Gen 15:13-21, 28:13-15, 46:3, 48:19, 49:1-28, Lev 26, Isa 42:9, 48:5 | ESV | STEP | Then the Lord said to Abram , Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years .

13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ^athat your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and ^bthey will be afflicted for ^cfour hundred years. 14 But ^dI will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward ^ethey shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ^fyou shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for ^gthe iniquity of the Amorites ^his not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ⁱ“To your offspring I give ^{▼▼Or have given} this land, from ^kthe river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 28:13-15

13 And behold, ^lthe Lord stood above it ^{▼▼Or beside him} and said, ⁿ“I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. ^oThe land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like ^pthe dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and ^qyour offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, ^rI am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and ^swill bring you back to this land. For I will ^tnot leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Genesis 46:3

3 Then he said, “I am God, ^uthe God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will ^vmake you into a great nation.

Genesis 48:19

19 But his father refused and said, ^w“I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, ^xhis younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude ^{▼▼Hebrew fullness} of nations.”

Genesis 49:1-28

Jacob Blesses His Sons

1 ^zThen Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you ^aain days to come.

2 “Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob,
listen to Israel your father.
3 “Reuben, you are ^abmy firstborn,
my might, and the ^acfirstfruits of my strength,
preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power.
4 Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence,
because you ^adwent up to your father’s bed;
then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!
5 ^ae“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons ^afof violence are their swords.
6 Let my soul come not into their council;
^agO my glory, ^ahbe not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they ^aihamstrung oxen.
7 Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will ^ajdivide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
8 “Judah, ^akyour brothers shall praise you;
^alyour hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
^amyour father’s sons shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is ^ana lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
^aoHe stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
10 The ^apscepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff ^aqfrom between his feet,
until tribute comes to him; ^{▼▼By a slight revocalization; a slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Targum) until he comes to whom it belongs; Hebrew until Shiloh comes, or until he comes to Shiloh}
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
11 Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
12 His ^aseyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 ^at“Zebulun shall dwell at the ^aushore of the sea;
he shall become a haven for ships,
and his border shall be at Sidon.
14 ^av“Issachar is a strong donkey,
crouching between the sheepfolds. ^{▼▼Or between its saddlebags}
15 He saw that a resting place was good,
and that the land was pleasant,
so he bowed his shoulder to bear,
and ^axbecame a servant at forced labor.
16 ^ay“Dan shall ^azjudge his people
as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan ^bashall be a serpent in the way,
a viper by the path,
that bites the horse’s heels
so that his rider falls backward.
18 I ^bbwait for your salvation, O Lord.
19 ^bc“Raiders shall raid ^bdGad, ^{▼▼ Gad sounds like the Hebrew for raiders and raid}
but he shall raid at their heels.
20 ^bf“Asher’s food shall be rich,
and he shall yield royal delicacies.
21 ^bg“Naphtali is a doe let loose
that bears beautiful fawns. ^{▼▼Or he gives beautiful words, or that bears fawns of the fold}
22 “Joseph is ^bia fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough by a spring;
his branches run over the wall. ^{▼▼Or Joseph is a wild donkey, a wild donkey beside a spring, his wild colts beside the wall}
23 The archers ^bkbitterly attacked him,
shot at him, and harassed him severely,
24 yet ^blhis bow remained unmoved;
his arms ^{▼▼Hebrew the arms of his hands} were made agile
by the hands of the ^bnMighty One of Jacob
(from there is ^bothe Shepherd, ^{▼▼Or by the name of the Shepherd} ^bqthe Stone of Israel),
25 ^brby the God of your father who will help you,
by ^bsthe Almighty ^{▼▼Hebrew Shaddai} ^buwho will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26 The blessings of your father
are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
up to the bounties ^bvof the everlasting hills. ^{▼▼A slight emendation yields (compare Septuagint) the blessings of the eternal mountains, the bounties of the everlasting hills}
May they be ^bxon the head of Joseph,
and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
27 ^by“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf,
in the morning devouring the prey
and at evening ^bzdividing the spoil.”

Jacob’s Death and Burial

28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.

Leviticus 26

Blessings for Obedience

1 “You shall not make ^caidols for yourselves or erect an ^cbimage or ^ccpillar, and you shall not set up a ^cdfigured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 ^ceYou shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 ^cf“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then ^cgI will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 ^chYour threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And ^ciyou shall eat your bread to the full and ^cjdwell in your land securely. 6 ^ckI will give peace in the land, and ^clyou shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And ^cmI will remove harmful beasts from the land, ^cnand the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 ^coFive of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 ^cpI will turn to you and ^cqmake you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat ^crold store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 ^csI will make my dwelling ^{▼▼Hebrew tabernacle} among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 ^cuAnd I ^cvwill walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 ^cwI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. ^cxAnd I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 ^cy“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but ^czbreak my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with ^dawasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And ^dbyou shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will ^dcset my face against you, and ^ddyou shall be struck down before your enemies. ^deThose who hate you shall rule over you, and ^dfyou shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again ^dgsevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break ^dhthe pride of your power, and I ^diwill make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And ^djyour strength shall be spent in vain, for ^dkyour land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 ^dl“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And ^dmI will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that ^dnyour roads shall be deserted.

23 “And ^doif by this discipline you are not turned to me ^dpbut walk contrary to me, 24 ^dqthen I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And ^drI will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, ^dsI will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 ^dtWhen I break your supply ^{▼▼Hebrew staff} of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and ^dvyou shall eat and not be satisfied.

27 “But ^dwif in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you ^dxin fury, and I myself will discipline you ^dysevenfold for your sins. 29 ^dzYou shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And ^eaI will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and ^ebcast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will ^eclay your cities waste and will ^edmake your sanctuaries desolate, and ^eeI will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And ^efI myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be ^egappalled at it. 33 And ^ehI will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 ^ei“Then the land shall enjoy ^{▼▼Or pay for; twice in this verse; also verse 43} its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, ^ekI will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^elsound of a ^emdriven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And ^enyou shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall ^eorot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

40 “But if ^epthey confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they ^eqcommitted against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their ^eruncircumcised heart is ^eshumbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will ^etremember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will ^euremember the land. 43 But ^evthe land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, ^ewI will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and ^exbreak my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, ^eywhom I brought out of the land of Egypt ^ezin the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

46 ^faThese are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses ^fbon Mount Sinai.

Isaiah 42:9

9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
^fcand new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”

Isaiah 48:5

5 ^fdI declared them to you from of old,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
lest you should say, ^fe‘My idol did them,
my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’