READ IT! - Introduction to Genesis 36-42

Readings for this week

Monday: Genesis 36

Tuesday: Genesis 37

Wednesday: Genesis 38

Thursday: Genesis 39

Friday: Genesis 40

Saturday: Genesis 41

Sunday: Genesis 42

Introduction to Genesis 36-42

Genesis 36

Chapter 36 is an extensive list of all of Esau’s descendants and all of the rulers of Edom …and not something that's especially interesting to most people.

Genesis 37

The story of Joseph is set during the Second Intermediate Period (1710-1550 B.C.) of Egyptian history, when the Semitic Hyksos were ruling over Egypt. However, Joseph’s story really begins in the land of Canaan, when he’s seventeen years old, when his dad sends him to spy on his brothers and he brings back a bad report.

Now Israel (aka Jacob) loved Joseph more than all his other kids. And he made a colorful coat for Joseph. And His brothers hated him for it.

Later, Joseph told his brothers about a dream he had which made them hate him even more. He dreamed that his brothers had 11 sheaves of grain that bowed down to his single sheaf.

And Later, Joseph dreamed that the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down before him. His brothers didn’t like this dream either.

What was the meaning of the dreams?

11 sheaves = 11 brothers

One sheaf = Joseph

11 sheaves bow to 1 sheaf = 11 brothers bow to Joseph

Sun bowing to Joseph = father bowing to Joseph

Moon bowing to Joseph = mother bowing to Joseph

11 stars bowing to Joseph = 11 brothers bowing to Joseph

Sometime later, Israel once again sent Joseph out to spy on his brothers. But His brothers saw him coming in the distance and they plotted against him. They took Joseph’s coat and decided to sell him as a slave to some traders who were passing by. And they put goat blood on Joseph’s coat and gave it to their father.

The traders took Joseph to Egypt and sold him as a slave to a man named Potiphar, who was the captain of Pharaoh’s guards.

Genesis 38

At this point, the Joseph story begins to follow the life of his older brother, Judah. Judah leaves his brothers and goes off on his own. Judah married a Canaanite woman and they had three sons – Er, Onan, and Shelah.

Judah got a wife for his son Er named Tamar, but because Er was so wicked, God eventually got tired of him and killed him off.

According to the custom of the day, Tamar was then given to Onan to be his wife. Onan wanted to dishonor his family so whenever he would have sex with Tamar, he would refuse to go all the way. And God didn’t like Onan very much either, so He killed him, too.

Judah was afraid to give Tamar to his last son, Shelah, so he dishonored her and told her that she would just have to go be a widow for awhile… and he sent her back to her father.

A long time later, Judah’s wife died. Sometime after that, Judah went up to shear his sheep, and When Tamar found out that Judah was in the area, she dressed up as a prostitute and waited for him to walk through town.

Judah saw her but didn’t recognize her and they ended up having sex. Judah promised to give her a goat as payment. But Tamar made him give her his staff and his seal as pledge until he kept his word. And After Judah left, Tamar found out she was pregnant.

Judah later sent his servant back to the town with the goat to pay the prostitute, but the “prostitute” was nowhere to be found, so they gave up out fear of becoming a laughing-stock… walking around town with a goat, asking about a prostitute that apparently didn’t exist.

Later, Judah heard a rumor that his daughter-in-law Tamar was “guilty of playing the whore” and was now pregnant. So Judah had her brought out to be burned. Tamar then pulled out Judah’s staff and seal, and said, “The man who got me pregnant left these behind!” Judah was embarrassed and confessed that she was “more righteous” than he was. And Tamar gave birth to twin boys.

Now this story has a connection to King David and to Christ… in the fact that both individuals were directly descended from the result of this perverted relationship that Judah had with his daughter-in-law.

This also shows that God can redeem all situations. God used this terrible story to give Israel David, their greatest king, as well as the Messiah for the whole world, Jesus.

Genesis 39

Meanwhile, Joseph was working in the house of Potiphar, where God blessed everything he did. But Potiphar’s wife had her eye on Joseph. And she went to him day after day and tried to seduce him. But He refused to even be near her.

One day, she caught him alone and forced herself on him. He ran away, but she grabbed his cloak as he fled and he left it with her. And Potiphar’s wife began screaming in anger. When people came to investigate, she told them that Joseph tried to rape her and she used his cloak as evidence. And Potiphar was furious and he had Joseph thrown into prison.

Now, the story about Potiphar’s wife was intentionally placed right after the story of Judah and Tamar by the editors of the book of Genesis. This placement highlights some important differences here between Joseph and Judah. Both men were tempted with sexual sin, but they both responded in very different ways.

Now we must also remember that not everything in Bible was meant to serve as a good example for us to follow. Judah is an example of bad-living, and Joseph is an example of good-living. And we must read both of these stories in the context of each other… in order to see the bigger picture.

Now Joseph was stuck in prison for three whole years. But the jailer noticed how smart he was and put him in charge of the other prisoners.

Genesis 40

One night, two prison-mates, respectively the former cupbearer and former baker of Pharaoh, had dreams. And Joseph interpreted their dreams. The first man dreamed of 3 clusters of grapes, and the second man dreamed of 3 baskets of bread. The grapes were given to Pharaoh, and the bread was taken by the birds… which meant Good news for Pharaoh’s cupbearer, who in 3 days would be restored to his position, but bad news for Pharaoh’s baker, who would in 3 days be killed and eaten by the birds.

Now the cupbearer promised to tell Pharaoh about Joseph's plight after he was released... but then completely forgot about Joseph once he got out.

Genesis 41

A couple years later, Pharaoh himself began having dreams that greatly troubled him. But none of his magicians could interpret his dreams.

Finally, the cupbearer remembered Joseph, and Joseph was brought from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows being eaten by seven skinny cows. He also dreamed that he saw seven healthy stalks of grain being swallowed up by seven sickly stalks.

And Joseph interprets the dreams:

7 fat cows = 7 years of plenty

7 skinny cows = 7 years of famine

The second dream is the same…

7 healthy grain stalks = 7 years of plenty

7 sickly grain stalks = 7 years of famine

Bad cows eating good cows = bad years will make us forget good years

Bad grain eating good grain = bad years will make us forget good years

Two versions of same dream = this will certainly happen

Joseph told Pharaoh that he needed to appoint someone to oversee a grain tax on the people to store up enough food during the seven years of plenty to save up for the seven years of famine.

Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of this project, and Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain during the good years. He also married an Egyptian and had two sons whom he named Manasseh and Ephraim, and he said “God has made me forget the troubles of my old life, and has given me a double-blessing with my two sons.” “Manasseh” means “forget.” “Ephraim” means “twice fruitful.”

After the seven years of plenty were over, the famine struck hard. Joseph opened the store-houses and began the distribution to the people.

Genesis 42

The famine affected the entire world… including the land of Canaan where his father and brothers lived. So Jacob sent his sons down to Egypt to get grain. But he didn’t let Benjamin go with them.

When Joseph’s brothers arrived in Egypt, they came to him and bowed down before him. Joseph recognized them, but his brothers didn’t know who he was. And Joseph accused them of being spies. But they denied this and told him about their family, mentioning that Benjamin stayed behind, and they also mentioned that they had another brother named Joseph who was now dead.

But Joseph had them arrested and held them for three days. After this, Joseph told them that he would give all of them grain, but that he would hold one of them as a hostage until they returned with Benjamin in order to prove that their story was true.

Joseph chose to speak to them through an interpreter, so his brothers didn’t realize that he could understand what they were saying to each other. And they began to say to each other that this was happening to them as punishment for what they did to Joseph. Joseph had to leave for awhile because he couldn’t help but start crying.

When he came back, he sent them on their way with more grain than they needed, but he kept Simeon as a hostage. Joseph also had his servants put his brothers’ silver back into their sacks when they weren’t looking.

When they returned to their father they told him what the man in Egypt had said, which made Jacob upset. They then emptied their sacks and found the silver that Joseph had put in them. They were frightened and their father was even more upset with them and refused to let them take Benjamin back with them, saying, “I’ve lost Joseph, I won’t lose Rachel’s other son.”

Read Genesis 36

This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).

Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite— also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.

Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob. Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock. So Esau (that is, Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir.

This is the account of the family line of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.

These are the names of Esau’s sons:

Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.

The sons of Eliphaz:

Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz.

Esau’s son Eliphaz also had a concubine named Timna, who bore him Amalek. These were grandsons of Esau’s wife Adah.

The sons of Reuel:

Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath.

The sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau:

Jeush, Jalam and Korah.

These were the chiefs among Esau’s descendants:

The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau:

Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, Korah, Gatam and Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in Edom; they were grandsons of Adah.

The sons of Esau’s son Reuel:

Chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the chiefs descended from Reuel in Edom; they were grandsons of Esau’s wife Basemath.

The sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah:

Chiefs Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the chiefs descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.

These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs.

These were the sons of Seir the Horite, who were living in the region:

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These sons of Seir in Edom were Horite chiefs.

The sons of Lotan:

Hori and Homam. Timna was Lotan’s sister.

The sons of Shobal:

Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho and Onam.

The sons of Zibeon:

Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.

The children of Anah:

Dishon and Oholibamah daughter of Anah.

The sons of Dishon:

Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Keran.

The sons of Ezer:

Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.

The sons of Dishan:

Uz and Aran.

These were the Horite chiefs:

Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These were the Horite chiefs, according to their divisions, in the land of Seir.

These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned:

Bela son of Beor became king of Edom. His city was named Dinhabah.

When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah succeeded him as king.

When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites succeeded him as king.

When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, succeeded him as king. His city was named Avith.

When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah succeeded him as king.

When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth on the river succeeded him as king.

When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan son of Akbor succeeded him as king.

When Baal-Hanan son of Akbor died, Hadad succeeded him as king. His city was named Pau, and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.

These were the chiefs descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions:

Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied.

This is the family line of Esau, the father of the Edomites.