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Today's Bible Reading :: Genesis 32 - 34 (ESV)

Genesis 32Listen to the passage

Genesis 33Listen to the passage

Genesis 34Listen to the passage

Genesis 32

Jacob Fears Esau

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:1 - Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:2 - And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:3 - And Jacob sent[fn] messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:4 - instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:5 - I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:6 - And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:7 - Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:8 - thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:9 - And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:10 - I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:11 - Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:12 - But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:13 - So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:14 - two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:15 - thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:16 - These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:17 - He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:18 - then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:19 - He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:20 - and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him[fn] with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:21

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:21 - So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:22

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:22 - The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[fn] and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:23

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:23 - He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:24

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:24 - And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:25

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:25 - When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:26

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:26 - Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:27

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:27 - And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:28

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:28 - Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[fn] for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:29

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:29 - Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:30

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:30 - So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,[fn] saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:31

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:31 - The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 32:32

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 32:32 - Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh.
ESV Footnotes
Mahanaim means two camps
Or had sent
Hebrew appease his face
Hebrew he will lift my face
Or sons
Israel means He strives with God, or God strives
Peniel means the face of God

Genesis 33

Jacob Meets Esau

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:1 - And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:2 - And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:3 - He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:4 - But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:5 - And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:6 - Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:7 - Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:8 - Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company[fn] that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:9 - But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:10 - Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:11 - Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” Thus he urged him, and he took it.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:12 - Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of[fn] you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:13 - But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:14 - Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:15 - So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:16 - So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:17 - But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:18 - And Jacob came safely[fn] to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:19 - And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money[fn] the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 33:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 33:20 - There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.[fn]
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew camp
Or along with
Succoth means booths
Or peacefully
Hebrew a hundred qesitah; a unit of money of uncertain value
El-Elohe-Israel means God, the God of Israel

Genesis 34

The Defiling of Dinah

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:1

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:1 - Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:2

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:2 - And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:3

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:3 - And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:4

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:4 - So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:5

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:5 - Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:6

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:6 - And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:7

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:7 - The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and very angry, because he had done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing must not be done.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:8

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:8 - But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your[fn] daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:9

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:9 - Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:10

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:10 - You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:11

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:11 - Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:12

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:12 - Ask me for as great a bride-price[fn] and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:13

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:13 - The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:14

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:14 - They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:15

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:15 - Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:16

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:16 - Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:17

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:17 - But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:18

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:18 - Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:19

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:19 - And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his father’s house.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:20

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:20 - So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:21

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:21 - “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:22

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:22 - Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:23

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:23 - Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:24

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:24 - And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:25

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:25 - On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:26

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:26 - They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:27

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:27 - The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:28

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:28 - They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:29

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:29 - All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:30

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:30 - Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

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Unchecked Copy Box Gen 34:31

Unchecked Copy BoxGen 34:31 - But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”
See the ESV Preface
ESV Footnotes
The Hebrew for your is plural here
Or engagement present
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2025 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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