The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,  "When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the mid...  Read More

Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. "Look, he said to his people, "the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave our country."So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they bu...  Read More

You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured on me.My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes. The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fres...  Read More

The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to ...  Read More

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.  . . . Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears ab...  Read More

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar.  . . . One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children . . .   Let's...  Read More