The Book of Genesis begins with the creation story, as God creates the heavens and the earth out of nothing. He calls things into existence —light, the sky, seas, land, plants, and animals—and declares them “good.” After God makes all the other creatures, he creates human beings in his own image, putting them in charge of the rest of creation. He makes Adam, the first man, out of the dust and breathes into his nostrils. After placing Adam in the garden of Eden, he creates the first woman, Eve, out of Adam’s rib to be his companion.
A sly serpent disrupts Adam and Eve’s harmonious existence with God in the garden. One day, the snake questions Eve about God’s prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, suggesting that she and Adam won’t necessarily die if they eat its fruit—they will gain divine knowledge instead. Eve and Adam decide to eat the tree’s fruit, but they immediately feel ashamed and hide from God. Because of their disobedience, God curses the serpent and Adam and Eve—death being the humans’ ultimate punishment. Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden and begin having children, who populate the earth.
Generations later, Adam’s descendants have filled the world with wickedness and violence, so God decides to wipe out almost all of his creation. He commands a righteous man, Noah, to build an ark so that he, his family, and some of each of the earth’s creatures can survive a catastrophic flood. After the flood destroys all other people and creatures, the waters recede, and Noah and his family emerge from the ark. God establishes a covenant, or formal agreement, with Noah and all his descendants: God will never again destroy the earth with a flood. Noah’s sons begin to repopulate the earth.
God summons Abram, a descendant of Noah’s son Shem, to leave his homeland of Ur and settle in the land God will show him, called Canaan. After Abram settles there, God establishes a covenant with him, promising not only to give him the land forever, but to grant him more offspring than he can count. However, Abram and his wife, Sarai, are old and still childless. Abram haves a son, Ishmael, by Sarai’s slave-girl, Hagar. Finally, Sarai (God now calls her Sarah) conceives, and she and Abram (now Abraham) give birth to Isaac. Like the other household males, Isaac is circumcised to signify God’s covenant.
When Isaac is older, God tests Abraham by telling him to take his son to a distant mountain and offer him as a burnt sacrifice. At the last moment, as Abraham draws the knife to kill Isaac, God’s angel stops him and says that because Abraham has not withheld his only son, God will bless him with many offspring. Before Abraham dies, he sends a servant to his homeland to find Isaac a wife from among his relatives. He finds Rebekah, who settles with Isaac in Canaan and eventually bears him twin sons, Jacob and Esau.
As Jacob and Esau grow up, Isaac remains partial to Esau, while Rebekah favors Jacob. One day Isaac sends Esau to hunt and prepare his favorite meal so that he can offer Esau his blessing. However, Rebekah conspires with Jacob to claim the blessing, dressing him in hairy garments so that Isaac (whose eyesight is poor) will believe it’s really the hairier Esau. After Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him the elder twin’s blessing, he flees Esau and lives among Rebekah’s relatives. On the way, he has a dream in which God promises Jacob his blessing.
In the land of Haran, Jacob falls in love with Rachel, who is one of his uncle Laban’s daughters. Laban agrees that if Jacob works for him seven years, he can marry Rachel. When the seven years are up, however, Laban tricks Jacob by bringing his older daughter, Leah, to Jacob’s tent instead. The next day he agrees that Jacob can marry Rachel, too, in exchange for another seven years’ labor. Jacob doesn’t love Leah, so God grants her the consolation of numerous sons and a daughter. Rachel is barren, and she bitterly envies Leah. After many years, God answers her prayers with a son, Joseph.
When Jacob returns to Canaan with his wealthy household, he fears that Esau will still be angry with him. The night before he crosses the Jabbok River to reunite with his brother, Jacob wrestles with a mysterious man, and God renames him Israel. To his surprise, Esau welcomes him with joy. Not long after Jacob resettles in Canaan, Rachel dies while giving birth to a second son, Benjamin.
Out of all his brothers, Joseph is Jacob’s favorite son. Joseph further stokes his brothers’ envy by telling them of his dreams, in which the others bow down to him. Finally the brothers have had enough, and they sell Joseph to some passing traders. They grieve Jacob by telling him Joseph has been killed by an animal. Meanwhile, Joseph is bought by the Egyptian Pharaoh’s official, Potiphar, with whom he quickly gains favor. Before long, Joseph is in charge of Potiphar’s household.
After being imprisoned on false charges, Joseph also gains favor with the jailer and develops a reputation as an interpreter of dreams. When he proves to be the only person in Egypt who can interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph is released from prison and made overseer of Egypt’s affairs. He wisely begins storing up grain for the famine foretold in Pharaoh’s dreams.
When the famine reaches Canaan, Jacob sends his older sons to Egypt in search of grain. The brothers don’t recognize Joseph, and he pretends to think that they’re spies, holding one brother ransom until the rest return home to get the youngest, Benjamin, and prove their identity. When they eventually return, Joseph accosts the brothers once again with a fake accusation of theft to test their character; then, unable to contain himself any longer, he reveals his identity. The brothers have a tearful reunion, and when Pharaoh hears about it, he insists that Jacob and the whole family move to Egypt, where Joseph can richly provide for them.
After thriving for many years in Egypt, Jacob dies, but first he pronounces a special blessing on each of his sons, whose offspring become known as the 12 tribes of Israel (Joseph and Judah being most prominent among them). After mourning their father, Joseph’s brothers try to placate him, fearing he’ll get revenge on them for selling him into slavery. However, Joseph assures his brothers that he does not begrudge them, because God turned the brothers’ evil into good. Before he dies, Joseph tells his brothers that God will someday lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and back to the promised land of Canaan. When he does, they must carry Joseph’s bones with them.
