Government origins VI

From the beginning to

the conclusion it is all in the family

 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

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And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

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Therefore Sarah laughed within herself,

saying,

After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

And the Lord

said

unto Abraham,

Wherefore did Sarah laugh,

saying,

Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?

Is any thing too hard for the Lord?

At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life,

and Sarah shall have a son.

*

her maid

And, behold,

thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

For with God nothing shall be impossible.

And My said,

Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

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Sarai and Hagar cousins.

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Now these are the generations of Terah:

Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran;

and Haran begat Lot.

**

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

**

And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

**

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

**

And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.

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That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they - took them wives of all which they chose.

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And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

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And Abram and Nahor - took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.

*

And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

***

Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Which doeth great things past finding out;

yea,

and wonders without number.

Lo,

he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not.

**

So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

**

He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Lo,

these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

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As God liveth,

who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

Samuel