World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 25
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took another wife, and her name was . She bore him Zimran, , , , , and . became of , and . The sons of were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. The sons of were , , , , and . All these were the children of . gave all that he had to , but gave gifts to the sons of . While he still lived, he sent them away from his son, eastward, to the east country. These are the days of the years of life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years. gave up his , and at a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. and , his sons, in the cave of , in the field of , the son of the , which is near , the field which purchased from the children of . was buried there with , his wife. After the of , , his son. lived by Beer Lahai Roi. Now this is the history of the generations of , son, whom the , servant, bore to . These are the names of the sons of , by their names, according to the order of their birth: of , , then , , , , , , , , , , and . These are the sons of , and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations. These are the years of the life of : one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up his and , and was gathered to his people. They lived from to that is before , as you go toward . He lived opposite all his relatives. This is the history of the generations of , son. became of . was forty years old when he took , the daughter of the of , the sister of the , to be his wife. entreated for his wife, because she was . was entreated by him, and his wife conceived. The children struggled together within her. She said, "If it is like this, why do I live?" She went to inquire of . said to her, "Two nations are in your . Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will the younger." 24When her days to be were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her . The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him . After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on heel. He was named . was sixty years old when she bore them. The boys grew. was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. was a quiet man, living in tents. Now loved , because he ate his venison. loved . boiled stew. came in from the field, and he was famished. said to , "Please feed me with some of that red stew, for I am famished." Therefore his name was called . 31 said, "First, sell me your ." said, "Behold, I am about to . What good is the to me?" said, " to me first." He to him. He sold his to . gave bread and lentil stew. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So despised his .
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis