Genesis 22:24

Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.

Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a container of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,

In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he traveled.

Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

The wicked are overthrown, and are no more, but the house of the righteous shall stand.

The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May Yahweh judge between me and you.”

Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

Behold, an old man came from his work out of the field at evening. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he lived in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.

Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

Abraham said about Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.”

Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah.

but Abraham gave gifts to the sons of Abraham’s concubines. While he still lived, he sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, to the east country.

She gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).

While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.

You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess.

They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.

When he had come, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he led them.

His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

and you have risen up against my father’s house today and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother);

There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!” They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.

His father-in-law, the young lady’s father, kept him there; and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank, and stayed there.

Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

He passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they weren’t there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them.

Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”

David took more concubines and wives for himself out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David.

“This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

Joab came into the house to the king, and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines;

David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

These are their names: Ben Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;

He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. His wives turned his heart away.

Shaharaim became the father of children in the field of Moab, after he had sent them away. Hushim and Baara were his wives.

Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

He dealt wisely, and dispersed of all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to every fortified city. He gave them food in abundance and he sought many wives for them.

Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

Their father gave them great gifts of silver, of gold, and of precious things, with fortified cities in Judah; but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn.

In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second women’s house, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.

His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.

Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.

God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living.

For though Yahweh is high, yet he looks after the lowly; but he knows the proud from afar.

Yahweh will uproot the house of the proud, but he will keep the widow’s borders intact.

Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck. Yahweh says: “Arise, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east.

Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of God’s house which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, drank from them.

Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among the princes of Judah: for out of you shall come a governor, who shall shepherd my people, Israel.’ ”

that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,

Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”