Bible Verses About Patriarchal Government

that you will not harm us, just as we have not caused you offense but have done you nothing but good and sent you on your way in peace. Now you are blessed by ADONAI.'"

Yitz'chak prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank.

The next morning, they got up early and swore to each other. Then Yitz'chak sent them on their way, and they left him peacefully.

That very day Yitz'chak's servants came and told him about the well they had dug, "We have found water."

So he called it Shiv'ah [oath, seven], and for this reason the name of the city is Be'er-Sheva [well of seven, well of an oath] to this day.

So may God give you dew from heaven, the richness of the earth, and grain and wine in abundance.

May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be lord over your kinsmen, let your mother's descendants bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!"

God said to Ya'akov, "Get up, go up to Beit-El and live there, and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled 'Esav your brother."

Then Ya'akov said to his household and all the others with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods that you have with you, purify yourselves, and put on fresh clothes.

We're going to move on and go up to Beit-El. There I will build an altar to God, who answered me when I was in such distress and stayed with me wherever I went."

They gave Ya'akov all the foreign gods in their possession and the earrings they were wearing, and Ya'akov buried them under the pistachio tree near Sh'khem.

While they were traveling, a terror from God fell upon the cities around them, so that none of them pursued the sons of Ya'akov.

Ya'akov and all the people with him arrived at Luz (that is, Beit-El) in the land of Kena'an.

He built there an altar and called the place El-Beit-El [God of Beit-El], because it was there that God was revealed to him, at the time when he was fleeing from his brother.

About three months later Y'hudah was told, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has been acting like a whore; moreover, she is pregnant as a result of her prostitution."Y'hudah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned alive!"

Then Ya'akov called for his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the acharit-hayamim.

Assemble yourselves and listen, sons of Ya'akov; pay attention to Isra'el your father.

"Re'uven, you are my firstborn, my strength, the firstfruits of my manhood.

Though superior in vigor and power you are unstable as water, so your superiority will end, because you climbed into your father's bed and defiled it -he climbed onto my concubine's couch!

"Shim'on and Levi are brothers, related by weapons of violence.

Let me not enter their council, let my honor not be connected with their people; for in their anger they killed men, and at their whim they maimed cattle.

Cursed be their anger, for it has been fierce; their fury, for it has been cruel. I will divide them in Ya'akov and scatter them in Isra'el.

"Y'hudah, your brothers will acknowledge you, your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father's sons will bow down before you.

Y'hudah is a lion's cub; my son, you stand over the prey. He crouches down and stretches like a lion; like a lioness, who dares to provoke him?

The scepter will not pass from Y'hudah, nor the ruler's staff from between his legs, until he comes to whom [obedience] belongs; and it is he whom the peoples will obey.