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Joseph was purchased by Potipher, but God was with Joseph. Joseph was entrusted with the matters of Potipher’s house, and Potipher’s wife attempts to seduce Joseph, but he refuses because it is wicked. When he refuses, she falsely accuses him and Potipher throws him into prison.

When he is in prison, Pharaoh’s butler comes to Joseph and asks him to interpret a dream. Joseph tells the butler that interpretation of dreams come from God, and gives him a very positive interpretation, asking the butler to remember him when he comes into power. When the baker hears this, the baker asks him to interpret a dream, but this is a dream that foretells that baker’s death.

These things come to pass, but the baker does not remember Joseph to Pharaoh until Pharaoh has a dream, and then Joseph tells Pharaoh that his dream indicates years of prosperity followed by years of famine and that they should take from their prosperity to prepare for the years of famine.

For this, Pharaoh sets Joseph over his house and all of Egypt. Joseph assimilates into the culture, takes a wife, Asenath, and has the children Manasseh, for forgetting his hardships in his father’s house, and Ephraim, for the fruitfulness that God has given Joseph.

Joseph’s brothers did not take kindly to him, but even more so after he has a dream in which they bow down to him. The brothers conspire againt Joseph, but Reuben convinces them not to kill Joseph, but rather to trap Joseph in a well, and sell him to Ishmaelites, who sell Joseph to Potipher, a functionary of the pharaoh. The brothers convince Jacob that Joseph had been killed by an animal.

Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. The first, Er, marries Tamar, but the Lord puts him to death because he is wicked. Judah instructs his next son, Onan, to take Tamar as his wife, but he refuses to consummate the marriage, and leaves Tamar in a precarious state in relation to the family as a childless daughter-in-law. God also kills Onan for this act. Judah promises Tamar Shelah when he grows up, but when this does not happen, she pretends to be a prostitute and conceives twins by Shelah. Tamar will be one of the women mentioned in the genealogy of Christ.

Dinah is raped by Shechem, who seeks to make her his wife. When his father, Hamor, pleads on his behalf, the sons of Jacob convinced Shechem’s family to be circumcised so that they could slay all of them while they were laid up after the surgery. When Jacob discovers this, he rebukes them but says nothing more until he is on his deathbed. Similarly, when Reuben takes up with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, Jacob says nothing at the time.

God tells Jacob to go to Bethel and make an altar there, and so he tells his family to put away their idols, purify themselves and change their clothes (similar to Ex 19:10-11). After this, God tells Jacob that his name is now Israel and promises him the land.

Rachel has her second son, whom she names Ben-oni, which could mean the son of her sorrow or the son of her strength, but Jacob calls him Benjamin, son of my right hand. Rachel dies, with her eyes toward Bethlehem. Jer 31:15 refers to this in a prophecy that would be fulfilled with the slaughter of the innocents.

Jacob returns home, knowing that this means that he will need to confront Esau. On the way, he is met by angels of the Lord, who are described the same way as the angels at Bethel. In the end, Jacob sends a series of gifts in an effort to appease Esau.

Jacob wrestles with a man, begging for a blessing, but discovers that this is actually an angel. The angel blesses him and changes Jacob’s name to Israel for one who wrestles with God.

When Jacob meets with Esau, Esau embraces him.

After Jacob has Joseph, he prepares to leave Laban. He offers to take as his wages all speckled and spotted lambs. Laban sent all speckled and spotted lambs away so that they could not breed, but Jacob places spotted rods in front of the lambs, and they all produce speckled and spotted offspring.

When Jacob leaves Laban, Rachel steals Laban’s household gods, and when confronted, places them under a saddle claiming that she was having her period and avoids being searched. Jacob agrees not to mistreat Laban’s daughters and they both agree not to return to the other’s territory.

As Isaac nears death, he prepares to give Esau a blessing, but Rebekah conspires with Jacob to take this blessing by dressing him in Esau’s clothes. Jacob gives Isaac food and wine, and Isaac blesses him. When he learns of the deception, he will not take back his blessing, as it has already been spoken, and he tells Esau that he will serve his brother, but that eventually he will break free.

Jacob flees from Esau up to Haran and Esau takes Mahalath, Ishmael’s daughter, as a wife. While Jacob is traveling, he has a vision of angels going up and down a ladder from Heaven to earth. In this place, Jacob promises to give God a tenth of everything if God will watch over him.

Jacob travels to Laban, and serves him, and when Laban offers him payment, he asks for Laban’s daughter, Rachel in marriage, but Laban gives him his other daughter, Leah, and Jacob is convinced to work longer for Laban for Rachel. Seeing that Jacob preferred Rachel, God opened Leah’s womb and she gave Jacob many children, but Jacob still preferred Rachel, and both wives try to give Jacob more children.

Isaac prayed that his wife Rebekah have a child, and she had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob was born grasping Esau’s heel, which is prophetic given how he would later contend with God, and references to this can be seen in Hosea 12 and Micah 1. Jacob convinces Esau to give away his birthright in a moment of hunger.

When a famine fell upon the land, Jacob went to Gerar, and Abimelech, the king. God told Isaac not to journey to Egypt, so he remained in Gerar. Isaac became rich, and Abimelech sent him away.

Sarah dies and Abraham makes a contract with the Hittites to purchase a plot of land to bury Sarah. Nearing the end of his life, Abraham instructs his servant that Isaac must not take a Canaanite wife, but rather a wife from Abraham’s country. When he has done this, Isaac must settle in the land of Canaan, which God has promised for him.

The servant prays that God might give a sign identifying the woman to choose for Isaac’s wife, that she might offer water to both him and his camels. This woman is Rebekah, and she hastens to Isaac in the Canaan land, and they are married.

Abraham marries Keturah after Sarah’s death, and has more children, but his heir remains Isaac.

Isaac prayed that his wife Rebekah have a child, and she had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob was born grasping Esau’s heel, which is prophetic given how he would later contend with God, and references to this can be seen in Hosea 12 and Micah 1. Jacob convinces Esau to give away his birthright in a moment of hunger.

When a famine fell upon the land, Jacob went to Gerar, and Abimelech, the king. God told Isaac not to journey to Egypt, so he remained in Gerar. Isaac became rich, and Abimelech sent him away.

God promises Abram that he will be the father of a multitude of nations, and thus names him Abraham, which is a name that bears similarity to other words that mean father of a multitude. The covenant comes with a command to be circumcised. God promises that Abraham will have a child from Sarah, who laughs when she hears it, because she had been infertile and now she was much older.

Abraham shows the Lord tremendous hospitality, and God tells him that He will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleads with God to spare the righteous, knowing that Lot and his family are there. God declares that He will not destroy the city if even 10 righteous people are there.

Angels of God come to Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot invites them to come to his home to keep them from the people of the city, as the people there were notorious for their wicked treatment of men, a sentiment that you can also find in verses Isaiah 1:10ff, Jeremiah 23:14, Ezekiel 16:49-50, and Jude 1:6-7.

The people in the town threaten to rape the angels of God. Lot, in desperation, offers the men his daughters to protect the angels, but the angels protect Lot. In the morning, the angels tell Lot to take his family and leave the city so that they may destroy it, and Lot begs that he be allowed to settle in a nearby city, which he is allowed to do. Lot is pressed to leave but his wife looks back and is turned to a pillar of salt.