not want you to say to anybody, ‘I made Abram rich. I gave him everything.’ 24 The only thing my men and I will keep is the food we ate. Listen to me king of Sodom, I did not save your people and your things by myself. These Amorite men named Aner, Eshcol and Mamre helped me, and so you can give them their share of the things we took back from the 4 kings.”

15

God made a strong promise to Abram

1 Later on, after Abram saved Lot from the 4 kings, the Lord talked to Abram in a vision. It was like he was dreaming with his eyes open. The Lord said,

“Abram, don't be frightened,

I will keep you safe so that no-one can hurt you,

and I am going to do a lot of good things for you.”

2-3 But Abram said, “O Lord. What can you give me? You have not given me the one thing I really want. You have not given me any children. When I die, one of my workmen named Elee-ay-zer from Damascus, will get everything I have.”

4 The Lord said to Abram, “I tell you. That man from Damascus will not get everything when you die. I am going to give you a son and he will be the one who gets everything.”

5 Then the Lord took Abram outside the tent and said, “Look up at the sky and try to count all those stars. You cannot do that. And just like those stars, there will be so many people in your family you will not be able to count them.”*

6 Abram believed the Lord's words, and so God said to himself, “Abram is a good man who lives the right way for me. No-one can say that he is guilty of doing anything wrong.”*

God made another promise to Abram

7 The Lord said to Abram, “I am your God. I am the one who led you out of your homeland of Ur in Kaldea, and I am going to give you this country to live in.”*

8 But Abram asked, “O Lord. How can I know that I will have all this country for myself?”

9 So the Lord said to Abram, “Bring me a cow that has not had a calf, a girl goat and a boy sheep. All these animals have to be 3 years old. And I want you to bring me 2 different kinds of pigeons.”

10 Abram did what God told him. He killed the animals and split them in half. He put the halves of the animals on the ground in 2 lines so that their feet were nearly touching. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 Some eagles flew down and tried to eat the animals, but Abram chased them away.

12 As the sun went down, Abram fell into a really deep sleep and a scary darkness came down on top of him.*

13-15 Then the Lord said to Abram, “I want you to know for sure what will happen to you later on. When you die, you will be really old but you will feel good and quiet inside yourself.

But I have to tell you something. Later on, your family will leave this country and move to another country. They will be strangers in that land and later on they will be prisoners and have to work very hard. The people that live in that country will do really bad things to your family for 400 years. Then I will save your people from that hard time and I will punish that nation for what they did to your family. Your family will be really rich when they leave that country. They will have a lot of money and animals.* 16 And I will bring your family back here to this country that I have promised to you. The Amorite people that live in this country do really bad things. They go against me all the time and they are getting worse and worse. And so, after your grandchildren have grandchildren, I will take this country away from the Amorite people and give it to your family.”

17 When the sun went down and it was really dark, Abram saw a fire bucket with smoke coming out of it and a fire stick. He saw the fire bucket and burning stick move between the pieces of animals that he had cut in half. 18-21 This was the way God showed Abram that he was serious about the promise he made. God said to him again, “I am going to give all this country to your family, from the river in Egypt all the way to the great river You-fray-tees that is in the country where you came from. This is a list of the tribes that live in this country. They are called, the

Kenites, Kenizzites,

Kadmonites, Hittites,

Perizzites, Refay-ites,

Amorites, Canaanites,

Gir-gash-ites, and the Jebusites.

I will take this country away from all these people and give it to your family.” *

16

Hagar and Ishmael

1-3 Abram and Sarai had lived in Canaan for 10 years and Sarai still did not have a baby. She said to Abram, “I think God has stopped me from having my own baby. But I have a plan, here is my Egyptian working girl, Hagar. I want you to take her as a second wife.* She belongs to me and so if she has a baby, then that baby will be mine.” 4 Abram did what Sarai wanted and slept with Hagar. When Hagar knew that she was going to have a baby, she started to rubbish Sarai. 5 Sarai said to Abram, “I blame you for this trouble. I gave Hagar to you, and now that she is having a baby she is rubbishing me. She hates me, and it's your fault. I want the Lord to tell us who is right, you or me.”

6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Hagar belongs to you. Do whatever you want with her.”

So Sarai gave Hagar such a hard time, she ran away.

7 The Lord's angel found Hagar sitting at a waterhole near the road that went to a town called Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, I know that you belong to Sarai, so why are you sitting out here in the dry country. Where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running way from Sarai.”

9 The angel said to her, “I want you to go back to Sarai. She owns you, and so you must do what she says.” 10 Then the angel said, “I am going to make the family that will come from you so big that no-one will be able to count them. 11 You are going to have a baby boy. I want you to name him Ishmael, which means God listens. God has heard about your trouble. 12 But I have to tell you, Ishmael will be like a wild donkey. He will be against everybody and everybody will be against him. He will always fight with his brothers.”

13 Hagar heard what the angel said, and she knew that the message came from the Lord. So she named him, You are the God who sees me. And she said to herself, “I have seen the back of God. He is the one who sees me.” 14 From that time, the waterhole where the angel talked to Hagar, was called Beer La-hai Roy. In that language it means Waterhole that belongs to the living God who sees me. That waterhole is between 2 places called Kadesh and Bered.

15 Later on, Hagar had Abram's son and Abram named the baby Ishmael. 16 Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.*

17

God made a strong promise with Abram

1 When Abram was 99 years old, God visited him and said, “I am God Most Powerful. I want you to live my way and do what I say is right. 2 We will make a strong promise to each other, and I will give you a really big family.”

3 Abram bowed down with his face on the ground and God said to him, 4 “This is my side of the promise. You are going to be the father of many nations. A lot of people are going to come from you. 5 And so, I am going to change your name. You are named Abram, which means Respected Father, but I will change your name to Abraham. Abraham means Father of Many Nations.* 6 Yes, I will give you a very big family and later on it will split into different nations. Some of your family will be the kings of those nations. 7 I will make this promise with you and all the family that comes from you, and this promise will never end. I will be your God and I will be the God of all your family that comes from you.* 8 You Abraham will still live like a stranger in this country called Canaan, but later on, I will give this country to the families that come from you. They will have this country for themselves forever and I will be their God.” * 9-10 Then God said to Abraham, “You and all the families that come from you have to keep your side of our promise too. This is what you have to do. Every man and boy in your camp has to have the young men's ceremony. * 11 You all have to have that ceremony to show that we have made this promise together. 12-13 Every boy born into your family from now on, must have that operation when they are 8 days old. Every man slave worker you got from somewhere else who lives in your camp has to have that ceremony too. Every boy born into a slave family must have that operation when they are 8 days old. And so, every man and boy in your camp must have the mark of that operation on their bodies. Abraham, those marks show that you and I made this promise together, a promise that will be true forever. 14 Any man or boy that does not have that ceremony mark has broken our promise and will be sent away from his tribe.”

15 Then God said to Abraham, “I am going to change your wife's name too. Her name is Sarai, but now you must name her Sarah. 16 I will do a good thing for her and together you will have a son. Yes, I will do this good thing for her so that she will be called the Mother of Many Nations, and kings will come from her.”

17 Abraham bowed down with his face on the ground again and laughed. He said to himself, “I am nearly 100 years old and Sarah is 90, how can we have a baby? We are too old.” 18 And so Abraham said to God, “Might be, my son Ishmael can be the son you promised me.”

19 But God said to Abraham, “Listen to me. What I say is true, Sarah will have a baby boy, and you will name him Isaac. He will be the one that gets all the promises I made to you. The promise I made with you, will be the same for him and for all the family that comes from him. And again I tell you, that promise will last forever.

20 Abraham, you asked me about Ishmael. I will do good things for him too. I will make a way for him to have a really big family and 12 leaders will come from that family. In that way Ishmael's family will become a great nation. 21 But I tell you, Sarah will have a baby boy about this time next year and when he is grown up, I will make the same promise with Isaac that I just made with you.” 22 God said all this, and then he left Abraham.

23-27 Straight away, on that same day, Abraham, Ishmael and every man and boy in Abraham's camp had that young men's ceremony. Even all the workers that were slaves from other countries had that operation too. Ishmael was 13 and Abraham was 99 years old when they had that ceremony.

18

God promised to give Abraham and Sarah a son

1 Some time later, when Abraham was camped near the Great Trees of Mamre, the Lord came to talk to Abraham again. It was the hottest part of the day and Abraham was sitting in the doorway of his tent. 2 He looked up and saw 3 men standing there. When Abraham saw them, he left his tent and ran to meet them. He bowed down with his face on the ground in front of them.* 3-5 He said, “My lord, if you are happy with me, please come and sit down with me. Let me look after you, and I will get someone to bring water so that you can wash your feet. You can rest under this tree and I will get some food ready for you. When you have finished eating, you will feel strong again and then you can keep going.”

The 3 men said, “Thank you, yes, we will do that.” 6 Straight away, Abraham went and found Sarah in the tent and said, “Quick, get some of our best flour and make bread for our visitors.” 7 Then he ran and picked a nice young calf from his mob of cattle. He gave it to one of his workers, who quickly killed the calf and cooked it for the men. 8 Abraham gave the men some milk, yogurt and meat to eat, and then went to stand in the shade of a tree.

9 The men said to Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?”

Abraham answered, “She is right there in our tent.”

10 Sarah was sitting in the tent behind where the men were eating, and she heard one of the men say, “I will come back to visit you this time next year, and Sarah will have a baby boy.”*

11-12 Sarah could not believe it, and so she laughed to herself. She was thinking, “My husband Abraham is really old and I am too old and worn out to have my own baby. I will never be happy that way.”

13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say to herself, ‘I am too old to have a baby?’ 14 I tell you, God can do anything. Just like I said, at the right time next year, I will come back to visit you, and Sarah will have a baby boy.”* 15 Sarah was frightened and so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But the Lord said, “Yes you did. You did laugh.”

Abraham tried to save Sodom

16 When the 3 men finished eating, they got up to leave. Abraham walked with them to say goodbye and as they walked along the men looked down at the town called Sodom.

17 The Lord was saying to himself as they walked, “Is it a good idea to tell Abraham what I am going to do, or will I say nothing? 18 Abraham's family will be a big and powerful nation one day, and I will use his family to do good things for all the nations on the earth.* 19 I have picked him so that he can teach his family to live my way and do what is right. If Abraham's family do these things, I will keep my promise to him.”

20 Then the Lord said, “Abraham, I have heard about all the really bad things that happen in Sodom and Gomorrah. And I am shocked to hear what those people do. 21 I am going to go down and find out if what I hear is true. If it is true, I will burn those towns.”*

22 Straight away, the other 2 men turned and walked towards Sodom. They left Abraham standing next to the Lord.

23 Abraham turned to the Lord and asked, “Are you going to kill all the good people when you kill all the bad people that have gone against you? 24-25 There might be 50 good people in that town. Will you still burn it? I don't think you will do that. I know that you are the judge of the whole world and you always do what is right. And I don't think you will do to the good people what you are going to do to the bad people.”

26 The Lord answered, “Ok Abraham. If I find 50 people that live my way in Sodom, I will leave that town alone. Those 50 good people will save everyone else in the town.”

27-28 Abraham asked again, “I know that I am just a man, but I want to ask you another question. What if there are only 45 good people who live your way. Will you still burn the town?”

God answered, “If I find 45 good people, I will not burn the town.”

29 Again Abraham asked, “What if there are only 40 good people there?”

God said, “If I only find 40 good people, I will not burn the town.”

30 And again, Abraham asked, “Please do not get angry with me, but what if there are only 30 good people?”

God said, “I will not burn the town if there are 30 good people.”

31 Abraham asked, “I know that I am being brave to ask you this but, what if there are only 20 people that live your way in the town?”

God answered, “I will not burn the town if I find 20 good people there.”

32 Abraham said, “Please do not be angry with me if I ask one last question. What if you only find 10 good people in that town?”

God answered, “If I find 10 good people, I will not burn that town.”

33 When they finished talking, the Lord left Abraham and Abraham went back to his camp.

19

The men in Sodom are really bad

1 The sun was going down when the 2 angels got close to Sodom. At that time, Abraham's nephew who was named Lot was sitting near the town gate. When he saw the men coming, he went out to meet them. He bowed down with his face on the ground in front of them. 2 He said, “My lords. Come and stay in my house. You can wash your feet and rest before you leave tomorrow.”

The angels answered, “No, it's ok! We will sleep outside in the park.”

3 But Lot asked them again and again to stay with him in his house. And so, the 2 angels went with him. Lot cooked some good food for them, and they ate the food with some flat bread.

4-5 Before the angels went to sleep, all the men in Sodom, both young and old, went to stand around Lot's house and they shouted, “Where are the 2 men that came to your house tonight? Bring them out here so that we can take them to bed.” 6-7 Lot went outside and shut the door. He said to the men, “My friends, please do not do this really bad thing. 8 Look, I have 2 daughters. They are both young girls that have never been with a man. Let me bring them out here for you so that you can do whatever you want to do with them. But please do not do any bad thing to these men.* They are living in my house and under our law, I have to keep them safe.” 9 But the men of Sodom said to each other, “This man is a stranger here and he wants to tell us what to do. He has no right to do that.” And so they said, “Get out of our way or we will do even worse things to you.” They started to push Lot back against the house. They wanted to break the door down and grab the men that were inside.

10 But the 2 angels quickly opened the door and pulled Lot inside and shut the door again. 11 Straight away the angels used their power to blind all the men outside the house, so that the men could not even find the door.*

12-13 Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have any more family here in Sodom? Do you have any more children? Are there any men that are married to your daughters, or anyone else that belongs to you? The people in this town are so bad God has sent us to burn the whole town. You have to get your family away from here, straight away.”

14 So Lot went and found the men that were promised to marry his 2 daughters. He said to them, “You have to get out of Sodom. God is going to burn the town.” But the 2 men thought Lot was joking.

15 Very early the next day, the angels tried to get Lot to leave Sodom quickly. They said, “Hurry up Lot. Get your wife and daughters and get away from here. If you do not get away, you will die like everyone else.” 16 But Lot did not hurry, so one of the angels grabbed Lot's hand and his wife's hand, and the other angel grabbed the hands of Lot's 2 daughters and led them quickly out of the town. God wanted Lot and his family to be safe.* 17 As soon as they were all outside, one of the angels said to them, “Run away quickly. Do not look back, but keep running until you get to the hills. Do not stop anywhere on the plain country. If you don't do as I say, you will die like all the people in Sodom.”

18-19 Lot said to one of the angels, “My lord, you have been very kind to me and you have saved my life, but I cannot run all the way to the hill country, it is too far. I just can't make it and so I will die like everyone else. 20 Look there is a little town over there. Maybe I could run there and be safe. It is not too far for me.”

21 The angel answered, “Ok, I will let you go to that little town. I will not burn it up and you will be safe there. 22 But run quickly. I will not do anything until you are safe in that little town called Zoar.” In that language Zoar means Little.

God sent fire onto Sodom and Gomorrah

23-25 Just as Lot and his daughters got to Zoar, the sun came up. Then the Lord sent burning stone called sulfur down from the sky onto Sodom and Gomorrah. Both those towns and all the plain country around them was burnt. All the people, all the plants and every living thing there died.*

26 But Lot's wife turned around and looked at what was happening, and straight away her body turned into a block of salt.*

27-28 Early the next day, Abraham went to the place where he had talked with God the day before. He looked down the hill at where the 2 towns, Sodom and Gomorrah used to be. The towns and everything on the plain country was on fire. There was a lot of smoke, like the smoke from a really big bushfire.

29 And so, what God told Abraham came true that day. God could not find 10 good people in the towns and so he sent fire and burned them up. But God was kind to Abraham and God saved Lot and his 2 daughters.

Lot's daughters do the wrong thing

30 Lot and his daughters were frightened to stay in Zoar and so they went and lived in a cave up in the hill country.

31 One day the oldest daughter said to her sister, “Our father is really old, and there are no men around here that will marry us. 32 Let's get our father drunk and get him to sleep with us so that we can have babies. That way our family line will keep going.” 33 So, that night the 2 daughters got their father drunk and the oldest daughter slept with her father so that she could have a baby. Lot was so drunk he did not know what happened.

34 The next morning, the older daughter said to her sister, “I slept with our father last night. It's your turn now. We will get him drunk again tonight and you can go and sleep with him. Then we will both have babies and our family line will keep going.”

35 The 2 sisters got their father drunk again and the younger daughter slept with her father. And again, Lot had no idea what happened.

36 And so both sisters had babies from their father. 37 The oldest daughter had a son and she named him Moab which means in their language, He came from my father. All the families that came from that son were called Moabites and they are still living today.

38 The younger daughter had a son too, and she named him Ben-Ammi. In their language it means Son of my relation. All the families that came from this son were called Ammonites and they are still living today.

20

Abraham tricked Abimelek

1 Later on, Abraham moved his camp south to the dry country called The Negev and camped between the 2 towns called Kadesh and Shur in a place called Gerar. 2 Abimelek, the king of Gerar heard about Sarah, so he sent someone to get her. He wanted Sarah to be his wife. And it was there that Abraham again said, “Sarah is my sister.”*

3 God was not happy with Abimelek's plan. And so one night God spoke to Abimelek in a dream and said, “You are going to die. You have taken Sarah to be your wife. She is already married to Abraham.”

4-5 At that time, Abimelek had not touched Sarah or gone to bed with her and so he said to the Lord, “But Lord! Abraham said that Sarah was his sister, and she said that Abraham was her brother. I did not know that I was doing something wrong. I thought she was not married. Would you kill me and all my people who have done nothing wrong?”

6 God answered him, “Yes I know that you did nothing wrong. You did not know that Sarah was a married woman. That is why I stopped you from doing the wrong thing with her. 7 Give Sarah back to Abraham. He is my special man and he will pray for you so that you do not die. But I tell you, if you do not give her back to Abraham, I will kill you and everyone who lives with you.”

8 So early the next day, Abimelek called a meeting for all his important workers. He told them everything that God had said and they were all very frightened. 9 Then Abimelek sent someone to get Abraham to come to the meeting. Abimelek said to Abraham, “What have you done! And what have I done to you so that you pay us back with this trouble? You have done the wrong thing to me and my people. 10 What were you thinking? Why did you tell everyone that Sarah was your sister?”

11 Then Abraham answered and said, “I didn't think anyone here respected God, and I was frightened that you would kill me so that you could have Sarah as your wife. 12 But it is true. Sarah is my wife and she is my sister. We have the same father but different mothers. In our culture, we are allowed to marry our half-sisters and so that is what I did. 13 When God told me to leave my father's country, we moved from place to place. I was frightened for myself and so I said to her, ‘If you love me you have to tell everyone that you are my sister. Then I will be safe.’ ”

14 Abimelek did what God told him to do. He gave Sarah back to Abraham, and gave him some sheep and cattle as well as men and women workers as a present. 15 Abimelek said to Abraham, “Friend, look at all my country. You can live anywhere you like.” 16 Then Abimelek said to Sarah, “I gave your brother Abraham a lot of silver in front of everyone, to show that you did nothing wrong.”

17-18 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God made Abimelek strong again. And he made Abimelek's wife and all the women who lived in his house better so that they could have babies again.* God had stopped all the women from having babies when Abimelek tried to marry Sarah.

21

Sarah had a son named Isaac

1-3 The Lord was kind to Sarah and she found out that she was going to have a baby. Then, at the right time, the baby that the Lord promised to Sarah was born.* And so Sarah gave that old man Abraham a son. And Abraham named the baby Isaac which means Laughing. 4 Abraham remembered his side of the promise he made with God. And so when Isaac was 8 days old, Abraham did the young men's* operation on Isaac to show that Isaac belonged to God.*

5 Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. 6 Sarah said, “God has given me a chance to laugh now, and everyone who hears my story will laugh and be happy with me.” 7 Then she said, “We are so old that no-one thought that Abraham and I could ever have a baby. But now we have a son.”

8 Isaac grew and on the day he stopped just having milk and started to eat food, Abraham gave a big party.

Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away from his camp.

9-10 One day Sarah saw Ishmael and Isaac playing together. And she started to worry that Hagar's son Ishmael would get a share of everything after Abraham died. So she said to Abraham, “When you die, my son Isaac must get everything you own. Hagar's son must not get anything. Send him and his mother away from here.”*

11 Ishmael was his son too and so Abraham was really upset by Sarah's words. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not worry about Ishmael. It is ok. I will look after him and his mother.* You should listen to Sarah and do what she says. Remember that I promised you a family. That family will come from Isaac, not Ishmael. 13 I will give Ishmael a family too. His family will grow into a nation. He is your son and that is why I will do good things for him.”

14 The next morning, Abraham got some food and a water bag. He put them on Hagar's shoulder and sent her and Ishmael out of the camp. Together they walked into the dry country called Beersheba. 15-16 They walked until there was no water left in the water bag. They stopped and Hagar left Ishmael under a tree, and then she went and sat by herself a long way off. She said to herself, “I cannot watch him die,” and she started to cry.

17-18 God heard the boy crying too and so he sent an angel from heaven to talk to Hagar. And the angel said to her, “Why are you upset? God has heard Ishmael crying under that tree. Go and get your son, and do not be frightened. I promise you, a great nation will come from your son.” 19 Then God showed her where to find a waterhole. She filled the water bag and gave Ishmael a drink.

20-21 God kept Ishmael safe as he grew up in the dry country called Paran. He learned how to be a great hunter and later on Hagar got a wife for him from Egypt.

Abraham and Abimelek made a promise together

22 One day, Abimelek and the leader of his army called Fycol, came to talk to Abraham. It was Abimelek who had nearly married Sarah.*

Abimelek said to Abraham, “We know that God is very good to you and helps you with everything you do. 23 But, Abraham, you are not one of my people. You are a stranger living here in my country and I have been kind to you and to all your people. And so, I want you to be kind to me and to all my people. And I want you to promise me that you will never try to trick me, or the family that comes after me. And I want you to say, ‘God, punish me if I break this promise.’ ” 24 Abraham said, “Abimelek, I promise to do the right thing to you and to your family. And I say, ‘God, I want you to punish me if I break my promise to Abimelek’.”

25 Then Abraham said to Abimelek, “We have just promised to be good friends, but I have a problem. Some of your people grabbed one of our waterholes, and then stopped us from getting any water from it.”

26 Abimelek said, “I do not know who did this. Why didn't you tell me before now?”

27 Abraham went to his camp and picked some sheep and cows and took them back to the meeting. He gave the animals to Abimelek and the 2 men made strong promises to each other again.

28 Abraham picked 7 girl lambs and put them to one side. 29 Abimelek asked, “Why did you put these 7 girl lambs to one side. What does it mean?”

30 Abraham answered, “I want to give you these lambs as a present. When people see you take these sheep from me they will know that you and I agree that I dug this waterhole.” 31 From that time on, that place was called Beersheba. And in that language it means Promise Waterhole, and it was where Abraham and Abimelek made strong promises to each other.

32 Then Abimelek and Fycol, the leader of his army, went back home to the country where the Philistines lived. 33 Abraham planted a Tamarisk tree in Beersheba. He did this to mark the place where he prayed and showed respect to the one true God who lives forever. 34 Abraham and all his people lived in the land that belonged to the Philistines for a very long time. But they were always strangers in that country.

22

God wanted to know if Abraham really trusted him

1 A long time later God wanted to know if Abraham really trusted him with everything.*

God called out to him and said, “Abraham.”

And Abraham answered, “Yes God I am listening to you.” 2 Then God said, “I know that you love your special son Isaac, but I want you to take him to the country called Moriah.* On one of the big hills that I will show you, I want you to show how much you respect me. I want you to kill Isaac there and burn his body on a table made of stones called an altar.” 3 The next morning, Abraham cut wood for the fire and tied the wood onto his donkey. He took his son Isaac and 2 workmen, and they started to walk to the place that God was taking him to.

4-5 They had walked for nearly 3 days when Abraham looked up and saw the place God talked about. It was a long way off, but he said to his workmen, “I want you to stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to show respect to God, then we will come back to you.”

6-7 Abraham put the wood onto Isaac's back and Abraham carried the fire stick and the knife. Abraham and Isaac walked along for a while, then Isaac said, “Father.”

Abraham answered, “Yes, my son.”

Isaac said, “We have the wood and the fire stick, but where is the young sheep we are going to burn to show respect to God?” 8 Abraham answered, “God will give us the animal so that we can show him respect.” And they walked on together. 9 They got to the place God wanted Abraham to go to. Abraham piled up some stones to make the altar and put the wood on the top. Then he tied up his son Isaac and put him on top of the wood. 10-11 Abraham picked up his sharp knife and was about to kill Isaac, but an angel sent from God called out to him from heaven. The angel said, “Abraham, Abraham.”

And Abraham answered, “Yes, I can hear you.” 12 The angel said, “Do not kill Isaac or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you respect God so much that you are ready to kill your special son.” *

13 Abraham looked around him and saw a boy sheep with its horns stuck in a bush. He took Isaac off the wood and let him go free. Then Abraham grabbed the sheep, killed it, and put the sheep on the altar table where Isaac had been lying. So Abraham did not burn Isaac, he burnt the sheep to show respect for God.

14 Abraham called that place, God will give you what you need. Even today, people say, “On the Lord's Mountain, he will give you what you need.”

15-16 God's angel called out to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “Abraham, I make my promise with you again. I saw that you were ready to give your son, your only son, to me. 17 And so, I will do really good things for you and make you strong. I will give you a big family. Your children's children and all those that come from them will be so many, that they will be like the stars in the sky. And just like you cannot count all the pieces of dirt on the ground, your family will be that many.* Your families will grab the towns that belong to any people that go against them. 18 And I will use your family to do good things for all the nations in the world. You trusted me and did what I asked and so I will keep my promise.” *

19 Abraham and Isaac walked back to where Abraham's workers were waiting with the donkey and they all went back to their camp at Beersheba. Abraham and all his people camped there for a long time.

Abraham got news about his brother's family

20-23 Later on, someone came from Abraham's homeland with news about his family. Abraham heard that his brother Nahor's first wife named Milcah had given birth to 8 sons. Their names were, Uz who was the eldest, Buz, Kemuel, who later had a son named Aram, Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaf and Bethuel.

Bethuel grew up and had a daughter named Rebekah. 24 Nahor had a second wife named Reumah. She had sons for Nahor and they were named, Tebar, Gaham, Tahash and Maycar.

23

Sarah died

1-2 Sarah lived for 127 years and died at a place called Kiriath Arba. Hebron is another name for Kiriath Arba and is in the country called Canaan. Abraham was very sad and he sat down to cry next to her body.

3 Then he got up and had a meeting with the Hittite people who owned that country. 4 Abraham said to them, “I am a stranger here, and my wife has died. Can I buy some land from you so that I can bury her body?” *

5-6 The Hittite people answered, “Sir. We know that you are a great leader living in our country. You can bury your wife in the best place in our cemetery. We respect you and so no-one will stop you.” 7-9 Abraham got down on his knees in front of the Hittite people. He said, “Thank you, but can you ask the man named Efron son of Zohar, if I can buy the cave in a place called Mack-pelah? I want to pay the full price for that cave so that I can bury my wife the right way for my culture. If I pay Efron that money, you will all know that from now on it is our cemetery.” *

10-11 Efron the Hittite was at the meeting. He said to Abraham, “Sir, I am going to say something to you in front of all these witnesses. I will give you the cave and the whole paddock as a present. Go and bury your wife in that cave.”

12-13 Abraham got down on his knees again in front of the Hittite people and said, “Thank you, but I really want to pay you the full price for that paddock and cave. Please accept my money so that I can bury my wife properly.”

14-15 Efron answered Abraham, “Sir, that paddock and cave is worth only 400 pieces of silver. It is like nothing to me. Please take the land and go and bury your wife.”

16 Abraham agreed with the price and gave Efron the 400 pieces of silver in front of the Hittite people who were standing near the town gate. 17-20 And so, the cave and all the trees that were in the paddock belonged to Abraham and that was where he buried his wife Sarah.

Mack-pelah was near a place called Mamre in the country of Canaan, and later Mamre was called Hebron.

That is how Abraham got a cemetery for his family from the Hittite people.

24

Abraham gets a wife for Isaac

1 Right from the start, God was good to Abraham. And now that Abraham was really old he wanted to find a wife for his son Isaac. 2-3 Abraham had a special worker that looked after everything that Abraham owned. One day, Abraham said to his worker, “I want you to find a wife for my son Isaac.

My countrymen have a promise ceremony and this is what we do when we make a strong promise. Come here and put your hand on my leg and promise me that you will not get a wife for my son from the Canaanite families in this country. I want you to say that promise out loud so that the God who made heaven and earth hears what you say and is a witness. 4 I want you to go back to my homeland, and get a wife for Isaac from my relatives.”

5 The worker asked, “What if the woman does not want to leave her homeland and come here. What do you want me to do then? Maybe I could send Isaac back there to find a wife for himself.”

6 Abraham answered, “No way! Make sure you do not take Isaac back to my homeland. 7 The God who made Heaven told me to leave my country and all my relations. He led me to this country and made a strong promise to me. He said, ‘I will give this country to all the family that comes from you’. *

God will send an angel to help you find the right woman for Isaac.* 8 But if the woman God shows you does not want to leave her homeland and come here to marry Isaac, you are free from your promise to me and to God. But I tell you again. You must not take my son back to my homeland.” 9 So the worker did what Abraham asked him to do. He put his hand on Abraham's leg and said out loud, “I promise to go and find a wife for Isaac from your countrymen. And I promise that I will never take Isaac out of this country.”

10 Then the worker took 10 camels to carry all the presents for Abraham's relations. The worker travelled east and a little bit north towards the place where Abraham's brother Nahor lived. Nahor's town was in a country called Meso-pot-aim-ia. This is between the 2 great rivers called the Tigris and You-Fray-tees.

11 The worker and his camels walked for many days until they got to the town where Nahor lived. Abraham's worker made the camels get down on their knees to rest at a waterhole just outside the town. When it was nearly night time, the young girls from the town came out to the waterhole to get water in their billycans. 12 Then the worker prayed. He said, “O God, you are the one who looks after my boss Abraham, please be kind to him today. 13 I am standing next to this waterhole and all the young girls from the town are coming out to get water. Please help me pick the right girl for Abraham's son, Isaac.

14 I will say to one of them, ‘Can you give me a drink?’ If she says ‘Yes,’ and if she says, ‘I will give your camels a drink too’, then I will know that she is the girl you have picked for Isaac. And I will know that you have been very kind to my boss, Abraham.”

15 The worker was still praying when Rebekah walked out of the town with a big billycan on her shoulder. Rebekah's father was named Bethuel and his parents were Milcah and Nahor. And Nahor was Abraham's brother. 16 Rebekah was a very beautiful young girl who had never gone to bed with a man.

She went down into the waterhole, filled up her billycan with water and started to walk back up. 17 Abraham's worker ran to her and said, “Can I have a drink of water from your billycan?”

18 Rebekah answered, “Yes, my master, please have a drink.” And she gave him the billycan. 19 When Abraham's worker finished his drink, Rebekah said, “Wait, I will get water for your camels too.” 20 Then she went quickly and put the rest of the water from the billycan into a big water bucket to let the camels have a drink. She went back to the waterhole to get water again and again, until all the camels finished drinking. 21 Abraham's worker was standing quietly next to the waterhole. He was watching to see if God had answered his prayers and led him to the right girl for Isaac to marry.

22 When the camels had finished drinking, Abraham's worker got out a gold nose ring and 2 gold arm bands, and gave them to Rebekah. 23 He asked Rebekah, “Who is your father? Is there somewhere we can camp at your place?”

24 Rebekah answered, “My father's name is Bethuel. And my grandparents are Milcah and Nahor. 25 We have plenty of room and food for you and your camels.”

26 Abraham's worker bowed down to show respect for the Lord. 27 He said, “Thank you God. Lord, you are so good. You have kept your promise and you have been very kind to my boss, Abraham. You have led me to his relations.”

28-30 Rebekah ran home to tell everyone in her mother's camp about the man at the waterhole and showed them the ring and arm bands. When Rebekah's brother Laban heard her story and saw the gold ring and gold bands on her arms, he ran back to the waterhole and found Abraham's worker still standing with his camels. 31 Laban said to Abraham's worker, “God has been good to you. He has kept you safe and led you to our camp. Don't stand out here at the waterhole but come home and stay with us. We have plenty of room for your camels.”

32 Abraham's worker and his men followed Laban to his camp. They took everything off the camels and gave the camels food to eat and grass to sleep on. The worker and his men were given some water so that they could wash their feet. 33 Then Rebekah's brother Laban gave them some food. But Abraham's worker said, “I cannot eat until I tell you why I came here.”

Laban said to him, “Ok, tell us why you are here.”

34 Abraham's worker said, “I work for Abraham. 35 And God has been really good to him, he is a rich man now. God has given him a lot of sheep and cattle, camels and donkeys as well as a lot of men and women that work for him. He has a lot of money too. 36 Abraham's wife, Sarah was really old when God made a way for her to give Abraham a son, and so Abraham has given him everything. 37 But Abraham was worried about getting a wife for his son, and so he made me make a promise out loud so that God was a witness. I had to say, ‘I will not get a wife for Isaac from any of the families in the Canaanite country where Abraham lives.’ 38 Abraham said to me, ‘You have to go to my homeland and find my relations. You should be able to find a wife for Isaac there.’

39 But I asked Abraham, ‘What if the young girl will not come with me?’

40-41 Abraham said, ‘I have trusted God for a long time. I know he will send an angel to help you. He will help you find the right girl for Isaac from my father's family. But if the girl's relations will not let her go with you, you will be free from the promise you made to me and to God.’

42 And so, when I got to the waterhole today, I prayed to God and said, ‘O God, I know my boss respects and trusts you. So please help me finish the job he sent me to do.’ 43 I said, ‘God, I am standing next to this waterhole and I will wait for a young girl to come and get water. I will say to her, “Please can I have a drink of water from your billycan?” ’ 44 And if she says to me, ‘Yes, have a drink and I will get water for your camels too,’ then I will know that she is the girl you have picked for Abraham's son.

45 Even before I finished praying, Rebekah came out from your camp with her billycan. She went down and got water from the waterhole. And when she came out I asked her, ‘Please can I have a drink of water from your billycan?’ 46 Straight away she put her billycan down and said, ‘Yes, have a drink and I will get water for your camels too.’ So I had a drink and she gave water to my camels. 47 Then I asked her, ‘Who is your father?’

She answered, ‘My father is Bethuel and his parents are Milcah and Nahor.’ When I heard her say the name Nahor, I knew that God had shown me the right girl and so I put the gold ring in her nose and put the gold bands on her arms. 48 Then I bowed my head and said, ‘Thank you’ to the God that my master Abraham respects. It was God who had led me straight to my master's relatives and to my master's niece. It was God that helped me find a wife for my master's son. 49 And so now you have heard my story. Will you do the right thing for Abraham and be kind to him? Will you let me take Rebekah home with me? If you say no, I will make other plans.”

50 Rebekah's brother Laban and her father Bethuel answered, “We believe your story and we can see that God made all this happen. We cannot change God's plan. 51 Here is Rebekah. Take her to Abraham's country so that she can be Isaac's wife. It is what God wants.” 52 When Abraham's worker heard this, he bowed down and said, “Thank you God.” 53 Then he gave Rebekah some really nice clothes, and pretty things to wear made out of silver and gold. He gave her brother Laban and her mother presents that cost a lot of money.

54 Then Abraham's worker and his men ate their food and went to sleep.

The next morning, Abraham's worker said to everyone, “I think we should start going back to Abraham today.” 55 But Laban and Rebekah's mother said, “Can you let the young girl stay here for 10 more days, and then go?”

56 But Abraham's worker said to them, “God has made everything good so far. Please do not stop me from going back to Abraham today.”

57 So Laban and Rebekah's mother said, “We will talk to Rebekah and ask her what she wants to do.” 58 They asked Rebekah, “Are you ready to go with this man and marry Isaac?”

Rebekah answered, “Yes I am ready. I will go.” 59-61 Then Rebekah's family asked God to give Rebekah good things and make her strong,

They said,

“We ask God to give you a lot of children and grandchildren.

We ask God to make your family strong so that they can beat any people who try to fight them.”

And so, Laban and all Rebekah's family said goodbye to her and they were happy for her to go and marry Isaac.

There was a woman that had looked after Rebekah from the time she was a little girl. And so when Rebekah got ready to leave her family, she took the woman with her. They climbed up onto their camels, and followed Abraham's worker as he left the camp.

62 Back in Canaan, Isaac left his camp in a place called Beer La-hai Roy and went south to live in that dry country called The Negev. 63 As Isaac was walking out in the paddocks late one day, he looked up and saw a big mob of camels coming towards him. 64-65 Rebekah looked up too and saw Isaac. She got down off her camel and asked Abraham's worker, “Who is that man walking over there?”

The worker answered, “That is Abraham's son, Isaac.”

Rebekah got some cloth and covered her face. In her culture, that is what young girls did when they saw the man they were going to marry.

66 Then Abraham's worker told Isaac everything that happened.

67 Isaac married Rebekah and took her to live in the tent that his mother Sarah used to live in. And so, Rebekah was now Isaac's wife and he loved her. Isaac was very sad about losing his mother, but Rebekah made him happy again.

25

Abraham married Keturah

1 Some time after Sarah died, Abraham married another woman and her name was Keturah. 2 Abraham and Keturah had 6 sons together and their names were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Later on, Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan, and when Dedan grew up, he had 3 sons. From these 3 sons came the Assyrian, Letush and Leum people. 4 Midian had 5 sons, and they were named Efah, Effer, Hanock, Abida, and Elday-ah. All these people came from Abraham and Keturah.

5-6 Before he died, Abraham was very kind to the sons he had with Hagar and Keturah and gave them a lot of presents. But he sent them away to live in country to the East. He did not want them to live close to Isaac. And so, when Abraham died, Isaac got everything that belonged to his father.

Abraham died

7-8 Abraham was 175 years old when he died and he was buried just like his old father's before him. He had lived a long time and had a good life. 9-10 His 2 sons, Isaac and Ishmael took Abraham's body and put it in the same cave where Abraham buried his wife Sarah. It was called Mack-pelah and was near Mamre. Abraham had paid Efron for that land. Efron's father was named Zoar the Hittite. *

11 Isaac lived near Beer La-hai Roy after Abraham died and it was there that God was good to Isaac.

This is Ishmael's Story

12 Many years before, Sarah had an Egyptian woman that worked for her. Her name was Hagar. When Sarah found that she could not have a baby, she gave Hagar to be like a wife for Abraham.* Sarah did this so that Hagar and Abraham could have a baby together. Hagar did have a son and Abraham named him Ishmael. Later on, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away from his camp. But God had promised Hagar that Ishmael would have a big family.

This is the family that came from Ishmael

13-15 This is a list of Ishmael's sons. Nebay-oth, was the oldest, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Nafish, and Kedemah was the youngest. 16 Each of the 12 sons was the leader of his own tribe and they all lived in their own country.

17 Ishmael died when he was 137 years old.

18 The tribes that came from Ishmael lived in a big area that went from Havilah to Shur. Shur is near the Egyptian border, on the west side of Assyria. And what the angel said to Hagar years before at the waterhole, came true. Ishmael's mob did fight with each other all the time.

This is Isaac's story

19 This is the story of Abraham's son named Isaac.

20 Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah. She came from Abraham's country and was the daughter of Bethuel who lived in Harran. Her brother's name was Laban and he was called The Aramean.

21 Isaac and Rebekah were married for 20 years and they still did not have any children and so Isaac prayed for her. God heard his prayer and later on Rebekah knew she was going to have a baby. 22 But she was going to have twins and they started to fight each other even before they were born. Rebekah was upset and said to herself, “Why is this happening to me?” Then she prayed to the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“There are 2 boys inside you.

One day, they will be 2 nations.

And they will be against each other all the time.

One nation will be stronger than the other,

and the boy that is born second

will be the boss over the boy that is born first.”*

24-25 On the day the twins were born, the first one was all red and had hair all over his body like a coat, and so they named him Esau. 26 When the second baby was born, he was holding his brother's foot so they named him Jacob. Jacob means Tricky One in their language. Isaac was 60 years old when his sons were born.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a very good hunter. He loved being out in the bush, but Jacob was a quiet man who liked to stay around his parent's camp. 28 Isaac loved to eat the bush food that Esau took home and so Esau was Isaac's favourite son, but Rebekah loved Jacob the best.

Esau gave up his place in the family

29-30 One day, Esau came home after hunting, and he was really hungry. He found Jacob cooking some stew and said, “I am really hungry, give me some of that red stew.” And that is why people named him Edom. It means Red.

31 Jacob answered, “I will give you the stew, if you give me your place in the family. That means that I will be like the oldest son and will get more than you, when our father dies.”

32 Esau said, “I am so hungry that I feel like I am going to die. I am not worried about getting my father's things after he dies.”

33 But Jacob said, “First, you have to make a strong promise to me.” And so Esau promised that Jacob would be the leader of the family after Isaac died. It was like Esau sold his place in the family for a bowl of stew. 34 Jacob gave Esau some bread and stew with vegetables in it. Esau ate and drank and then he went away. In this way, Esau showed that he did not care about being the next leader of the family after Isaac died. *

26

God made the same promise to Isaac that had he made to Abraham

1-6 There came a time when there was not much food in the country where Isaac and Rebekah were living. But God said to Isaac, “Do not go down to Egypt. I want you to stay in this country.

This hard time will not last long and I will bless you, I will look after you and do good things for you and make you strong.

Just like I promised your father Abraham, I make this same promise to you. I will give you all this country. Yes, I will give it to you and to all the family that comes from you.* And just like I promised your father, your family will be like the stars in the sky, they will be so many you will not be able to count them. Your family will have this country and I will use them to do good things for all the people in the world. Your father Abraham listened to me and did everything I told him to do. That is why I am making this promise to you now.”

Isaac moved his camp to Gerar and stayed there. This was the country where Abimelek was the king of the Philistines.

7 The men in Gerar saw Rebekah and saw that she was very beautiful. They asked Isaac who she was and he said, “She is my sister.” Isaac was frightened that if he said, “She is my wife,” the men would kill him so that they could have her.

8 Isaac and Rebekah lived there for a long time. One day Abimelek, king of the Philistines looked down from his window and saw Isaac hugging and kissing Rebekah. 9 Abimelek sent someone to get Isaac and when he arrived, Abimelek said, “Rebekah is your wife! Why did you tell everyone that she is your sister?” *

Isaac answered, “I was frightened that one of your men might kill me so that they could have her for a wife.”

10 Abimelek was angry with Isaac and said, “What were you thinking? One of my men might have taken Rebekah as his wife. That man would not know that he had done the wrong thing, but all of our people would be guilty for what happened!”

11 Then Abimelek made a new law and said to his people, “Anyone that hurts Isaac or Rebekah will be killed!”

Isaac gets very rich

12-13 While Isaac lived in Gerar, he started to grow seed plants. The Lord was good to Isaac, and in that first year his plants grew so much seed that he became very rich. 14 Isaac had so many sheep, cattle and workmen that the Philistine people in that land were jealous of him. 15 They were so jealous, they filled in the water holes Abraham's workers had dug many years before. 16 Abimelek went to see Isaac and said, “You have to go away from here and live somewhere else. You are too strong for us and there will be trouble if you do not go.

17 So Isaac moved his camp away from Gerar. He went to a dry river bed called the Valley of Gerar.

Isaac dug new waterholes

18 Many years before this time, Abraham had dug waterholes in this country too, but after he died, the Philistine people filled them up with dirt. Isaac got his workers to dig all the dirt out of those waterholes and he called the waterholes the same names Abraham did. 19 Isaac's workers dug in the dry river bed and found fresh water. 20 But the men that looked after animals from Gerar said, “That water is ours!” They argued with Isaac's workers and so Isaac called that waterhole Esek which means Argue in their language. 21 His workers dug another waterhole and the Gerar men said the same thing and so Isaac called that waterhole, Sitnah which means They are against us. 22 Isaac moved again and his workers dug another waterhole. This time no-one came to fight them for the water and so Isaac called it Rehoboth which means More Room. He said, “God has given us this place, and our families can stay here and have a good life.”

23 Later on, Isaac moved his camp to Beersheba. 24 That same night, the Lord came to Isaac and said, “Do not be frightened. I am the God that your father Abraham respected, and I will look after you. I will bless you, I will do good things for you and make you strong. Your sons will have big families. This is the same promise I made to your father. He trusted me and so that is why I am making this promise with you.” 25 Isaac made an altar table made of stones, and burnt an animal on it to show the Lord respect. And it was there that Isaac called out to God and used God's name.

Isaac got his workers to dig another waterhole, so that they could camp there for a while.

26 Abimelek came from Gerar to visit Isaac. He had his close helper named Ahuzzath and the leader of their army named Fycol. 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to talk to me? You forced me to leave your country. You spoke to me as if you hated me and I was your enemy!”

28-29 King Abimelek said, “When you lived with us, we were good to you. And we could see that God was helping you. God blessed you and did good things for you and made you strong. God helped you that much that you started to be too strong for us, and we were frightened of what you might do. That is why we sent you away and did not try to hurt you. We wanted to live quietly by ourselves. But we can see that God is doing more good things for you. And so, we think that you and I should make a promise that our people will not fight each other.”

30 Isaac told his workers to get a big party ready for everybody, and they all ate and drank together. 31 Early the next morning, Isaac and Abimelek had a special promise ceremony. They shook hands and promised that their people would not fight each other. Isaac said goodbye to Abimelek and his men and from that time there was no more trouble between them.*

32 That same day, Isaac's workers came and told him about the new waterhole they dug. They said, “We have found water!” 33 Isaac called that new waterhole, Shibah which means Promise. That is why that place is still called Beersheba, even today. Beersheba means Promise Waterhole.

34 Isaac and Rebekah's oldest son Esau did not marry girls from his own tribe. He was 40 years old when he married Judith the daughter of a man named Berri, and he married Bas-e-math the daughter of Elon too. Both these families were from the Hittite tribe. 35 And those Hittite women gave Isaac and Rebekah a lot of trouble. *

27

Rebekah and Jacob trick Isaac

1 Many years later, when Isaac was really old and he could not see very well, he called out to his oldest son. He said, “Esau, my son.”

And Esau answered, “I am here father.”

2 Isaac said, “I am getting really old and I do not know when I will die. 3 I want you to go hunting. Take your bow and arrows and get some bush meat for me.* 4 I want you to cook that meat with bush leaves, just the way I like it. Bring it to me and I will eat it and then I will ask God to bless you. I will ask him to be good to you and make you strong. You will get more than anyone else when I die and you will get the promises God made to Abraham and to me. I must do this before I die.” 5 And so, Esau left his father and went hunting. Isaac did not know that Rebekah was outside and heard what he had said to Esau. 6-7 Rebekah went and found Jacob and said, “I just heard your father tell Esau to go hunting to get some bush meat for him. He told him to bring it home and cook it with leaves to make it tasty. That is how your father likes his meat. Your father told Esau that after he ate the food, he would bless him and ask God to be good to him and make him strong. If your father says those words to Esau, he will get more than anyone else after your father dies. Esau will get the promises God made to Abraham and to your father. Your father has to say those words before he dies. 8 Jacob. Do what I tell you. 9 Go and get 2 of our best young goats and bring them here. I will cook them with leaves just the way your father likes to eat his meat. 10 When it is ready, you can take the food to him and your father will say all the things to you that he was going to say to Esau.”

11 Jacob said to his mother, “But Esau is a hairy man and I am not. My skin is smooth. 12 What if my father touches my skin? He will know that I am tricking him and instead of asking God to do good things for me he would ask God to put a curse on me.”

13 Rebekah said to him, “If anything goes wrong, I will take the curse. Go and do what I tell you and get those goats for me!”

14 So, Jacob went and got the goats and took them to his mother. She cooked the meat with bush leaves, just like Isaac liked it. 15 She went into the house and found Esau's best clothes and put them on Jacob. 16 Then she took the skins from the goats and tied them onto Jacob's hands and neck. 17 She gave Jacob the tasty meat and the bread that she had made.

18 Jacob took them and went into his father's room and said, “Father.”

Isaac answered, “Yes my son, but who are you?”

19 Jacob said, “I am Esau, your oldest son. I have done what you asked me to do. Please sit up and eat this bush meat and then you can ask the Lord to bless me. When you do that, the Lord will do good things for me and make me strong.”

20 Isaac asked him, “How did you find the meat so quickly?”

Jacob answered, “The Lord your God helped me find it.” 21 Isaac said to Jacob, “Come here so that I can touch you. Then I will know if you really are Esau or someone else.”

22-23 Jacob went close to his father. Isaac touched Jacob's hands but he did not know that it was Jacob pretending to be his brother Esau. Isaac said, “When you talk, you sound like Jacob, but your hands feel like Esau's hands, they are really hairy.” Isaac was going to ask God to do good things for Jacob and make him strong and he started to say the special words to bless Jacob. 24 But to make sure, he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?”

Jacob answered, “Yes I am.”

25 And so Isaac said, “My son, give me some of that meat and then I will ask God to bless you and do good things for you and make you strong.”

Jacob took the meat and the bread to his father and Isaac ate it. Then Jacob gave Isaac some wine and he drank it. 26 Isaac said to Jacob, “Come close to me my son and kiss me.” 27 Jacob went to Isaac and kissed him. Isaac smelled Esau's clothes that Jacob was wearing and so he blessed him and asked God to do good things for him and make him strong. He said,

“Yes, I smell my son Esau.

That smell comes from being in the bush,

and God has made that smell good and strong.

28 I want God to give you good country and good rain.

I ask God to make your country grow a lot of food and grapes to make wine.

29 I ask God to make you strong so that you are boss over other nations, and they will bow down to show you respect.

My son, I ask God to make you the boss over your brothers

and that your brothers will bow down and show you respect too.

I ask God that if anyone puts a curse on you, they will get a curse from God,

but if anyone does good things for you, I ask God to do good things for them.”

Isaac finished saying these words and Jacob went outside. *

Esau asks Isaac for his blessing

30 Just after Jacob left Isaac's tent, Esau came home from hunting. 31 He cooked the meat with bush leaves and took it to his father. He said, “Hello father, I have cooked the meat the way you like it. Sit up and eat it and then you can bless me and ask God to do good things for me and make me strong.” 32 Isaac said, “Who are you?”

Esau answered, “I am Esau, your oldest son.”

33 Isaac was really frightened and nearly took a fit. He was shaking and said, “Someone just gave me bush meat and I ate it. Who was that? I have just asked God to be good to him and he will take my place after I die. What I asked God for him will come true.”

34 When Esau heard what Isaac said, he was very upset and started to cry out loud. He said, “My father, can you bless me and ask God to do good things for me too and make me strong?”

35 Isaac answered, “Your brother was the one who gave me the meat. He tricked me and I blessed him. I asked God to be good to him and make him strong. He has taken the special words I was going to say for you.”

36 Esau said, “You really did call him the right name. His name means Tricky One and now he has tricked me 2 times. He took my place as head of the family and now he has taken my blessing. Can you bless me too father and ask God to be good to me and make me strong?”*

37 Isaac answered, “Esau, I tell you now that I have made him boss over you. And all our relations will do what he says. I have given him all the food and wine that he needs. I have given him everything. I am sorry but I have nothing to give you.”

38 Esau said, “Please father, can you bless me and ask God to be good to me and make me strong? Can you just say something to make me strong too?” Then he started to cry out loud again.*

39 Isaac answered him and said,

“You will not live in good country.

You will live in dry country. It will not rain so that plants can grow.

40 You will fight and steal from other people to get food all your life.

Your brother will be your boss, but one day you will make up your mind to break free from him.”

Jacob ran away from Esau

41 Esau hated Jacob for tricking their father, and he made up his mind to kill Jacob after his father died. Esau said to himself, “Jacob has stolen my blessing, he has stolen the special words that my father should have said to me!”

42 Rebekah heard about Esau's plan to kill Jacob, and so she called Jacob to come to her. She said, “Listen to me. Your brother Esau is planning to kill you. He wants to pay you back for what you did. If he kills you, he thinks everything will be alright.” 43-44 And so you have to run away to Harran where my brother Laban lives. Go straight away! Stay with my countrymen until Esau stops being angry. 45 Esau will forget what you did to him, and then I will send a message to you so that you can come back. If he kills you, he might be killed too and I do not want to lose both of my sons on the same day.

46 Rebekah went to see Isaac and said, “I hate those Hittite women that Esau married. If Jacob marries a woman from this country my life will be too hard.”

28

Isaac sent Jacob to Rebekah's family

1 Isaac called out for Jacob to come to him. And when they were together, Isaac prayed and asked God to be good to Jacob. Then Isaac said, “Jacob, you must not marry a woman from this country! 2 I want you to leave Canaan straight away, and go to where your mother's father, Bethuel lives in Harran. Your uncle Laban lives there too. Go and marry one of his daughters.”

3 Isaac prayed for Jacob, and said,

“God Most Powerful, I am asking you to bless my son Jacob. Do good things for him and make him strong.

Help him find a wife, and give him so many children that they become many nations.

4 God Most Powerful, you promised this country to my father Abraham, but we still live like strangers here.

I am asking you to make the same promise to Jacob that you made to my father Abraham, so that the family that comes from Jacob will have this country for themselves.” *

5 Then Isaac sent Jacob to his mother's relations who lived in Harran. That was where his grandfather Bethuel the Aramean, and his uncle Laban lived. Esau and Jacob's mother Rebekah was Laban's sister.

Jacob's brother Esau married another woman

6 Esau found out that Isaac had said to Jacob, “I do not want you to marry a woman from this Canaanite country!” And Esau heard that Isaac had prayed for Jacob and sent him to Harran to find a wife from their relations. 7-8 When Esau found out that Jacob had listened to his parents and gone to his uncle's place in Harran. Then he was able to understand how much his Canaanite wives upset his father. 9 So Esau went to his uncle Ishmael to get another wife. Ishmael had a daughter, named Ma-hal-ath and a son named Neb-you-cad-nezzaray-oth. Esau married Ma-hal-ath and so now he had 3 wives.

Jacob had a dream

10 This is the story of Jacob's trip. He left his home in Beersheba and started to go to Harran. 11 Just as the sun was going down, Jacob set up his camp. He found a stone and used it as a pillow and went to sleep. 12 In the night he had a dream. He saw stairs going up from the ground all the way into heaven. And he saw God's angels going up and down the stairs.* 13 In his dream, Jacob saw God standing near him. God said, “Jacob, I am the Lord. I am the God that your father Isaac and your grandfather Abraham worshipped and respected.

Listen, just like I promised your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac, I will give you all this country, this ground that you are sleeping on. And it will belong to you and to all the families that will come from you.* 14 No-one can count the little bits of dirt on the ground and just like that, no-one will be able to count the families that will come from you.* Your family will spread out all over the world and be a blessing to all people. That means that you will do good things for them and make them strong. 15 Jacob, I will be with you wherever you go. I will look after you and make sure nothing bad happens to you. One day I will bring you back to this country. I will keep my promise and I will always be with you.”

16-17 Jacob woke up from his dream and was very frightened. He said, “This is a powerful place. I did not know it, but God must live here. This place is like a doorway into heaven.”

18 Early the next morning, Jacob picked up the stone that he had used for a pillow and put it up in a place where people would see it. Then he poured olive oil all over the stone to show that it was a special place for God.* 19 He called that place Bethel. Bethel means God's house. But before that time, it was called Luz.

20-21 Then Jacob made a strong promise to God. He said,

“God, if you go with me and look after me while I am travelling,

if you give me food and clothes to wear,

and if you take me back to my father Isaac's camp safely,

then you, Lord, you will be my God.

And I tell you, I will not worship or respect any other gods or spirit.

You are the only God that I will respect, and I will do everything you tell me. 22 God Most Powerful, I have put this stone here as a sign that it is a special place.

It will be a place where people can pray and show respect to you.

I promise you, God Most Powerful, that when you give me anything, I will split it up into 10 parts and I will give you the first part.”*

29

Jacob got to his uncle's place

1 Jacob walked east until he got to his grandfather's country.

2 When he got there, he saw 3 mobs of sheep lying down in a paddock. They were all waiting next to a waterhole that had a big flat stone on top. 3 In that culture, the shepherds and their sheep had to wait until everyone's sheep got there. Then the shepherds would take the stone off the waterhole and give water to all the sheep. When the sheep had finished drinking, the shepherds put the stone back over the waterhole to keep the water safe.

4 Jacob walked up to the shepherds and said, “Hello my brothers, where are you from?”

And they answered, “We are from Harran.”

5 Jacob asked, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?”

They answered, “Yes we know him.”

6 Jacob asked, “How is he?”

And they answered, “He is well, but hey look, here comes his daughter Rachel * with his sheep.”

7 Jacob said, “It is still the middle of the day. It's a bit early to put them in the stockyard for the night. Why don't you give them some water now and then let them go back out into the paddock?”

8 The shepherds said, “No. We do not give water to any of the sheep until all the sheep are here. When they are all here, we will roll the stone away from the waterhole and give water to them.”

9 While Jacob was still talking with the shepherds, Rachel came to the waterhole with her father's sheep. It was her job to look after them. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel with the sheep, he went to the waterhole and rolled the stone off the top. Then he gave water to the sheep belonged to Laban, Jacob's uncle. 11 Jacob kissed Rachel on the side of her face. He was so happy he cried out loud. 12 He said to her, “I am Rebekah's son and your father is my uncle. I am your cousin.” When Rachel heard what he said, she ran home to tell her father, Laban.

13 As soon as Laban heard what Rachel said, he ran to meet Jacob. He hugged him and kissed him, and then took him to his house. Jacob told his uncle Laban the whole story. 14 Then Laban said, “You are family for me.”

Laban tricked Jacob

Jacob stayed and worked for his uncle for one month. 15 At the end of the month Laban said to Jacob, “You are my close relation. I cannot let you work for nothing. How can I pay you?”

16-17 Laban had 2 daughters. The oldest daughter was named Leah and she had nice eyes, but Rachel looked really beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel and so he said to Laban, “I will work for you for 7 years, if you let me marry your younger daughter Rachel.”

19 Laban said, “I am really happy that you want to marry her. It is better that you marry her than for her to marry any other man. Yes, stay and work for me.” 20 And so, Jacob worked for 7 years so that he could marry Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel that much, the 7 years were like 7 days for him.

21 When Jacob had worked for 7 years, he said to Laban. “I have worked the 7 years for you and now I want to marry Rachel.”

22-24 To let everyone know that Rachel and Jacob were getting married, Laban gave a special party for all his friends and family.

That night Laban tricked Jacob. Laban did not take Rachel to Jacob, he took Leah. It was so dark in the bedroom that Jacob did not know that he slept with Leah.

Some time before, Laban had given Leah a young woman named Zilpah to work for her. 25 In the morning, Jacob got a big shock when he woke up and found Leah in his bed. Straight away he knew that Laban had tricked him, and he was married to Leah, not Rachel. Jacob went and growled at Laban. He said, “What have you done to me. I worked for 7 years to marry Rachel. Why did you trick me?”

26 Laban answered, “In this culture, the oldest daughter must be married before the younger sisters can get married. 27 I tell you what. At the end of one week I will let you marry Rachel as well. But you will have to stay and work for me for another 7 years.”

28-30 Jacob agreed to Laban's plan and a week later he married Rachel. Just like he did for Leah, Laban gave Rachel a young woman to work for her. Her name was Bilhah.

Jacob worked for Laban for another 7 years, but he loved Rachel more than he loved Leah.

Jacob's family

31 God saw that Jacob did not love Leah and so God was kind to her and let her have babies but he did not let Rachel have any. 32 Jacob slept with Leah and she had a son. She named him Reuben. In her language that name means God knows about my sadness and she said to herself, “My husband will love me now.”

33 Leah had another son and she named him Simeon and said, “God knows that Jacob does not love me and so he has given me another son.”

34 Leah had another son and she named him Levi and said, “Jacob must love me now. I have given him 3 sons!”

35 Leah had another son and she named him Judah and said, “I will say good things about God.” Then Leah stopped having any more children.

30

1 Rachel was jealous of Leah. Leah was having babies all the time, but she had none. She got really wild with Jacob and said, “Give me children. I will die if you do not give me children.”

2 Jacob was really angry with Rachel and said, “I am not God! He is the one who has stopped you from having children.”

3 Rachel said, “Here is Bilhah, my young working girl. I want you to sleep with her like she is your wife. In that way, she can have a baby for me, and then I can have a family too.” *

4-5 So Rachel gave Bilhah, her young working girl to Jacob to be another wife for him. Jacob slept with Bilhah and she gave Jacob a son. 6 Rachel said, “God has heard me and given me a son” and she named him Dan.

7 Jacob slept with Bilhah, Rachel's working girl again, and she gave him a second son. 8 Rachel said, “My sister and I are jealousing each other all the time, but I am the winner.” So she named the baby Naftali.

9 Leah knew that she could not have any more children and so she gave her working girl named Zilpah to Jacob to be another wife for him.* She did this so that she could have another baby that way. 10 So Jacob slept with Zilpah, Leah's working girl and she had a baby boy. 11 Leah said, “I am lucky to have another son,” and she named him Gad.

12 Jacob slept with Zilpah again and she gave Jacob another son. 13 Then Leah said, “I am really happy. Other women will see me and say, ‘Look at her, she is really happy now!’ ” Leah named the baby, Asher.

14 It was the right time of the year to get all the food seeds out of the paddocks. The men were collecting the seeds and putting them in sheds. One day, Reuben, Jacob's oldest son went out into the paddocks and found some plants called Mandrakes growing there. He picked them and took them to his mother Leah. But Rachel saw the plants and said to Leah, “Please give me some of those Mandrakes so that I can eat them and have a baby for myself.” In those days, people thought that Mandrakes had special powers and that if you ate them, you would have a baby.

15 Leah was angry and said, “You have already stopped me sleeping with my husband. Do you have to take my son's Mandrakes as well?”

Rachel answered and said, “I tell you what, if you give me those plants, I will let you sleep with Jacob tonight.”

16 That night, as Jacob came home from working in the paddocks, Leah went out and said to him, “You have to sleep with me tonight. I paid for you. I gave Rachel the Mandrake plants that Reuben found in the paddock today. I gave them to her so that I could sleep with you tonight.”

And so, Jacob slept with his first wife Leah that night.

17 God was kind to Leah and gave her baby number 5. 18 She said, “I gave Jacob my young working girl and God has paid me back by giving me a son.” Leah named the baby Iss-a-car.

19-20 Jacob slept with Leah again and she had another baby boy. She now had 6 sons and so she said, “God has given me a good present. Must be Jacob will respect me now. I have given him 6 sons.” So she named him, Zeb-you-lun.

21 Later on Leah had a baby girl and named her Dinah.

22 God saw how sad Rachel was, and so he answered her prayers. He made a way for her to have a baby. 23 Jacob slept with Rachel and she had a son. Rachel said after he was born, “Now God has taken away my shame.” 24 She named the baby Joseph but said, “Lord, can I have another son please?”

Jacob tricked Laban

25-26 A little bit later, after Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban, “I have worked hard for you for 14 years. I have paid for my wives and so, please let me take them and my children to live back in my own country. That is where my home is.”

27 But Laban said, “If I have made you happy, please stay here with me. In our culture we have a special ceremony way to find out about things.* I did that special ceremony and now I know that God has used you to do good things for me. I am a rich man now. 28 How much can I pay you to stay with me?”

29 Jacob answered, “You know that I have worked hard for you and you have a lot more sheep and cattle now. 30 When I came to live here, you only had a few animals, but now you are rich. Everything I did for you worked out well. And God has used me to give you good things. But it is time for me to do something good for my own family.”

31 Laban asked, “What can I give you?”

Jacob answered, “I do not want you to give me anything. Just let me do one thing and I will stay and look after your animals. 32 Let me look at all your animals and take all the sheep and goats that have black spots in their wool or hair. And I will take all the young sheep that have black wool. Those animals will be my pay. 33 This is the test for you to know if I am an honest man. When you look at all my animals, you will only find animals that have dark skin or have spots. That way you will know that I have not stolen any animals from you.”

34 Straight away, Laban said, “Ok, I agree with that plan.” 35 That same day, Laban tried to trick Jacob again. He took all the boy goats that had stripes or spots in their fur and all the goats that had spots or had white patches in their fur away from all the animals that had only one colour. He did the same with all the black sheep, and then told his sons to guard them. 36 Laban and his sons rounded up all those animals and walked with them for 3 days until they were a long way from Jacob's camp. Jacob stayed behind and looked after the rest of Laban's animals.

37 Jacob knew that his uncle was tricking him again, and so he cut some sticks from 3 different kinds of trees. He cut some of the bark off the sticks so that they had stripes. 38-40 He put those sticks in the animal's water tanks. When the animals came to drink from those tanks, they mated and when the baby animals were born they had stripes and spots in their fur.

In the mating season, Jacob put the boy animals that were white in with his spotty and dark coloured animals. The animals mated, and when the babies were born they were all spotty and dark coloured. Then Jacob took all of the spotted and dark coloured animals and put them in his own paddock. He made sure that his animals stayed away from Laban's animals. This is how Jacob made his mob of animals grow bigger in number.

41-42 When Jacob saw the stronger sheep and goats start to mate, he put the special sticks in front of them, but when the weak sheep and goats started to mate he took those sticks away. In the end, Jacob's sheep and goats were stronger than Laban's. 43 Jacob was very rich now. He had the biggest mob of animals, a lot of workers, as well as camels and donkeys.

31

Jacob ran away from Laban

1 Jacob heard that Laban's sons were grumbling about him. They said, “Jacob's animals are really our father's animals. He has stolen them and that is why he is so rich!” 2 And Jacob noticed that Laban was not as friendly as he was before. 3 The Lord said to Jacob, “It is time for you to go back home. Go back to the land of your father and grandfather. Remember, I will be with you and help you all the way.” 4 So Jacob sent someone to bring Rachel and Leah out into the paddock where their animals lived. 5 He said to them, “I can see that your father does not like me anymore but my father's God has been with me all the time. 6-8 You both know that I have worked really hard for your father. And you know that he has cheated me and changed what he owes me 10 times, but God has stopped him from hurting me. Your father said, ‘You can have all the spotty animals as your pay.’ And that is what happened, all the mother animals had babies with spots. Then your father changed his mind and said, ‘You can have all the animals that have stripes for your pay.’ And again, that is what happened, all the mother animals had babies with stripes. 9 So God has taken your father's animals away from him and given them to me.

10 I had a dream one night when the animals were mating. I saw that it was only the boy goats with different coloured skins that were mating. 11 While I was looking, God's angel spoke to me in that dream. He said, ‘Jacob.’

And I answered, ‘Yes I am listening.’ 12 The angel said, ‘Look. Can you see that it is only the boy goats with different coloured skins that are mating? And that none of the goats with only one colour are mating? I saw how badly Laban has cheated you and that is why I have made his goats stop mating. 13 I am the God who spoke to you at Bethel, the place where you put up the stone and poured olive oil all over it. That was where you made a promise to me. Now I want you to leave this country and go back home to the country where you were born.’ ”

14-16 Rachel and Leah said to Jacob, “We think you should do what God said to you. Our father did not respect us. He treated us like we were strangers and sold us to you like we were animals. You worked hard for him to pay for us, and you made a lot of money for him. But he has sold all those animals and spent the money and so now he has nothing to give us when he dies. We know that God has taken everything away from our father and given it to us and to our children.”

This is how Jacob tricked his uncle Laban

17-21 Jacob did not tell Laban that he was leaving Harran and taking his family to Canaan to live with his father Isaac. Jacob sent all his animals ahead of his family. He put his wives and children and everything they owned onto camels and they left Laban's country very quickly. They crossed the big river called You-Fray-tees and walked towards the hill country called Gilead. But before they left, Rachel waited until her father was away in his sheep paddock cutting the wool off his sheep. She went into her father's house and stole his special ceremony things.

Laban chased Jacob

22 Three days later Laban found out that Jacob and his family had gone. 23-25 He called some of his relations to help him to go and catch Jacob. Seven days later Laban and his relations found Jacob's camp in the hill country called Gilead, and they made their camp nearby.

That night before Laban could speak to Jacob, God spoke to Laban in a dream.* He said “Laban, be very careful how you speak to Jacob. Do not speak angry words to him.” 26-27 The next morning, Laban said to Jacob, “Why did you sneak away like a thief. You have taken my daughters like they are prisoners of war. Why did you trick me and not tell me that you wanted to go? If you had told me, I would have given you a party with lots of food and music, and I would have been happy to say goodbye to all of you. 28 You did not even let me kiss my daughters and grandchildren to say goodbye. You have done a stupid thing! 29 I have a lot of fighting men with me and I could really hurt you, but last night, the God that your father respects said to me, ‘Laban, be very careful how you speak to Jacob. Do not speak angry words to him.’ 30 I can understand that you really want to go home, but why did you steal my special ceremony things?”* 31 Jacob answered, “I was frightened that you would use your fighting men to take your daughters away from me. That is why we left quickly. 32 But I have no idea who took your ceremony things. Everyone standing here are my witnesses. I tell you, I will kill the person who stole those things from your camp. You can look at all our stuff and take anything that is yours.” Jacob did not know that Rachel stole her father's ceremony things.

33-34 So Laban looked in Jacob's tent. He looked in the tent that the 2 working girls camped in, and then Leah's tent, but he did not find the ceremony things. Laban went into Rachel's tent and found her sitting on her camel's saddlebags. Laban had a good look but did not find anything. He did not know that Rachel had hidden the ceremony things inside her saddlebags. 35 Rachel said to her father, “Please do not be angry with me, but I have women's troubles today and I cannot stand up to show you respect.” Laban had another look around but found nothing.

36 Jacob got wild with Laban and said, “What have I done wrong to make you chase me all this way. 37 You have looked into all my bags and found nothing that belongs to you. If you have found something, show it to all our families here so that they can be witnesses. They can say who is right and who is wrong.

38 I worked for you for 20 years. None of your baby lambs or goats died when they were born. I never ate any of your boy sheep. 39 And whenever I found one of your sheep that was killed by wild animals, I did not tell you and blame a wild animal. I put one of my animals in with yours so that your mob stayed the same size. But you forced me to pay for any animal that was stolen in the day or night. 40 I got weak working hard in the sun all day and I was so cold at night, I could not sleep. 41 I really worked like a slave for you all those 20 years. I worked the first 14 years to pay for your daughters and the last 6 years to get my animals. And in all that time you changed what you owed me 10 times. 42 But I have to tell you, the God of Abraham and Isaac was with me, and he saw how hard I worked for you and he saw what you were doing. He knew that you would have sent me away with nothing and that is why he growled at you last night.”

Jacob and Laban made a promise to each other

43 Laban said to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, and so their children belong to me too. Even all these animals are mine. Everything you see here belongs to me, but what can I do about my daughters and grandchildren? Nothing! I cannot take them away from you. 44 I think we should put up a pile of stones and make a strong promise to each other, and every time we see these stones, we will remember what we said.”

45 So Jacob found a big stone* and put it up on its end. 46 He told all his relatives to pick up stones and put them around the standing stone. Then they sat down next to the pile of stones and ate food together. 47 Laban and Jacob both gave that place a name in their own languages that means A pile of stones to help us remember.

48 Laban said, “This pile of stones is like a witness to the promise we are making today.” That is why he called it Galeed. 49 But its other name is Mizpah which means watchtower.

Laban went on to say, “I am asking God to watch us, so that we both keep our side of the promise, even when we are living in different places. 50 Jacob, you must not give my daughters a hard time or hurt them in any way. You must not marry any more wives. Nobody might see you marry another woman, but the God you respect will see. He is a witness to this promise we are making today. 51-52 See these stones I have piled up with the witness stone, they help both of us remember our promises. And this is the promise we will make. For my side, I promise you that I will not go past these stones to hurt you in any way. And for your side, you must promise not to go past these stones to hurt me in any way. 53 Our old people, Abraham, Nahor, and their father Terah worshipped and respected God. So God will be our witness when we make those promises to each other. And we will ask him to punish us if we do the wrong thing.”

Jacob agreed with his uncle and used God's name as he made his promise.

54 Jacob took one of his animals, killed it and burned it as a sacrifice present to God. And he asked his relations to sit down and eat the rest of the animal with him. That night they all camped together in the hill country. 55 Early the next day, Laban kissed his daughters and his grandchildren and then asked God to bless them. He asked God to do good things for them and make them strong.* Then Laban and his men went home.

32

Jacob got ready to meet his brother Esau

1 Some of God's angels met Jacob and his family as they started to leave the place where Jacob and Laban made a promise to each other. 2 When Jacob saw the angels he said, “This must be God's camp.” And so he called that place Ma-han-ayim which means 2 camps.

3 Jacob and all his family kept on walking south until they were almost back in Jacob's homeland. But Jacob was worried what his brother Esau would do when he heard that they were coming home. So Jacob sent some messengers to go and talk to Esau, who was living in a place called Seir in the country of Edom. 4 Jacob told his messengers to say, “Jacob has lived with his uncle Laban all this time but now he wants to work for you. You are his boss. 5 Jacob is a rich man now, he has a lot of cattle, sheep, donkeys and male and female workers. He told us to tell you this and he hopes that you are happy to see him.”

6 The messengers came back to Jacob and said, “We met your brother and gave him your message. He is coming, right now, to meet you with 400 men.”

7 Jacob was still frightened and worried what Esau was going to do and so he put all the people, animals and camels into 2 groups. 8 He said to himself, “If Esau starts to kill one group, maybe the other group will get away and not get hurt.”

9 Jacob cried out to God and said, “You are the God of my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac. You told me to leave Laban's country and come back home. You said that you would look after me. 10 I know that I am nothing and I have not done anything good, but you have been very kind and good to me all the time. A long time ago, when I was running away from Esau, I left my country and crossed the Jordan River with just my walking stick. But now I have come back with a lot of people that are in 2 camps. 11 Please save us from my brother Esau. I am frightened that he will come and kill us all, even all the women and children. 12 You said that you would be good to me and give me a big family. You said that there would be so many people in my family nobody could count them, just like nobody can count all the bits of dirt on the ground.”*

13 Jacob made his camp for the night there and got a present ready for Esau. 14-15 He picked 200 girl goats and 20 boys goats, 200 girl sheep and 20 boy sheep, 30 girl camels and their babies, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 girl donkeys and 10 boy donkeys.

16 Jacob put each mob of animals into groups by themselves and had different workmen look after each group of animals. He told his workmen, “I want you to walk ahead of us and do not let any group of animals get too close to any other group. Do not let them get mixed up.”

17 Then Jacob said to the workmen leading the first group of animals, “You will meet my brother Esau first, and he will say to you, ‘Who is your boss? Who owns these animals and where are you going?’ 18 You have to say, ‘We work for Jacob. He told us that you are his boss, and that he wants to give you these animals as a present. Jacob is coming behind us.’ ”

19 Jacob told the workmen that were looking after all the other groups of animals to say the same thing. 20 And he said, “Make sure you say, ‘Your workman Jacob is coming behind us.’ ”

Jacob said to himself, “If I send these presents to Esau, might be, he will not pay me back for when I tricked him, and maybe he will be pleased to see me again.” 21 Jacob sent all the animals as a present for Esau, but he stayed in his camp that night.

Jacob had a wrestle with God

22-23 In the night time, Jacob got up from his bed and took Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah and his 11 sons to the other side of the Jabbok River. Then he went back to the old camp and told his workmen to take everything they owned over to the other side of the river too.

24 24 When Jacob was alone in the old camp, a man came to him. Jacob and the man had a wrestle all night until the sun came up.* 25 The man could not beat Jacob, so he hit Jacob on the hip so that he could not walk properly anymore. 26 The man said, “Let go of me. The sun is coming up!”

But Jacob said, “No way! I will only let you go if you bless me and do something good for me and make me strong.”

27 The man said, “What is your name?”

And Jacob answered, “My name is Jacob.”

28 The man said, “I am going to change your name to Israel.* I know that you have had trouble from people and you have wrestled with God, but you are the winner. That is why I have changed your name to Israel.”

29 Then Jacob asked, “What is your name?”

But the man said, “Why do you ask me what my name is? You should know who I am.”*

The Lord blessed Jacob to make him strong and then went away. He left Jacob alone.

30 Jacob said to himself, “I have seen God's face and I did not die.”* So he called that place Peniel which means Face of God. 31-32 The sun came up and Jacob's hip was very sore and so he limped from Peniel across the Jabbok River to the rest of his people.

The man hit Jacob where his leg was joined to his body and so, even today the people of Israel do not eat the strings that hold an animal's leg to its hip.

33

Jacob and his family meet Esau

1 When Jacob was leaving that place, he looked up and saw Esau coming towards him with his 400 men. So Jacob quickly split up his wives with their children into 3 groups. 2 He put Bilhah and Zilpah and their children in the first group, then Leah and her children in the next group and then Rachel and Joseph behind them. 3 Jacob went out the front and walked towards his brother. On the way, he stopped and bowed down to the ground 7 times to show respect for his brother.

4 But Esau ran towards Jacob and put his arms around him and kissed him. Both Esau and Jacob were so happy they cried together. 5 Esau looked at the women and children standing there and said, “Who are all these people with you?”

Jacob said, “God has been very good to me! He gave me these wives and children.”

6 Then Bilhah and Zilpah, the 2 women that worked for Leah and Rachel took all their children to Esau and they all bowed down to him. 7 Next, Leah came with her children and they did the same thing. Last of all, Rachel and Joseph bowed down to the ground in front of Esau.

8 Then Esau said, “On the way here, I came across workmen with big groups of animals. What was that all about?”

Jacob said, “I wanted to give you a present so that you would be happy to see me.”

9 But Esau said, “I already have a lot of animals. You keep them.”

10 Jacob said, “No, if you are happy to see me, please take them. I am really happy to see your face with a smile on it. It is like seeing God himself. 11 Please take my present, God has been so good to me and I have more than I need.” Jacob kept on talking like that and so Esau was happy to take the animals.

12 Esau said, “Let's get going. I will lead you to my country.”

13 But Jacob answered, “My brother, you can see that some of my children are a little bit weak and my animals have little ones too. You and your men can move fast, but we can't. If we try to keep up with you, even for one day, all the animals would die. 14 So, you go ahead of us and we will follow you slowly. We will walk as fast as the animals and children can go. We will see you in Seir.”

15 Esau answered, “Ok, but I think I will leave some of my men to show you the way.”

Jacob answered and said, “Thank you my brother, but you do not need to do that. I am just happy that you are friendly towards me.”

16 And so, Esau and his men left Jacob and started to go back to their home in Seir.

17 But Jacob did not follow Esau down to Seir. He went to Su-coat and built a house to live in and made shelters for his animals as well. In their language Su-coat means shelters.

18 And so, that is how Jacob and all his family left his uncle's country in Harran and travelled safely to a place called Su-coat. Then they moved to just outside the town of Shekem in Canaan. And it was there that he made his camp. 19 The leader for that country was named Hamor and one of his sons was named Sheckem. Jacob paid Hamor's sons 100 pieces of silver for the land he was camping on. 20 Jacob made an altar out of stones with a flat top and called it, This altar belongs to God, the God of Israel.

34

Sheckem raped Dinah, Jacob and Leah's daughter

1 Some time later, Jacob and Leah's daughter Dinah* went to visit some of the women that lived in that country. 2 On the way there, Sheckem saw her. Sheckem was the son of Hamor who was the Hivite leader for that country. When Sheckem saw Dinah, he grabbed her and raped her. 3 But then, Sheckem fell in love with Dinah and said sweet words to her. He wanted her to love him. 4 Sheckem went home and said to his father Hamor, “Can you ask Jacob if I can marry Dinah?”

5 Dinah went home and told her father what Sheckem did to her. Jacob listened, but he did not say anything until his sons came home from working with their animals. 6 While he was waiting for his sons to come home, Hamor and Sheckem came to talk to Jacob. 7 They were still talking when Jacob's sons came home from their work. When her brothers heard what Sheckem did to Dinah they were very angry. Sheckem had done the wrong thing and shamed all of Israel's family.

8 Hamor said to Jacob and his sons, “My son Sheckem really loves Dinah. Will you let him marry her? 9 And I have an idea. Why don't your daughters and sons marry our sons and daughters? 10 Why don't you come and live here with us? You can own your own land and buy and sell things just like we do.”

11-12 Sheckem said to Jacob, “Please be kind to me. I will give you anything you ask for. Ask for as much money or animals as you like, just let me marry your daughter.”

Jacob's sons trick Sheckem and his family

13 Jacob's sons were thinking about the bad thing that happened to their sister Dinah. So they made up their minds to trick Sheckem and his father Hamor. 14 Jacob's sons said, “We cannot let you marry our sister. You have not had that young men's ceremony.* If we let you marry Dinah, we would all be shamed. 15 There is only one way we will let you marry Dinah, all your men must have that young men's ceremony. Then we will all be the same. 16 Then you can marry our women and our men can marry your women and it will be like we are one nation. 17 But if you will not have that young men's ceremony, we will take Jacob's daughter Dinah and leave this country.”

18 Hamor and Sheckem both thought it was a good idea to have that young men's ceremony. 19-20 Sheckem loved Dinah that much, he wanted to have that operation straight away. Sheckem was the most important person in Hamor's family and so he and his father went to the town gate* and had a meeting with all the leaders. 21 They said to the leaders, “These people that have come to live here are very friendly. We think we should let them live with us. We have plenty of room and our sons can marry their daughters and their sons can marry our daughters. 22 But they will only stay here if all our men have their young men's ceremony. If we do that we can be one big mob together. 23 And, if we agree to do that, they will stay here. All their animals and everything they own will be ours too. Come on, let's do what they ask.”

24 All the men in the town agreed with Hamor and Sheckem and had the young men's ceremony.

25 Simeon and Levi, 2 of Jacob's sons and full brothers for Dinah, waited until the 3rd day after all the men had the operation and the men were still in a lot of pain. Then Simeon and Levi picked up their long knives/swords, and they moved quickly into the town and killed all the men.

26 They killed Hamor and Sheckem and then took Dinah from Sheckem's house and went home.

27-29 Then all of Jacob's sons joined Simeon and Levi and together they took everything they could find from the town where their sister was raped. They took all the women and children as prisoners. And they even took all the animals that were in the paddocks.

30 When they went home, Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have made a lot of trouble for me. All the Canaanite people that live in this country will hate me. What were you thinking? We are only a small family. If the Canaanites and Perizzites gang up and fight us, we will be finished. All my family will die.”

31 But his sons said, “Sheckem should not have treated our sister like a woman that sleeps with men for money.”

35

God sent Jacob and his family to live in Bethel

1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go back and live in Bethel. And pile up some stones to make an altar there so that you can burn animals to show me respect.

Bethel is the place where I met you and showed you that stairway going up to heaven when you were running away from your brother Esau.”

2-3 So Jacob said to everyone in his camp, “We are going to live in a place called Bethel. God met me there and helped me when I was really frightened. And from that time, he has always been with me and looked after me.

So now there are two things that you have to do before we go to Bethel. The first thing is that you have to throw away any ceremony or magic things you took from your homeland*. And if you picked up any magic thing here in Shekem you have to throw that away too.

The second thing is, go and wash yourselves and then put on clean clothes. When we get to Bethel, I will pile up stones to make an altar and burn an animal to show respect to God.”

4 So all the people in Jacob's camp gave him all their earrings and ceremony things they had, and Jacob buried them under the big tree near Shekem.

5 When they left Shekem to go to Bethel, God made the people that lived around Shekem really frightened of Jacob and his family. The people in those towns did not try to chase them or try to pay them back for what Jacob's sons did in Shekem.

6 Jacob and all the people with him got to a place called Luz. The other name for Luz is Bethel and it is in the country of Canaan. 7 Jacob made his camp there and built a stone table called an altar so that he could burn an animal to show respect for God.

Jacob changed the name of that place to El-Bethel, which means The God of God's house. Years before, God had met with him there when he was running away from his brother Esau. At that time he called the meeting place Bethel, but now it was called El-Bethel.

8 Many years before this time, when Jacob's mother Rebekah was a young girl, she had a woman named Deborah who looked after her. When Rebekah left her homeland and married Isaac, Deborah went with her to live in Canaan. But when Deborah was very old, she died. And someone buried her under the big tree just south of Bethel and from that time, that place was called You can cry under this tree.

9-11 So Jacob and all his people had come back from his mother's homeland called Harran. And while they were camped at Bethel, God met Jacob again and blessed him. God was going to do good things for Jacob and make him strong and so he said to Jacob, “I am God Most Powerful. Your name is Jacob, but I am changing your name to Israel. *

You are going to have a lot of children so that your family becomes a lot of nations. And I tell you that some of the men in your family will be kings. Those kings will be the leaders of those nations. 12 I promised this country to your grandfather Abraham and to your father Isaac, and now I am making the same promise to you. This country is now your country and it will be for all the family that comes from you.”* 13 Then God left Jacob standing all by himself.

14 When God left him, Jacob put a big stone up on its end so that people could see it. And he poured wine and olive oil all over it so that everyone would know it was a special place. 15 God had talked to Jacob there and so Jacob called that place Bethel which means God's House in their language.

Rachel died

16 Some time later, Jacob and all his people left Bethel and went to a place called Bethlehem. Before they got there, it was time for Rachel's second baby to be born. 17 But Rachel was having a lot of trouble, so the nurse helping her said, “Do not be frightened Rachel. You have another son.” 18 Rachel was dying as the baby was born, and just before she died Rachel named the baby, Ben-Oni which means This boy has given me a lot of trouble. But Jacob named him, Benjamin which means This is my son. He will be with me and will make me feel happy.

19 Jacob buried Rachel next to the road that went to Bethlehem. 20 Jacob put a tall stone over Rachel's grave, and it is still there today.

Reuben did the wrong thing with Bilhah

21 Israel, who was named Jacob before, left there and went past a place called Migdal Eder, and made his camp on the other side. 22 While they were camped in that country, Jacob's eldest son Reuben slept with Bilhah like she was his wife. Bilhah was one of Jacob's 4 wives, and when Jacob heard what Reuben did, he was very upset.

Israel's family

Jacob had 12 sons.

23 Leah had 6 sons with Jacob and their names were Reuben who was Jacob's oldest son, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Iss-a-car and Zeb-you-lun.

24 Rachel had 2 sons with Jacob and their names were Joseph and Benjamin.

25 Rachel's worker named Bilhah had 2 sons with Jacob and their names were Dan and Naftali.

26 Leah's worker named Zilpah had 2 sons with Jacob and their names were Gad and Asher.

So, this is the full list of Jacob's sons born in Harran.

Isaac died and his sons Jacob and Esau buried him

27 Jacob moved back to live in Mamre. This was where Abraham and his father Isaac had camped before. Mamre was near a place called Kiriath Arba and that is now called Hebron.

28-29 Isaac was 180 years old when he died. He lived a long time and a lot of good things happened to him. Isaac's 2 sons, Esau and Jacob buried him in the family cemetery.*

36

Esau's family line

1 This is the story of Esau's family. Esau's other name was Edom.

2-5 Esau married 3 women who came from the country called Canaan. Their names were Adah, Ohol-i-bar-mah and Bas-e-math, whose other name was Ma-ha-lath.

Adah was the daughter of a Hittite man called Elon, and she gave Esau a son named Eli-faz.

Ohol-i-bar-mah was the daughter of a man named Anah. Her grandfather's name was Zibeon who was a Hivite man.

Ohol-i-bar-mah gave Esau 3 sons, Jeush, Jalam and Korah.

Bas-e-math's father was Ishmael, Isaac's brother. Bas-e-math had a brother who was named Neb-you-cad-nezzaray-oth.

Bas-e-math gave Esau a son named Rew-el.

All these children were born while Esau and his wives lived in Canaan.

6-8 Jacob and Esau had too many animals for that country to feed, so Esau moved away from there and lived in a country called Seir. Seir was a long way from Canaan.

Esau took his wives, his children, all his workers, all his animals and everything else that he got while he lived in Canaan.

More story about Esau

9 This is the story of Esau's sons and their families that lived in the hill country called Seir. Esau was the father of all the people called Edomites. 10 This is the list of Esau's sons.

Eli-faz. His mother was Adah

Rew-el. His mother was Bas-e-math

11 Adah and Esau's son Eli-faz had 5 sons. Their names were Teman, Omar, Zefo, Gatam and Kenaz.

12 Eli-faz and his second wife named Timna had a son and his name was Amalek.

So Elifaz's mother, Adah, was grandmother for all of Eli-faz's 6 boys.

13 Bas-e-math and Esau's son, Rew-el had 4 sons. Their names were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. And so Bas-e-math was grandmother for these 4 boys.

14 Ohol-i-bar-mah, whose father was Anah and whose grandfather was Zibeon had 3 sons with Esau. The son's names were Jeush, Jalam and Korah.

15-16 This is the list of the leaders of the tribes that came from Esau. They all lived in Edom.

Esau's first born son was named Eli-faz. Eli-faz's sons were named Teman, Omar, Zefo, Kenaz, Korah, Gatam and Amalek.

They were leaders of new tribes in the country of Edom. And Esau's wife Adah was their grandmother.

17 This next list of men were the sons of Esau's son named Rew-el and they were leaders of new tribes in Edom.

Their names were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

Esau's wife Bas-e-math was their grandmother.

18 This next list of men were Esau and Ohol-i-bar-mah's sons. Their names were Jeush, Jalam and Korah. They were all leaders of new tribes. 19 And so Esau, whose other name was Edom, was the father of all these men and each of them were leaders for their own tribes.

20-21 Esau and his family moved to a country called Seir, but there were other people already living there. Seir was called after a man with that name. He was from the Horite tribe.

This is a list of Seir's sons. Their names were Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These men were leaders of their tribes. 22 Lotan had 2 sons. They were named Hori and Homam. Lotan had a sister named Timna.

23 Shobal had 5 sons and they were named Alvan, Mana-hath, Ebal, Sheffo and Onam.

24 Zibeon had 2 sons, and they were named Ayah and Anah. Anah was the man who found springs of hot water in the dry country while he was looking after his father's donkeys.

25 Anah had 2 children. The boy was named Dishon and the daughter was named Ohol-i-bar-mah.

26 Dishon had 4 sons and they were named Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Keran.

27 Ezer had 3 sons and they were named Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.

28 Dishan had 2 sons, and they were named Uz and Aran.

29-30 This is a list of the leaders of the Horite clans that lived in the country called Seir.

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. The clans were called the same name as their leaders.

The Kings of Edom

31 This is a list of the kings of Edom before the Israel people had a king.

32 The king of Edom was named Bela, and his father was named Beor. Bela's town was called Din-ha-bah.

33 When Bela died, Jobab was king. Jobab's father was named Zerah and he came from a place called Bozrah.

34 When Jobab died, Husham was king. He came from a country where the people were called Temanites.

35 When Husham died, Hadad was king, and his town was called Avith. Hadad's father was named Bedad, and Hadad's army beat the Midianite army in the country called Moab.

36 When Hadad died, Samlah was king. He came from a place called Mas-re-kah.

37 When Samlah died, Shaul was king. He came from a place called Reho-both. It was next to the You-Fray-tees River.

38 When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan was king. His father was named Acbor.

39 When Baal-Hanan, the son of Acbor, died, Hadad was king. His town was called Pau and his wife's name was Mehet-abel. She was the daughter of Matred, who was the daughter of Me-Zahab.

40 This is the list of the tribes that came from Esau. It is a list of the leaders and where they lived.

Timna, Alvah, Jetheh, 41 Ohol-i-ba-mah, Elah, Pinon, 42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, 43 Magdiel and Iram.

These were the tribal leaders in the country called Edom.

Later on, Esau was named the father of the Edomite people.

37

Joseph's story

1 Jacob lived in Canaan where his father Isaac had lived.

2-4 This story is about Jacob's family. Jacob's other name was Israel.

Joseph was born when Jacob was an old man and that is why Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons.

Jacob made Joseph a really special coat that had a lot of colours.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than he loved them, they hated Joseph, and never said anything good to him.

When Joseph was 17 years old, he was out in the paddocks looking after his father's sheep with his brothers. These brothers were the sons from 2 of Jacob's wives, named Bilhah and Zilpah.

Joseph went home and told Jacob that he did not like what his brothers were doing.

Joseph had a dream

5-7 One day, Joseph had a dream and he told his brothers about it. He said, “I had a dream last night. All of us were out in the paddock tying up bundles of long grass, called wheat. My bundle was standing up in the middle and all your wheat was standing in a circle around my wheat. Then your wheat bowed down to my wheat.”

8 Joseph's brothers said to him, “You think you will be our boss and tell us what to do.” And they hated him even more after he told them about the dream he had.

9 Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. He said, “Listen, I had another dream. This time, the sun and the moon and 11 stars bowed down to the ground in front of me.”

10 When Joseph told his father what he saw in his dream, his father growled at him and said, “You should not tell people that sort of dream. Do you really think that your mother, your brothers and I will bow down in front of you?”

11 Joseph's brothers were jealous and upset with him, but his father kept thinking about Joseph's dream all the time.*

Joseph was sold by his brothers and taken to Egypt

12-14 While Jacob and all his family were living in the Valley of Hebron, Joseph's brothers were looking after Jacob's sheep near Shekem. Jacob said to his son Joseph, “Your brothers are in Shekem looking after my sheep. I want you to go and see if they are alright, then come back and tell me.”

Joseph said, “Yes I will go.”

But when he got to Shekem, he could not find his brothers or the sheep anywhere.

15 A man saw Joseph wandering around and said, “What are you looking for?”

16 Joseph answered, “I am looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are?”

17 The man said, “They were here, but I heard them say that they were going to a place called Dothan.” So Joseph left Shekem and went and found his brothers and the sheep in Dothan.

18 Joseph's brothers saw him coming and they started to make plans to kill him. 19 They said, “Here comes the boy that has lots of dreams. 20 Come on, let's kill him and throw his body into one of the deep wells in the ground. We can tell everyone that a wild animal ate him. That way, his dreams will never come true, and he will never be our boss.”

21-22 But Reuben heard their plans and said, “No. Don't kill him, don't even hurt him. Just put him in one of those dry wells here in the dry country.”

Reuben planned to save Joseph later on and give him back to his father. 23 When Joseph came to his brother's camp, they grabbed him, took off his special coat, 24 and pushed him into one of the deep wells in the ground. These wells used to have water in them, but now they were empty and dry.

25 When Joseph's brothers sat down to eat, they saw a long line of camels coming towards them. Ishmaelite people were taking these camels from a place called Gilead to Egypt, a country to the south west. These camels carried big boxes of sweet smelling leaves, oils and medicine called Myrrh. The Ishmaelites were going to sell all these things in Egypt.

26 While Reuben was somewhere else, Judah, another one of Joseph's brothers said, “I don't think it's a good idea to kill Joseph and then try to cover up his death. 27 He is our brother, and our own flesh and blood. If we sell him to these Ishmaelites, we can get rid of him that way.” And his brothers thought it was a good idea.

28 When the Ishmaelites, whose other name is Midianites, came to the brother's camp, Joseph's brothers pulled him up out of the hole in the ground. The brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And so, Joseph went to Egypt as a prisoner.*

29 When Reuben came back to the well, he found that Joseph was not there anymore. He was so upset he ripped his clothes. 30 He went to his brothers and said, “The boy has gone. What am I going to do now? What will we say to our father?”

31 The brothers talked about the problem and decided to trick their father. They killed a goat and put some of the blood on Joseph's special coat. 32 Then they went back to their father Jacob and said, “We found this coat. Is it the coat you gave Joseph?”

33 Jacob looked at the coat and said, “Yes, it is my son's coat. A wild animal has killed him, torn him apart and eaten him.” 34 Jacob was so sad that he ripped his good clothes and put on rough clothes made from animal hair. Jacob cried for his son for many days. 35 All Jacob's family tried to make him feel better but he was too sad. He couldn't listen to them and he said, “I will never be happy again. I will be sad for my son until the day l die.” That is how Jacob cried for his son Joseph.

36 When the Midianites got to Egypt, they sold Joseph to a man named Potifar. Potifar was one of the king's special leaders. He was the captain of the guards that kept the king safe in the government building. The people in Egypt called their king, Pharaoh, and he was the boss for the whole country.

38

The story of Judah and Tamar

1 A little bit later, Jacob's son Judah left the family camp and went to stay with a man named Hirah in a place called Adullam. 2 While he was living there, he met a Canaanite woman who was the daughter of a man named Shua. They got married and slept together as husband and wife. 3 Later on Judah's wife had a baby boy and they named him Er. 4 Judah and his wife slept together again and she had another baby boy, and she named him Onan. 5 Judah's wife then had another baby boy. He was born at a place called Kezib and his name was Shelah.

6 Er was Judah's oldest son. Years later, when he was grown up, Judah got a wife for him. Her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah's firstborn son, was always going against God and doing bad things and so God killed him.

8 Judah said to Onan, his second son, “Your brother Er has died and so by our culture, you have to marry his wife Tamar.* Go and sleep with her so that she can have a baby to keep your older brother's family line going.”

9 But Onan knew that if he slept with Tamar and she had a baby, that baby would belong to the brother that died and it would not belong to him. So every time he and Tamar slept together, he would stop half way. He did this so that his brother would not have children.

10 God was really angry with Onan for not doing the right thing for the brother that had died and so God killed Onan too.

11 Judah said to his daughter in law Tamar, “I want you to go back and live in your father's house but do not marry anyone else*. Wait until my third son Shelah grows up and then you can marry him.” So Tamar went back to her father's place. Judah was frightened that his son Shelah would die just like his 2 older brothers.

12 Years later, Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua died. And Judah cried for her. When the sorry time was finished, he left his camp and went to a place called Timnah. That was where Judah's men were cutting the wool off his sheep. His friend Hirah from Adullam, went with him.

13 Judah's daughter in law, Tamar, heard that Judah was going to Timnah to cut the wool off his sheep and she knew what she had to do. 14 In that culture, widows wore special sorry clothes. And so to make her plan work, Tamar stopped wearing her widow's clothes. She put on other clothes and covered her face with a cloth, so that no-one would know who she was. Then she went and sat down next to the gates of a town called Enay-im which was on the way to Timnah.

Tamar remembered Judah's promise to her. She had worked out that Judah's youngest son, Shelah, would be the right age to marry her now.

15-16 When Judah saw the woman sitting next to the town gates he did not know that the woman was his daughter in law. He thought she was a woman that went to bed with men for money.

Judah said to her, “Come and sleep with me.”

Tamar answered, “And what will you give me if I sleep with you?”

17 Judah said, “I will send you a young goat.”

But Tamar said, “Can you give me something of yours to keep until you send the goat. When I get the goat I will give that special thing back to you.”

18-19 Judah said, “What sort of thing should I give you?”

Tamar said, “Give me your necklace with your name on it, and your walking stick.”

Judah gave her his necklace and walking stick and they went to bed together.

When Tamar went home, she took the cloth off her face and put on her widow's clothes again.

Some time later, Tamar knew she was going to have a baby.

20 Judah kept his promise and sent his friend Hirah back to the woman Judah had slept with. Hirah took a goat so that he could swap it for Judah's necklace and walking stick. But when he got to the right place, he could not find the woman anywhere. 21 Hirah said to the men that lived there, “I am looking for the ceremony woman that sleeps with men for money. She was sitting near the gate to Enay-im. Do you know where she is?”

The men answered, “You have made a mistake. There has never been a ceremony woman like that here.”

22 Hirah went back to Judah and said, “I didn't find the woman, and the men that lived there said, ‘There has never been a ceremony woman here.’ ”

23 Judah said, “I kept my promise. I sent the young goat back to her, and you tried to find her, so do not worry about it. Let her keep those things. If people find out what happened they will laugh at us.”

24 Three months later someone said to Judah, “Tamar your daughter in law has been sleeping with men for money, and she is going to have a baby.”

So Judah said, “Bring her here so that we can burn her alive.”

25 The people started to take Tamar to Judah, but she sent a message to him. She said, “The man who owns these things is the father of my baby. Tell me who owns this necklace that has a name written on it and who owns this walking stick.”

26 Straight away, Judah saw that the necklace and walking stick were his and so he said, “I didn't let Tamar marry my son Shelah. That is why she did this. She is right and I am wrong.”

Judah never went to bed with Tamar again.

27 When the time came for the baby to be born, Tamar found that she was going to have twins. 28 One of the babies put out his hand and the nurse tied a red string around it and said, “This one was born first.” 29 But the baby pulled its hand back and the other baby was born first. The nurse said, “OK, you were in a big hurry to be born first.” So they named him Perez. 30 Then the baby with the red string on his hand was born and they named him Zerah.

39

Joseph's life in Egypt

1 When the Ishmaelites got to Egypt, they sold Joseph to a man named Potifar. Potifar was an important man in Egypt. He was boss over all the soldiers that guarded the government building. That was where the king worked. 2 God was very good to Joseph and helped him to do everything the right way. Joseph was so good at what he did, he was allowed to live in Potifar's house.

3 Potifar saw that God helped Joseph do everything just right. 4 And so Potifar was happy with Joseph and made him the boss over all the people in his house and over everything he owned. 5 God did even more good things for Potifar after Joseph started to be the boss of Potifar's house. God made all Potifar's animals grow fat and his paddocks grow a lot of food. Joseph was God's man and that is why all these good things happened for Potifar. 6 And so Potifar had no worries, he only had to worry about the food he ate.

Potifar's wife tried to get Joseph to do the wrong thing

7 Potifar's wife looked at Joseph and saw that he was strong and good looking, and she wanted him. One day she said to him, “Come to bed with me.”

8 Joseph said, “No way. I cannot do that. Your husband trusts me to look after everything he owns. 9 I am the boss of this house, and your husband has not kept anything from me, just you. You are his wife and you belong to him, and so there is no way that I will do this really bad thing that you want me to do. If I did that bad thing, I would be going against God.”

10 Day after day, she tried to get him to sleep with her, but every day he said, “No.” He would not listen to her or stay near her. 11-12 But one day, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, Potifar's wife saw her chance to get him. She knew that there weren't any other men in the house and so she grabbed Joseph's coat and said, “Come to bed with me!”

But Joseph got out of his coat and ran outside. 13-15 When Potifar's wife saw that she still had Joseph's coat in her hand, she got wild and shouted out to the workers, “Look at this. This coat belongs to that Hebrew stranger. My husband has let him come into my house and he has shamed me. He came and tried to sleep with me like I was his wife, but I screamed and he ran away without his coat.”

16-17 She kept Joseph's coat and when her husband came home she told him the same story. She said, “That Hebrew stranger you let come into our house tried to shame me. He tried to sleep with me like we were married. 18 But I screamed and he ran away without his coat.”

19 Potifar listened to his wife's story and got really angry. 20 He arrested Joseph and put him in jail where the king's prisoners were kept.

21 But again, God was with Joseph and was kind to him.* God made the boss of the jail respect Joseph. 22 The jail boss picked Joseph to be the next boss under him. Joseph had to look after everything that happened in the jail. And he was the boss over all the other prisoners too. 23 And so the guard did not have to worry about anything that happened in the jail. The Lord was with Joseph and helped him do everything just right.

40

Joseph helped 2 prisoners understand their dreams

1-3 Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had 2 special workers. One man was the baker who made the king's bread and the other man gave the king his wine in a special cup. But one day the king got really angry with both of them, and put them in the same jail that Joseph was in. 4 The jail boss gave them to Joseph and he looked after them. And they stayed in jail for a long time. 5 One night both the baker and the man who gave the king his wine, had dreams. Their dreams were different and had different meanings. 6 In the morning Joseph saw that they were upset. 7 So he said to them, “Why do you look so unhappy today?”

8 The men answered, “We both had dreams last night, but no-one can tell us what they mean.”

Joseph said, “God is the only one who can tell people all about dreams.* Tell me what you saw, and God will tell me what they mean.”

9-10 The man who gave the king his wine told Joseph his dream first. He said, “In my dream I saw a grape vine and it had 3 branches. I watched the branches grow flowers and then grapes grew from those flowers. They looked ready to eat. 11 And I saw that I was holding the king's cup, so I grabbed the grapes and squeezed them so that the juice ran into the cup. Then I gave the cup to the king.”

12 Joseph said to him, “This is what your dream means. The 3 branches are a picture for 3 days. 13 And so, in 3 days time, the king will make you free from this jail and he will let you go back to your work. You will give the king his wine just like you did before.” 14 Then Joseph said, “Will you do something for me? When you are free, can you be kind to me and remember to tell the king my story? I just want to get out of this jail. 15 I was stolen from my Hebrew homeland, I was sold as a slave and then later on, I was put in jail. I have done nothing wrong.”

16 The king's baker listened to what Joseph said and he was happy with what he heard. So he said to Joseph, “I had a dream too. I saw that I had 3 baskets of bread on top of my head. 17 In the top basket there were all sorts of bread that the king likes to eat, but birds came and started to eat that bread.”

18 Joseph said to him, “The 3 baskets are a picture for 3 days, 19 and so, in 3 days time, the king will cut off your head and hang your body on a tree. The birds will come and eat your body.”

20 Three days later, it was the king's birthday and so he gave a big party for all the leaders that worked for him. He sent someone to the jail to get the baker and the man that gave him his wine. 21 The man who gave the king his wine got his job back, 22 but the baker was killed and his body was hung up on a tree. Everything Joseph said about the dreams, came true.

23 But the man who gave the king his wine did not remember his promise to Joseph. He forgot all about him.

41

Pharaoh, the King of Egypt had a dream

1 It was 2 years later that Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had a dream. In his dream he saw himself standing next to the Nile River. 2 He saw 7 cows come up out of the river. They were fat and looked really good, and they started to eat the river grass next to the water. 3 Then Pharaoh saw 7 more cows come out of the river. These cows were ugly and skinny. They were standing next to the other fat cows on the side of the river. 4 Then the 7 skinny, ugly cows ate up the 7 good looking fat cows. And the king woke up.

5 He went back to sleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw a long piece of grass, and it had 7 bunches of seeds on the top and they were fat and looked really good to eat. 6 Then he saw another long piece of grass, but the 7 bunches of seeds on top of this grass looked thin and weak. They looked like they were burnt by the hot east wind. 7 Then the weak thin bunches of seeds, ate the good looking fat seeds. When Pharaoh woke up he knew it was a dream.

8 In the morning the king was upset. He was worried what the dreams were all about. And so he sent messengers all over Egypt to get all the clever men and men that could understand dreams to come to a meeting. He told them what he saw in his dreams, but none of them could tell him the meaning of those dreams.*

9 The man who gave the king his wine said, “O King, I have just remembered that I have broken a promise I made to someone. 10 You were angry with your baker and me 2 years ago and put us in jail. 11 One night, the baker and I both had dreams but our dreams were different. And we did not know the meaning of those dreams. 12 But there was a young Hebrew man who worked for the boss of the jail. When we told him our dreams, he told us the meaning. 13 And what he said came true. I got my job back and the baker was killed and his body put up on a tree.”

14 When Pharaoh heard this, he sent someone to get Joseph. They took him out of the jail, and after he shaved his face and put on clean clothes, they took him to talk to the king.

15 The king said to Joseph, “I had a dream, but no-one can tell me what it means. Someone said that you can do that.”

16 But Joseph said to the king, “I cannot tell people what their dreams mean, but God can help me do that.”*

17 So Pharaoh told Joseph what he saw in his dream.

He said, “In my dream I was standing next to the Nile River. 18 I saw 7 cows come up out of the river. They were fat and looked really good. They started to eat the river grass next to the water. 19 Then I saw 7 more cows come out of the river. These cows were ugly and skinny. I have never seen such thin and ugly cows in all of Egypt. 20 The skinny, ugly cows ate up the 7 good looking fat cows that came out of the river first. 21 But then I saw that after the skinny cows ate the fat cows, they stayed skinny and ugly and no-one would know that they had eaten the other 7 cows. Then I woke up.

22 I went to sleep again and had a second dream, but this time I saw a long piece of grass. It had 7 bunches of seeds on the top and they were fat and looked really good. 23 Then I saw another long piece of grass, but the 7 bunches of seeds on top looked thin and weak. They looked like they were burnt by the hot east wind. 24 Then the weak, thin bunches of seeds ate up the 7 good looking seeds. And I woke up.

I told my dreams to my clever men but they cannot tell me what they mean.”

25 Joseph said to Pharaoh, the king, “Both your dreams mean the same thing, and God is telling you what he is going to do. 26 The 7 good looking cows and the 7 good bunches of seeds are pictures of the same thing. They are pictures of 7 good years that are coming. 27 The 7 skinny ugly cows and the 7 thin weak bunches of seeds that look like the hot east wind has burnt them, are pictures of the same thing. They are pictures of 7 bad years that will come after the 7 good years. 28 God is telling you what he is going to do, and it will happen just like I said. 29 You and all the people in Egypt are going to have 7 good years. All your animals will get fat and all your food plants will grow a lot of seeds. Everyone in Egypt will have a lot to eat. 30 When the 7 good years are over there will be 7 bad years. People will forget all about the 7 good years when everyone had a lot to eat. It will be like the bad years ate all the good years. Then nothing will grow in the whole country. 31 Yes, the 7 bad years will be so hard for everyone, that they will forget the good years. 32 God gave you those 2 dreams to let you know what he is going to do. And he will make it happen soon.

33 I have told you God's message and so it would be good for you to find a man who knows what to do. You should make that man the boss over the whole country of Egypt. 34 And you Pharaoh, should pick leaders from every part of the country to help that man do his job.

This is what has to happen. For the next 7 good years, after the farmers have finished picking up all the food seeds from their paddocks, these leaders have to take one bag from every 5 bags of seeds that the farmers grow. 35 Then the leaders have to take those bags of seeds and put them into big government sheds in every town. And put soldiers around those sheds. 36 This food must be kept safe until the 7 bad years come. That way, when the country does not grow any food, your people will not get too hungry and die.”

Pharaoh made Joseph the leader of Egypt

37 Pharaoh and all the men who worked for him had a meeting and they all liked Joseph's plan. 38 Pharaoh said to them, “I do not think we can find a better man than Joseph to do that job. I can see that God's spirit has told him what to do.”

39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I can see that God has told you what to do. God has made you understand the problem. No-one else can do the job better than you can. 40 I am putting you in charge of my house and my government. Everyone in all of Egypt has to do what you tell them. But remember, I am still the king. I am still your boss.”*

41 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Joseph. You are now the boss over the whole country of Egypt.”

42 Pharaoh had a ring that had special marks on it. He used this ring to put his special mark on papers to prove that he had written them. Pharaoh took that ring off his finger and put it on Joseph's finger to show that Joseph was working for him. And he gave Joseph really nice clothes to wear and put a gold chain around his neck.*

43 Pharaoh gave Joseph a chariot to ride in. A chariot is a war wagon pulled by horses. The king did this to show that Joseph was the second boss over Egypt. And from that time, everywhere Joseph went in his chariot, soldiers walked in front of him, shouting out to the people in the street, “Move off the road, and bow down to Joseph.”

In this way Pharaoh showed his people that Joseph was the boss over the whole country of Egypt.

44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, I am the king, but before anyone in Egypt does anything, they have to ask you first.”

45 And Pharaoh gave Joseph another name. He named him Zafen-ath-Pan-ay-ah and gave him a wife named As-en-ath. Her father was named Potifera, who was an Egyptian ceremony man from a town called On.

Joseph went all over the country of Egypt to see what it was like and everyone respected him as their leader.

46 Joseph was 30 years old when he started to work for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He did not stay in one place but went everywhere in Egypt to see that people were doing the right thing.

47 In the 7 good years, the whole country grew a lot of food. 48 Every time food was grown, the farmers had to give some of their bags of seeds to the men that worked for Joseph. The workers took the bags of seeds and put them into the government sheds to keep them safe. 49 The workers stored so many bags of seeds they stopped counting them. There were just too many.

50 Before the bad years came, As-en-ath, the daughter of Potifera, the ceremony man in On, gave Joseph 2 sons. 51 Joseph named the first son Manasseh and said, “God has made me forget all my troubles, and I have even forgotten that I miss my family. And that is why l have called him that name.” 52 And he named his second son, Efraim and said, “I have had a hard time in this country, but God has been good to me and given me children.”

53-54 At the end of the 7 good years, the land in Egypt stopped growing food. It was the start of the 7 bad years that Joseph said would come. *

All the countries around Egypt started to run out of food. But all the Egyptians still had a lot of food in their own sheds. 55 Later on, the people in Egypt had nothing to eat and so they asked Pharaoh for food. But Pharaoh said, “Go and see Joseph. He will tell you what to do.”

56 When all the Egyptians were hungry and the bad years got worse, Joseph opened the government sheds and sold the food to the Egyptians. 57 All the countries around Egypt were having a hard time too, and when they heard that Egypt had food, they went to Joseph to buy seeds.

42

Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to get food

1 When Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you sitting around doing nothing? 2 I have heard that there is food in Egypt. Go down and buy some food and bring it back here so that we can stay alive.” *

3 So 10 of Joseph's brothers left their home in Canaan and went to Egypt to buy food. 4 But Jacob did not send Joseph's younger brother, Benjamin. Jacob was frightened that something bad might happen to him.

5 A lot of people from Canaan were going to Egypt to buy food, and so Jacob's sons went with them. All the countries in that part of the world were having a hard time, no food would grow.

6 Joseph was the boss over all of Egypt and if anyone wanted to buy food, they had to speak to him. And so, Joseph's brothers went to him and bowed down with their faces on the ground in front of him.* 7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he knew who they were, but he acted like he did not know them. He spoke hard words to them and said, “Where do you come from?”

His brothers answered, “We come from the country called Canaan. We have come to buy food.” 8 Joseph knew who they were, but they did not know that he was Joseph, their brother. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams about them bowing down to him.

He said to them, “I think you are spies. You are looking to see if our country is weak, so that you can fight us.”

10 But they cried out, “No Sir! We are not spies.* We are like slaves to you. We just want to buy food. 11 We are all good men and all have the same father. We are honest men and never tell lies. We are not spies.”

12 Joseph said, “No. I think you have come to Egypt to see where our country is weak.”

13 But Joseph's brothers said, “We are 10 of the 12 brothers from the same father and we all live in the country of Canaan. We left our little brother back home with our father, and we do not know where the other brother is. He is gone and he might be dead.”

14 Then Joseph said, “No. I am right. You have come to find out about our country. 15 But I will give you a chance to prove what you say is true. I have the power to say who can come to Egypt and who can go. I tell you that you will stay in Egypt until the brother you left behind comes and stands in front of me. 16 I want one of you to go home and bring that brother to me. I will put the rest of you in jail until he comes back. If he comes back with his brother I will know that I can trust what you say. But if he does not come back I will know that you have told me a lie and that you really are spies. And the king trusts me to do the right thing.” 17 Then Joseph told soldiers to take his brothers to jail.

18 They were in jail for 2 days and on the third day, Joseph said to them, “I am a man who trusts and respects God, and so if you do what I say, you will stay alive. 19 You have said that you are honest men that live the right way. Ok, only one of you has to stay here in jail. The rest of you can go back home with food to feed your hungry families. 20 But I tell you, you have to bring your little brother back to me. If you do that, then I will know what you have said is true and I will not kill you.” The brothers said to Joseph, “We will do what you say.”

21 They said to each other, “We are getting payback for what we did to our brother Joseph. All those years ago we saw that he was really frightened. He asked us again and again not to hurt him, but we would not listen. That is why we are having this trouble now.”

22 Jacob's oldest son Reuben said, “I told you not to hurt the boy, but you didn't listen to me. All of us are getting payback for what we did.”

23 Joseph's brothers were talking in their Hebrew language. They did not know that Joseph could understand what they were saying. He spoke to them in the Egyptian language and another man told the brothers what Joseph said in their own language. 24 When Joseph heard what his brothers said about payback, he went into another room and cried. And when he had settled down, he went back to his brothers and talked to them again.

Then Joseph told his soldiers to tie up Simeon and take him away from his brothers and put him in jail.

25 Joseph told his workers to fill all the brother's bags with food seeds, as well as food for the trip home. And he told his workers to put the money his brothers had paid in the top of their bags. When all this was done, 26 the brothers put their bags of seeds onto their donkeys and left Egypt to go back to Canaan.

27 That night, they stopped to camp. One of the brothers opened his bag of seeds to give his donkey a feed. Straight away he found that his money was right there on the top. 28 He called out to his brothers and said, “Hey, the money I paid for this food is here in the top of my bag.” And all the brothers were very frightened. They said, “What is going on. Why is God doing this to us?”

The brothers go back to Jacob.

29 When the brothers got back to their home in Canaan, they told their father Jacob everything that had happened to them. 30 They said, “The boss of Egypt said hard words to us. He said that we were spies and were finding out about his country. 31 But we said, ‘We are honest men who live the right way. We are not spies. 32 We told him that we were twelve brothers from the same father, but one of the brothers had gone and the last one was with you here in Canaan.’

33 The boss of that country said, ‘I want to make sure that you are honest men that live the right way. One of you must stay behind in Egypt, while the rest of you take food back to your families. 34 You have to bring your little brother back with you. If you bring him back, I will know that you are not spies and that you are honest men that live the right way. And I will give you back the brother who is in jail and all of you can be free to go anywhere in this country of Egypt.’ ”

35 The brothers emptied all their bags of seeds, and each brother found his money right at the top of their bags. When Jacob and his sons saw the money, they were all very frightened.

36 Then Jacob cried out, “What is happening? Do you want me to lose all my sons? Joseph has gone and now Simeon has gone. Do you want to take Benjamin from me too? All this trouble is going against me.”

37 Jacob's eldest son Reuben said to his father, “I promise you father. I will look after Benjamin and bring him back to you. If I do not keep my promise, then you can kill my 2 sons.”

38 But Jacob said, “No. I will not let you take Benjamin to Egypt. His brother Joseph is dead and Benjamin is the only son left from my wife Rachel. I am frightened that something bad will happen to him. If anything happened to him I would be really sad until I die.”

43

The brothers go back to Egypt

1 The land of Canaan was still not growing any food. 2 And so when Jacob's family had eaten all the food the brothers got from Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Go back to Egypt and buy some more food.”

3 But Judah said to his father, “The boss of that country warned us. He told us straight, ‘If you do not bring your youngest brother with you, you will not be allowed to see me.’ 4 If you let us take Benjamin with us, we will go back to Egypt to buy food. 5 But if you do not let us take him then we will not go back. The boss of the food said that he would not talk to us if we did not have our youngest brother with us.”

6 Jacob said, “Why did you tell the man that you had another brother? You have made trouble for me.”

7 The brothers answered, “The man asked us a lot of questions about ourselves and our family. He even asked if our father was still alive and did we have another brother. We just answered his questions. We didn't know that he would ask us to bring Benjamin to him.”

8 Then Judah said to his father Jacob, “Please father, let me take the boy to see this man. We can go straight away and bring food back so that you and all our families can stay alive. 9 I promise you father that I will keep Benjamin safe and bring him back to you. If I break my promise, then you can blame me for the rest of my life. 10 We have wasted too much time. We could have been to Egypt and back 2 times.”

11 Jacob said to his sons, “You win. I can see that there is no other way. Take Benjamin with you, but take the man some presents. Take him some of the best things we have in this country. You know, some rubbing oil, honey, spices, peanuts, almonds and the medicine called myrrh. 12 Oh, yes, take double the money you took last time. Try and give back the money you found in your bags. Maybe someone made a mistake last time. 13 Go now and take Benjamin to see the man. 14 I will pray and ask God to make the man be kind to you, that way you can bring Simeon and Benjamin back to me. If I lose my children, then I lose them, but I will be very sad.”

15 So the brothers left their father's camp and started to go back to Egypt to meet with Joseph. They took Benjamin and presents with them. They took money to buy the food as well as the money that they found in their bags before.

16 When they got to Egypt, they went to see Joseph. As soon as Joseph saw Benjamin with his brothers, he told the boss of his house what to do. He said, “Take these men to my house, kill an animal and get food ready for them. I will have lunch with them today.”

17 The worker did what Joseph said and took the brothers to Joseph's house. 18 When they got to his house, the brothers were really frightened to be there. They said to each other, “He must know about the money that was in our bags last time. He wants to blame us for taking that money, and he is going to take our donkeys and put us in his work camp. We will have to work for him for no pay. We will never get home.”

19-20 Just before they got to the door of Joseph's house, they said to the worker, “Sir, the last time we came here, we paid the right money for our food and then started to go home. 21-22 But on the first night, when we opened our food bags, we found money inside. It was the same money that we paid the man for the food. We don't know how that money got into our bags and so we carried it back here again so that we can give it to you. And we have more money to pay for the food that we want to buy this time.”

23 Joseph's worker said to them, “Don't be frightened. It's all right. Your God, the God of your father must have put that money back in your bags. You paid me for the food you got last time.”

Then he went and got Simeon out of jail and gave him back to his brothers.

24 The worker took the brothers into Joseph's house. He gave them water so that they could wash their feet and he gave them food for their donkeys. 25 The brothers heard that Joseph was going to come home and have lunch with them and so they got all the presents ready to give to him.

26 When Joseph came home, they bowed down in front of him and gave him the presents. 27 Joseph asked them, “How are you? Last time you were here, you talked about your old father. Is he still alive?”

28 The brothers answered, “Our old father is still alive and well, and he has heard that you are a powerful man. If he was here, he would bow down and show you respect.” Then all the brothers bowed down to the ground again to show respect to Joseph.* 29 Joseph and Benjamin had the same mother and father, and when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said, “You told me that you had a younger brother. Is this him?” Then he said to Benjamin, “I will pray and ask God to be good to you my son.” 30 Joseph was so happy to see his younger brother, tears were coming into his eyes. So he ran and looked for somewhere to cry. He went to his bedroom and cried there.

31 When he settled down, he washed his face and went back to his brothers in the other room. Then he told his workers to put the food on the table so that they could eat.

32 The workers put out 3 tables. Joseph ate his food by himself on the first table. Joseph's brothers ate their food together on another table, and the Egyptian workers ate their food on the third table. Egyptians did not like Hebrew people and would not sit down and eat with them. 33 When the brothers sat down at their table, they were shocked to find that they were put in a line by their age, from the oldest at one end of the table to the youngest at the other end. 34 The workers took food from Joseph's table and gave it to Benjamin and his brothers. Each of the brothers was given one lot of food, but Benjamin got 5 lots of food. Joseph and his brothers had a good time as they ate and drank together.

44

Joseph gave his brothers another test

1 Later on, Joseph said to the man that looked after his house and workers, “Fill up their bags with food, and put their money in the top of each bag again. 2 When you fill up the bag that belongs to the youngest man, put my silver cup in the bag with his money.” The worker did what Joseph said.

3 The next morning, the 11 brothers were allowed to leave with their donkeys and food bags. 4 They had not gone very far when Joseph said to the man that looked after his house, “Go after those men and say, ‘We did good things for you. Why did you pay us back by doing a bad thing? 5 My boss has a special silver drinking cup. That cup helps him to find out things using signs and magic. You stole it and so you have done a very bad thing.’ ”

6 The worker followed Joseph's brothers and when he found them, he told them what Joseph said.

7 But the brothers said, “What are you talking about? We would not do that. 8 We are good men. We carried back the money we found in our bags last time. And so we would not steal any silver or gold from the house your boss lives in. 9 Have a look in our bags. If you find the silver cup, then kill the man who owns the bag and the rest of us will work for you for no pay. We will be your slaves.”

10 The worker said to the men, “Ok, we will do as you say, but the man who took the cup will be our slave and the rest of you can go free.”

11 Straight away, each brother took his bag off his donkey, put it on the ground and opened it. 12 The worker looked in every bag. He started with the oldest brother until he got to the youngest brother. He found the silver cup in Benjamin's bag. 13 When the brothers saw the man find the silver cup, they ripped their clothes to show how upset they were. Then the brothers put their bags onto their donkeys and they all went back to the town.

14 When Judah and his brothers went into Joseph's house, Joseph was there waiting for them. The brothers bowed face down to the ground in front of him. 15 Joseph said, “Why did you do this to me? Didn't you know that a man like me can find out things by signs and magic?”*

16 Judah said, “We don't know what to say to you. There is no way we can make you believe that we are not guilty. God has shown that we are guilty and so we will all be your slaves, not just Benjamin.”

17 But Joseph said, “No. I would not do that. Only the man who stole my cup will be my slave. The rest of you can go home to your father.”

18 Judah went to Joseph and said, “Sir, I know you are a very powerful man. You are like Pharaoh himself and so please do not be angry with me. Can I tell you our story? 19 The last time we were here, you asked us, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’ 20 And we answered you and said, ‘Yes we have an old father, and we have a younger brother who was born when our father was very old.’ We used to have another brother, but he is dead. Benjamin is the only child left from that mother and so our father loves him very much.

21 You said to us, ‘Bring that brother to me. I want to see him.’ 22 And we said to you, ‘No, we can't bring him to you. The boy cannot leave his father or his father will die.’ 23 But you said, ‘If you do not bring your youngest brother, you will not be allowed to see me again.’ 24 So we went home and told our father what you said.

25 Later, when all the food was gone, our father said to us, ‘Go back to Egypt and buy us some more food.’

26 We said to him, ‘We can't go back there. The man said that he would not see us if we did not take our youngest brother.’

27 Then our father said to us, ‘My wife Rachel only had 2 sons. 28 I lost the first son. A wild animal ripped him apart and I never saw him again. 29 Now you want to take Rachel's second son away from me too. I am frightened that something bad will happen to him. If anything happened to him I would be really sad until I die.’

30 So, if I go home without Benjamin, I do not know what will happen. That boy is the most important thing in our father's life. 31 I think if we go home without Benjamin, our father will be so sad, he will die and it will be our fault.

32 Before I left Canaan, I made a promise to my father to keep the boy safe. I said to him, ‘I promise you that I will bring the boy back to you. If I do not bring him back to you, you can blame me all my life.’ 33 So, can you let Benjamin go home with his brothers. 34 I can't go home if the boy is not with me. I can't let my father have so much pain.”

45

Joseph told his brothers who he really was

1 When Judah finished his story, Joseph could not stop himself from crying, and so he said to his workers, “Please leave me alone with these men.” Then after all his workers had left the room, Joseph told his brothers who he really was. * 2 He cried, and he made so much noise that his workers heard him and everyone who worked in the government building heard about it.

3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were so frightened, they could not say anything.

4 So Joseph said to them, “It's alright, come close to me.” And when they came close, he said to them again, “I am Joseph, your brother. You sold me as a slave to those Ishmaelite men and they led me here to Egypt. 5 But do not be frightened or angry at yourselves for selling me, God sent me here to save the lives of a lot of people. 6 This country has not grown any food for 2 years and no food will grow for another 5 years. 7 God sent me here to make a way for your families to stay alive. 8 So then, you didn't send me here, God did. And he has made me the most important person that works for Pharaoh. I am like a father for Pharaoh. I look after him and I am the boss of the government and I am the boss over the whole country of Egypt.

9 I want you to go home to my father as fast as you can and say to him, ‘Your son Joseph said, “God has made me the boss over all of Egypt. You have to come to Egypt as fast as you can.* 10 I want you to come and live in a place called Goshen. Bring all your children and grandchildren, all your animals and everything you have so that you can all live near me. 11 There is going to be another 5 years when no food will grow, but I will look after you so that you and all your family will have all the food you need.” ’ ”

12 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “You can see for yourselves, and so can Benjamin, that I am your brother Joseph. 13 So tell my father how powerful I am here in Egypt. Tell him everything you have seen and heard. Quick, go and bring him here to me.”

14 Joseph put his arms around Benjamin and they cried together. 15 Joseph cried and kissed all his brothers, and they all sat down to talk.

16 When Pharaoh the king of Egypt and all his helpers heard that Joseph's brothers were in Egypt they were all happy for Joseph. 17 The king said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers to put bags of food onto their donkeys and go back to Canaan. 18 Tell them to bring their father and all their families back to me. I will give them the best land that I can find in Egypt and they will have the best food that we can give them. 19 Joseph, give them some of our wagons. That way the women and children can ride in them when they come to Egypt. And make sure your father comes with them. 20 Tell them not to worry if they have to leave some of their things behind. We will give them new things, they will be the best things we have here in Egypt.”*

21 So Jacob's sons did what Pharaoh said. And Joseph gave them wagons and food for the trip. 22 He gave each of his brothers one lot of new clothes, but he gave Benjamin 5 lots of clothes and a really big bag full of silver money. 23 Joseph sent his father some presents too. He sent 10 donkeys loaded with good things from Egypt and 10 girl donkeys with bags of seeds and bread and all the food they would need for the trip back to Canaan. And Joseph sent even more food for when everybody had to travel back to Egypt. 24 Then before he sent his brothers away, he said, “Do not argue as you go home.”

25 And so, the brothers left Egypt and went home to their father Jacob in Canaan. 26 They said to their father, “Joseph is alive, and he is the boss over all of Egypt.” Jacob was shocked and did not believe them. 27 But when he heard everything that Joseph said, and saw all the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry them back to Egypt, he started to feel better. 28 Then Israel, whose other name was Jacob, said, “I believe you now. My son Joseph is alive and I will go and see him before I die.”

46

Jacob and his family go to Egypt

1 Joseph's father's name was Jacob, but God changed his name to Israel. Sometimes he was named Jacob and sometimes he was named Israel. And so, Israel and all the other families took everything they owned and started to go south to Egypt. When they got to Beersheba, Jacob burnt an animal to show respect to God, the God of his father Isaac.

2 That night, God spoke to Israel and said, “Jacob, Jacob.”

And Jacob answered, “Here I am. I am listening.”

3 God said, “I am the God of your father Isaac. Do not be frightened to go down to Egypt. Your sons are going to have a lot of children and grandchildren, and I am going to make them into a great nation down there. 4 I will go down to Egypt with you, and at the right time, I will bring your family out of that country again. And I promise you, that your son Joseph will be with you when you die.”

5 Then Jacob and all his family left Beersheba. Jacob's sons put their wives, children and their father into the wagons that the king of Egypt gave them. 6-7 When they left Canaan they took all their animals and everything they owned with them.

And so that is how Jacob took his family to Egypt. He took his sons, grandsons, daughters and granddaughters. Yes, all his family went to Egypt.

Jacob's family

8 This is a list of the names of Israel's sons and the families that went to Egypt. And Israel's other name was Jacob.

Reuben was Jacob's first son. 9 Reuben's sons were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.

10 Simeon's sons were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, and Shaul's mother was a Canaanite woman.

11 Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12 Judah's sons were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah, but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

Perez's sons were Hezron and Hamul.

13 Iss-a-car's sons were Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

14 Zeb-you-lun's sons were Sered, Elon, and Jah-leel.

15 These sons were born while Jacob worked for Leah's father Laban in Harran. Jacob and Leah had a daughter too. Her name was Dinah. There were 33 people in this part of Jacob's family.

16-18 This is a list of the sons Jacob had with Zilpah. She was the working girl that Laban gave to Leah, and later on, Leah gave Zilpah to Jacob to be another wife.

Zilpah had 2 sons with Jacob.

Their names were Gad and Asher.

Gad's sons were Zefon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

Asher's sons were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah, and their sister was Serah. Beriah's sons were Heber and Mal-kiel. There were 16 people in this part of the family.

19 Jacob and Rachel had 2 sons, Joseph and Benjamin. 20 While Joseph was in Egypt, he and his wife, As-en-ath had 2 sons, Manasseh and Efraim. As-en-ath's father was the Egyptian ceremony man named Potifera. He was an Egyptian ceremony man at a place called On.

21 Benjamin's sons were Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

22 There were 14 people in this part of Jacob's family.

23-25 These are the sons that Jacob had with Bilhah. She was the working girl that Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, and later on Rachel gave Bilhah to be another wife for Jacob.

Bilhah had 2 sons with Jacob. Their names were Dan and Naftali.

Dan had a son named Hushi.

And Naftali had 4 sons, named Jar-ziel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem.

There were 7 people in this part of Jacob's family.

26-27 And so, there were 66 people in Jacob's family when he travelled to Egypt. But the wives of Jacob's sons were not counted in that number.

Joseph and his wife, As-en-ath had 2 sons when Joseph lived in Egypt.

There were 70 people living with Jacob when he was in Egypt.

Jacob and the families in Egypt

28 Before Jacob and the family got to Goshen, he sent his son Judah to ask Joseph how to get there. When Jacob and all the families arrived in Goshen, 29 Joseph told his workers to get his special wagon ready so that he could go and meet his father Jacob. As soon as Joseph saw his father, he put his arms around him and Joseph cried for a long time.

30 Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now that I have seen that you are alive, I can die a happy man.”

31 Joseph said to all of his brothers and their families, “I am going to tell the king that you are here. I will say, ‘My brothers and all my father's family have left Canaan and have come to stay with me. 32 They look after farm animals, and they have led all their animals here to Egypt. They have taken everything they own from Canaan and carried it here.’ 33 When the king wants you to go and talk to him, he will ask you, ‘What work do you do?’ 34 When you answer him, you must show him respect and say, ‘We have always looked after farm animals and our grandfathers from a long time ago did the same.’ If you say that, the king will let you live here in Goshen, away from where the Egyptian people live. Egyptians do not like to live near people that look after sheep.”

47

Jacob asked God to bless Pharaoh and do good things for him

1 Joseph went to see Pharaoh and said to him, “My father, my brothers and all their families are now living in Goshen. And they have taken everything they own from Canaan and carried it here to Egypt. All of their animals are here too.”

2 Then Joseph took 5 of his brothers to meet Pharaoh, the king.

3 Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What work do you do?”

And the brothers answered, “Sir we work for you now. We look after farm animals, just like our father and grandfather before us. 4 We have all come to live in your country for a while. Our country hasn't got any food to feed our animals and nothing will grow and everyone is really hungry. And so we ask you, can we live in that part of Egypt called Goshen?”

5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “It is really good that your father and brothers have come to live with you. 6 Now that you are the boss over all of Egypt, you can let them live wherever you like. But give them the best land. Let them live in Goshen, and if any of them are really good at looking after animals, you can let them look after my sheep and cattle too.”

7 Then Joseph took his father Jacob to meet the king. Jacob blessed the king, he prayed and asked God to do good things for the king and make the king strong.

8 Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How old are you?”

9 And Jacob answered, “Sir, all my life I have moved from place to place, and I have had a lot of troubles in my short life. I am only 130 years old but my father and grandfather lived much longer than that.”

10 Then, before leaving, Jacob said goodbye to the king and blessed him again.

11 Joseph did what the king said. He gave his father and his brothers the best land in Egypt near a town called Rameses in Goshen. 12 Joseph always made sure that his father, his brothers and everyone in their camp had all the food they needed.

Joseph got a lot of land for the king.

13 People in Egypt and Canaan started to have a very bad time. Everyone was hungry and nothing grew for people to eat. 14-15 Joseph took all the money he got from selling the food and put it into the king's bank. But there came a time when the people had no more money to buy food. And so, the people in Egypt went to Joseph and said, “All our money is gone. Please give us some food. If we do not eat soon, we will die right here in front of you.”

16 Joseph answered and said, “Ok. You have run out of money, so now if you give me your farm animals, I will give you food. 17 So the people took all their farm animals to Joseph. All that year the people gave their horses, cows, sheep, goats and donkeys to Joseph and he gave the people food so that they could stay alive.”

18 The next year, the people came to Joseph and said, “You know that we do not have any money and you have all our animals. We have nothing more to sell. All we have is our land and ourselves. 19 Our land cannot grow anything and it looks like it is dead. Might be, the King can own our farms and we will work for him. We will be his slaves. Just give us seeds that we can plant and seeds for food. That way we can stay alive and our farms will not become dry and useless. Please do not let us die.”

20 In the end, the people sold their farms to Joseph who was working for the king of Egypt. The hard times forced all the people to sell their land and become the King's slaves. 21 Everyone in the whole country of Egypt worked for Joseph and the king for no pay. They were slaves.

22 The only people that did not have to sell their land were the Egyptian ceremony men. The king paid them for their work and so they had money to buy food.

23 At the end of the bad years, Joseph said to the Egyptian farmers, “You and all your land belongs to the king, and so I will give you seeds so that you can grow plants for food. 24 When the growing time is finished you have to pick up all the seeds and put them into 5 heaps that are all the same size. Then you have to take one of those heaps and give it to the king's workers. The other 4 heaps are for you to keep so that you and your families have seeds to grow food next year.”

25 And all the people said, “You have been good to us and saved our lives and so we will work for the king.”

26 Joseph made a new law for the country of Egypt, and it is still there today. That new law was, “Anything that grows on the king's farms has to be put into 5 heaps and one of those heaps belongs to the king.”

The only land in all of Egypt that the king did not own was the land that belonged to the Egyptian ceremony men.

Jacob said, “Please do not bury me in Egypt”

27 When the Israelites moved to the part of Egypt called Goshen, they bought land and had a lot of children.

28 Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years and lived until he was 147 years old. 29 When Jacob knew that it was nearly time for him to die, he sent someone to get Joseph. He said to him, “If you really love me, then put your hand on my leg and make a promise to me. Promise that you will not bury me here in Egypt. 30 Promise me that after I die, you will take my body out of Egypt and bury it where my father and grandfather are buried.”*

Joseph said, “Yes I will do what you ask.”

31 Jacob said, “Make your promise right now.”

And after Joseph made that promise to his father, Jacob bowed down on his bed and prayed to God.

48

Jacob asked God to be good to Joseph's sons

1 Some time later a messenger told Joseph that his father was very sick. So Joseph took his 2 sons, Manasseh and Efraim to see him. 2 Jacob was very weak, but when he heard that Joseph had come to see him, he used all his strength to sit up in his bed.

3-4 When Joseph was with his father, Jacob said to him, “I met God All Powerful in a place called Luz. Luz's other name is Bethel and it is in the country called Canaan. He blessed me and said, ‘Jacob, I will give you a big family. You will be the father of a lot of people and I will give this country to all the family that comes from you, forever.’ *

5 Joseph, your 2 sons, who were born before I came to Egypt are now my sons too. I say that Efraim and Manasseh are my sons, just like Reuben and Simeon are my sons. 6 But if you have any more children later on, they will be your children, not mine. And after all the family go back to the land that God promised me, those other children will get part of the country that Efraim and Manasseh are given. 7 When I left Harran and went back to Canaan, your mother Rachel died near a place called Bethlehem, and I buried her near the road that goes there. I was very sad when she died.”*

8 Jacob's other name was Israel. Israel looked at Joseph's sons and said, “Who are these boys?”

9 And Joseph answered, “They are the 2 sons God has given me here in Egypt.”

Israel said, “Bring your sons close to me so that I can bless them. I will ask God to be good to them and make them strong.”

10 At this time, Israel was very old and he could not see very well, so Joseph took his sons closer to his father. Israel put his arms around the boys and kissed them. 11 He said to Joseph, “I did not think that I would ever see you again, but God has let me see you and your children too.”

12 Then Joseph took the boys off Israel's knees and then bowed down with his face on the ground. 13 Joseph got up and put Efraim near Israel's left hand side and he put Manasseh near Israel's right hand side and then moved them closer to his father. 14 But Israel crossed his hands over and put his right hand on the head of the younger son Efraim, and his left hand on the head of the older son, Manasseh.

15 Then he blessed them. He prayed and said,

“O God, you are the God that my grandfather Abraham and my father Isaac believed in. They trusted you and followed you,

You have led me and helped me all my life. 16 You always sent angels to save me from all my troubles.

I ask you to bless these boys. Make them strong and do good things for them, so that people remember my name and the names of Isaac my father and Abraham my grandfather.

And, O God, give them a lot of children and grandchildren after them.”

17 When Joseph saw his father cross his arms and put his right hand on Efraim's head, he got upset. And so he took his father's right hand and tried to put it on Manasseh's head. 18 He said to his father, “No, my father, this is the son that was born first. You should put your right hand on his head.”

19 But his father would not move his hand. He said to Joseph, “I know that he was born first. He will be a great man and a big family will come from him. But I tell you the younger brother will be more important than the older brother, and a group of nations will come from his family.”

20 Then Jacob blessed them with these words and said,

“When Israelite people pray to God and ask him to bless other people and make them strong, they will say, ‘O God make this person just like Efraim and Manasseh.’ ”

In this way Israel made Efraim more important than Manasseh.

21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die, but I know that God will be with all of my family. And one day God will take you all back to the country your father and grandfather came from. 22 I am giving you an extra piece of land in Canaan that your brothers will not get. It is the country called Shekem that I took from the Amorite people using my sword and my bow and arrows.”

49

This is what Jacob said to his 12 sons before he died

1 Then Jacob sent someone to bring all his sons to him. When they came he said, “My sons, stand around me so that I can tell you what is going to happen to each one of you later on.”

This is what he said to them. 2 “Listen carefully, sons of Jacob. Listen to your father Israel.

3 Reuben. You were born first when I was young and strong. And you showed everyone that I could be a father.

You are the first born son. You are strong and you should be the leader for the family. 4 But you are like the floodwater. You cannot say, ‘No’ to yourself. You went and slept with one of my wives.* You shamed me, and so you cannot be the leader of the family.

5 Simeon and Levi used their the wrong way and were violent. They are both like that.* 6 I will not sit down with them when they have their secret meetings. I do not want to know what they are planning to do next.

They were so angry that they killed men,

and they crippled cattle just for fun.

7 You are too violent and cruel and so this is my curse on you. I will split up your families and spread them into all the tribes of Jacob. Yes, I will split you up and spread your families into all the tribes of Israel.

8 Judah. All your brothers will say good things about you. And you will beat all your enemies. All your brothers will bow down to the ground in front of you to show respect. 9 You Judah, my son, are strong like a young lion that has killed an animal. You are like a lion that is lying down to rest, and everyone is too frightened to wake you up.* 10 Kings will come from Judah's family. Someone from Judah's line will always sit on the king's special chair called a throne until the real king comes, and then all the nations will do what he says. *

11 That king will have a lot of grapevines and will tie his donkey to the best branch and if the donkey eats the leaves, the grapevine will still grow grapes.

The king will have a lot of wine, and he will wash his clothes in the best wine that he has. 12 His eyes will be dark, like the colour of his wine, and his teeth will be white, just like milk.

13 Zeb-you-lun will live near the sea, and his country will go nearly to a town called Sidon. Ships will be safe when they are tied up next to his land.

14 Iss-a-car is like a big strong donkey that lies down when it has a heavy load. 15 When Iss-a-car sees that his country is good and that it is a good place to rest, he will want to live there. But he will be forced to work very hard for other people so that he can stay there.

16 Dan will be the leader of his tribe, just like the other brothers will lead their tribes.

17 But Dan's tribe will be small and dangerous, just like a small cheeky snake. Those snakes lie next to the road and bite horse's legs so that when the horse jumps up, the rider falls off its back.”

18 Then Jacob called out, “O God, I am waiting for you to save me.”

And Jacob kept telling his sons what was going to happen, 19 “Bad men will come to Gad and try to steal all his things, but Gad will fight them and beat them. He will force them to go away.

20 Asher's country will grow a lot of food. That food will be so good, kings will want to eat it.

21 Naftali is like a wild animal that runs fast and is hard to catch. The family that comes from Naftali will be good looking.

22 Joseph is like a grapevine that grows a lot of fruit.

That strong vine gets its water from a spring, and its branches grow over the wall.

23 His enemies were angry with him and wanted to fight him. They shot a lot of arrows at him. 24 But his arms were strong. And he aimed his bow to shoot arrows back at them.

God is the Most Powerful one, he is the one who leads Israel. He is the one who keeps Israel safe, he is the one who makes Joseph strong.

25 My God is the one that helps you. My God is the Most Powerful one, and he is the one who blesses you. He is the one that does good things for you and makes you strong.

He will send good rain to you from the sky, and he will make water come up from under the ground for you.

He will give you a lot of children and your animals will grow in number.

26 I am asking God to do good things for you. The country or hills can't give you any help like that.

Joseph is the powerful leader over his brothers and so I am asking God to give Joseph all the good things I want him to have.

27 Benjamin is dangerous. He is like a wild dog. He and his men are always fighting other people and taking their things. Then at night he splits up what they have taken and gives his fighters their share.”

28 Jacob told his 12 sons what would happen to each one of them later on. All the 12 sons had families that were big and they were called The 12 Tribes of Israel.

Jacob told his sons what to do with his body after he died

29-31 Jacob said to his sons, “I am about to die. I want you to take my body back to where my father and grandfather are buried in Canaan. My grandfather Abraham paid money for some country that belonged to a man named Efron from the Hittite tribe. Abraham wanted to use the cave in that country as a cemetery, and it is in the paddock called Mack-pelah on the east side of Mamre. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah are all buried in that cave. And I buried my wife Leah there too.* 32 Remember that money was paid to the Hittite people for that paddock and the cave and so that cemetery belongs to us.”* 33 When Jacob finished talking he lay back down on his bed and died.

50

Jacob died and was buried in Canaan

1 When Jacob died, Joseph kissed and hugged his father's body and cried for a long time. 2-3 In the Egyptian culture, after an important person died, special doctors worked on the body. They put leaves and medicine on it so that the body would not go bad and smell. Joseph told his doctors to do that to Jacob's body and it took them 40 days. All the people in Egypt cried for 70 days, to show how sorry they were.

4 When the sorry time was finished, Joseph asked the king's leading helpers to give the king this message 5 Joseph said, “When my father was about to die, he made me promise to take his body back to Canaan and bury him in the family cemetery. He got that cemetery ready before he came down here to Egypt. And so just before he died, I promised that I would do what he asked. Can I go and bury my father, and then come back.” *

6 The king sent his answer back to Joseph, “Yes. You have to keep your promise. Go and bury your father.”

7-9 So Joseph, his brothers, and all the people that lived with them, left Egypt and went back to Canaan to bury Jacob's body. But they left their children and all their animals behind in Goshen.

All the king's main helpers and important workers went with Joseph and his brothers to Canaan. The king sent soldiers to go with Joseph, some of them rode horses and others rode in war wagons called chariots. And so it was a very big group of people that went with Joseph.

10 They came to a place called Atad near the Jordan River. In that place there was a threshing floor* where the farmers hit the long grass to get the seeds out. When they got there, all of the people with Joseph cried out loud for his father Jacob for 7 days. 11 There were Canaanite people living in that part of the country. When they saw how sorry the Egyptians were at the threshing floor they said, “Those Egyptian people are really sad for the person that died.” And so they called the place Abel Miz-ray-im, and that name means, those Egyptians are really sad.

12 Joseph and his brothers did what their father Jacob wanted. 13 They carried his body into Canaan and buried him in the cave that was in the paddock called Mack-pelah near Mamre. It was the same cave that Abraham paid money to a Hittite man named Efron so that Abraham's family could use the cave as a cemetery.* 14 Joseph and his brothers buried their father and then went back to Egypt.

The brothers were still frightened of Joseph.

15 Joseph's brothers said to each other after their father died, “We did a lot of bad things to Joseph. What if he is still angry with us and wants to pay us back for what we did to him?” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph that said, “Before he died, this is what your father Jacob said to us, 17 ‘Go and see Joseph and say to him, “Joseph, we were wrong when we did those bad things to you. We are sorry. Please forgive us. Our father is dead now and so we are asking you to forgive us for what we did to you. All of us belong to the same God your father respected and followed.” ’ ”

When Joseph heard what they said, he cried. 18 His brothers went to see him and bowed down to the ground in front of him. They said, “We are like nothing, we are like workmen that belong to you.”

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not be frightened. I am not God. I am not a judge to say that you are guilty. 20 You wanted to hurt me, but God used what you did so that good things could happen, and a lot of people stayed alive. 21 Again, I tell you, do not be frightened. I will look after you and all your children.” Joseph kept on saying good things to them and made them feel better inside themselves.

Joseph's family

22 Joseph and all his family stayed in Egypt for a long time. Joseph lived for 110 years 23 and in his life time he saw that his son Efraim had children and grandchildren. And he saw that his son Manasseh had a son named Makir and Joseph adopted Makir's sons for himself.

Joseph died

24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, and I know that God will look after you. One day, God will lead you out of this country back to the country he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”*

25 Then Joseph asked all the families that came from his father Israel, to make a promise. He said, “Promise me that when God leads you out of Egypt, you will take my body with you and bury it in Canaan.”*

26 Joseph was 110 years old when he died. The special doctors worked on Joseph's body for 40 days so that it would not go bad and smell. When they had finished working on his body, they put it in a coffin.

And so, Joseph's body was kept safe in Egypt.

* 1:1 Psalms 89:11

* 1:3 2 Corinthians 4:6

* 1:27 Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6; Genesis 5:1-2; 9:7

* 2:2 Hebrews 4:4,10

* 2:3 Exodus 20:11; 31:17

* 2:7 1 Corinthians 15:45

* 2:9 Revelation 2:7; 22:2,14

* 2:24 Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7-8; 1 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 5:31

* 3:1 Revelation 12:9; 20:2

* 3:3 Genesis 2:16-17

* 3:13 2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14

* 3:15 Romans 16:20

* 3:22 Revelation 2:7; 22:14

* 4:4 Hebrews 11:4

* 4:8 Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51; 1 John 3:12

* 4:10 Hebrews 12:24

* 4:23-24 Matthew 18:22

* 5:1 Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6

* 5:2 Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6

* 5:23-24 Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14

* 6:3-4 Numbers 13:33

* 6:5 Matthew 24:37; Luke 17:26; 1 Peter 3:20

* 6:9 2 Peter 2:5

* 6:17 Luke 17:26-27

* 6:18 1 Peter 3:20

* 6:22 Hebrews 11:7

* 7:21 Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:26-27; 2 Peter 3:6

* 9:1 Genesis 1:28

* 9:4 Leviticus 7:26-27; 17:10-14; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16; 23; 15:23; Acts 15:20

* 9:5-6 Genesis 1:26; Exodus 20:13

* 9:7 Genesis 1:28

* 12:1 Acts 7:2-4; Hebrews 11:8

* 12:3 Galatians 3:8

* 12:7 Genesis 13:14-15; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13-14; 48:3-4; Acts 7:5; Galatians 3:16

* 12:13 Genesis 20:2-13; 26:7-11

* 13:10-12 Genesis 19:24

* 13:13 Genesis 18:20; 19:1-29

* 13:15 Genesis 12:7; 17:8; 28:13-14; 26:3; 48:3-4; Acts 7:5

* 13:16 Genesis 22:17; 28:14; 32:12; Hebrews 6:13-14; 11:12

* 14:20 Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:1,10,11,15,17

* 15:5 Deuteronomy 1:10; 1 Chronicles 27:23; Romans 4:18; Hebrews 11:12

* 15:6 Romans 4:3,9,22; Galatians 3:6; Hebrews 11:11; James 2:23-24

* 15:7 Acts 7:6-7

* 15:12 Job 4:13-14

* 15:13-15 Exodus 1:1-14

* 15:18-21 Genesis 12:7; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13-14; Acts 7:5

* 16:1-3 Genesis 30:4-5,9

* 16:16 Galatians 4:22

* 17:5 Romans 4:17

* 17:7 Psalms 105:8-10; Micah 7:20; Luke 1:55

* 17:8 Genesis 12:7; 13:14-15; 26:3; 28:13-14; 48:3-4; Acts 7:5

* 17:9-10 Genesis 21:4; 34:14-24; Exodus 4:26; 12:44,48; Leviticus 12:3; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Acts 7:8; Romans 4:11

* 18:2 Hebrews 13:2

* 18:10 Romans 9:9

* 18:14 Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27

* 18:18 Genesis 12:1-3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; Galatians 3:8

* 18:21 Genesis 13:13

* 19:8 Judges 19:22-24

* 19:11 2 Kings 6:18

* 19:16 2 Peter 2:7

* 19:23-25 Deuteronomy 29:23; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40; Lamentations 4:6; Matthew 10:15,; 11:23-24; Luke 10:12; 17:29; 2 Peter 2:6; Jude 7

* 19:26 Luke 17:32

* 20:2 Genesis 12:11-13

* 20:17-18 Genesis 12:17

* 21:1-3 Hebrews 11:11

* 21:4 Genesis 17:10-27; 34:14-24; Exodus 4:26; 12:44,48; Leviticus 12:3; Deuteronomy 10:16; Acts 7:8

* 21:4 Genesis 17:12; Acts 7:8

* 21:9-10 Galatians 4:29-30

* 21:12 Romans 9:7; Hebrews 11:18

* 21:22 Genesis 26:26

* 22:1 Hebrews 11:17-19

* 22:2 2 Chronicles 3:1

* 22:12 Hebrews 11:17-19; James 2:21

* 22:17 Genesis 13:16; 28:14; 32:12; Hebrews 6:14; 11:12

* 22:18 Genesis 12:1-3; 18:18; Acts 3:25

* 23:4 Genesis 17:8; 19:9; Leviticus 25:23; Acts 7:16; Hebrews 11:9,13

* 23:7-9 Genesis 47:30; 50:13

* 24:7 Genesis 12:1-3; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; Exodus 13:5; Deuteronomy 1:8; 34:4

* 24:7 Hebrews 1:14

* 25:9-10 Genesis 23:3-20; 49:29-30

* 25:12 Genesis 16:1-4; Genesis 30:4-5,9

* 25:23 Romans 9:10-12

* 25:34 Hebrews 12:16

* 26:1-6 Genesis 12:7,10; 13:14-15; 17:8; 22:16-18; 28:13-14; 48:3-4

* 26:9 Genesis 12:13; 20:2

* 26:31 Romans 12:18; Hebrews 12:14

* 26:35 Genesis 28:8

* 27:3 Genesis 25:27

* 27:29 Genesis 12:3; Hebrews 11:20

* 27:36 Genesis 25:29-34

* 27:38 Hebrews 12:17

* 28:4 Genesis 17:4-8

* 28:12 John 1:51

* 28:13 Genesis 12:7; 13:14-15; 17:8; 26:3; 48:3-4

* 28:14 Genesis 13:16; 28:14; 32:12; Hebrews 6:13-14; 11:12

* 28:18 Leviticus 8:10-12; Numbers 7:1

* 28:22 Genesis 14:20; Leviticus 27:30-33; Deuteronomy 14:22

* 29:6 Ruth 4:11; Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18

* 30:3 Genesis 16:3

* 30:9 Genesis 16:3

* 30:27 Genesis 44:15

* 31:23-25 Genesis 20:3-6; 28:12; 31:10-11; 37:5-10; 40:5-19; 41:1-32; Matthew 1:20; 2:12-19; 27:19; Acts 2:17

* 31:30 Genesis 31:17-21

* 31:45 Genesis 28:18

* 31:55 Genesis 24:60

* 32:12 Genesis 13:16; 22:17; 28:14; Hebrews 6:13-14; 11:12

* 32:24 Hosea 12:3-4

* 32:28 Genesis 35:10

* 32:29 Judges 13:17-18

* 32:30 Genesis 16:13; Judges 6:22; Isaiah 6:1

* 34:1 Genesis 30:21; 46:15

* 34:14 Genesis 17:10-27; 21:4; Exodus 4:26; 12:44,48; Leviticus 12:3; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Acts 7:8; Romans 4:11

* 34:19-20 Genesis 19:1; 38:14-16; Ruth 4:1

* 35:2-3 Genesis 31:19,34; Exodus 20:3-4; Deuteronomy 5:7; 6:14; 7:25; 11:28; 32:16; Joshua 23:7; 1 Samuel 7:3

* 35:9-11 Genesis 17:5; 32:24-32

* 35:12 Genesis 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:18; 26:3-4; 28:3-4,13; 48:4; Exodus 3:8

* 35:28-29 Genesis 23:7-9,19; 25:9-10; 49:31; 50:13

* 37:11 Acts 7:9

* 37:28 Acts 7:9

* 38:8 Matthew 22:24,28; Mark 12:19-23; Luke 20:28-33

* 38:11 Ruth 1:11-13

* 39:21 Acts 7:9

* 40:8 Genesis 41:16; Daniel 2:28; 4:8-9

* 41:8 Daniel 2:1-13

* 41:16 Genesis 40:8; Daniel 2:28

* 41:40 Acts 7:10

* 41:42 Daniel 5:29

* 41:53-54 Acts 7:11

* 42:2 Acts 7:12

* 42:6 Genesis 37:5-10

* 42:10 Joshua 2:1-24; Judges 1:24; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25

* 43:28 Genesis 37:5-10

* 44:15 Genesis 30:27; Leviticus 19:26

* 45:1 Acts 7:13

* 45:9 Acts 7:14

* 45:20 Acts 7:13-14

* 47:30 Genesis 23:1-20; 25:9; 49:29-31; 50:5-14

* 48:3-4 Genesis 12:7; 13:14-15; 17:8; 26:3; 28:13-14

* 48:7 Genesis 35:16-19

* 49:4 Genesis 35:22

* 49:5 Genesis 34:25-30

* 49:9 Numbers 24:9; Revelation 5:5

* 49:10 Matthew 2:6; Revelation 5:5

* 49:29-31 Genesis 23:3-20; 25:9-10; 50:5-14

* 49:32 Acts 7:15-16

* 50:5 Genesis 47:29-31

* 50:10 Ruth 2:17; 3:3-6

* 50:13 Genesis 23:1-20; Acts 7:16

* 50:24 Exodus 3:16-17; 33:1

* 50:25 Exodus 13:19; Joshua 24:32; Hebrews 11:22

Ruth

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Ruth

Introduction

In this story, Naomi, an Israelite woman, moved with her husband and 2 sons to the country of Moab. The people of Moab were called Moabites but they were not good friends with the people of Israel. Then Naomi's 2 sons both married Moabite women, and this was against God's law. The people of Israel were supposed to marry people from Israel, not people from other nations.

When both Naomi's husband and her sons died, Naomi made up her mind to leave Moab and go back to Israel. One of Naomi's daughters-in-law, Ruth, wanted to go back to Israel with Naomi. And Ruth wanted to leave her Moabite gods and follow Naomi's God, the God of Israel.

In those days, widows had no way to get food for themselves. So Ruth looked after Naomi by getting food for her. Ruth did this by going to a paddock where food seeds were being grown. When the seeds on the grass plants were ready to be picked, the workers cut the grass and tied them up. God's law said that when people did this, they had to leave any seeds that had dropped on the ground. They were not allowed to pick them up. Those seeds that were on the ground were for strangers or people that didn't have much money.

The paddock where Ruth picked up seeds belonged to a man named Boaz. Boaz was a close relation of Naomi's husband who had died. And part of the Hebrew culture was that when a married man died, a close relation was meant to marry the widow. That way the woman was looked after and the children from that marriage would carry on the family line.

Ruth, the woman from Moab, was the great-grandmother of King David. And so she is in Jesus' family line.

The story of Ruth teaches us about God's kindness, and how he cares for people that are having a hard time.

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Elim-elek (Elimelech) and Naomi left their homeland and went to a country called Mo-ab

1-2 This story comes from a long time ago when the leader for the Israelite people was called a Judge.

There was a man named Elim-elek who was from the Ef-rath (Ephrath) clan. And he lived in the town of Bethlehem in the country that belonged to the tribe of Judah.

Elim-elek was married to Naomi and they had 2 sons, Mah-lon and Kill-e-on (Kilion).

There came a time when there was not much food growing in the country of Israel, and all the people were really hungry. So Elim-elek took his wife and his 2 sons to live for a while in a country called Mo-ab.

3 Some time later, Elim-elek died and Naomi was left all alone with her 2 sons. 4 Those 2 young men married women from Mo-ab. One woman's name was Or-pah and the other woman's name was Ruth.

They all lived together in Mo-ab for about another 10 years, 5 but then both Mah-lon and Kill-e-on died. And so Naomi was all alone. She had lost her husband and now she had lost her 2 sons.

Naomi went back to Bethlehem

6 Later on, someone told Naomi that the Lord had helped his people in Israel and had given them food. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Mo-ab and go back to Bethlehem. 7 Naomi, Or-pah and Ruth left their home in Mo-ab, and they started to walk along the track that went back to the land of Judah in Israel. 8 Then Naomi stopped and said to her daughters-in-law, “I want you to go back and stay with your mothers. I will pray and ask the Lord to be kind to you, just like you have been kind to me and my 2 sons. 9 I will ask the Lord to give each of you a new husband to look after you and to keep you safe.” Then Naomi kissed them and said goodbye to them, and they all started to cry out loud.

10 Both the young women said, “No, we don't want to do that, we want to go with you and live with you and your people.”

11 But Naomi said, “Why do you want to come with me? I cannot have more sons so that you can marry them. No, go home my daughters. 12 Go back to your families. I might get married today and have 2 more sons straight away, but I am too old for that to happen. And even if I can have 2 more sons straight away, 13 you cannot wait for them to grow up. No, you cannot wait that long to have a husband. I think the Lord has turned against me. I am too sad and angry, and I don't want you to feel like that too!”

14 They all cried out loud again. Then Or-pah kissed her mother-in-law to say goodbye and she started to walk back to her family in Mo-ab. But Ruth grabbed Naomi and held onto her.

15 Naomi said to her, “Ruth, Or-pah is going back to her people and to her gods. I want you to go with her.”

Ruth made a strong promise to Naomi

16 But Ruth said, “Don't force me to leave you, and don't stop me from following you. This is my strong promise to you. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live there too. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. 17 Where you die, I will die there too. Where you are buried, I want to be buried in the same place. If I leave you before I die, then I ask the Lord to really punish me.”

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her, she stopped talking. 19 Then they walked together until they got to Bethlehem and everyone in the town was very excited to see them. All the women said, “Is that really you Naomi?”

20 But Naomi said, “Do not call me Naomi. That name means that I am happy, but I am not happy. Call me Mara. That name means that I am not happy, I am like food that has gone sour. God All Powerful has made my life very hard. 21 I left this country a happy person, but now the Lord has made me come back here and I have nothing. The Lord All Powerful has sent me too much trouble, so do not call me Naomi!”

22 That is how Naomi and Ruth, her daughter-in-law from Mo-ab, came home to Bethlehem.

They got there when the people in that country started to go out to their paddocks to cut all the long barley grass. The people grew that barley grass to make food from the seeds.

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Ruth met Boaz

1 At that time there was a man living in Bethlehem and his name was Boaz. He was an important man from the same clan as Naomi's husband, Elim-elek (Elimelech).

2 One day, Ruth the young woman from Mo-ab, said to Naomi, “Can I go to the paddocks where they grow the barley grass? Someone might be kind to me and let me pick up some of the grass that has dropped onto the ground.”

And Naomi said, “Yes, go and do that my daughter.”

3 So Ruth went to a paddock where some workers were cutting the barley grass and she started to pick up the grass that had fallen onto the ground. Ruth didn't know that the paddock belonged to Boaz who was a close relation for Elim-elek.

4 Later on, Boaz went out from Bethlehem and walked to his paddock.

When he got near to his workers he said, “I pray that the Lord is close to all of you today.”

And the workers said back to him, “We pray that the Lord will be good to you.”

This is how people said hello to one another in those days.

5 Then Boaz said to the leader of the workers, “Who is that young woman? What family does she come from?”

6 The leader said, “She is the young woman from Mo-ab that came back with Naomi. 7 This morning she came and said to me, ‘Can I follow behind your workers and pick up the barley grass that has dropped onto the ground?’

She has worked very hard all morning and she has only stopped to have a short rest under our tent.”

8 So Boaz walked over to Ruth and said to her in a friendly way, “I want you to listen to me. I would like you to stay in my paddocks to pick up the barley grass. Stay close to my women workers and do not go to paddocks that belong to someone else. 9 You must watch where my women are working and follow along behind them. I have told my men workers to leave you alone. And when you get thirsty, get a drink from those billycans my men have filled with water.”

10 Ruth got down on her knees in front of Boaz and put her face close to the ground to show him respect. She said, “Why are you so good to me? I am a stranger in this country.”

11 Boaz said, “Yes, I know you are a stranger, but people have told me that you have been very good to your mother-in-law after her husband died. You left your country, and you left your mother and your father to come to this country where you do not know anyone. 12 You have come into God's country and he will look after you just like a mother bird looks after her babies and puts them under her wings. I pray that the Lord will be good to you for all the good things you have done for Naomi.”

13 Ruth said to him, “Thank you my master, I know that I am not one of your workers but you have said kind words to me and now I feel happy.”

14 When it was time to eat, Boaz said to Ruth, “Come over here and sit with us. Come and have something to eat. Take some of this bread and put some nice sauce on it.”

So she sat down and ate with the workers, and Boaz gave her some cooked seeds to eat. She ate as much as she wanted and then kept the rest for later.

15 When they finished eating, Ruth got up and went back to work.

Then Boaz said to the men cutting the grass, “When you tie up the long barley grass, let that young woman pick up the grass on the ground and do not try to stop her. 16 And when you have tied up the grass, pull some of it out and drop it on the ground so that she can have it. Do not tell her to stop.”

17 Ruth worked hard until the sun went down. She took all the barley grass that she had picked up and then she hit it with a stick to make the seeds fall off. When Ruth had finished hitting the grass, there were so many seeds that she filled up a really big billycan. 18 Then she carried the seeds back to the town and showed them to Naomi. And she gave Naomi the cooked seeds she saved from the meal that she had in the middle of the day.

19 Naomi asked Ruth, “Where did you get all these seeds? Where did you work today? I pray that God is good to the person that let you have this food.”

Ruth said to Naomi, “I have been working in a paddock that belongs to Boaz.”

20 Straight away Naomi said, “I want the Lord to bless Boaz and do good things for him. The Lord always keeps his promise to people that are alive and to people who are dead. Yes, I want him to do good things for Boaz.”

Naomi said to Ruth, “Boaz is a close relation for us. In our culture he is someone that has to look after us.”

21 Then Ruth, the young woman from Mo-ab, said, “Boaz told me to stay close to his workers every day until they have finished cutting the grass and all the seeds are put into his shed.”

22 And Naomi said, “Yes, that is a good idea my daughter. It is much better that you stay with his women workers. If you went to work in another person's paddock, somebody might do the wrong thing to you.” 23 So, Ruth lived with Naomi and went to work every day until all the long grass was cut and the barley and other food seeds were put into the shed. And she did what she was told, she stayed close to the women that worked for Boaz.

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Naomi had a plan to get a husband for Ruth

1 One day, Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, I want you to have a good life and a safe place to live after I die. And so I am going to find the right man for you to marry. 2 You have been picking up the barley grass behind the women that work for Boaz, and he is our close relation. Boaz and his workers have finished getting all the grass from his paddocks. And they have put the grass in the place where people hit the grass with a stick to make the barley seeds fall off. Tonight Boaz and his workers will throw all the seeds into the air so that the wind will blow the rubbish away and the seeds will fall to the ground.

3-4 This is my idea. I want you to have a wash, put on your best clothes, and some perfume or some nice smelling oil. Then go down to where Boaz is working, but do not let him see you. Wait until he has finished his supper and watch where he lies down to sleep. That way you can find him in the dark. And when he is really asleep, go and take the blanket off his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

5 Ruth answered, “I will do everything you have said.”

6 Later, Ruth washed herself, changed her clothes and put on some nice smelling oil. She went down to where Boaz was working and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. 7 Boaz finished his supper and after he had something to drink, he was happy and tired. He lay down next to a heap of seeds and went to sleep. Ruth waited until Boaz was really asleep, then she walked quietly over to where he was lying down. She moved the blanket off his feet and lay down. 8 In the middle of the night, something made Boaz wake up and he got a big shock when he found a woman lying next to his feet. 9 He said, “Who are you?”

Ruth said to him, “My master, it's me, Ruth. You are a close relation and you have to look after me. That is why I took the blanket off your feet and lay down. I am asking you to look after me and to marry me.”

10 Boaz said, “I want the Lord to be good to you, Ruth. You are being very kind to me and showing our family great respect. You have been very kind to Naomi and her family. And now you are showing more kindness, you are being kind to me. You might have looked for a much younger man to marry. He might have had a lot of money or he might have had nothing, but you did not look for a younger man. You have asked me. 11 Don't be frightened Ruth, everyone in our community knows that you are a good woman and so I will do what you have asked me. I will help you. 12 Yes, it is true that I am a close relation and it is my job to look after you, but there is another man that is a closer relation than me. He is the one who has to look after you and marry you. 13 But stay there and sleep at my feet. In the morning I will find out if that man will follow our culture and look after you. If he wants to look after you and marry you, that is alright. But if he does not want to marry you, then I will do the right thing and I will marry you. I am making this promise to you and the Lord is my witness. Lie down there until morning.”

14 Ruth lay down at Boaz's feet all night and in the morning she got ready to leave before the sun got up. She did this so that no-one would see her. Boaz said to himself, “No-one must know that a woman came to this work place at night.” 15 And so he said to Ruth, “Bring your coat here and I will put some seeds into it.”

So Ruth held out her coat and Boaz put a lot of barley seeds into it. He tied the coat up and put it on her back and then she went home.

16 When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law said, “What happened Ruth?”

So Ruth told Naomi everything that had happened. Ruth said, “I did everything you said, but Boaz told me that there is a closer relation who should look after me and marry me. And then Boaz promised me that he would talk to that man. He said, ‘If the other man does not want to marry you, I will marry you.’ 17 Boaz gave me these barley seeds. He said, ‘You must take a present home for your mother-in-law.’ ”

18 Then Naomi said, “We must wait and see what happens. Boaz will not stop until he has made everything right. He will talk to that man and see if he will marry you.”

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Boaz married Ruth

1 Later that morning, Boaz sat down in the meeting place near the town gate, and waited for his close relation to walk past. This was the man that Boaz had told Ruth about. He was the man who should look after her.

When Boaz saw his relation, he called out to him and said, “Can you come and sit down with me? I want to talk to you.”

The man walked over to Boaz and sat down. 2 Then Boaz asked 10 of the town elders to have a meeting with him and his relation.

3 They all sat down and Boaz said to the man, “Elim-elek's (Elimelech's)s wife Naomi, has come back from Mo-ab. Naomi wants to sell the land that belonged to our relation, Elim-elek. 4 And so I thought I would tell you. You are the closest relation for Elim-elek and you are the right person to buy that land. If you want to buy the land, you can do that here in front of all these elders right now. They will be witnesses that you own that land. But, if you do not want to buy the land, tell me, and I will buy it. You know that I am the next one in line.”

The close relation said, “Yes I will buy that land from Naomi.”

5 Then Boaz said, “That is good, but you have to remember that when you buy the land, you have to marry Ruth, the woman from Mo-ab. She was married to Mah-lon, Elim-elek's son who passed away. That way she can have children to carry on Elim-elek's family line and the land will still belong to them.”

6 The other man said, “If that is what has to happen, I cannot buy that land. If I buy Elim-elek's land, it will still belong to Elim-elek's family and my own children will miss out. No, I will not buy that land. You are free to buy it.”

7 In those days, the Israelite people had a way of showing that someone was the new owner of some land. The person selling that land took off their shoe and gave it to the person buying the land. They did this in front of witnesses to show that the deal was finished and legal in Israel.

8 So the close relation took off his shoe and gave it to Boaz. He said to Boaz, “Here, you can buy that land.”

9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people standing there, “You are witnesses for me today. I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to her husband Elim-elek and her 2 sons, Kill-e-on (Kilion) and Mah-lon. 10 And I am going to marry Ruth, the woman from Mo-ab who was married to Mah-lon. I am doing this so that Elim-elek's land will stay in his family and Ruth's children will carry on his family name. That way, his relations and the people from his hometown will not forget Elim-elek. You are all witnesses to what I have said here today.”

11 All the elders and people at the meeting said to Boaz, “Yes, we are your witnesses. This is our prayer for you and Ruth as you get married and live together. We ask the Lord to give Ruth a lot of children like Rachel and Leah, our grandmothers from a long time ago. They had a lot of children with Jacob, and from those children the nation of Israel got really big.

Boaz, we ask the Lord to give you a good life here with the Ef-rath (Ephrath) clan. We ask the Lord to make you an important man here in Bethlehem so that everyone respects you. 12 Remember your grandfather Perez from a long time ago. He was Tamar and Judah's son. We ask the Lord to give you and your wife a family like Perez had.”*

13 So Boaz took Ruth home to be his wife. He slept with her and the Lord gave her a baby boy.

14 The women in Bethlehem said to Naomi, “Thank you Lord! Naomi, the Lord has given you a grandson to carry on your family line. We ask the Lord to make a way for everyone in Israel to know him and respect him. 15 Your daughter-in-law Ruth loves you so much. She has done more to help you than if you had 7 sons to look after you. Now, she has given you a grandson. This little boy will make you feel young again and later on he will look after you.”

16 Naomi held the baby close to her and she loved him like he was her own baby. 17 The women that lived near to Naomi said, “Naomi has another son,” and they named him Obed. When Obed grew up he had a son named Jesse and later on again, Jesse had a son named David.

18 This is the family line for Perez who was the grandfather from a long time ago for Boaz.

Perez was the father of Hezron,

19 Hezron was the father of Ram,

Ram was the father of A-min-a-dab,

20 A-min-a-dab was the father of Nah-shon,

Nah-shon was the father of Salmon,

21 Salmon was the father of Boaz,

Boaz was the father of Obed,

22 Obed was the father of Jesse,

and Jesse was the father of David. David was a king of Israel.

* 4:12 Genesis 38

Esther

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Esther

How the story of Esther is part of Israel's history.

In Genesis Chapter 12, God called Abraham to leave his country, his tribe and his close relations and go to a new country that God was going to give him and his family forever.

A long time later, Abraham had a son, Isaac, who then had 2 sons, Jacob and Esau.

Jacob had a lot of sons and a daughter but all of the family that came from Jacob ended up as slaves in Egypt.

At the right time, God made a way for his people to get away from Egypt and God led them back to the country that he had promised to Abraham.

God was their king. He wanted to look after them and he wanted to make them the winners over all their enemies.

When God's people were just about to go and take over the new country, God gave them a warning. He said that if they lived his way, they would have a good life in that new country. But if they did not live his way, they would have a hard life and he would take them out of the country that he had given them. And in the end that is what happened.

The trouble started when the Israelites asked Samuel, their leader at the time, to give them a man to be their king. God was not happy when his people turned away from him but he did what they asked and he made Saul their first king.

Saul did not do what God wanted and so God made David king of Israel. When David died, his son Solomon, was the next king.

But Solomon did not follow God all the way. God warned him, but Solomon did not take any notice. Then after Solomon died, God split Israel into 2 parts.

The north part was made up of 10 tribes and that part was called Israel. The south part had 2 tribes and it was called Judah.

The people in Israel did not follow God and so God let the Assyrian people come and grab all the people and take them away as prisoners. Then the Assyrians let other people from different nations go and live in Israel and later on, those people were called Samaritans.

The people in Judah, the south part, didn't follow God the right way either. So God let the Babylonian nation come and grab them and take them away as prisoners. And by that time, the people in the south were called Jews. This name comes from the name Judah.

The Babylonians took the Jews back to where Abraham, their grandfather from a long time ago, had come from. That country was called Babylonia. (See the map 1.)

Later on, the Persians came and had a fight with the Babylonians and the Persians were the winners. The Persians had done the same thing to a lot of smaller nations, so everything and everyone in Babylonia became part of the Persian country. One of the main nations in Persia was the Media nation and the people were called Medes. (See map 2.)

The story of Esther happened when Zerk-sees (Xerxes) was the king of Persia.

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The king had a big party

1 This story comes from the time when Zerk-sees (Xerxes) was the king of a big country called Persia. Persia was made up of 127 different nations. On the east side of Persia there was a country called India and on the west side there was another country called Ethiopia. Ethiopia is to the south of Egypt. 2 King Zerk-sees lived in Susa, the main town of Persia. It was a very big town and part of that town had really strong walls around it to keep everyone safe. Susa was where King Zerk-sees made all the laws for his people.

3 Zerk-sees was the king for 2 years, and then in the third year he gave a party. He invited all the leaders from the Persian and the Median armies, and he invited the important people from all the other nations that were in Persia.

4 That party went on for half a year, and all that time Zerk-sees showed off to the people that were at the party. He wanted them to see that he was a great and powerful king and that his country was rich and powerful too. 5 When that party was finished and everyone had gone home, Zerk-sees had another party in the gardens of the palace, his big house in Susa. Zerk-sees gave that party for all the important people and everyone else that lived inside that part of Susa that had strong walls. And this second party went on for 7 days.

6 Around the gardens of his palace there were a lot of big strong poles made from smooth stone, and on the top of every pole there were metal rings made of silver. Shade cloths made of light purple and white material were tied to those silver rings using purple and white ropes.

At this party, the people lay down on long chairs made of silver and gold. The floor looked really beautiful. It was made of a lot of different coloured stones that cost a lot of money. It even had some pretty sea shells in it.

7 The people drank from gold cups and every cup looked different. The king wanted to be kind to the people and so he let them drink a lot of his private wine. 8 The king told his workers to let the people drink as much as they wanted.

9 King Zerk-sees had a wife who was called Queen Vashti. At the same time as Zerk-sees was having his party, Vashti was having a party for the women in Zerk-sees' palace.

10-11 On the last day of the party, King Zerk-sees had been drinking a lot of wine and he was feeling very happy. He sent his 7 special workers to go and get Queen Vashti to come to his party. The names of his special workers were Me-human, Biz-tha, Harbona, Big-tha, Abag-tha, Zethar and Karkas.

Zerk-sees wanted Vashti to come to the party wearing the queen's special hat called a crown. So he said to his workers, “Tell Queen Vashti to come to my party and tell her to wear her crown.”

Queen Vashti was very beautiful so Zerk-sees wanted to show her off to all the people at his party. 12 The workers did what Zerk-sees asked them to do. They went to Queen Vashti and said, “The king wants you to go to his party, and he wants you to wear your crown.”

But Queen Vashti said, “No, I will not go to his party.”

When the workers told Zerk-sees what Vashti said, he got really wild and it was like he had a fire inside him.

13 At that time the king had a group of helpers who knew about the Persian laws and how to do the right thing. And so Zerk-sees asked 14 Car-shena, Shethar, Ad-matha, Tar-shish, Mer-es, Mar-sena and Mem-u-can to help him. They were 7 of the important men in the country of Persia and Media. These men sat next to the king and were allowed to talk to him any time they wanted to. 15 And so King Zerk-sees said to them, “What do you think we should do to Queen Vashti? I sent my workers to tell her to come to my party but she said, ‘No!’ What does our law say should happen to her?”

16 One of the helpers named Mem-u-can got up and said to the king and all the important men there, “Queen Vashti has done the wrong thing to you King Zerk-sees. She has done the wrong thing to all the important men in your country too. And she has done the wrong thing to all the people in all your country that goes from India to Ethiopia. 17 All the wives in Persia and Media will hear what the queen said. They will not respect their husbands and might be, they will not do what their husbands tell them to do. 18 By the time the sun goes down tonight, all the wives of the important men in Persia and Media will know what Vashti did and all those women will copy her. They will not respect their husbands and there will be a lot of trouble everywhere.

19 And so King Zerk-sees, we think that you should make a new law, and you know that the laws written down in Persia and Media cannot be changed. You should have this new law written down on paper and sent out everywhere. That law will tell everyone that Vashti is not the queen anymore and that she can never go near the king again. King Zerk-sees, you should pick a better woman to be your queen. 20 You must have this law paper sent out everywhere in your big country. Then every important woman and all the other women in the country of Persia will respect their husbands.”

21 The king and all the important men were happy with this idea and so Zerk-sees did what Mem-u-can said. He made that new law.

22 In all the nations that were in the country of Persia there were a lot of different languages. And so King Zerk-sees got his men to put that law into every one of those languages. That way everyone in Persia would understand the new law. Then the papers were sent out so that all the people knew that every man in Persia was the boss in his own home.

2

Esther was picked to be the new queen

1 Some time later, after King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) stopped being angry with Queen Vashti, he started to think about her and what she had done. And he thought about the law that stopped her from coming to see him.

2 Zerk-sees' helpers said to the king, “We think that you should send men everywhere to find beautiful young women that have never been to bed with a man. Your workers can bring them back here to be second wives for you and live in your palace. Then you can pick one of them to be your new queen. 3 We think you should pick leaders from every part of Persia to bring those young women here to Susa. When they get here, they can go and live where all the king's women live. Give those young women to Hegai, he is the one who looks after all the king's women. And he can make sure those young women have all sorts of baths and are rubbed with nice smelling oils to make them look beautiful for the king. 4 And then you can pick the woman you like the best and make her the queen instead of Vashti.”

The king liked the idea and so that is what he did.

5-6 Many years before this time, King Neb-you-cad-nezzar (Nebuchadnezzar), the king of Babylon, grabbed Jehoi-achin the king of Judah and a lot of other Jewish people who were living in Jerusalem. Then he took them all back to Babylon as prisoners. Later on, the Persian army beat the Babylonian army and took all the Babylonian country and people for themselves. That is why there were Jewish people living in Persia.

There was a Jewish man from the Benjamin tribe named More-dek-eye (Mordecai) who lived in the part of Susa that had really strong walls. More-dek-eye's father's name was Jair, his grandfather's name was Shim-eye and his great grandfather's name was Kish. And Kish was one of the people who was taken from Jerusalem as a prisoner by Neb-you-cad-nezzer, the king of Babylon.

7 More-dek-eye had a cousin named Hadassah. Abi-hail was her father and both Abi-hail and Hadassah's mother had died. So More-dek-eye adopted her and looked after her like she was his own daughter.

Hadassah was her Jewish name but everyone called her Esther. She was very beautiful.

8 When the king's law was read out, the men that the king had picked were sent out all over the country. They found Esther and a lot of other beautiful young women and took them to a special part of the king's palace in Susa. And that was where Hegai, the king's worker, looked after them.

9 Hegai really liked Esther and so she was the first of the young women to have the nice smelling oils rubbed on her. Hegai gave Esther the best food and 7 women from the king's palace to help her. And he gave Esther and her women helpers the best rooms where all the women lived in the king's palace.

10 Some time before Esther was taken to the king's palace, More-dek-eye said to her, “Do not tell anyone that you are a Jew or that I am your cousin.” And so Esther did what More-dek-eye said.

11 When Esther was living in the king's palace, More-dek-eye worried for her. So every day he walked near the yard in front of where the women lived. He tried to find out what they were doing to her and if she was alright. 12 Every one of the young women had to have a lot of nice things done to her for 12 months so that she was ready to meet the king. So, for 6 months she rubbed her body with a special smelling oil. And then for the next 6 months they gave her other nice smelling oils and perfumes to put on her body.

13 At the end of the 12 months it was time for each woman to meet the king. When the woman went to be with the king, she was allowed to take whatever she wanted from her room. 14 When it was night time, the woman went to the king's room to spend the night with him. Then in the morning someone took her to another part of the palace. In those days, the king had other wives who were not as important as his main wife, the queen. Those second wives lived in a special place in the palace and a man named Shay-ash-gaz (Shaashgaz) looked after them for King Zerk-sees.

None of the women in that part of the house were allowed to go back to see the king unless he was really pleased with her. Then the king would send someone to call out her name and take her to be with the king.

15 Esther's father's name was Abi-hail. Abi-hail was More-dek-eye's uncle. More-dek-eye adopted Esther after her parents died.

When the time came for Esther to go to the king, Hegai told her what clothes and what pretty things to take with her. Esther did what Hegai said, and everyone who saw Esther liked her.

16 Zerk-sees had been the king of Persia for 6 years, and then in the cool weather time of the 7th year, Esther went to meet Zerk-sees in his palace.

17 King Zerk-sees loved Esther more than any other woman in his house. He was really pleased with her, and he liked her more than any of the other young women that were taken to the palace. So Zerk-sees put the special hat called a crown on Esther's head and he made her the queen of Persia instead of Vashti.

18 And then the king invited all the leaders and all the important people to a big party for Esther. Zerk-sees said that everyone in Persia was allowed to have a holiday, and he gave really nice presents to people.

More-dek-eye saved the king's life

19 Esther's cousin More-dek-eye was one of the important workers for the king and so he was allowed to sit near the gate to the king's palace. And he was sitting there when Esther and all the other young women were meeting together for the second time. 20 Esther had always done what More-dek-eye told her to do right from when she went to live in his house. And More-dek-eye had warned her not to tell anyone that she was his cousin and that she was a Jew.

21 One day while More-dek-eye was sitting near the gate to the palace, 2 of the men who were the guards at the door to the king's private rooms got angry with the king. Their names were Big-thana and Ter-resh, and they made plans to kill the king. 22 When More-dek-eye found out what they were planning to do, he told Esther and she told the king what More-dek-eye had said. 23 The king sent some men to make sure that the story was true. They found out that the 2 men really were planning to kill the king. So the king sent his soldiers to put the 2 men up on wooden poles until they were dead. The king told one of his workers to write down in The Book about the Persian Nation how More-dek-eye saved the king.

3

Haman tried to hurt the Jewish people

1 Later on, King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) was very happy with a man named Haman. Haman's father was Ham-me-datha from the Aga-gite tribe.*

The king made Haman more important than any other man in the government. 2 And so, King Zerk-sees made a law that said all the king's workers at the palace gates had to bow down to Haman. They had to get down on their knees to show him deep respect. All the king's workers did this, but More-dek-eye (Mordecai) would not follow that new law. He would not get down on his knees to show respect to Haman.

3 The king's workers at the palace gates said to More-dek-eye, “Why don't you follow the king's law and show respect to Haman?”

4 More-dek-eye answered, “I am a Jew, and that is why I cannot bow down and show deep respect to Haman.”

The king's workers kept on asking him every day to follow the king's law, but he would not listen to them. And so they told Haman. They wanted to find out what Haman would do to More-dek-eye.

5 When the king's workers told Haman that More-dek-eye would not bow down to show him deep respect, Haman got really angry. 6 He was so wild, he wanted to kill More-dek-eye. And when someone told him that More-dek-eye was a Jew, Haman made up his mind to do more than just kill More-dek-eye. He wanted to kill all the Jews that lived in King Zerk-sees' country.

7 But Haman wanted to know the best time to kill all the Jews. In the Persian culture, there was a ceremony called Pur. In that ceremony, someone would drop special stones onto the ground. Then they would look at the stones and tell everyone the best day of the year to do whatever they were planning to do.

So someone did that ceremony for Haman and said that the best time to kill all the Jews was in the last month of that 12th year. The Pur ceremony for Haman was done in the first month of the 12th year after Zerk-sees started to be the king of Persia.

8 Someone told Haman that news and so he went to talk to King Zerk-sees. Haman said, “I have found out that there is a group of people from a different nation living in every part of your country. They keep their own culture and so they do not fit in with everyone else. They have their own laws and that is why they will not follow your laws. I think you should get rid of them. 9 And if you think that is a good idea, why don't you make a law so that all those people can be killed. If all those people are killed, I promise you that I will give you a lot of money.”

10 King Zerk-sees liked the idea. So he took off his law ring and gave it to Haman the Aga-gite, the man who hated the Jews. 11 Then Zerk-sees said to Haman, “You can keep your money, and you can do what you like to those people.”

12 On the 13th day of the first month of the year, Haman had a meeting with all the men that wrote the law papers for the king. At that meeting Haman told them how to write the king's new law. That law said that all the Jewish people had to be killed. Persia was made up of a lot of different nations at that time, and they all had their own languages. And so Haman told his men to write that new law in different languages for all the nations that were part of Persia. Then Haman said to them, “Send those law papers to all the leaders in every part of the country and to all the important people of every tribe.”

Those law papers were written like the king wrote them himself. Each paper was rolled up and a small drop of hot wax was put on the edge of the paper to close it up. Then the king's law ring was pushed into the wax. This was done so that when people saw the picture in the wax they knew that the law came from the king and they had to do what was written on that paper. 13 Then those law papers were taken by messengers to every part of Persia.

The new law said that all the Jewish people in Persia had to be killed so that none of them was left alive. All the old people, the young people, men, women and children. Every Jewish person had to be killed, and it all had to happen on the 13th day of the last month of that year. The new law said that the people who killed the Jews could take all the things the dead people left behind.

14-15 The king told his messengers to go quickly from his palace and give out those papers in Susa and all over Persia. That way everyone would be ready to kill the Jews on the 13th day of the last month of that year.

Then the king and Haman sat down to drink wine together, but the rest of the people in Susa were upset by the new law.

4

More-dek-eye (Mordecai) asked Esther to help her people

1 When More-dek-eye found out what was going to happen to all the Jews, he did what Jewish people did when they were really upset. He ripped his clothes and then put on rubbish clothes made from old sacks. He put ashes from a fire all over his face and he walked around the town and cried out loudly just like people cry when a relation dies. 2 When More-dek-eye got near to the gates of the king's big house, the palace, he stopped. No-one was allowed to go inside the palace yard if they were wearing rubbish clothes.

3 When all the Jewish people in every part of the country found out about the law that the king had sent out, they got really upset too. They stopped eating and they cried out loud just like they did when a relation died. A lot of them were so sad that they put ashes all over themselves and lay down on their beds in rubbish clothes.

4 When Esther's young women and her other workers told her that More-dek-eye was walking around the town in rubbish clothes and crying all the time, she got very upset too. She found some good clothes and sent a worker to give them to More-dek-eye, but More-dek-eye would not take them. 5 So Esther asked Hat-hack, one of the special workers that the king had given her, to go and find out why her cousin More-dek-eye was so upset. 6 Hat-hack found More-dek-eye in the meeting place near the gates to the king's palace, and he asked him what was going on. 7 More-dek-eye told Hat-hack about everything that had happened to him and how much money Haman promised to pay the king to have the Jewish people killed. 8 Then More-dek-eye gave Hat-hack one of the papers that came from the king in Susa. On that paper was the news that every Jewish person had to be killed.

More-dek-eye said to Hat-hack, “I want you to take this paper and show it to Esther so that she knows that all her Jewish people are going to be killed. She has to go and talk to the king and ask him to be kind to her. She must ask him to stop her people from being killed.”

9 Hat-hack went back to Esther. He showed her the paper and told her everything More-dek-eye said.

10 Then Esther gave Hat-hack this message for More-dek-eye. 11 She said, “All the king's workers in the palace and people everywhere know that it is against the law for anyone to walk into the king's room whenever they want to. The law says that if a man or a woman does that, they have to die. The only way for that person to stay alive is for the king to point at that person with his golden stick. A person can only see the king if he sends someone to get them. And he has not sent anyone to get me for 30 days. I am frightened to do what you are asking me to do.”

12 Hat-hack took the message to More-dek-eye, 13 and More-dek-eye sent back this message. “Esther, you live in the king's palace, but don't think that you will be safe when all the rest of the Jewish people are killed. 14 If you stay quiet and if you do not talk to the king, somebody else will come and save the Jewish people. But I tell you this, you, and all your close family will die. Who knows, might be you were picked to be the queen at this time so that you can save your people.”

15 When Esther got More-dek-eye's message, she sent this message back to him, 16 “Go and get all the Jewish people in Susa to meet together in one place so that you can all pray for me. I want all of you to stop eating and drinking for 3 days and nights. I will do the same and so will all the women that work for me. At the end of the 3 days I will go and talk to the king. I know that it is against the law and that I might die, but I am ready to die for my people.”

17 So when More-dek-eye got Esther's message, he went and told all the Jewish people in Susa what Esther wanted them to do.

5

Queen Esther went to see King Zerk-sees (Xerxes)

1 The Jewish people did what Esther said and they all stopped eating for 3 days. On the 3rd day, Esther put on her queen's clothes and went to the king's palace. She walked into the king's waiting room.

Zerk-sees was sitting on the king's chair and he could see into the waiting room. 2 He looked up and saw Queen Esther standing there and he was really happy to see her. He held out his golden stick as a sign that she could come closer to him. Esther saw him do that and so she walked into the king's room and touched the end of the stick.

3 The king said to her, “Queen Esther, what do you want to ask me? I will give you whatever you want, even if you ask for one half of everything in my country!”

4 Esther answered, “I told my workers to get a special supper ready for you today. I would like you and Haman to come and have supper with me.”

5 The king said to one of his workers, “Go quickly and get Haman so that we can have the supper Queen Esther has got ready.”

So King Zerk-sees and Haman went to eat supper with Esther. 6 While they were drinking wine, Zerk-sees said to Esther, “What is it you want to ask me Esther? I will give you whatever you want, even if it is half of my country.”

7 Esther said, “This is what I want to ask you, my king. 8 If I have made you happy and if you want to give me whatever I ask for, can you come and eat supper with me again tomorrow? I will get it ready, and I want you to bring Haman with you. Then I will tell you what I want.”

Haman made a plan to kill More-dek-eye (Mordecai)

9 At the end of the supper, Haman left the king's palace and went home. He was very happy and was feeling good inside himself. But when he got to the palace gate, he saw that More-dek-eye did not stand up or show him any respect and he got really angry with More-dek-eye. 10 But he did not show how angry he was, he just went home.

When he got home, Haman asked his friends and his wife, Zeresh, to come and have a meeting with him. 11 Haman started to talk about himself too much. He told them about how much money and how many sons he had. And he told them all the ways the king showed him respect and how the king made him more important than all the other men in the government. 12 He said, “But that's not all, Queen Esther wanted me to go with the king to the supper she got ready today. I am the only other person she has asked, and she wants me to go with the king to her supper again tomorrow. 13 I should be happy, but every time I see More-dek-eye the Jew sitting next to the gate outside the king's palace, I cannot be happy.”

14 Haman's wife Zeresh, and all his friends said, “We think you should tell your workers to build a very tall pole. Then tomorrow morning, ask the king to put More-dek-eye up on that pole until he is dead. And then you can go to Esther's party with the king and enjoy yourself.”

Haman liked that idea and told his workers to build the hanging pole.

6

King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) wanted to show More-dek-eye (Mordecai) respect

1 In those days it was someone's job to write down in a book everything that happened in the country of Persia. It was called The Book about the Persian Nation.

When the supper with Queen Esther was finished, King Zerk-sees went home to sleep. But he could not go to sleep, so he asked one of his workers to get The Book about the Persian Nation, and read it to him. 2 The worker did that, and he got to the story about the 2 workers named Big-thana and Ter-resh. Those men were the guards at the door to the king's private rooms and they were the ones that had talked about killing the king. Then the king found out that More-dek-eye was the man that had warned him that 2 of his guards were going to kill him.

3 The king said, “More-dek-eye saved my life. Did we give him anything to say thank you? Did we show him any respect?”

The king's workers said, “No my master, nothing was done for him.”

4 And the king said, “Who is outside in the palace waiting room?” Just as he said that, Haman walked into the waiting room. He was on his way to ask the king to put More-dek-eye up on the pole that his workers had built.

5 The king's helpers said to the king, “Haman is waiting outside.”

So Zerk-sees said, “Bring him in to me.” 6 Haman went in and the king said to Haman, “There is a man that has done a good thing for me. I want everyone to know that I am happy with him and that I respect him. What should I do for that man?”

Haman said to himself, “The king must be talking about me. There is no-one more important than me!” 7 And so he said to the king, “These are the things you can do to show respect for that man. 8-9 Tell your workers to get one of the coats that you wear and put it on that man. Then tell your workers to get one of the horses that you ride. Make sure that your workers put a small king's crown on the horse's head to show that the horse belongs to you. Tell your workers to put the man that you want to respect on the horse. Then you should tell one of your important leaders to walk with the horse and the man everywhere in the town. That way everyone can see them. The person leading the horse has to shout out, ‘Look at what the king is doing for this man. The king is really happy with him and wants to show him respect.’ ”

10 The king said to Haman, “Good idea! Go quickly and get my coat and my horse. Then find More-dek-eye the Jew who sits at my gate. And do to him everything you just said.”

11 Haman took the king's coat and horse and went to find More-dek-eye. Haman put the coat on More-dek-eye, and put him on the king's horse. Then Haman led them up and down all the streets in the town so that everyone could see them. Haman shouted out, “Look at what the king is doing for this man. The king is really happy with him and wants to show him respect.”

12 When Haman and More-dek-eye got back to the king's palace, More-dek-eye went back and sat at the gate, but Haman was so shamed and upset, he ran home with his face looking down at the ground. 13 He told his wife Zeresh and all his friends what had happened to him, and they said, “Oh no! That man has shamed you. He is a Jew and if you keep on fighting him, you will lose and he will be the winner.” 14 They were still talking when the king's special workers got to Haman's house. They took him quickly to the palace where Esther had got a supper ready.

7

Haman is put up on his own pole

1 So King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) and Haman went to have a second supper with Queen Esther. 2 When they were drinking wine, Zerk-sees asked Esther again, “What do you want Queen Esther? I will give you whatever you want, even if it is half of my country.”

3 Then Queen Esther answered, “You have asked me what I want and this is my answer. If you are happy with me, my king, and if it makes you happy, can you save me and my people? 4 Someone is trying to kill me and all my people. They want to finish us up and make it look like we were never alive. If we were going to be sold as slaves that would be all right and I wouldn't have said anything to you, but someone wants to kill me and all my people.”

5 King Zerk-sees said to Esther, “Who wants to kill you? Who has made up his mind to do such a bad thing? Where is that man?”

6 Esther said, “That man sitting next to you. He is really bad and he is the one who hates me and my people. He is the enemy of my people.”

When Esther said that, Haman got very frightened of the king and the queen.

7 The king was so wild, he got up. He left the wine he was drinking and walked out into the palace garden. But Haman stayed inside and asked Queen Esther again and again to save his life. He knew that the king was going to tell his soldiers to kill him.

8 When King Zerk-sees came back to the supper room after walking in the garden, he saw Haman falling down on the long chair Esther was lying on. The king shouted out loud, “Haman is trying to hurt the queen. And he is doing it in front of me and in my own house!”

As soon as he said those words, the king's workers covered Haman's face. They did that to show that Haman was going to die. 9 Harbona, one of the king's special workers said to Zerk-sees, “King Zerk-sees, Haman told his workers to build a very high pole in front of his house. He was going to ask you to put More-dek-eye (Mordecai) up on it. More-dek-eye was the man that warned you about the men who wanted to kill you.”

Then Zerk-sees said, “Take Haman away and put him up on his own pole!” 10 So, the king's soldiers put Haman up on the pole that was made to kill More-dek-eye. Then the king stopped being angry.

8

A new law was written to help the Jewish people

1 That same day, King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) gave Queen Esther everything that used to belong to Haman, the enemy of the Jewish people. And she told Zerk-sees that More-dek-eye (Mordecai) was her cousin. So Zerk-sees sent someone to bring More-dek-eye to him.

2 Before this time, King Zerk-sees took back the special law ring that he gave Haman and put it on his own finger. When Zerk-sees met More-dek-eye, he took that law ring off his finger again and gave it to More-dek-eye. And Esther made More-dek-eye the boss over everything that Haman left behind when he died.

3 Then Esther went to talk to Zerk-sees again. She fell down at the king's feet and started to cry. She asked again and again, “My king, please stop that really bad thing Haman the Aga-gite wanted to do to my people, the Jews.”

4 The king held out his golden stick to Esther and she got up and went to stand in front of him.

5 She said, “My master, if you are happy with me and if you agree with my idea, can you write a new law? If you think it is the right thing to do, can the new law say that no-one has to take notice of the paper sent out by Haman the Aga-gite? You remember that paper said that all the Jewish people in every part of your country had to be killed. 6 I would be too upset if such a bad thing happened to my people, and I would be too upset if any of my family were killed.”

7 King Zerk-sees said to Queen Esther and to More-dek-eye the Jew, “Haman tried to kill you and all the Jewish people. But I told my soldiers to put him up on his own pole to die, and I gave all his things to Esther. 8 So, now I want you to write a new law. And I want you to write it so that people think that I wrote it. You can write whatever you want that will help your Jewish people. When you have finished writing those papers, roll them up and put the hot wax on the edge and mark the wax with my special law ring. Everyone knows that any law I have written that has the mark from my special law ring, can never be broken. Everyone has to follow that law.”

9 So on the 23rd day of the third month More-dek-eye had a meeting with all the men that wrote the law papers for the king. At that meeting More-dek-eye told them how to write the king's new law. That new law had to go to all the Jewish leaders and all the important men in every one of the 127 nations that were part of Persia. That country went from India to Ethiopia which is south of Egypt. So they wrote the new law in all the different languages that people were speaking in Persia. And the law was written in the Jewish language too. 10 More-dek-eye told the men to make sure they put King Zerk-sees' name at the top of every paper. And when all the law papers were finished, each paper was rolled up and a small drop of hot wax was put on the edge of the paper to close it up. Then the king's law ring was pushed into the wax to show everybody that those papers came from the king and they had to do what was written inside. Then More-dek-eye sent those papers to every part of Persia. The papers were carried by messengers that rode on fast horses that belonged to the king.

11 This is what was written on the law papers that had the king's name on it.

“The Jewish people in every town are allowed to get a group of fighting men together so that they can keep all their Jewish people safe. If anyone tries to fight them, the Jewish fighters are allowed to kill those men and make it look like they were never alive. And they are allowed to kill the wives and children of those men too. The Jewish people are allowed to grab everything that belongs to the people that try to kill them. 12 The Jewish people in every part of King Zerk-sees' country are allowed to fight for themselves on the 13th day of the last month of the year.”*

13 A copy of this law was sent out to every part of the country so that everybody knew that the Jewish people were ready and they were allowed to fight back if anyone tried to kill them.

14 The king wanted this new law to go everywhere quickly. That is why the messengers rode on the king's fast horses.

The new law was put up on walls everywhere in the town of Susa too.

15 Later on, after all the papers were sent out, More-dek-eye walked out of the king's room wearing some of the king's blue and white clothes. He had a big gold hat called a crown on his head and he wore a really nice purple coat that cost a lot of money. All the people in Susa were so happy that they shouted out loud. 16 It was a time for all the Jewish people to be really happy that they did not have to be frightened anymore. And all the other people in the town showed them respect. 17 When the king's new law was read out all over King Zerk-sees' country, all the Jewish people were really happy. In every town where the law was read out, they had a holiday and big parties. But in every part of the country, people that were not Jews were frightened of the Jewish people. And lots of them changed sides and started to live the way the Jewish people lived.

9

The Jewish people are the winners

1 King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) had made a law that let the Jewish people fight back. The 13th day of the last month of the year was the day that the enemies of the Jews had planned to kill all the Jewish people. That day came, and so the Jews followed King Zerk-sees' new law to fight back. And that is what happened. 2 In every town in Zerk-sees' country where Jewish people lived, groups of men got together to fight anyone that tried to kill them. When they did that, all the people that were not Jewish were frightened of the Jews. They knew they couldn't win. 3 All the leaders, government workers and important people in all the different nations in the big country of Persia were frightened of More-dek-eye (Mordecai). And so they helped the Jewish people too. 4 Everybody knew that More-dek-eye was an important man that worked for the king.

5 And so, on that day, the 13th day of the last month of the year, the Jewish fighting men did what they wanted to do to their enemies. And they used their swords to kill all the people that tried to kill them. 6 Inside the part of Susa that had really strong walls, the Jewish fighters killed 500 men that were trying to kill them.

7-10 Haman was the enemy of Jewish people, so the Jewish fighters killed all of Haman's 10 sons. Their names were Par-shan-datha, Dal-fon (Dalphon), As-patha, Por-atha, Ada-lia, Ari-datha, Par-mashta, Ari-sai, Ari-dai, and Vai-zatha. But the Jews did not take the things that belonged to Haman's sons.

11 On that day, someone told the king how many people died in the strong part of the town, 12 and the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jewish fighters have killed a lot of people in the strong part of Susa and they have killed Haman's 10 sons too. They must have killed a lot of people in the rest of my country. What else do you want me to do? I will make it happen.”

13 Esther said, “My master, you said that my people could kill anyone that came to fight them today, but this is what I want. If you think it is a good idea, let my people kill anyone that fights them inside Susa again tomorrow, and I want your soldiers to put the bodies of Haman's 10 sons up on poles so that everyone can see them.”

14 King Zerk-sees agreed with what Esther said and so he got his men to write a new law. The new law let the Jewish people in Susa kill anyone that tried to kill them the next day. The soldiers put the bodies of Haman's 10 sons up on poles for everyone to look at.

15 And so, on the next day, on the 14th day of the last month in the year, the Jewish fighting men got together in Susa and killed another 300 men that came to fight them. But they did not take the things that belonged to those men.

16-17 This is what happened outside Susa on the 13th day of the last month of the year. Everywhere, the Jewish people got together groups of fighting men to kill anyone that tried to kill them. They killed a big number of people, but they did not take what those people left behind.

The next day, the Jewish fighters had a rest and they did not fight again. They were all very happy and had a big party.

18-19 That is why Jewish people today that live in little communities outside the towns, have a party on the 14th day of the last month of the year. On that day they are all happy, they eat together and give each other presents.

But the Jewish people in Susa killed their enemies on the 13th and the 14th day of the last month of the year. Then on the 15th day they stopped fighting. And so, on the 15th day of that month they all have a party and are really happy.

More-dek-eye made a new time to remember

20 More-dek-eye wrote down everything that happened and then he wrote a letter to all the Jewish people that lived everywhere in King Zerk-sees' country. 21 He told them to have a special party every year on the 14th and 15th days of the last month of the year to remember what happened when people tried to kill them. 22 More-dek-eye wrote that all the Jewish people had to remember how, in the last month of the year they were very sad, but then, after they beat their enemies they were really happy. He wrote that they should have a party at that same time every year. More-dek-eye said that they should give food to one another and give presents to people that have nothing.

23 All the Jewish people agreed with what More-dek-eye wrote in that letter, and they made up their minds to have that party every year.

24-27 They called that party Purim. Haman the Aga-gite, hated the Jews so much he wanted to kill them all on one day.* But he wanted to know when it would be the right time to do that. He dropped the Pur stones onto the ground and those stones told him the best time. He used Pur stones and that is why the new party was called Purim.

When Queen Esther told King Zerk-sees what Haman wanted to do to her people, Zerk-sees made a new law. That new law said that what Haman wanted to do to all the Jewish people, had to happen to him. And that is why Haman and his sons were put up on poles.

When the Jewish people got More-dek-eye's letter they made up their minds to remember what had happened to their people. From that time they promised to have that party called Purim for 2 days every year. They promised to teach their children and all their families that came later on. And they promised to teach all the other people that became Jews too. More-dek-eye wrote in his letter how they should have that party and he said what days they should have it. The Jewish people promised to do what More-dek-eye said in his letter.

28 They said, “From now on every Jewish person, and every Jewish family living in every town and country should have a Purim party to remember those 2 days. The Jewish people and the families that come from them must have that party every year for ever.”

29 Then Queen Esther and More-dek-eye wrote a second letter to the Jewish people about the Purim party. Esther wrote at the top of her letter, “This letter is written by Queen Esther.” She did this to prove that what More-dek-eye had written in his letter was true.

30-31 This is what they wrote in her letter, “We want all of you to know that from now on, you will have a quiet and safe life in this country.

We have other special days when we stop eating and we cry to remember what happened to our people. Just like we have those special days to remember things, we want you to have a Purim party every year. And have that party on the 14th and 15th days of the last month of that year.”

Then the letters were copied and sent to all the Jews who were living in the 127 different nations in Persia.

32 This is how Esther set up the rules for people to remember Purim and they were all written down in a book.

10

King Zerk-sees (Xerxes) and More-dek-eye (Mordecai)

1 King Zerk-sees said that everybody in every part of his country had to pay tax money. 2 In those days, everything the kings did in the country of Persia and Media were written down in The Book about the Persian Nation. All the great and powerful things King Zerk-sees did were written down in that book. In the same way, all the story of how Zerk-sees made More-dek-eye a great man was written down in that record book too. 3 More-dek-eye the Jew was the second leader behind King Zerk-sees and he was the most important man for the Jewish people. More-dek-eye worked hard for his people so that good things would happen to them. He would go and talk to the king to make sure that his people were safe and that is why they all respected him.

* 3:1 The Aga-gites came from the Amal-kites who came from Jacob's brother Esau.

* 8:12 This was the same day Haman wanted all the Jewish people killed.

* 9:24-27 Esther 3:7

Mark

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Mark wrote this good news about Jesus

About this book

A man called Mark wrote this book. We don't know a lot about him but he was sometimes called John Mark, and we know that his mother had a house in Jerusalem. When Jesus went back to heaven, his followers sometimes had meetings in the house that belonged to Mark's mother. You can read about this in the book of Acts 12:12.

Mark had a cousin called Barnabas. Sometimes Mark went with him and another missionary, Paul, when they went to communities to tell people about Jesus. You can read about those trips in the books called Acts 13:5, Acts 15:36-39, Colossians 4:10, and 2 Timothy 4:11.

Mark wrote this book about 20 or 30 years after Jesus went back to heaven. Everything that Mark wrote in this book happened about 2,000 years ago, and most of them happened in the country we now call Israel.

When Jesus was living on earth, the people that lived in Israel were called Jews and they had 2 leaders. The main leader was a Roman man who was called See-zar (Caesar). He lived in a country called Rome that was a long way from Israel. See-zar sent some of his soldiers to make sure that the Jewish people followed Roman laws. The second leader was a Jewish man called King Herod. He was like a little boss over the Jewish people.

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God sent a man to get people ready for Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 3:1-12, in Luke 3:1-18 and in John 1:19-28

1 This story is good news. It is all about Jesus Christ, God's son.

2-3 A very long time before Jesus was born, there was a man who gave God's messages to people. His name was Isaiah and this is one of the messages that Isaiah wrote down.

“I will send a messenger to get everything ready for you.

That man will talk about you, so that people can listen to what you say.

That man will go out into the dry country, and he will call out and say to people,

‘The Lord is coming to this country, so get everything ready for him.’ ” *

The words that Isaiah wrote down came true

4-6 At the right time, God sent a man named John to get people ready to meet Jesus. John's clothes were made out of camel hair and his belt was made from animal skin. He ate grass-hoppers and bush honey.*

John went all over the Judean country talking to people. And this is what he said to them, “If you are really sorry for the wrong way you are living, God will forgive you. That means God will forget about all the wrong things you did and he will say that you are not guilty. And if you tell me that you are truly sorry, we will have a special washing ceremony called baptism.”

All the people in Jerusalem and other towns in Judea heard stories about John and so they went out into the dry country to find him. They listened to what John said and some of the people told John that they were really sorry for not living God's way. So John took them down into the Jordan River and he baptised them. From that time he was called John the Baptist.

7 And John told them this message, “A man is coming soon. He is more powerful than me. He is so important that I cannot even get down on my knees and touch his foot. 8 I baptised you, I washed you with water. But this new man will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”*

John baptised Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 3:13-17 and in Luke 3:21-22

9 At that time, Jesus was living in a town called Nazareth in Galilee. Galilee was in the north part of Israel. One day Jesus left his home and walked down south to where John was baptising people in the Jordan River. When he got there, Jesus went down into the water and John baptised him. 10 When Jesus came up out of the water, he looked up and saw right into heaven. It was like the sky split open and God's Holy Spirit came down onto Jesus like a pigeon. 11 And God said to Jesus, “You are my son. I love you very much, and I am very happy with you.”*

The Devil tested Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 4:1-11 and in Luke 4:1-13

12 Straight away, the Holy Spirit made Jesus go out into the dry country. 13 Jesus stayed out there for 40 days, and the Devil, the Cheeky One, tried to get Jesus to turn away from God, but Jesus didn't take any notice. There were wild animals in that place, but God's angels looked after Jesus.

Jesus went back to Galilee

And you can read this story in Matthew 4:12-22 and Luke 4:14-15

14 One day King Herod sent some men to arrest John and put him in jail. Then Jesus went back north to Galilee to tell people God's good news. 15 He said to them, “The time has come for God to do something new. Very soon God will show that he is the king over everything. So, believe this good news and turn back to God.”*

Jesus told some fishermen to leave their job and follow him

And you can read this story in Matthew 4:18-22 and in Luke 4:1-11

16 One day, Jesus was walking along next to the water of Lake Galilee and he saw 2 men throwing a net into the water to catch fish. The men were Simon and his brother Andrew.

17 Jesus said to them, “Come and follow me. You know how you catch fish and bring them into your boat, well, I will teach you how to bring people into God's family.” 18 Straight away, Simon and Andrew put down their nets and followed Jesus.

19 Jesus was still walking next to the water when he saw an old man named Zeb-ed-dee (Zebedee) and his 2 sons, James and John. They were in a boat getting their nets ready to go fishing. 20 Jesus called out to them and said, “Come and follow me.” So they left their father and the other workmen in the boat and they followed Jesus.

Jesus made a bad spirit go out of a man

And you can read this story in Luke 4:31-37

21 Jesus and his followers went to a town called Cap-per-ni-um (Capernaum). The next Saturday, on the day that the Jewish people had their rest day†, Jesus and his followers went to the Jewish meeting house‡. At that meeting, Jesus started to teach the people about God. 22 When the people heard him, it was like they were listening to God himself talking to them. Jesus said strong and straight words, and the people were amazed. The Jewish law teachers did not teach like that.*

23 Straight away, a man with a bad spirit in him shouted out, 24 “Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone. Why do you make trouble for all of us spirits? Are you going to finish us up? We know who you are. You are God's special man.”

25 Jesus growled at the bad spirit and said, “Be quiet. Come out of him.”

26 That bad spirit made the man shake like he was taking a fit, and the spirit made a loud noise as it came out of the man.

27 All the people were looking, and they were really shocked. They said to each other, “What's going on? This man is teaching us something new, and he has so much power. He tells the bad spirits to get out of people, and the spirits do what he tells them.”

28 Those people went out and told everyone what they saw and from that time all the people in Galilee knew about Jesus.

Jesus made a lot of sick people better

And you can read this story in Matthew 8:14-17 and in Luke 4:38-41

29 At the end of the meeting, Jesus, James, and John went to Simon and Andrew's house. 30 When they got there, someone told Jesus that Simon's mother-in-law was really sick and lying on her bed. 31 Jesus went to see her. He helped her stand up and straight away she was better. Then she went out and got food ready for them.

32-33 That night, all the people from the town came to Simon's house. They took all the sick people and people that had bad spirits in them to see Jesus. Then they waited outside the house. 34 Jesus made the sick people better and he sent a lot of bad spirits out of people. Those spirits knew that Jesus was God's son, and so Jesus told them to be quiet. He didn't want them to tell everyone who he was.

Jesus prayed

And you can read this story in Luke 4:42-44

35 The next day just before the sun came up, Jesus walked out of the town to a quiet place to pray by himself. 36 When Simon and the others got up, they looked everywhere for Jesus. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”

38 But Jesus said, “Come on, let's go. I have to go to the other towns around here too and tell people my good news. That is why I came here.”

39 So Jesus went to all the Jewish meeting places in Galilee. He told people about God and sent many bad spirits out of people.*

A man had a bad skin sickness, but Jesus made him better

And you can read this story in Matthew 8:1-4 and in Luke 5:12-16

40 A man with a bad skin sickness walked up to Jesus. He got down on his knees and said, “I know that if you want to, you can make me better.”

41 Jesus was feeling really sorry for him and said, “I do want to make you better.” Then Jesus touched the man with his hand and said, “You are better now.” 42 Straight away, that skin sickness was gone.

43-44 Then Jesus spoke really straight to the man and said, “I do not want you to tell anyone what I did. I want you to go right now and show your skin to the Priest (Jewish ceremony man), so that he can see that you are better. Moses, that leader from a long time ago, gave us Jewish people a ceremony to say thank you to God, so go and do that ceremony. Then everyone will know that you are better.”*

45 But the man did not do what Jesus said. He went away and told everyone what Jesus did for him, and so people came from everywhere to see Jesus. So many people came to see him that he could not walk in the towns anymore. He tried to stay out in the dry country, but the people still found him.

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Some men carried their sick friend to Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 9:1-8 and in Luke 5:17-26

1 Jesus went back to stay in a house in Cap-per-ni-um (Capernaum). Some time later when people found out that Jesus was there, they went to see him. 2-3 There were so many people inside the house, a lot of them had to stand outside.

While Jesus was telling the people about God, some men came to the house carrying a crippled man on a mat. 4 There were too many people blocking the door and so the men carried the crippled man up the stairs onto the flat roof of the house. Then they cut a hole in the roof. They picked the man up on his mat and put the man down to where Jesus was teaching.

5 Jesus saw that these men really trusted him to make their friend better, and so he said to the crippled man, “You know all the bad things you have done? I say that God will forget about what you did and he will not punish you.”

6-7 But some of the Jewish lawmen didn't like what Jesus said. They were thinking, “Hey, he can't say that! God is the only one who can say that people are not guilty. That man thinks he is God!” 8-9 Straight away, Jesus knew what those men were thinking, so he said, “Why are you thinking like that? I might say to this man, ‘You are forgiven for doing those bad things.’ Or I might say, ‘Pick up your mat and walk home!’ I can say both of those things, so which one is easier for me to say? 10 Alright, I will show you that I am God's special man sent from heaven. I am powerful and I am allowed to say that people are not guilty.”

Then Jesus looked at the crippled man and said, 11 “Stand up, pick up your mat and go home.”

12 Straight away, the man got up onto his feet. Then he rolled up his mat and walked out of the house. Everyone saw what happened, and they were really shocked. But they started to say good things about God. They said to each other, “We have never seen anything like this before.”

13 Then Jesus left the house and went for a walk next to the lake. All the people followed him, so he kept on teaching them.

Jesus told a tax man to follow him

14 There was a Jewish man who worked for the Romans. The man's name was Levi and his father's name was Al-fay-us (Alphaeus). One day Jesus was walking along and he saw Levi sitting in his office taking tax money from people. Jesus walked up to him and said, “Come and follow me!” And straight away Levi got up and followed Jesus.*

15-16 Later on, Levi asked Jesus and his followers to come to his house. Levi wanted them to eat with him. There were other people there too, tax men and some people that didn't live God's way. A lot of people like this followed Jesus.

Some Jewish lawmen saw Jesus eating in Levi's house, and they said to Jesus' followers, “Why does Jesus eat with tax men and those people that do not live God's way?”

17 Jesus was listening and said to them, “Listen, sick people need help from a doctor. People that are well do not need that help. I tell you, I am like a doctor for those people that do not live God's way. I want to help them change up their lives. I have not come to help people that are right with God.”

Jesus talked about not eating food

And you can read this story in Matthew 9:14-17 and in Luke 5:33-39

18 At that time, the Jewish lawmen and the followers of John the Baptist, sometimes stopped eating food for a while to show that they were serious about living God's way. Some people came to Jesus and said to him, “The lawmen and John's followers stop eating for a while to show God that they respect him. How come your followers keep on eating all the time?”

19-20 Jesus said to them, “Listen to this story. At a wedding ceremony everyone is happy, and they all eat food together with the man that is getting married. But one day someone will take that man away. Then all the people at the party will stop eating food for a while.” †

21 Then Jesus told the lawmen 2 stories to help them understand what he was saying. He said, “Listen to this story. You can't fix a hole in an old coat by sewing a new piece of cloth into it. When you wash the coat, the new cloth will get smaller and it will tear away. Then that old coat will have a bigger hole in it and it will be useless.”‡

22 And what about this story? If you put new wine into a bottle that has a hole in it, the wine will leak out and it will be wasted. You have to put new wine into a new bottle.§

Jesus talked about the Jewish rest day

And you can read this story in Matthew 12:1-8 and in Luke 6:1-5

23 On one of the Jewish rest days, Jesus and his followers were walking in a paddock. In that paddock there were plants that had seeds growing on them. Jesus' followers picked some of the seeds and ate them as they walked along. * 24 Some Jewish lawmen saw what Jesus' followers were doing, and they got upset. They said to Jesus, “Today is our rest day and our law says you cannot work on God's rest day. Your followers are doing work, they are picking seeds off those plants and so they are doing the wrong thing!”

25-26 Jesus said back to them, “Have you forgotten the story about King David and his men? Do you remember what happened a long time ago when Abi-a-thar (Abiathar) was the High Priest (leader for all the Jewish ceremony men)*. One day, David and his men were really hungry, so David went into God's house and ate some of the special ceremony bread. The leaders of the Jewish ceremony were the only ones that were allowed to eat that bread. And David gave some of the bread to his men too. So David and his men were breaking God's law, but no-one growled at them for doing that!”*

27 Then Jesus said to them, “Listen to me. God gave us our rest day to help us. He did not make people just so that they could follow special laws about his rest day. 28 I am God's special man from heaven and so I am even the Lord of the Jewish rest day. I am not worried about what my followers are doing.”

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Jesus made a man better on a Jewish rest day

And you can read this story in Matthew 12:9-14 and in Luke 6:6-11

1 On another Jewish rest day, Jesus went to a meeting house* and saw a man with a crippled hand. 2 Some lawmen wanted to make trouble for Jesus. So they watched him to see if he would make the man better on the Jewish rest day. If Jesus made the man better, then those lawmen would say that Jesus was doing work and that he was breaking their law.

3 Jesus said to the man with the crippled hand, “Come here so that everyone can see you.”

4 Then Jesus said to the lawmen, “What does our law say about our rest day? Is it right to do good things, or is it alright to do really bad things? Is it alright to save someone or is it alright to kill them?”

But the lawmen said nothing.

5 Jesus looked at those men. He could see that they didn't want to change and so Jesus was sad and angry. Then he said to the man with the crippled hand, “Hold out your hand.” The man put out his hand and straight away his hand was better. It was not crippled anymore.

6 The lawmen went away and had a meeting with another group of Jewish men that were good friends with King Herod. King Herod was the government boss of Israel. At that meeting, they tried to work out a way to kill Jesus.

A crowd followed Jesus to the big lake

7 Jesus and his followers left the town and walked down to Lake Galilee, and a big crowd of people went with them. 8 Those people came from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem and Id-you-me-a (Idumea). Id-you-me-a is a long way south from Jerusalem. Some other people came from the towns called Tyre and Sidon that were near the sea, and some people even came from the country that is on the other side of the Jordan River. All these people had heard what Jesus was doing and so they came to listen to him.

9-10 On that day, Jesus made a lot of people better, and even more people wanted to touch him so that they could be made better too. There were too many people pushing close to Jesus, so he said to his followers, “Can you get a boat ready for me? I will get into it if I need more room.”*

11 Some of the people had bad spirits inside them. And every time those spirits saw Jesus, those bad spirits made the person fall down on the ground and shout out, “You are God's son.”

12 And every time they shouted out like that, Jesus growled at them and told them to be quiet. He said in a strong way, “Do not tell anyone who I am.”

Jesus picked 12 men to be his close followers

And you can read this story in Matthew 10:1-4 and in Luke 6:12-16

13-15 One day Jesus walked up a hill and a group of people were following him. Jesus stopped and picked 12 of them to be his close followers. Then those men went to stand closer to Jesus. Hhe said to them, “I want you to live with me and follow me everywhere I go. Later on, I will send you to other places so that you can tell people God's story. And I will give you the power to send bad spirits out of people.”

16-19 These are the names of the 12 men that Jesus picked to be his close followers.

Simon. Jesus named him Peter.

James and John. Zebedee the fisherman was their father.

James and John were angry men, so Jesus called them “Men that sound like thunder.”

Andrew.

Philip.

Bar-thol-o-mew (Bartholomew).

Matthew.

Thomas.

James. Al-fay-us (Alphaeus) was his father.

Thad-e-us (Thaddaeus).

Simon the Zealot. †

Judas Iscariot. Later on, he was the one that turned against Jesus and helped the Jewish leaders arrest him.

Jesus is stronger than the Devil

20 Then Jesus went into a house, and a big crowd of people went to listen to him. Jesus and his followers were so busy they did not have time to eat. 21 Someone went and told his family what Jesus was doing. Jesus' family listened to that news and they thought that Jesus had gone mad, so they went to take him home to look after him.

22 Some Jewish law teachers came from Jerusalem. They were watching Jesus too. They said, “We think that Jesus has the Cheeky One, called the Devil, living inside him, and Jesus is using the Devil's power to send bad spirits out of people.”

23 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he called them to come and listen to some stories. He wanted them to understand what he was saying. He said, “Do you think that the Devil would fight against his own mob of spirits? 24 If a tribe splits up into 2 groups and they fight each other, that tribe will get weak and finish up. 25 In the same way, if people in a family fight each other all the time, they will split up and they will stop being a family. 26 So, if the Devil is fighting against his own workers, he will get weak and he will have no power.

27 Listen to another story. If someone wants to steal what is in a strong man's house, he has to tie up that strong man first. And after he has tied up that strong man, he can take whatever he wants from the house.‡

28 Listen, people might turn away from God. They might do bad things and say bad things against God, but if they are sorry for everything they have said and done, God will say they are not guilty. He will forgive them and he will not punish them. 29 But if anybody keeps on saying bad things about the Holy Spirit, those people will always be guilty, and God will punish them forever for saying those things. Saying bad things about the Holy Spirit is a sin that can never be forgiven.”*

30 Those Jewish lawmen thought that Jesus got all his power from the Devil and that is why Jesus talked to them like that.

Jesus talked about his true family

31 Jesus' mother and brothers came to the house where he was teaching, and they sent someone in to get him. 32 There were a lot of people sitting there listening to Jesus, and the messenger said to him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you!” 33-34 Jesus looked around at the people sitting there and said, “Do you want to know who my real family is? The people sitting here, they are my real family. 35 My real family are those people that listen to God and do what he says. They are my brothers, my sisters, and my mothers.”

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Jesus told a story about seeds and ground

And you can read this story in Matthew 13:1-9 and in Luke 8:4-8

1 Jesus went down to the lake again and started to teach the people. There were so many people standing there, that Jesus got into a boat and his friends pushed it away from the land. From there, the people standing next to the water could see him and hear him.* 2 Jesus used picture stories that have special meanings inside them to teach the people about God.

3 He said, “Listen, a man wanted to grow some food plants. 4 So he got the paddock ready and then he spread the seeds out all over the ground.

Some seeds went too far and fell on the road. The birds saw the seeds and ate all of them.

5-6 Some seeds went another way and fell onto ground that had too much stone in it. The seeds grew into plants really quickly but the stones in the ground blocked the roots from going down deep. When the sun came up, it burnt the plants and they died.

7 Another lot of seeds fell into prickle grass growing next to the paddock. Those little plants tried to grow but the prickle grass blocked them so that they could not grow any new seeds.

8 But some of the seeds fell onto the really good ground, and those seeds grew and became strong plants. At the end of the growing time, the man went to the paddock to pick all the new seeds from the plants. There were plants that had some seeds but other plants had a lot more seeds.” 9 Then Jesus said to the people, “You all have ears, so listen to what I say.”

Jesus told his followers what his stories were all about

And you can read this story in Matthew 13:10-17 and in Luke 8:9-10

10 Later on, Jesus was sitting down with his 12 close followers, and there were other people sitting with them. His close followers said to Jesus, “We don't understand the stories that you tell us. Can you tell us what they mean?”

11 Jesus said, “These stories have a secret meaning. The stories are all about how God will be the king over everything in a new way. You men follow me, so I will tell you what those stories mean. People that are not in God's family will hear the stories but they will not understand them. 12 That way, what God told Isaiah to say a long time ago will come true.”

This is what Isaiah said,

People will look with their eyes, but they will not understand what they see.

People will hear with their ears, but they will not understand what they hear.

If people did look and listen properly, they would turn around and come back to God, and he would forgive them.*

This is the meaning of the story about seeds and ground

And you can read this story in Matthew 13:18-23 and in Luke 8:11-15

13 Jesus said to them, “Why can't you understand the story I just told you? If you can't understand this easy story, you will not understand the other stories that I am going to tell you.

14 In my story, the man that spread the seeds out all over the ground is like a person that is telling people about God.

15 At the start of my story, the seeds are a picture for God's word. The road is a picture of some people and the birds are a picture of the Devil. And so when the seeds fell onto the road, the birds came and took the seeds away. That means God's word is given out to people, but the Devil comes along and takes those words away so that people cannot take them deep into their lives.

16-17 In the next part of my story, some of the seeds fell onto ground that had too much stone in it. That is a picture of people that are happy to listen to God's word. They start to take notice of it, but they do not let that message go down deep into their life. When they have trouble or other people rubbish them, they get weak for God and they walk away from him.

18-19 In the next part of my story, some seeds fell into prickle grass, and that grass blocked the seeds so that the plants could not grow properly. The prickles are a picture of the things that people think about all the time. They worry about money, and they always want something new. All sorts of things fill their minds and these things block God's words from helping them live the right way. They cannot grow strong for God.

20 In the last part of my story, the seeds that fell onto good ground, grew into strong plants with lots of new seeds. This is a picture of people that are like that good ground. They are ready to listen to God's word, and they do what it says. They learn more and more of God's story and grow strong for him.”

Jesus told a story about light

And you can read this story in Luke 8:16-18

21 Then Jesus said, “Do you reckon someone might light a candle, and then put a billycan over it? Would they put the candle under their bunk bed? No! People always put candles up high, so that everyone can see clearly.* 22 There are a lot of things that are hidden and there are things that God has not told us yet. God's light will show all the hidden things and God will tell us what he wants us to know at the right time.* 23 You all have ears, so listen to what I say.”

24-25 Then Jesus said, “You should listen carefully and think deeply about what I say. When you take notice of my words, God will help you understand more and more. But if you do not listen and believe what I say, God will stop you from understanding the little bit you do hear.”*

How God's family grows

26-29 Jesus kept on teaching and said, “Let me tell you another story about how God is growing a family for himself. He is doing that so that he can look after his family forever. A man wanted to grow some food, so he got the ground ready and spread the seeds all over that ground. When he finished, he walked away and left those seeds to grow. The man did not know what made those seeds grow, but day and night for many months, the seeds grew and became plants. First the seed went into the ground and then the plants grew out from those seeds. At the right time, the plants grew new seeds, and when those seeds had finished growing, the man cut those plants. He hit the plants so that the seeds fell off, then he picked up all the seeds and put them into his shed.”

Jesus talked more about God's family

And you can read this story in Matthew 13:31-32, 34 and in Luke 13:18-19

30 Then Jesus said, “I have been thinking about another story to help you understand how God's family is growing. 31-32 God's family is like a really little seed. You know, like that mustard seed. It is the smallest seed, but when someone plants it in the ground, it grows and grows until it is the biggest tree in your garden. It is so big, birds sit in its shade and they make their nests in it.”

33-34 Jesus knew how much the people could understand and so he always used picture stories to tell them about God. But when he was sitting down with his close followers, he told them the deeper meaning for those stories.

Jesus told the wind to stop and the water to be quiet

And you can read this story in Matthew 8:23-27 and in Luke 8:22-25

35 Later that day, as the sun started to go down, Jesus stopped teaching and asked his close followers to take him across the lake. 36 They left all the other people behind on the land, and his followers took Jesus across the lake in their boat. But some of the other people got into their boats and followed them.

37 A little bit later, the wind started to get really strong, and it made the waves come up over the sides of the boat so that it was nearly full of water. 38 Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat with his head on a pillow. His followers were so frightened they woke him up and said, “Teacher, don't you care that we are all going to die?”

39 Jesus opened his eyes and then he got up. He growled at the wind, and said to the water, “Stop. Sit down and be quiet.” Straight away, the wind stopped and the sea went flat. And everything was quiet.

40 Then Jesus said to his followers, “Why are you so frightened? You really don't trust me, do you?”

41 But they were still frightened and they said to each other, “Who is this man? How come the wind and the water listen to him and do what he says?”

5

Jesus sent bad spirits out of a man

And you can read this story in Matthew 8:28-34 and in Luke 8:26-39

1 When the storm was finished, Jesus and his followers went to the other side of the lake where the Ger-a-zeen (Gerasene) people lived.

2-5 In that place there was a man that had a bad spirit in him, and he lived in the cemetery. He was really strong and no-one could hold him or make him sit down quiet. People tried to tie him up with chains, but he just broke them. He was so mad that all day and all night he walked around the cemetery and all over the hills screaming and cutting himself with stones. 6 That cemetery was a long way from the water, but when the man saw Jesus getting out of the boat, he ran to him and fell down on his knees in front of Jesus.

7-8 Jesus said to the bad spirit, “Come out of this man.”

But the spirit inside the man made him yell out, “Why did you come here? I know who you are. You are Jesus. You are the son of the Most Powerful God, so please do not hurt me.”

9 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

The bad spirit said, “I am called the Big Mob. There are a lot of us bad spirits living inside this man.” 10 The bad spirit asked Jesus again and again saying, “Please do not send us away from this country.”

11 At that time there were a lot of pigs feeding on a hill next to the water. 12 Those bad spirits said to Jesus, “Just send us into that big mob of pigs over there.”

13 So Jesus sent the bad spirits out of the man and they went into the pigs. Straight away the pigs ran down the hill into the water and drowned.

14 The men who looked after the pigs ran back to the town and to all the farms in that part of the country to tell everyone what had happened to the pigs. All the people ran to find out what had happened. 15 When they came to where Jesus and his followers were standing, they saw the man that used to have bad spirits in him sitting down quiet. He was not mad anymore and he was wearing clothes. They were all frightened. 16 When the men that looked after the pigs told everyone what had happened again, 17 they asked Jesus to go away from their country and leave them alone.

18 Jesus listened to them, but as he was getting into the boat, the man that used to have the bad spirits said to Jesus, “Can I come with you?”

19 Jesus said, “No, I want you to go home to your community and to your family, and tell them all the good things God has done for you. Tell them that God was sorry for you and wanted you to be free from those bad spirits.”

20 The man went all over that country called Ten Towns and he told everybody what Jesus did for him, and everyone was really amazed.

Jesus made a dead girl come alive again and he made a sick woman better

And you can read this story in Matthew 9:18-26 and in Luke 8:40-56

21 Jesus and his followers got into the boat and went back to the other side of the lake. When Jesus was standing on the dry ground a really big crowd of people came to him. They were standing all around him next to the water.

22 There was a man in the crowd whose name was Jairus. Jairus was one of the leaders for the Jewish meeting place near there. When Jairus saw Jesus, he went and fell down on his knees in front of him. 23 He cried and asked Jesus to help him. He said, “My little girl is really sick and I think she will die. I know you can make her better, so please come and put your hands on her so that she will get better and live.”

24 Jesus listened to the man, and started to go with him. A lot of people went with them too and they were all walking close to Jesus.

25-28 In that crowd there was a woman that had been bleeding for 12 years. She had gone to see every doctor but none of them helped her. She had spent all her money trying to get better, but it was no good, she only got worse! One day someone told her about Jesus and she said to herself, “If I can just touch his coat, I will get better!” So she came up behind Jesus and touched his coat. 29 Straight away her bleeding stopped and she knew that she was better.

30 Jesus knew that some power had gone out from him, so he stopped walking, and turned around. He said, “Who touched my clothes?”

31 Jesus' followers said, “There is a big crowd of people around you. Why do you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

32 Jesus kept on looking around to find the person that had touched him. 33 And the woman that had touched Jesus' coat was so frightened, she was shaking. She knew that she was the one that Jesus was looking for, and so she went to him and got down on her knees in front of him. Then she told him everything that had happened to her. 34 Jesus said to her, “Dear woman, I can see that you trust me and so now you are better. Go home and stop worrying. You are not sick anymore.”

35 While Jesus was talking to the woman, some people from Jairus' house came to him with bad news. They said, “I am sorry, it's too late. Your little girl is dead, and the teacher does not need to come now.”

36 Jesus listened to what the people said, but he took no notice. He said to Jairus, “Do not be frightened, just trust me.” 37 Jesus said to the crowd, “Stay here, I don't want all of you to come with me.” He left most of the crowd behind and went with the girl's father. The only people allowed to go with him were Peter, James and his brother John.

38 When they got to the house, Jesus saw a lot of people crying and shouting out loud. 39 He went inside, and he asked them, “Why are you so upset, and why are you crying so much? That little girl is not dead. She is just sleeping.”

40 When the people laughed at him, he sent them all outside. Then Jesus and the girl's mother and father went into the girl's room. Peter, James and John went with them.

41 Jesus held the girl's hand and said to her in her own language, “Get up little girl.” 42 Straight away, the girl got up and started to walk around the room. Her mother and father were really shocked to see their 12 year old daughter alive again.

43 Jesus said to them, “You must not tell anyone what I did here today, but now, give her something to eat.”

6

Jesus' own countrymen rubbished him

And you can read this story in Matthew 13:53-58; Luke 4:16-30

1 Then Jesus and his followers left that place and went back to his home town called Nazareth.

2-3 On the next Jewish rest day, Jesus went to the Jewish meeting house and started to teach the people about God*. A lot of people were really amazed when they heard his words and they said, “Hey, we know this man and we know where he comes from. His mother Mary lives here with his brothers James, Joses and Judas. And his sisters live here too. He just makes things with wood and stone. So where did he learn all these things about God? And who was his teacher? And how come he can do such powerful things for people?” The people in the meeting got really angry with Jesus and would not believe anything he said.

4 Then Jesus said to them, “If God sends a man to give a message to people that don't know him, those people will respect him. But if God tells a man to give his own countrymen a message, they will not respect him. Even his close family and relations will not listen to him.”*

5 The people in his home town did not believe in Jesus, so he could not do any really powerful things for them. But he did touch a few sick people and make them better. 6 He was really shocked that his own people did not trust him, so he left Nazareth, and went to other communities in that country to teach them about God.

Jesus sent out his 12 close followers

And you can read this story in Matthew 10:5-15 and in Luke 9:1-6

7-11 Jesus called his 12 close followers to come to him. He said to them, “I want you to go to all the towns and tell the people my message.* Do not take a bag, or food, or money, or spare clothes with you. Just take your shoes and a walking stick. When you get to a town, let the people look after you. If the people are happy for you to be there, stay there in one of the houses. Don't move from house to house.

But if the people in that town do not want you to stay, or they will not listen to you, then I want you to leave that town. And when you are leaving that town, shake the dirt off your foot as a warning that they did not take notice of God's words.”*

And Jesus said to his followers, “I am giving you my power to send bad spirits out of people.” Then Jesus split his followers up into 6 teams with 2 men in each team, and he sent them out to do God's work. 12 So they went all over that country, telling everyone to turn around, change their lives and live God's way. 13 The followers sent a lot of bad spirits out of people, and they put olive oil on anyone that was sick and those sick people got better.*

Herod killed John the Baptist

And you can read this story in Matthew 14:1-12 and in Luke 9:7-9

14-29 This is the story of what happened to John the Baptist.

Before this time, King Herod's brother Philip was married to a woman whose name was Her-road-ias (Herodias). But Her-road-ias left her husband and married King Herod. So John said to Herod, “You should not be with your brother's wife. You are breaking God's law!” *

Her-road-ias hated John for saying this and she wanted to kill him. But to stop Her-road-ias from hurting John, Herod sent some men to arrest John and keep him safe in jail.* King Herod knew that John was a man that told God's messages and he liked talking to him. He respected John but he did not always understand what John was talking about and he was a little bit frightened of him too.

On his birthday, Herod had a party. He invited all the leaders of his army, all the important government workers and community leaders from Galilee. At this party Her-road-ias got her chance to get back at John.

Her-road-ias' daughter came in and danced at the party. Everyone liked her dancing so much that Herod said to her, “You have danced really well, and I want to give you a present. I promise you that you can ask for anything you want, even if I have to give you half of my country.”

The girl did not know what to ask for, so she went outside and said to her mother, “King Herod wants to give me a present. What will I ask for?”

Her mother said, “Go back in and ask for the head of John the Baptist.”

Straight away the girl went back to the party and said to Herod, “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a big plate and I want it right now!”

Herod was really sad to hear these words. But he did not want to break his promise and be shamed in front of all the people at the party. So he sent a man to cut off John's head and bring it back on a big plate.

The man went to the jail. He cut off John's head and then he took it back to the party. Herod gave it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.

When John's friends heard the bad news, they came and took his body away and buried it.

Herod was worried about Jesus

Everywhere in that country, people were talking about Jesus and all the powerful things he was doing. Some people said Jesus was that old man from a long time ago named Elijah. Other people said that Jesus was like those men from a long time ago who told people God's messages. But some people reckoned that Jesus was really John the Baptist come back to life.

When King Herod heard these stories he said, “I got a man to cut off John's head. So Jesus must be John the Baptist come back to life again! That is how he does all those powerful things.”

Jesus gave more than 5,000 people something to eat

And you can read this story in Matthew 14:13-21 in Luke 9:10-17 and in John 6:1-14

30 Some time later, Jesus' 12 close followers came back from teaching people in the towns they visited. They were standing around him and they told him all the things they had done.

31 While they were talking, a lot of other people were coming to see Jesus too. Jesus and his followers were so busy that they did not get a chance to eat anything, so Jesus said, “Let's go away from everyone to a quiet place, and have a rest.”

32-33 So they got into a boat and started to go across the lake to that quiet place. But a lot of people saw them leave, and they knew where they were going. The people ran around the side of the lake, and got there first.

34 When Jesus and his followers got out of the boat, Jesus looked at all the people waiting for him on the sand, and he was sad for them. They looked like a mob of sheep that had no-one to look after them. So he started to teach them a lot of things about God.*

35 At the end of the day, Jesus' followers went to him and said, “It's nearly time for the sun to go down, and nobody lives here. 36 We think you should send the people away so that they can go to a farm or to a town, to buy some food.”

37 Jesus said to them, “No. I want you to give them something to eat.”

But they said, “What? We would have to work for more than half a year to feed this mob!”

38 Jesus said to them, “Go and see how much food you've got.”

They came back and said, “We have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.”

39-40 Jesus said to his followers, “Tell the people to sit down on the green grass.”

The people sat down in groups of 50 and 100.

41 When everyone was sitting down, Jesus picked up the bread and the fish. He looked up to the sky and said, “Thank you God for this bread and for this fish.” He broke up the bread and the fish, and gave the food to his followers to share with all the people.

42-44 All the 5,000 men and their families had a good feed that day, and later on Jesus' followers picked up all the food that was left over and they filled 12 big baskets.

45 Straight away, Jesus said to his followers, “I want you to get into the boat and row across the lake to Beth-say-da (Bethsaida). I will see you later.”

Then he said to the people, “It is time for you to go home now.” 46 He said goodbye to them and then he went up into the hills to pray.

Jesus walked on the water

47 When night time came, the boat was only half-way across the lake, and Jesus was still back on the land.

48 A strong wind was blowing across the lake and Jesus saw that the men were having a hard time rowing the boat. Just before the sun came up, Jesus walked to them on the water, but it looked like he was going to walk past them.

49-50 When they saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought he was a ghost. They were so frightened that they screamed. But Jesus said to them, “Don't be frightened, it's me, Jesus.”

51-52 Jesus got into the boat and straight away the wind stopped blowing. The men were shocked. They had seen what Jesus did with the bread and the fish the day before, but they still did not understand. It was too hard!

Jesus made a lot of sick people better

53 They came to the country called Gen-ez-a-ret (Gennesaret), and they tied up the boat. 54 As soon as the people saw them get out of the boat, they knew that it was Jesus. 55 So everywhere Jesus went in that country the people ran to get all the sick people, and then they carried them on mats to Jesus. 56 Jesus went to little towns, and to big towns. And everywhere he went, the people carried their sick friends and put them on the ground in the middle of the town. The sick people asked Jesus if they could touch his clothes, and everyone that touched his clothes got better.

7

Rules that did not come from God

And you can read this story in Matthew 15:1-9

1-4 One day, some Jewish law teachers and some other lawmen came from Jerusalem to check up on what Jesus was doing. Those men that came from Jerusalem were really strong for the Jewish law, and they saw that Jesus' followers did not follow that law. Those Jewish lawmen had lots of rules about washing. One of those rules was about how people had to wash their hands in a special ceremony way before they ate food. And they had to wash their hands in that same way after they came home from the shops. There were other rules too. There was a rule about how to wash cups, billycans, cooking pots and how to wash the chairs they sat on to eat their food.

So, when the men from Jerusalem saw that some of Jesus' followers did not wash their hands the right way, 5 they said to Jesus, “Your followers are not keeping the rules that our old leaders gave us a long time ago. They did not wash their hands the right way before they started to eat their food.”

6 Jesus said to them, “Isaiah lived a long time ago and told people God's messages. He wrote about people that think 2 ways, just like you. The words he wrote about you are in God's book.

Isaiah wrote,

‘Those people show respect for me with their mouths,

but really they think another way.

7 They do ceremonies to show me respect,

but those ceremonies are rubbish.

And they teach people to follow rules that men made up

and they say those rules come from God.’ *

8 You mob are just like that. You have turned your back on God's law, and you love keeping the rules that you have made up.”

9 Then he said, “And you have worked out ways to get around God's laws and follow the rules your leaders made up. 10 God told Moses that he wanted everyone to look after their old people.

Moses said,

‘You have to respect your father and mother.’

And,

‘If anyone rubbishes their father or mother, you have to kill them.’ *

11 But you teach people that they can say to their parents, ‘I know that you need help and I would like to give you something, but I promised to give it to God. I am sorry, I cannot help you.’ 12 You reckon that if a person says that to their father or mother, they don't have to help them. 13 When they do this to their old people, they are rubbishing God and his law. And you do wrong things like this all the time. You think that your own rules are better than God's laws.”

14 Then Jesus called out to all the people and said, 15-16 “I tell you this so that you know. People might not wash their hands before they eat food, but that doesn't make the food wrong for God. And if they eat that food, it doesn't mean that they have turned away from God. It is the things people say and the things they do that show that they are not right with God.”

17 Then Jesus left the people and went into a house. His followers went with him, and they asked him what he was talking about. 18-19 Jesus was surprised, and said, “Why can't you understand what I am saying? Listen, when you eat something, it goes into your stomach and later on, it goes out of your body and into the toilet. It is not what you eat that makes you not right with God.”

When Jesus said this, he was saying that all food is good to eat.

20 Then Jesus said, “People show that they are not right with God by the bad things they say and do. 21-22 These are some of the things people do.

They think really bad things.

They do things with their bodies that God says are wrong.

They steal things.

They kill people.

They go to bed with another person's husband or wife.

They are greedy and try to get lots of money and things.

They are mean.

They trick people.

They do bad things all the time.

They are jealous and want other people's things.

They say rubbish words about God and other people.

They are proud and think they are great.

They do stupid things that show that they are not thinking straight.

23 Yes, when people do these bad things, it shows that they are thinking the wrong way and they are not right with God.”

A woman who was not Jewish trusted Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 7:21-28

24 Jesus took his followers north to a place called Tyre that was next to the sea. They stayed inside a house so that no-one would know they were there, but people soon found them.

25-26 There was a Greek woman who lived in Tyre. Her family came from Phone-ee-sha (Phoenicia) in a nearby country called Syria. She was not a Jewish person, and her daughter had a bad spirit in her. As soon as the woman heard that Jesus was in Tyre, she went to him and got down on her knees in front of him. She asked him to send the bad spirit out of her daughter.

27 Jesus said to her, “Listen to me. You do not take your children's food and give it to your dogs, do you? You let your children eat as much as they want to and then you give the rest to the dogs.”*

28 The woman said, “Yes, Teacher, you are right about that, but while those children are eating, they drop bits of food on the ground and the dogs eat it.”†

29 Jesus said, “That is a good answer. You can go home now, that bad spirit has gone out of your daughter.”

30 When the woman got home, she found her daughter lying quietly on a bed. What Jesus said was true, the bad spirit was gone.

Jesus made a deaf man better

31 Jesus left Tyre and went to a town called Sidon. Then he went around the top of Lake Galilee and down to a country that everyone called Ten Towns.

32 There was a man in that country that could not hear anything, and he could not talk properly. His friends were worried about him and so they took him to Jesus. They asked Jesus to put his hand on their friend, and make him better.

33 Jesus took the man away from all the other people and put his fingers in the man's ears. He spat and touched the man's tongue. 34 Then Jesus looked up into the sky and breathed out as he prayed for the man. And he said in their language, “Open up!” 35 And straight away, the man could hear, and he could talk properly.

36 Jesus went back to the crowd and said to them, “Do not tell anyone what I did for your friend.” But they would not listen, and everywhere they went they said to people, “Jesus made our friend better!”

37 Everyone was really amazed and they said to each other, “Jesus does everything properly. He makes people who cannot listen hear again. And people that cannot talk, he makes them better too.”

8

Jesus gave food to 4,000 people

And you can read this story in Matthew 15:32-39

1-2 Another time, Jesus was teaching a group of people for 3 days. At the end of the 3 days the people had nothing to eat. So Jesus called his followers to come to him and he said, “These people have nothing to eat and I feel sorry for them. 3 Some of them are a long way from home and now they are hungry. If I send them away now, they will get weak and fall down.”

4 His followers said, “No-one lives in this country. Where can we get food for all these people?”

5 Jesus said, “How much bread have you got?”

They said, “7 loaves.”

6 Then Jesus told the people to sit down on the ground. He picked up the 7 loaves of bread and said to God, “Thank you for this bread.” Then he broke it up and gave it to his followers, and they gave the bread to all the people.

7 Someone had some little fish and gave them to Jesus, and again he said thank you to God for the fish. Then Jesus told his followers to give the fish to the people.

8 All the people ate as much bread and fish as they wanted. When they had finished eating, Jesus' followers picked up so much food they filled up 7 big baskets. 9 Then Jesus told the people that it was time to go home. There were about 4,000 people in that crowd.

10 Straight away, Jesus and his followers got into a boat and went across the lake to Dal-man-oo-tha (Dalmanutha).

The Jewish lawmen asked Jesus to show them a sign

11 Some Jewish lawmen went to Jesus. They wanted to trick him and so they asked him a question. They said, “Show us a powerful sign that comes from heaven.”*

12 Jesus was upset. He took a deep breath and said, “Why do people always want to see a powerful sign? No! I will not give you any signs!”*

13 Then Jesus and his followers got into their boat and went back across to the other side of the lake.

Jesus told his followers to be careful

And you can read this story in Matthew 16:5-12

14 As they went across the lake in the boat, Jesus' followers looked in their food bag and saw that they had forgotten to get more bread. They only had one loaf.

15 Then Jesus gave his close followers a warning. He said, “You know how you stir baking powder into the flour to make a damper. That baking powder changes the flour. The Jewish lawmen and King Herod are like that baking powder. So look out for them!”**

16 His followers did not understand what Jesus was talking about, and they started to argue with each other. They said, “We forgot to bring the food we need for the trip and that is why he said that.”

17 Jesus knew what they were talking about and so he said, “Why are you worrying about the bread? Can't you understand what I am trying to teach you? Have you closed your minds so that you can't learn? 18-19 You've got eyes, but you do not look properly. You've got ears, but you do not listen properly. Do you remember the time we had 5 loaves of bread and I gave food to 5,000 people? How many big baskets did we fill with the food that was left on the ground?”*

They said, “12.”

20 Then Jesus said, “Do you remember the time we only had 7 loaves of bread and we gave food to 4,000 people? How many big baskets did we fill with the food that was left on the ground?”

They said, “7.”

21 Then Jesus said to them, “You don't understand what I am trying to teach you, do you?”

Jesus made a blind man see again

22 When Jesus and his followers got out of the boat at Beth-say-da (Bethsaida), some people took a blind man to Jesus. The people asked Jesus to touch the man and make him better. 23 Jesus held the man's hand and took him outside the town. Then Jesus spat on the man's eyes. Then Jesus put his hands on the man and said, “Can you see anything now?”

24 The man looked around and said, “Yes, I can see a little bit. I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.” 25 So Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes again, and when the man opened his eyes, his eyes were better and he could see properly.

26 Jesus told the man to go home and said, “Do not go into your town, go straight home.”

Peter said to Jesus, “You are The Christ, the special man God promised to send”

And you can read this story in Matthew 8:27-30 and in Luke 9:18-21

27 Then Jesus and his followers left Galilee, and went north to some towns around See-za-ree-a Filip-pie (Caesarea Philippi). As they walked along, Jesus said to his followers, “When people talk about me, what do they call me? Who do they think I am?”

28 The followers said, “Some people call you John the Baptist come back to life. Some other people think that you might be that old man Elijah or one of those men from a long time ago that gave people God's messages.”*

29 Then Jesus asked them, “But, who do you think I am?”*

Straight away, Peter said, “You are The Christ!”†

30 Jesus told them strongly, “Do not tell anyone what you just heard Peter say. Do not talk to anyone about me.”

Jesus told his followers, “They will kill me.”

And you can read this story in Matthew 16:21-28 and in Luke 9:22-27

31 Then Jesus told his followers about all the bad things that were going to happen to him very soon. He said, “I am God's special man from heaven, but the Jewish elders, the Chief Priests (Jewish ceremony leaders) and the law teachers are against me. They will really hurt me in different ways and they will kill me, but I will come alive again after 3 days. This is God's plan for me, and so it has to happen.”

32 Jesus talked really straight, but Peter did not like it. He took Jesus away from the other followers and growled at him for saying those things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at the other followers, and then he growled at Peter. He said, “Go away from me Peter, you are just like the Devil. Peter, you don't understand and you are thinking the way people think. You are not thinking God's way.”

34 Then Jesus called out to his followers and all the other people standing there, to come close to him. He said, “If anyone wants to be my follower, that person must be ready to give up their old life and live just like me. They must do what I do and be ready to die in the same way that I am going to die, yes, even die on a cross.* 35 I tell you, if anyone wants to live their own way and not have any trouble here on earth, they will lose their life, and they will not live with me forever. But if anyone stops living their own way and follows me, that person will save their life and live with me forever. * 36 Think about this. You might get everything that you think will make you happy in this world, but all those things are useless if it means that you miss out on living with me. 37 If you are dead, what can you use to buy back your life? 38 You live in a world with a lot of people that live their own way and do not respect God. I am God's special man from heaven. One day I am going to come back with God's angels. When that happens, everyone will see me with all the great power that comes from my father. So, if anyone is ashamed of me and my message now, when I come back again, I will be ashamed of them.”

9

1 Then Jesus said to them, “Listen carefully. Some of you will see a very special thing happen. God will show you that he is the Lord over everything and you will see his great power. You will see this thing happen before you die.”

Jesus talked to Moses and Elijah on a big hill

And you can read this story in Matthew 17:1-9 and in Luke 9:28-36

2 Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James and John to the top of a big hill, and while they were standing there, Jesus started to look really different.* 3 His clothes were so white they were shining like the sun. Nobody could wash clothes to make them look so white. 4 Then Peter, James and John saw Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah, those men that lived a long time ago. 5-6 Straight away Peter called out, “Teacher, this is great and it is good for us to be here with you. We should put up 3 shade shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Peter, James and John were really frightened and that is why Peter called out like that.

7 Then a cloud covered them all, and God talked to them from the cloud and said, “This is my son. I love him very much. You have to listen to what he tells you.”* 8 When the cloud had gone away, Peter, James and John looked around for those 2 old men, but they were gone. Only Jesus was standing there.

9 When Jesus, Peter, James and John were walking back down the hill, Jesus said to them, “I am God's special man from heaven and you must not tell anyone what you just saw. I will die and I will come back alive again. When that happens, you can tell people what you saw today.” 10 So Peter, James and John kept quiet and they did not tell anyone what they had seen up on the hill. But they did talk to each other about the words that Jesus said about him dying and coming back alive again. They did not understand that part.

11 And so they asked Jesus, “Why do our law teachers say that Elijah must come before God's special man can come?”*

12-13 Jesus answered, “Those law teachers are right. Elijah did come to make everything right and people did bad things to him.* I am God's special man from heaven, and they will do bad things to me too. They will not listen to me, they will turn against me, and they will give me a lot of pain. All this was written down in God's book a long time ago.”

Jesus sent a bad spirit out of a boy

And you can read this story in Matthew 17:14-21 and in Luke 9:37-43

14 When they got down the hill, they saw a big crowd of people standing around the other followers. Those followers were arguing with some Jewish lawmen. 15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were surprised and happy, so they ran to welcome him.

16 Jesus said, “What are you arguing about?”

17 One of the men said, “Teacher, I have my son with me, and he has a bad spirit inside him that stops him from talking. 18 The bad spirit makes the boy take a fit whenever it wants to, so that the boy falls to the ground. Spit comes out of his mouth, he grinds his teeth together and his body goes hard like a stone. I asked your followers to make that bad spirit go out of the boy, but they can't do it.”

19 Jesus said, “O, you people! You just cannot believe, can you? How long do I have to stay here and do everything for you? Bring the boy here to me.”

20 The people took the boy to Jesus, and as soon as that bad spirit saw Jesus, it made the boy have the biggest fit. He fell to the ground and as he rolled around, a lot of spit came out of his mouth.

21 Jesus said to the boy's father, “How long has your boy been like this?”

The man said, “O, a long time, right from when he was a little boy. 22 Lots of times, the bad spirit makes him fall into the fire and into water. That bad spirit is trying to kill him. Please feel sorry for him and help us if you can.”

23 Jesus answered the man, “You said, ‘If you can’. Don't you know that God can do anything if you believe in him?”

24 The boy's father shouted out, “I do believe in God. But please help me believe in him more!”

25 Jesus saw that a lot of people were coming to watch. So he growled at the bad spirit and said, “Listen to me you bad spirit that stops people talking and listening. I am telling you to come out of this little boy right now, and you stay out of him. You are not allowed to go back into him.”

26 The bad spirit screamed as it came out of the boy, and made him take another big fit so that he fell down on the ground. The boy looked like he was dead, and a lot of people said, “Poor thing, he is finished.” 27 But Jesus held the boy's hand and helped him to stand up, and the boy's father took him home.

28 Then Jesus and his followers went into a house, and his followers asked him quietly, “Why couldn't we make that bad spirit go out of the boy?”

29 Jesus told them, “There is only one way to make that kind of bad spirit go out of a person. You have to pray and ask God to help you do it.”

Jesus told his followers that he was going to die

And you can read this story in Matthew 17:22-23 and in Luke 9:43-45

30 Later, Jesus and his followers quietly left that place and went across the country of Galilee. Jesus did not want everyone to know where they were going. 31 He wanted to have time alone with his followers so that he could teach them. He said, “I am God's special man from heaven, but somebody is going to turn against me and help my enemies to arrest me. They will kill me, but I will only be dead for 3 days, and then I will come alive again.” 32 His followers did not understand what he said, but they were too frightened to ask him about it.

Jesus' followers argued about who was the most important person in their group

And you can read this story in Matthew 18:1-5 and in Luke 9:46-48

33-34 While they walked along the road to Cap-per-ni-um (Capernaum), Jesus' followers argued with each other about which one of them was the most important person in their group. When they arrived and went into the house where they were going to stay, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” His followers did not answer him. They were too shamed.*

35 Jesus sat down and called his followers to come and listen to him. He said, “A real leader is a person that says to themselves, ‘I am not more important than anybody else.’ So if anyone wants to be a leader, that person has to think that they are not important. They have to work to help everyone else.”*

36 Jesus found a little boy and put him in the middle of the group. He picked the boy up and said, 37 “When a person loves me and is kind and friendly to a little child, then that person is being kind and friendly to me. And if that person is kind and friendly to me, they are being kind and friendly to my father too. And he is the one who sent me.”*

A man used Jesus' name to send bad spirits out of people

And you can read this story in Luke 9:49-50

38 John, one of the followers, said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to send bad spirits out of people. He is not one of our group and so we told him to stop.”

39 But Jesus said, “No! Don't stop him. If he uses my name to do good and powerful things for people, it means that he respects me. And if he respects me, he will not say bad things about me later on. 40 Anybody that is not against us, is really on our side.* 41 And if anybody sees that you belong to me and gives you a drink of water, God will do something good for them and no-one can take that good thing away from them.”*

Jesus told some stories about the right way to live

And you can read this story in Matthew 18:6-9 and in Luke 17:1-2

42 Jesus was still holding the child when he said, “Listen, there might be a young child that believes in me. If anyone makes that child turn away from God, I tell you, it would be better if a really heavy stone was tied to the person's neck. And then, that person was pushed into the sea. Drowning in the sea would be better than God punishing them for making that child turn away from God.

43-44 And if there is something that makes you go against God then you have to do something about it. If you want to do something bad with your hand, cut it off. It is better for you to live with God forever with only one hand, than to go to hell with 2 hands, where the fire never goes out. * 45-46 In the same way, if you want to do something bad with your foot, cut it off. It is better for you to live with God forever with only one foot, than to go to hell with 2 feet. 47 And it is the same for your eye. If you are looking at something and it makes you do the wrong thing, dig your eye out. It is better for you to be in God's family with only one eye, than to go to hell with 2 eyes.* 48 People that go to hell will feel like they are being eaten by worms that never die. And they will feel like their bodies are being burnt by a fire that never goes out.*

49 You know how you put a little bit of salt on your food, well just like that, God sends little bits of trouble to people. And those troubles are like small fires.

50 And listen to this other story about salt. You know how you put salt on your food to make your food taste better? I tell you, if salt loses its salty taste, it is useless and you cannot make it good again. Think about this. You have to be like good salt for everybody. Yes, be like that salt so that you can all live quietly together.”*

10

Jesus gave teaching about marriage

And you can read this story in Matthew 19:1-12 and in Luke 16:18

1 Jesus and his followers left Galilee and walked down south. They walked all across Judea and went into the country on the other side of the Jordan River. Crowds of people came to listen to Jesus and just like he did in other places, he kept on teaching them about God.

2 Some Jewish lawmen wanted to trick him and so they came to Jesus and said, “Is it alright for a married man to split up with his wife and send her away?”

3 Jesus said, “What did Moses write in God's book?”

4 The lawmen said, “Moses wrote that if a man wanted to split up from his wife, he had to write a special letter. That letter said that they were not married anymore. Then he could give that letter to his wife and send her away.”*

5 Jesus said to them, “Moses knew that you Israelite people are really hard, and that is why he had to write those words. You have closed your ears and you have not listened to God! 6 God's book says, that when God made the world, he made a man and a woman.* 7 God's way is for a man to leave his father and mother and marry a woman so that they can join up together and make a new family.* 8 So then, they are not just 2 people anymore. It is like they have become one body. 9 And so, if God has joined them together like that, no-one should try and split them up.”

10 Later on, when Jesus and his followers were sitting down in a house, his followers asked him, “What did you say to those Jewish lawmen?” 11 Jesus said, “If a man leaves his wife and marries another woman, he is sleeping with the wrong woman and he is breaking God's law.* 12 And if a woman leaves her husband and marries another man, then she is sleeping with the wrong man and she is breaking God's law.”

Jesus held children in his arms

And you can read this story in Matthew 19:13-15 and in Luke 18:15-17

13 Some people took their children to Jesus. They wanted him to put his hand on them, and pray for them. But Jesus' followers growled at the parents and tried to block them.

14 Jesus got angry when he saw what they were doing and said, “No! Don't stop those children. Let them come to me. God's family is full of people like them. 15 I tell you straight, if you don't come into God's family like a little child, you can't be in God's family.”*

16 Then Jesus held those children in his arms. He put his hands on them and prayed, and asked God to be good to them.

A rich man asked Jesus how to live forever

And you can read this story in Matthew 19:16-30 and in Luke 18:18-30

17 When Jesus and his followers started to leave that place, a man ran up to Jesus and got down on his knees. He said, “Good teacher, what can I do to live with God forever?”

18 Jesus said, “Why do you say that I am good? God is the only one who is good! 19 You know God's laws.

Do not murder anyone.

Do not go to bed with anyone that is not your wife.

Do not steal things.

Do not tell lies.

Do not trick people to get anything from them.

You have to respect your father and your mother.” *

20 The man said, “Teacher, I have followed those laws all my life.”

21 Jesus looked at him, and was worried for him. Then Jesus said, “There is still one more thing you have to do. Go and sell everything you have and give all the money to people who have nothing. Then come and follow me and God will give you better things when you get to heaven.”

22 Straight away the man looked really sad. He walked away with his eyes looking down. He was a rich man and he did not want to give everything away.

23 Jesus watched the man walk away. Then he turned and looked at his followers and said, “Rich people have a lot of trouble letting God be the Lord of their lives.”

24 When the followers heard this, they were shocked. But Jesus kept on talking and said, “My little children, it is hard for anyone to come into God's family. 25 You know how a sewing needle has a little hole in it. Do you reckon that a camel can fit in that little hole? No, it can't. But it is easier for a camel to fit in that little hole than for a rich person to get into God's family.”

26 When Jesus' followers heard this, they were even more shocked, and they said to each other, “Might be, no-one can get into God's family!”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “Nobody can get themselves into God's family. God is the only one who can do that. God can do anything!”

28 Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you. What about us?”

29-30 Jesus said, “I tell you straight, people might leave their land, their house, their brothers, or sisters, or their mother or father so that they can follow me, and live my way. God will give them more land, more houses, more fathers and mothers, and more brothers and sisters. But I have to tell you, the people that follow me will get a lot of trouble. Then, later on, those people will live with God forever.

31 And there will come a time when people who are important today will stop being important. And people that are not important today will become the important ones.”*

Jesus told his followers, “They will kill me.”

And you can read this story in Matthew 20:17-19 and in Luke 18:31-34

32 Jesus was in front of his followers while they were walking along the road to Jerusalem. His close followers were really shocked that he was going there, and the rest of the people following Jesus were frightened.

Jesus stopped, and talked just to his 12 close followers. He told them what was going to happen to him later on. 33 He said, “We are all going to Jerusalem and someone is going to turn against me. That person will help the Chief Priests and law teachers arrest me. I am God's special man from heaven and the Jewish leaders will take me to their court. Those leaders will say that I am guilty of breaking God's law, and they will say that I have to die. Then those leaders will take me to the Romans. 34 Those Roman soldiers will rubbish me and spit on me. They will flog me with a whip and then they will kill me. But after 3 days I will come alive again.”

James and John asked Jesus to make them important

And you can read this story in Matthew 20:20-28

35 Then James and John, the 2 sons of Zebedee, went to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to do something for us.”

36 Jesus asked them, “What do you want?”

37 They said, “When you are the Lord over everything and sitting on your special seat in heaven, can we 2 brothers sit down next to you? Can one brother sit on your right hand side and the other brother on your left hand side?”

38 Jesus said, “You do not know what you are asking me. People are going to hurt me and give me a really hard time. It will be like I am drinking a cup of poison and I will have too much pain. Do you think that you can have the same troubles and pain that I am going to have?”*

39 James and John said, “Yes. We can do that.”

So Jesus said, “You are right, you will get the same pain and trouble that I will get. 40 But I cannot give you what you want. My father in heaven is the one that says who will sit on my right hand side and who will sit on my left hand side.”

41 When the other 10 followers heard what James and John asked for, they got really angry. 42 So Jesus called all his followers together and said, “You know the leaders of this world like to be the boss over everyone and tell them what to do all the time.* 43-44 I do not want you to be like that. If you want to be an important person in my family, then you have to be like a workman for the rest of my family. And if you want to be the leader of the family, you have to work hard for everyone else.* 45 Just like that, I am God's special man that came from heaven, and I did not come here to be the boss and make people work for me. I came here to do a special job for people. I came to give up my life for them and pay for all the wrong things people have done. That way they will be free from blame.”

Jesus made a blind man see again

And you can read this story in Matthew 20:29-34 and in Luke 18:35-43

46 On their way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his followers came to a town called Jericho. When they left Jericho, a big crowd of people followed them. A blind man was sitting on the side of the road and he was waiting for people to give him money. The blind man's name was Bart-i-may-us (Bartimaeus) and his father's name was Tim-ay-us (Timaeus).

47 When Bart-i-may-us heard that Jesus from Nazareth was coming along the road, he shouted out, “Jesus from King David's family, please help me!”

48 A lot of people growled at the blind man and told him to be quiet. But he would not be quiet, he shouted even louder, “Jesus from King David's family. Please help me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Tell him to come to me.” So the people called out to the blind man and said, “Old man, you can be happy now. Jesus is calling for you. Get up and go to him.”

50 That old man jumped up, he dropped his coat and walked to Jesus. 51 Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man said, “Teacher, I just want to see.”

52 Jesus said to him, “You believe in me and so I will make you better.” Straight away Bart-i-may-us could see again and then he followed Jesus as he walked along the road.

11

Jesus went into Jerusalem

And you can read this story in Matthew 21:1-11 in Luke 19:28-40 and in John 12:12-19

1 When Jesus and his followers got near to Jerusalem they stopped on the side of a hill called The Mount of Olives. There were 2 towns there and they were called Bethany and Beth-far-gee (Bethphage). Jesus told 2 of his followers to go into one of those towns. 2 He said, “When you get there, you will see a donkey tied to a post. Nobody has ever sat on that donkey before, but I want you to untie it and bring it to me. 3 If somebody wants to know why you are taking that donkey, you can say, ‘The Lord needs it for a while, but don't worry, later on he will send it back to you.’ ”

4 The 2 men went into the town. They found the donkey tied up outside the door of a house, and they started to untie it. 5 Some people standing there said to them, “What are you doing? Why are you untying that young donkey?” 6 Jesus' followers said, “The Lord needs it for a while, but don't worry, later on he will send it back to you.” So the people let the followers take the donkey away.

7 The men took the young donkey back to Jesus and put their coats onto the donkey's back. Then Jesus sat on the donkey and started to ride into Jerusalem. 8 A lot of people put their coats down on the road in front of the donkey, and other people cut leaves from trees and put them on the road too.* 9 Some of the people walked in front of Jesus, and some people walked behind him.

They shouted,

“Say good things about the God who will save us. The man that came from God is strong and powerful.

10 God's nation is coming and it will be strong and powerful again like it was in King David's time.

Yes, say good things about the God who lives in heaven. He will save us.” *

11 Jesus went into Jerusalem and walked into the Jewish ceremony house called the Temple to have a good look at what was going on in there. But it was late and the sun was starting to go down, so Jesus left Jerusalem, and went back to Bethany with his 12 followers.

Jesus cursed a fruit tree

And you can read this story in Matthew 21:18-19

12 The next morning, Jesus was hungry. He left Bethany and started to walk back to Jerusalem with his followers. 13 As they walked along, Jesus saw a fruit tree in front of him and so he went to see if there was any fruit. But it was the wrong time of year, and so he did not find any fruit, he just found leaves. 14 His followers heard him say to the fruit tree, “No-one will ever eat any fruit from you again.”

Jesus forced some people out of the Temple

And you can read this story in Matthew 21:12-17 in Luke 19:45-48 and in John 2:13-22

15 Jesus and his followers went back to Jerusalem and walked into the Temple yard. In the yard there were people buying and selling animals and birds that were going to be killed and used in the Temple ceremonies. There were other men too that swapped Roman money for Temple money so that people could pay their Temple tax. Those men were called money changers. Jesus forced them out of the yard and pushed over their tables and chairs. 16 He would not let anyone use the Temple yard as a shop.

17 Then Jesus started to teach the people. He said, “A long time ago God told 2 men to write down these words in his book. They wrote,

‘I want my house to be a place where people from every tribe can come and pray.’* But you have made my house to be like a place where robbers hide.”*

18 When the Chief Priests (Jewish ceremony leaders) and the law teachers heard what Jesus said, they were very angry. They started to think about how they could kill Jesus but they were frightened of him. They could see how happy and excited the people were when Jesus was teaching them.

19 Later that day, when the sun started to go down, Jesus and his followers left Jerusalem and went back to Bethany.

The fruit tree died

And you can read this story in Matthew 21:20-22

20 In the morning, Jesus and his followers walked past the fruit tree again. They saw that it was dead right down to the ground. 21 Peter remembered the words Jesus said to the fruit tree the day before. So he said, “Teacher, that tree you cursed is already dead.”

22 Jesus said, “You should really trust God. 23 I tell you, someone might ask God to make this big hill jump into the sea. That person must not say, ‘Might be God will do it.’ That person has to truly believe with all their heart that God will do it and God will force that hill to jump into the sea.*

24 So if you ask God for anything, you have to believe that God will give it to you.

25-26 And when you are praying, if someone has done something bad to you, you have to forgive them. If you forgive that person, your father in heaven will forgive you for all the bad things you have done.”**

The Jewish leaders asked Jesus a question

And you can read this story in Matthew 21:23-27 and in Luke 20:1-8

27 When Jesus and his followers got to Jerusalem, they walked into the Temple yard again. Some of the Chief Priests, law teachers and Jewish elders walked up to Jesus. 28 They said, “Who told you to force all those people out of this yard? Who said that you are allowed to do that?”

29 Jesus said to them, “First, you answer my question. If you answer my question, then I will tell you who said that I was allowed to force those men out of the yard. 30 This is my question. Who told John to do that washing ceremony called baptism in the Jordan River? Did someone here on earth tell John to do that, or did God tell him to do it?”

31 Those Jewish leaders talked together to work out their answer. They said to each other, “If we say that God told John to baptise people, then we will be in trouble. Jesus will say to us, ‘If God told John to baptise people, why didn't you listen to him?’ 32 And if we say that someone here on earth told John to baptise people, we will still be in trouble.” All the people believed that God sent John and so those Jewish leaders were frightened of them.

33 The Jewish leaders went back to Jesus and said, “We do not know who told John to baptise people in the river.”

Then Jesus said, “You don't want to answer me, and so I don't want to answer you. I will not tell you who said that I can do these things.”

12

The story about men that looked after a garden

And you can read this story in Matthew 21:33-46 and in Luke 20:9-19

1 Then Jesus started to teach the people with picture stories. He said, “A man wanted to grow fruit trees in a garden. He made a strong fence around it, and got everything ready. Then he rented the garden to some men and went away to another country.*

2 The workers did not pay the owner any rent money, but they promised to pay him with a share of the fruit that was picked from his garden. When the time came for the workers to pick the fruit, the owner sent a man to get his share. 3 But the workers in the garden grabbed the man, they bashed him, and then they sent him away with nothing.

4 The owner sent another man to the garden, but the workers hit him on the head and rubbished him. 5 Then the owner sent another man, and this time the workers killed him. Again and again the owner sent his men to get his share of the fruit. But every time, the workers in the garden would not give anything to the owner's men. They bashed some of them and they killed others.

6 The owner of the garden had one more person to send. He said to himself, ‘I will try one more time. I will send my son. I love him and those men in the garden will respect him.’

7 But when the workers in the garden saw the owner's son, they said to each other, ‘When that old man dies, this son will get everything. Why don't we kill him so that we can have the garden for ourselves?’ 8 So they grabbed the young man, killed him and dumped his body out of the garden.”

9 Then Jesus asked the people that were listening to him, “What do you think the owner will do? I tell you, the owner will go to the garden and kill all the men that worked there. Then he will get other people to work in the garden for him.

10 Here is another story for you to think about, it is in God's book for you to read.

‘Some workmen built a house out of big stones,

but those workmen thought one of those stones was rubbish,

so they would not use it. But they were wrong.

God has made that stone the most important stone in the building.

11 Yes, God did that, and we think he has done a really great thing.’ ”*

12 The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus was talking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they were frightened of the people, so they left him and walked away.

The Jewish leaders asked Jesus about paying tax money to the Romans

And you can read this story in Matthew 22:15-22 and in Luke 20:20-26

13 Later on, the Jewish leaders sent some lawmen and some other people who were good friends with King Herod to talk to Jesus. They wanted to trick him and get him to say something wrong.

14 They said, “Teacher, we know you always want to do the right thing. You are not frightened of anyone and you do not worry about what people say about you. We know that you always speak the same way to everybody, and you always teach people about God the right way. So, can you answer this question? Is it right for us Jewish people to pay tax money to the Romans? Or is it wrong for us Jewish people to pay tax money to the Romans?”

15 So Jesus said, “You are trying to trick me. Show me a piece of Roman money.”

16 They gave Jesus a coin, and after he looked at it, he said, “This money has a man's face on it. Who is he, and what is his name?”

They said, “That is See-zar (Caesar). He is the boss of the Roman people.”

17 So Jesus said, “Give See-zar what belongs to him and give God what belongs to God.” All the people were really amazed.

Other people asked Jesus a trick question

And you can read this story in Matthew 22:23-33 and in Luke 20:27-40

18 There were some Jewish people called Sad-you-sees (Sadducees) who believed that after someone died, that person would stay dead. They believed that God would never make a dead body come alive again. Some of those people went to Jesus and tried to trick him by asking another question.* 19 They said to him, “Teacher, Moses wrote one of God's laws like this, ‘If a man gets married but dies before his wife has a baby, then his brother has to marry that woman. Then if they have a baby, it is like that baby belongs to her first husband and so his family line can keep going.’*

20 But what about this story? There were 7 brothers. The oldest one got married, but he died before his wife had a baby. 21 So the next brother married the woman to follow God's law, but he died too before they had children. Then the next brother married the woman and he died before they had a baby. 22 The same thing happened to all of those 7 brothers. They all followed God's law and married the woman, but each one of them died before they had any children. And then last of all, the woman died.

23 Well, on the day when God makes everyone come alive again, which one of the brothers will be married to the woman? She had been married to all of them.”

24 Jesus said, “You men are wrong, and this is why you are wrong. You do not know God's word properly, and you do not know about God's power! 25 When God makes all the dead people come alive again, no-one will be married, and no-one will be promised to anyone. Everyone will be like the angels in heaven, and they never get married.

26-27 You people think that God will never make dead people come alive again. But don't you remember how God spoke to Moses from inside a burning bush. The story is written in God's book. God said to Moses,

‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’

*God is the God of people who are alive, not the God of people that are dead. Your thinking is all wrong!”*

The most important laws

And you can read this story in Matthew 22:34-40 and in Luke 10:25-28

28 One of the Jewish law teachers liked what Jesus said to those men and so he said to Jesus, “Which one of God's laws is the most important one?”

29 Jesus said to him, “The most important law is,

‘Listen to me, you people of Israel, the Lord our God is the one and only God.

30 You have to love God with all your heart. Yes, love God with everything inside you.

You have to love God with all your soul, which is that part of you that will live forever.

You have to love God with all your mind. That is, love God in the way you think.

And you have to love God in everything that you do.’ *

31 And the second most important law is this one,

‘You have to love other people as much as you love yourself.’*

These 2 laws are the most important laws.”

32 The Jewish lawman said, “Teacher, that is a good answer. God is the one and only God.* 33 We have to love God properly. With all our heart, and with all our mind. Yes, we have to love God with every part of us in a really strong way. Loving your neighbour is much more important than doing the ceremonies God told people to do.”*

34 Jesus knew that this man was thinking the right way, and so he said, “You are right. I tell you, you are nearly ready for God to take you into his family.”

From that time, everyone was too frightened to ask Jesus any more tricky questions.

Jesus was teaching people in the Temple

And you can read this story in Matthew 22:41-46 and in Luke 20:41-44

35 Then Jesus kept on teaching the people in the Temple. He said, “Everybody knows that David was our king a long time ago. And we know that our Jewish law teachers say that a grandson for David will be the special man God promised to send from heaven. That man from heaven is going to save us, and we call him The Christ. So why do you think our law teachers say that The Christ, is a grandson for King David?

36 Think about this.

God's Holy Spirit told King David to write down these words in God's song book.

‘The Lord said to my lord, “Come here and sit down beside me until I make you boss over all your enemies.” ’ *

37 David called The Christ, ‘My Lord’. And so, if David said that The Christ was his Lord, how can The Christ who came from heaven be David's grandson?

Why do the law teachers say that?”

The big crowd of people were really happy with what he said.

38 Jesus kept on teaching and said, “You have to look out for those law teachers. They wear really flash clothes so that people will think they are better than everyone else. And they like people to say hello and show them respect when people see them in the shops. 39 And when they go to the Jewish meeting houses† and important parties, they want to have special chairs ready for them. 40 But some of those law teachers do bad things to other people. They trick old women that have lost their husbands. They take everything from those women and then try to make themselves look good by saying long prayers. They just pretend to live God's way. But I tell you, God will say that they are guilty and will punish them more than he punishes other people.”

Jesus talked about giving money to God

And you can read this story in Luke 21:1-4

41 Then Jesus sat down near the money box that was in the Temple, and he watched people put their money in the box. Some rich people put in a lot of money. 42 But then an old woman that had lost her husband and did not have much money walked up to the money box and put in 2 very little coins. 43 Jesus called his followers to him and said, “I tell you, this old woman gave more money than those rich people. 44 Those rich people look like they gave a lot of money, but they still have lots more back at home. That old woman gave all the money she had to God, and now she has nothing.”

13

Jesus talked about what was going to happen to the Temple

And you can read this story in Matthew 24:1-2; and in Luke 21:5-6

1 Jesus and his followers left the Temple, and one of the followers said, “Teacher, look at these lovely buildings, and see how big those stones are.”

2 Jesus said, “Yes, take a good look at this big building. Later on, it will not be here, it will be just a pile of broken stones on the ground.”

3 Then Jesus and his followers went out of Jerusalem, and they sat down on the hill called the Mount of Olives. They could see the Temple from there, and so, as they looked at it, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked Jesus quietly, 4 “When will that building be just a pile of stones? Will there be a sign to show us when it is going to happen?”

5 Jesus said, “Yes, these are the signs to look out for, but people will try to trick you and so you have to be careful. 6 A lot of people will come and say, ‘I am the man sent from God called The Christ’, and a lot of people will get tricked up. 7 You will hear stories about wars that are happening now, and you might hear stories about wars that will happen later. Do not let those stories make you frightened, it is not the right time for the world to finish up yet. 8 I am telling you straight. People from different countries are going to fight each other and people from different tribes are going to fight each other too. There will be earthquakes everywhere. There will not be much food and everybody will be really hungry.

You know how a woman starts to have pain when she is going to have a baby, it is a sign that the baby will be born. Like that again, when all these bad things start to happen, they are the signs to look out for. And you will know that there will be even bigger trouble coming.

9 Be careful how you live. You have followed me, and so people are going to arrest you and take you to court. They will flog you in their meeting houses. You will have to stand in front of kings and government leaders. And when that happens, you can tell them about me and what I did.* 10 Before the world finishes up, people in every country and every tribe must be told the good news about me. And you can tell people how they can be made right with God.

11 Yes, you will be arrested, but when you go to court do not worry about what to say. At the right time, the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say to the judge.

12 The trouble will get so bad that some men will get their brothers arrested and killed. Some fathers will do the same to their children, and some children will turn against their parents and have them killed. 13 You follow me and that is why everyone will hate you. But if you stay strong and do not give up, God will keep you safe in his family.”*

14 And then he said, “Later on, you people who live in Judea will see a really bad thing that someone put in the wrong place.* That thing will make a lot of trouble. When that happens, run away to the high hills! Anyone reading this story should take notice of my warning.* 15 You might be outside your house, or you might even be up on your roof. Do not try to save anything from inside your house.* 16 You might be working in a paddock, but do not go back into your house to get your coat, just run away quickly. 17 At that time it will be really hard for women that are waiting for babies to be born, and it will be just as hard for mothers that are still feeding their babies with their milk. 18 You should pray and ask God not to let this trouble happen in winter time when it's hard to travel in the country. 19 Right from the beginning when God made everything, there has always been trouble, but the trouble that is coming will be the worst kind. And it will never be this bad again!* 20 If God lets that trouble keep on going, everyone will die. But God has picked some people to be in his family and so he wants them to stay alive. That is why he will not let that trouble keep on going. 21 Like I said before, do not believe people that say, ‘We have found The Christ, the special man from God. Here he is.’ Or if they say, ‘There he is over there,’ do not believe them.

22 There will be a lot of people that will tell lies and try to trick you. Some will say that they are The Christ, the special man from God. Other people will say they are talking for God, and they might do all kinds of clever things. Yes, they will try and trick the people that God has picked to be in his family. 23 So be careful. I am telling you about it now so that later on, when it happens, you can be ready. 24 When that time of trouble finishes, more things will happen that God tells us about in his book. He said,

‘The sun will go dark, and the moon will stop shining.

25 The stars and the other powerful things in the sky will all shake and fall down.’**

26 Then everybody will see God's special man come back from heaven in the clouds. People will see that he is really strong, and powerful, and he will be just like God.* 27 He will send God's angels out to every place all over the world. Those angels will get all the people that God picked to be in his family and bring them to God.

28 Think about this. Whenever you see new leaves on a fruit tree, you know that the weather is going to change soon. 29 It's the same with all these things that I am telling you about now, they will show you that something is about to happen. You will see these things happen and you will know that I will come soon. 30 Listen, there are some people alive now that will still be alive when these things happen. 31 One day the sky and the ground will both finish up, but my words will never finish up.”

Stay awake and be careful

And you can read this story in Matthew 24:36-44

32-33 Then Jesus said, “Be careful, nobody knows the time or the day when God will do these things. God's angels in heaven do not know. I don't even know. My father in heaven is the only one that knows. You do not know when God will do these things, and so you have to be ready all the time.

34 Listen to this story. A man wanted to go and stay in another place for a while. So he told his workmen to look after everything at his house while he was away. He told each one of them to do their own jobs. And he told the man that opens and closes the gate, to keep watching the road for when he would come back.”*

35-36 Then Jesus said, “You do not know what time the owner of the house is going to come home. He might come after the sun goes down, or in the middle of the night. He might come back after the sun comes up or in the middle of the day. Do not let him come back and find you sleeping when you should be watching.

37 And so, I am telling you all to be careful, just like I tell everybody else. Keep watching! You have to be ready for me to come.”

14

The Jewish leaders wanted to kill Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:1-5 in Luke 22:1-2; and in John 11:45-53

1 Every year the Jewish people went to Jerusalem for the Passover and Flat Bread ceremonies.**

But 2 days before the ceremonies started, the Chief Priests (Jewish ceremony leaders) and the law teachers made plans to arrest Jesus in a sneaky way and then kill him. But they were worried. 2 They said, “We have to kill this man, but if we do it at our ceremony time all the people will fight us.”

A woman put nice smelling oil on Jesus' head

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:6-13; and in John 12:1-8

3 At this time Jesus and his followers were staying in a town called Bethany, and they stayed with a man who was called Simon the Leper.† Jesus and his followers were eating supper when a woman walked into the room with a stone bottle that had special oil in it. That oil smelled really nice and it cost a lot of money. She broke the top off the bottle and poured the oil on Jesus' head.* 4 Some of the people that were eating supper were very angry with the woman and said, “Why did she waste all that oil? 5 We could have sold that bottle for more than 300 pieces of silver money and then given that money to people that have nothing.” And they growled at the woman.

6 But Jesus said, “Stop it! Why are you giving her trouble? Leave her alone! She has done a very good thing for me. 7 You will always have people that have no money living in your community, and you can be kind to them any time you like. But I will not be with you much longer.* 8 This woman has poured that oil on my body to get it ready to be buried. 9 What I say now is true. People will go everywhere in the world and wherever they go they will tell my story. And they will talk about what this woman has done for me today, and people will remember her.”

Judas Iscariot turned against Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:14-16 and in Luke 22:3-6

10 Later on, one of Jesus' close followers whose name was Judas Iscariot went to the Chief Priests and said, “I can help you arrest Jesus.”

11 Those leaders were very happy to hear what Judas said, and promised to give him some money. And so Judas started to work out how he could get Jesus arrested.

Jesus and his followers ate the Passover Supper

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:17-25, in Luke 22:7-14, 21-23 and in John 13:21-30

12 The first day of the Flat Bread ceremony was the same day that the lambs were killed for the Passover ceremony. On that day, Jesus' followers asked him, “Where do you want us to get our Passover supper ready?”

13 Jesus said to 2 of his followers, “Go into the town, and when you get there, you will meet a man carrying a billycan full of water. I want you to follow him. 14 He will go into a house, and there you will meet the man who owns the house. Say to him, ‘The teacher wants to eat the Passover supper with his followers in the room you keep for visitors. Can you show us where it is?’ 15 That man will take you up some stairs to the visitor's room. It is a big room and it is ready for you. That is where you can get our supper ready.”

16 The 2 men did as Jesus said. They met the man with the billycan and followed him to the house. They talked to the owner, and he showed them the room. Then they got the Passover supper ready.

17 Later that night Jesus and his 12 followers went up to the supper room. 18 As they ate their supper, Jesus said, “One of you eating this supper with me is going to turn against me and help my enemies arrest me.”*

19 All the followers were really sad when Jesus said this, and they all said, “No, not me!”

20 But Jesus said, “Yes, one of you eating this supper is going to do that. 21 In God's book it says that God's special man from heaven will be arrested and killed. But I tell you, God will punish the man who turns against God's special man and gets him arrested. That man will say to himself, ‘I wish I had never been born!’ ”

22 While they were eating their supper, Jesus picked up some bread and prayed. He said, “Thank you,” to God, and then he broke the bread and gave it to his followers. As he gave the bread to them he said, “Take this bread, this is my body.”

23 Then he picked up a cup of wine and prayed again. He said, “Thank you” to God, then he gave the cup to his followers and they all drank some of the wine. 24 When they all had a drink, Jesus said, “This wine is my blood. My blood is going to spill out of my body, and when it does, it will be a sign that God has made a new promise for lots of people.* 25 And what I tell you is true, I will not drink any wine until the day when all of God's family sits down together. And we will all drink a new kind of wine.”

26 When the supper was finished, they all sang a song to God. Then they left the house and walked to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus talked straight to Peter

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:31-35, in Luke 22:31-34 and in John 13:36-38

27 Jesus said to his followers, “All of you are going to be frightened and run away from me. Someone wrote in God's book these words,

‘I will kill the man that looks after the sheep,

and the sheep will run away everywhere.’ *

28 Those words will come true. I am going to die and then come alive again, and after that I will go in front of you and meet you in Galilee.” *

29 But Peter said, “All the other followers might run away from you, but not me.”

30 Then Jesus said to him, “What I am going to say to you is true. Tonight, before the rooster calls out 2 times, you are going to say 3 times that you do not know me.”

31 Peter said in a strong way, “No. I am ready to die with you, and I will never say that I do not know you!” And all the other followers said the same thing.

Jesus prayed in the Garden of Geth-sem-a-nee (Gethsemane)

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:36-46 and in Luke 22:39-46

32 Jesus and his followers went to the Garden of Geth-sem-a-nee‡. That garden was on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to his followers, “I want you to wait here. I am going to pray to God.”

33 But Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and as they walked together, he started to feel very sad and upset. 34 He said to them, “I am very sad and upset, I feel like I am dying inside. I want you to sit here and stay awake.”

35-36 Jesus left them, and walked away a little bit. He fell down onto the ground and started to pray. He said, “Father, is there any chance that I can miss out on this trouble? You can make anything happen. This trouble is like a cup of poison that I have to drink. You can take it away from me, but I know that you want me to have this trouble, and so I will do it.”

37 Jesus went back to where he left Peter, James and John, and he found that they were asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, how come you can't stay awake for one hour? 38 Stay awake and pray. Ask God to keep you from doing the wrong thing. I know that you want to do what is right, but you are weak.”

39 Jesus left his followers there and went away to pray again. He said the same words to God that he said the first time. 40 Again, Jesus went back to his followers and found them sleeping. They just could not stay awake, and they did not know what to say to him.

41 Jesus left them and prayed some more, and after he finished praying he went back and found them sleeping again. He said, “You just can't stay awake can you? You have had a rest now, and now it is time for my trouble to start. I am God's special man from heaven and look, the men that are going to arrest me are here. 42 Here comes the man that turned against me. Let's go and meet him.”

A big crowd of men arrested Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:47-56, in Luke 22:47-53 and in John 18:3-12

43 Straight away they saw Judas, one of Jesus' 12 followers, leading a big crowd of men. The Chief Priests, the law teachers and the Jewish elders had sent those men to arrest Jesus. All the men with Judas had long knives/swords and fighting sticks in their hands. 44 Before Judas and the crowd found Jesus, Judas had said to the men with him, “I will kiss a man on the side of his face. Arrest him. Tie him up and make sure he does not get away.” 45 So, when Judas saw Jesus, he walked up to him and said, “My teacher” and kissed him on the cheek. 46 And so the men with Judas arrested Jesus and tied him up.

47 But one of Jesus' followers pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of one of the men that worked for the High Priest.

48 Jesus said to the crowd of men, “You have all got long knives/swords and fighting sticks. It is like I have done something really bad. 49 I was teaching in the Temple every day, but you did not arrest me there. What you are doing to me now was written in God's book and it has to come true.”*

50 All Jesus' followers were frightened and they all ran away and left him behind.

51 There was a young man that was wearing a long calico coat. Someone grabbed his coat, 52 but it ripped and the young man ran away with nothing on.

The men took Jesus to the Jewish court

And you can read this story in Matthew 26:57-68, in Luke 22:54-55, 63-71 and in John 18:13-14, 19-24

53 The men that arrested Jesus took him to the house where the High Priest lived. He was waiting with all the other Chief Priests, lawmen and Jewish elders for the men to bring Jesus to them. 54 Peter followed the crowd. He followed them right inside the High Priest's yard and then he sat down next to the fire with all the men that worked there.

55 Inside the High Priest's house, all the other Chief Priests met with the members of the Jewish council. They were trying to find somebody to say that Jesus was going against God. But they could not find anybody. 56 There were some men that told lies about Jesus but their stories were all mixed up.

57 Some men got up and told this lie. 58 They said, “We heard this man say, ‘I will knock down God's Temple and build another one in 3 days. A lot of men built this Temple, but I will build a new Temple and I will not use my hands.’ ”* 59 But even those men had their stories mixed up.

60 Then the High Priest got up in the meeting and said to Jesus, “All these men have told us what you have done. What are you going to say?” 61 But Jesus said nothing. He just kept his mouth shut.

Then the High Priest said, “All right, tell us this. Are you The Christ, the special man that God promised to send to us? Are you the son of God?”

62 Jesus said, “Yes, I am. I am God's special man from heaven. And one day you will all see me sitting there in heaven on the right-hand side of God the Powerful One. And one day you will see me come again in the clouds.”*

63-64 The High Priest got so wild that he ripped his clothes and said to the Jewish council, “Did you hear that? This man said that he is the same as God. We do not need anyone to say anything more. We have all heard what he said. So what do we say, did Jesus break our law?”

And they all said, “Yes, he broke our law. He has to die.”*

65 Some of the men at that meeting spat on Jesus. They tied a rag across his eyes so that he could not see, then they hit him with their hands and said, “Hey. You reckon that God gives you power to know things, so tell us, who hit you?” Then the guards grabbed Jesus and they hit him too.

Peter said, “I do not know Jesus”

66-67 While Jesus was inside the house, Peter sat outside next to the fire.

One of the girls that worked in the High Priest's house came along and saw Peter sitting there. She looked at him and said, “I think you were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.”

68 But Peter said, “No. I don't know what you are talking about.” Then he went to stand next to the gate, and a rooster called out.

69 That working girl saw Peter at the gate and again she said to people, “This man is one of Jesus' followers.”

70 But again Peter said, “No! I am not.”

Later on, the people at the gate said to Peter, “You talk like the people from Galilee. Jesus comes from Galilee, so you must be one of his followers.”

71 Peter got really wild, and he said, “I don't know what you are talking about! I am telling you, I do not know that man! I promise you. What I say is true, and if I am telling a lie, then I want God to put a curse on me!”

72 Straight away, the rooster called out again.

Then Peter remembered the words that Jesus said to him, “Before the rooster calls out 2 times tonight, you are going to say 3 times that you do not know me.” Peter was really sad and started to cry.

15

The Jewish Leaders took Jesus to the Roman court

And you can read this story in Matthew 27:1-2, 11-14, in Luke 23:1-5 and in John 18:28-38

1 Early in the morning, the Chief Priests (Jewish ceremony leaders), the lawmen, the Jewish elders and all the members of the Jewish council had a meeting. At that meeting they made up their minds to tie Jesus up and take him to the Roman leader in Jerusalem. The Roman leader's name was Pilate. 2 When they got there, Pilate started to ask Jesus some questions. He said, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Jesus said, “You can call me that.”

3 Then the Chief Priests said to Pilate, “This man has done a lot of bad things.”

4 So Pilate said to Jesus, “The Chief Priests are saying lots of bad things about you. Why don't you say something for yourself?”

5 But Jesus said nothing, and Pilate was really amazed.

6-8 At that time there was a man in jail called Bar-abbas (Barabbas). He was one of the men that were always fighting against the Romans to try and make them leave the Jewish country. He had killed a man in one of those fights, and that is why he was in jail.

Every year at Passover time, Pilate let one Jewish prisoner go free. But he let the Jewish people pick that prisoner.

And so just before the Passover ceremony began, a big crowd of people went to see Pilate and they said, “This is the time for you to let one of our people go free.”

9-10 Pilate knew that the Chief Priests were jealous of Jesus and that was why they had arrested him. So Pilate said to the crowd, “Do you want me to let the King of the Jews go free?” 11 But the Chief Priests told the crowd to ask for Bar-abbas, and so the crowd called out, “No! Not him! Give us Bar-abbas.”

12 Pilate said, “So what do you want me to do with this man you call the King of the Jews?”

13 All the people shouted, “Nail him to a cross.”

14 Pilate said, “Why? What has he done wrong?”

But the crowd did not listen. They shouted out even louder, “Nail him to a cross.”

15 Pilate wanted to make the crowd happy and so he told his soldiers to let Bar-abbas go free from jail. Then Pilate said to his soldiers, “Take Jesus outside and flog him and then take him away and nail him up on a cross to die.”

The soldiers made fun of Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 27:27-31; and in John 19:2-3

16 The soldiers took Jesus into the yard outside where Pilate lived, and they called out to all the other soldiers to come and watch. 17 First they put a purple coat on Jesus, so that he looked like a king. Then they found some prickly sticks and made them into a headband so that it looked like a king's crown, and they pushed it onto Jesus' head. 18-19 Then they started to tease him. They got down on their knees in front of Jesus and said, “Hey, you King of the Jews. You are so great!” And they kept on hitting Jesus on the head with a stick, and they spat on him.

20 When they finished making fun of Jesus, they took off the long purple coat and put his own clothes back on him. Then they took him out of the town to nail him up on a cross.

21 On the way, they met a man called Simon from Sy-reen (Cyrene). He was the father of Alexander and Rufus, and he was coming back into town from the farm lands outside Jerusalem. The soldiers grabbed Simon and made him carry the cross for Jesus. * 22 The soldiers took Jesus to a place called Golgotha. In their language it means Skull Place. 23 And they tried to make Jesus drink some wine that had a drug called Merr (Myrrh) in it. But he would not drink it.

24-26 It was 9 o'clock in the morning when the soldiers nailed Jesus' hands and feet to the cross. They wrote The King of the Jews on a piece of wood and nailed it to the cross above his head. Then they gambled for Jesus' clothes.*

27 And there were 2 men that had broken Roman laws, so the soldiers nailed them onto crosses and put them up next to Jesus. They put one man on Jesus' left-hand side and they put the other man on Jesus' right-hand side.

29 There were people walking by and as they looked at Jesus they rubbished him. They shook their heads and said, “You think you can knock down the Temple, and then build it up again in 3 days.* 30 Why don't you save yourself? Go on, get down from that cross!”

31 The Chief Priests and the law teachers teased Jesus too. They said to each other, “He saved other people, but he cannot save himself. 32 If he really is the man God promised to send and if he really is the King of the Israel nation, he has to prove it. If he comes down from that cross, we will believe in him.”

The men on the other crosses joined in and rubbished Jesus too.

Jesus died

And you can read this story in Matthew 27:45-56, in Luke 23:44-49 and in John 19:28-30

33 In the middle of the day, at about 12 o'clock, the sky went dark like it was night time. And it stayed dark for about 3 hours until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. 34 At 3 o'clock Jesus called out in their language, and said, “My God, my God, why did you go away and leave me all alone?” *

35 Some of the people standing there heard what Jesus said, and they thought that he was calling out for Elijah to come from heaven to help him. 36 One man ran and put sour wine on a rag. Then he put the rag on a stick and held it up to Jesus' mouth for him to have a drink. And then the man said, “Ok, leave him alone now. Let's wait and see if Elijah will come and get him down from the cross.”*

37 Jesus called out again, and then he died.

38 Inside the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a big curtain. When Jesus died, that curtain ripped into 2 pieces, from the top of the curtain to the bottom.*

39 And back at the cross, the leader of those Roman soldiers was standing near Jesus. He saw the way Jesus died, and he said, “It is true. This man really was the son of God.”

Some women saw everything that happened

40-41 While Jesus was on the cross, some women were watching from a long way off. These women had come with Jesus and his followers to Jerusalem. They were Mary Mag-da-lean (Magdalene), Sal-o-me (Salome), and another Mary who was the mother of young James and Joses. And there were some other women too. Before this time, these women had looked after Jesus and went everywhere with him and his followers in Galilee. *

Joseph buried Jesus

And you can read this story in Matthew 27:57-61, in Luke 23:50-56 and in John 19:38-42

42 The day that Jesus died was the day when the Jewish people got everything ready for their Sabbath rest day. That rest day started after the sun went down.

43 There was a man called Joseph who came from Ari-ma-thee-a (Arimathea). He was an important man in the Jewish council and everyone said that he was a good man. Joseph was waiting for the time when God was going to be the King over everybody in the world.

Joseph was not frightened of Pilate and so when it was dark, and nearly time for the Jewish rest day to start, he went to see Pilate. Joseph asked Pilate if it was alright for him to take Jesus' body down from the cross and bury it.

44-45 Pilate was amazed. He said, “Is that man dead already?”

He sent somebody to get the leader of the soldiers and said, “Is it true? Is that man really dead?”

The leader of the soldiers said, “Yes, it is true.”

And so Pilate told Joseph that he was allowed to take Jesus' body down from the cross and bury it.

46 Joseph took Jesus' body down from the cross and wrapped it in a sheet. He put Jesus' body in a cave that somebody had cut inside a stoney hill. Then he rolled a very big stone in front of the cave to block the door.

47 Mary Mag-da-lean and Mary the mother of Joses, saw where Joseph put Jesus' body.

16

God made Jesus come alive again

And you can read this story in Matthew 28:1-8, in Luke 24:1-12 and in John 20:1-10

1 When the Jewish rest day was over, Mary Mag-da-lean (Magdalene), Sal-o-me (Salome), and Mary the mother of James went to buy some nice smelling oil. They wanted to put the oil on Jesus' body to bury him the right way. 2 Early on Sunday morning, when the sun was just starting to come up, the women went to the cave. 3 While they were walking along the road, they said to each other, “Who will roll that big stone away so that we can get into the cave?”

4 But when the women got there, they looked up and saw that the really big stone was already rolled away from the door.

5 When they went into the cave, they saw a young man wearing really white clothes sitting on the right-hand side. The women were amazed and frightened. 6 The man said to them, “Don't be frightened. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, the man that died on the cross. God has made him come alive again. Look, his body was here, but it is not here now.” 7 And then the young man said, “Go back and see Peter and the other followers and say to them, ‘Jesus is going to Galilee. Go there, and you will find him. Remember, before he died, he told you that you would see him in Galilee.’ ”* 8 The women were so amazed and so frightened they were shaking. They ran out of the cave, and did not talk to anyone.

We think that this is the end of Mark's story about Jesus. There is more to this story but we are not sure who wrote it. In those days people wrote their stories on long pieces of special paper. We do not have the paper that Mark wrote, we only have copies of it. Some copies have a short extra ending that have verses 9 and 10. But other copies have a longer extra ending that goes from verse 9 to verse 20.

This is the short extra ending to Mark's story

Those women went and told Peter and the other followers what had happened.

Then Jesus met his followers and sent them out everywhere. He sent them towards the east, and towards the west. His followers told people in all those places the good news about Jesus. They said, “Jesus can save you so that you can live with him forever.” That message is really special, and it is true.

This is the long extra ending of Mark's story

Jesus sent his followers to tell everyone about him

And you can read this story in Matthew 28:9-10; John 20:11-18.

9 Early on the day that Jesus came alive again, Mary Mag-da-lean was the first person to see him. She was the one that used to have 7 bad spirits in her but Jesus sent them all away.

10 Mary saw Jesus and then she went to see his followers. They were all very sad and they were crying. 11 Mary said to them, “Jesus is alive. I have just seen him.” But they did not believe her.

12 Later on, 2 of Jesus' other followers were walking out from Jerusalem into the country. While they went along the road, Jesus started to walk with them, but the men did not know that it was Jesus. He looked really different. 13 Then, after they found out that it was Jesus, they turned around and went back to Jerusalem to tell the other followers. They said, “We met Jesus on the road.” But again, the followers did not believe them.

14 Later on, the 11 close followers were eating food together, and Jesus came into the room. He growled at them and said, “You mob have got hard hearts. Why didn't you listen to those people that said I was alive again? What they said was true. Why didn't you believe them?”

15 Then Jesus said to them, “You have to go everywhere in the world and tell people the good news about me. 16 I tell you, anybody that believes my good news and has that special washing ceremony called baptism will be saved and they will be in my family forever. But God will not save people that do not believe my good news. He will say they are guilty and he will punish them. 17 And the people that believe in me will do great things with the power that I will give to them. They will send bad spirits out of people, and they will talk in different languages that they never learned. 18 When they pick up a cheeky snake, it will not hurt them. And if they drink deadly poison, it will not kill them. They will put their hands on sick people, and those people will get better.”

Jesus went back to heaven

And you can read this story in Luke 24:50-53 and in Acts 1:9-11

19 When Jesus had finished telling his followers all those things, he went up into heaven and sat down at the right-hand side of God.

20 Then his followers went everywhere and told people the good news about Jesus. And the Lord was with them as they used his power to do great things. When the people saw those powerful signs, they knew that everything the followers said was true.

* 1:2-3 Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1

* 1:4-6 2 Kings 1:8

* 1:8 That means he will make you clean on the inside and make you right for God. God will put the Holy Spirit inside you.

* 1:11 Genesis 22:2; Psalms 2:7; Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18; Mark 9:7

* 1:15 Matthew 3:2

† 1:21 The Jewish rest day is called Sabbath.

‡ 1:21 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue)

* 1:22 Matthew 7:28-29

* 1:39 Matthew 4:23; 9:35

* 1:43-44 Leviticus 14:1-32

* 2:14 At that time, the Romans were the boss over all of Israel, and they made all the Jewish people pay tax money. They used some Jewish men to take the tax money from their own countrymen and give it to the Roman government. And so the Jews hated taxmen.

† 2:19-20 Jesus was saying that he is like the man getting married. Jesus was still with his friends, and so they are happy and are still eating food. But one day Jesus' enemies will take him away. Then his friends will stop eating food for a while.

‡ 2:21 Jesus was saying that his new teaching didn't go with the old way of living for God.

§ 2:22 Jesus was saying that his teaching had to go into people that were made new by God.

* 2:23 Deuteronomy 23:25

* 2:25-26 In Jesus' day, the Jewish ceremony men were called Priests. The leader of those ceremony men was called the High Priest

* 2:25-26 1 Samuel 21:1-6; Leviticus 24:9

* 3:1 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue)

* 3:9-10 Mark 4:1; Luke 5:1-3

† 3:16-19 Simon and other people called Zealots wanted to fight the Romans all the time.

‡ 3:27 What Jesus is saying in this story. He is saying that the strong man in his story is a picture of the Devil, and he is like the man that tied him up. Jesus is saying that he has more power than the Devil and that he, Jesus, is taking the people that the Devil has locked up.

* 3:29 Luke 12:10

* 4:1 Luke 5:1-3

* 4:12 Isaiah 6:9-10

* 4:21 Matthew 5:15; Luke 11:33

* 4:22 Matthew 10:26; Luke 12:2

* 4:24-25 Matthew 7:2; 13:12; 25:29; Luke 6:38; Luke 19:26

* 6:2-3 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue).

* 6:4 John 4:44

* 6:7-11 Mark 3:13-15

* 6:7-11 Luke 10:4-11; Acts 13:51

* 6:13 James 5:14

* 6:14-29 Matthew 16:14; Mark 8:28; Luke 3:19-20; 9:19

* 6:14-29 Mark 1:14

* 6:34 Numbers 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chronicles 18:16; Ezekiel 34:5; Matthew 9:36

* 7:7 Isaiah 29:13

* 7:10 Exodus 20:12; 21:17; Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 5:16

* 7:27 Jesus said this to tell her that it was right for him to do good things for the Jewish people first, and after that he would do good things for other people.

† 7:28 The woman said this to ask Jesus to help her a little bit.

* 8:11 Luke 11:16

* 8:12 Luke 11:29

* 8:15 Luke 12:1

* 8:15 What Jesus was saying was, “If you take notice of what they say, you will change, you will get mixed up and you will not live God's way.”

* 8:18-19 Jeremiah 5:21; Ezekiel 12:2; Mark 4:12

* 8:28 Mark 6:14-15; Luke 9:7-8

* 8:29 John 6:68-69

† 8:29 You are the special man that God promised to send to save us.

* 8:34 Matthew 10:38; Luke 14:27

* 8:35 Matthew 10:39; Luke 17:33; John 12:25

* 9:2 2 Peter 1:17-18

* 9:7 Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22

* 9:11 Malachi 4:5; Matthew 11:14

* 9:12-13 Jesus was talking about John the Baptist being like Elijah.

* 9:33-34 Luke 22:24

* 9:35 Matthew 20:26-27; 23:11; Mark 10:43-44; Luke 22:26

* 9:37 Matthew 10:40; Luke 10:16; John 13:20

* 9:40 Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23

* 9:41 Matthew 10:42

* 9:43-44 Matthew 5:30

* 9:47 Matthew 5:29

* 9:48 Isaiah 66:24

* 9:50 Matthew 5:13; Luke 14:34-35

* 10:4 Deuteronomy 24:1-4; Matthew 5:31

* 10:6 Genesis 1:27; 5:2

* 10:7 Genesis 2:24

* 10:11 Matthew 5:32; 1 Corinthians 7:10-11

* 10:15 Matthew 18:3

* 10:19 Exodus 20:12-16; Deuteronomy 5:16-20

* 10:31 Matthew 20:16; Luke 13:30

* 10:38 Luke 12:50

* 10:42 Luke 22:25-26

* 10:43-44 Matthew 23:11; Mark 9:35; Luke 22:26

* 11:8 Matthew 21:8; John 12:13

* 11:10 Psalms 118:25-26

* 11:17 Isaiah 56:7

* 11:17 Jeremiah 7:11

* 11:23 Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2

* 11:25-26 Matthew 6:14-15

* 11:25-26 Some other Bibles have these words as well. “But if you don't forgive other people, then your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins. He will not forgive you for the bad things you have done.”

* 12:1 Isaiah 5:1-2

* 12:11 Psalms 118:22-23

* 12:18 Acts 23:8

* 12:19 Deuteronomy 25:5

* 12:26-27 God did not say, “At one time, I used to be the God of those men.” No, God said “I am their God.” That means those men are not dead, they are still alive and they are living with God.

* 12:26-27 Exodus 3:6; 15

* 12:30 Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; Isaiah 45:21

* 12:31 Leviticus 19:18

* 12:32 Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4; Isaiah 45:21

* 12:33 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 40:6-8; Isaiah 1:11-15; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8

* 12:36 Psalms 110:1

† 12:39 A Jewish meeting house is called a Syn-a-gog (Synagogue)

* 13:9 Matthew 10:17-20; Luke 12:11-12

* 13:13 Matthew 10:22; John 15:18-19

* 13:14 Some people think that this bad thing was an altar for a wrong god that was put inside the Temple in Jerusalem.

* 13:14 Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11

* 13:15 Luke 17:31

* 13:19 Daniel 12:1; Revelation 7:14

* 13:25 Isaiah 34:4; Joel 2:10; Revelation 6:13

* 13:25 Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7; Joel 2:10,31; 3:15; Revelation 6:12

* 13:26 Daniel 7:13; Revelation 1:7

* 13:34 Luke 12:36-38

* 14:1 Exodus 12:1-27

* 14:1 In God's book called Exodus, you can read how God's people were prisoners in Egypt. About 400 years later, God sent a man called Moses to save God's people and lead them to the land that God promised them. God said that all the Jewish people had to have ceremonies every year to remember how he got them free. The Jewish people called that ceremony time, “Passover and Flat Bread ceremony.” In those ceremonies the people picked a lamb or a young goat to kill and cooked it in a special way. And they made bread that has no baking powder in it. Then they had supper and ate the beef and bread together. They did this to remember what happened back in Egypt.

† 14:3 At one time Simon had a bad skin sickness called Leprosy but now he was better.

* 14:3 Luke 7:37-38

* 14:7 Deuteronomy 15:11

* 14:18 Psalms 41:9

* 14:24 Exodus 24:8; Jeremiah 31:31-34

* 14:27 Zechariah 13:7

* 14:28 Matthew 28:16

‡ 14:32 Geth-sem-a-nee was a place where olives were crushed to get olive oil.

* 14:49 Luke 19:47; 21:37

* 14:58 John 2:19

* 14:62 Psalms 110:1; Daniel 7:13

* 14:63-64 Leviticus 24:16

* 15:21 Romans 16:13

* 15:24-26 Psalms 22:18

* 15:29 Psalms 22:7; 109:25; Mark 14:58; John 2:19

* 15:34 Psalms 22:1

* 15:36 Psalms 69:21

* 15:38 Exodus 26:31-33

* 15:40-41 Luke 8:2-3

* 16:7 Matthew 26:32; Mark 14:28