One Year Bible.

Joseph’s Dreams

¹Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.

²This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors. ⁴When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”

⁸“Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements.

⁹Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.

Joseph Sold into Egypt

¹²Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem. ¹³Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.”

“I am ready,” Joseph replied.

¹⁴Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.”

So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem, ¹⁵a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

¹⁷“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another. ²⁰“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”

²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said. ²²“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father.

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the robe of many colors he was wearing — ²⁴and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.

²⁵And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed. ²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes, ³⁰returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

Jacob Mourns Joseph

³¹Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. ³²They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.”

³³His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” ³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No, ” he said. “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Judah and Tamar

¹About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. ²There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. ³So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er. ⁴Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. ⁵Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.

⁶Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death. ⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

⁹But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother. ¹⁰What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well.

¹¹Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

¹²After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah. ¹³When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” ¹⁴she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. ¹⁶Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.

¹⁷“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered.

But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.”

¹⁸“What pledge should I give you?” he asked.

She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again.

²⁰Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. ²¹He asked the men of that place, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“No shrine prostitute has been here,” they answered.

²²So Hirah returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her, and furthermore, the men of that place said, ‘No shrine prostitute has been here.’”

²³“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

²⁴About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.”

“Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

²⁵As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?”

²⁶Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.

The Birth of Perez and Zerah

²⁷When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb. ²⁸And as she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it around his wrist. “This one came out first,” she announced. ²⁹But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez. ³⁰Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.

The Glory of Zion

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad;

the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

²It will bloom profusely

and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the glory of the LORD,

the splendor of our God.

³Strengthen the limp hands

and steady the feeble knees!

⁴Say to those with anxious hearts:

“Be strong, do not fear!

Behold, your God will come with vengeance.

With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶Then the lame will leap like a deer

and the mute tongue will shout for joy.

For waters will gush forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert.

⁷The parched ground will become a pool,

the thirsty land springs of water.

In the haunt where jackals once lay,

there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.

⁸And there will be a highway

called the Way of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel it —

only those who walk in the Way —

and fools will not stray onto it.

⁹No lion will be there,

and no vicious beast will go up on it.

Such will not be found there,

but the redeemed will walk upon it.

¹⁰So the redeemed of the LORD will return

and enter Zion with singing,

crowned with everlasting joy.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee.

A Warning against Favoritism

¹My brothers, as you hold out your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show favoritism.

²Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. ³If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, “Here is a seat of honor,” but say to the poor man, “You must stand” or “Sit at my feet,” ⁴have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷Are they not the ones who blaspheme the noble name by which you have been called?

⁸If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

¹²Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. ¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith and Works

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? ¹⁷So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that — and shudder.

²⁰O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless? ²¹Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did. ²³And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route? ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.