Day 12 of 364

^33:1Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two servants. ^33:2He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. ^33:3He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. ^33:4Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. ^33:5He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, “Who are these with you?” He said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” ^33:6Then the servants came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. ^33:7Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves. ^33:8Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?” Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” ^33:9Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.” ^33:10Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. ^33:11Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it. ^33:12Esau said, “Let’s take our journey, and let’s go, and I will go before you.” ^33:13Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. ^33:14Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.” ^33:15Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me.” He said, “Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” ^33:16So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. ^33:17Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. ^33:18Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. ^33:19He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. ^33:20He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel. ^34:1Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. ^34:2Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. ^34:3His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. ^34:4Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.” ^34:5Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. ^34:6Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. ^34:7The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that ought not to be done. ^34:8Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. ^34:9Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. ^34:10You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.” ^34:11Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. ^34:12Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.” ^34:13The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit when they spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, ^34:14and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. ^34:15Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised, ^34:16then will we give our daughters to you; and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. ^34:17But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.” ^34:18Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. ^34:19The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. ^34:20Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, ^34:21“These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters to us for wives, and let’s give them our daughters. ^34:22Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. ^34:23Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let’s give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.” ^34:24All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. ^34:25On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. ^34:26They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. ^34:27Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. ^34:28They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, ^34:29and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. ^34:30Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.” ^34:31They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?” ^35:1God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” ^35:2Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. ^35:3Let’s arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.” ^35:4They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. ^35:5They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob. ^35:6So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ^35:7He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother. ^35:8Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth. ^35:9God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him. ^35:10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel.” He named him Israel. ^35:11God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body. ^35:12The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your offspring after you I will give the land.” ^35:13God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him. ^35:14Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. ^35:15Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him “Bethel”. ^35:16They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor. ^35:17When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.” ^35:18As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin. ^35:19Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem). ^35:20Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. ^35:21Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. ^35:22While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. ^35:23The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ^35:24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ^35:25The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan and Naphtali. ^35:26The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s servant): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram. ^35:27Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners. ^35:28The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years. ^35:29Isaac gave up the spirit and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.