Line upon Line

The Old Testament

Genesis

“In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” The Lord to Abram, Gen. 12:3

Genesis is a Greek word meaning “origin” or “beginning,” and the book is an account of beginnings: the creation of the earth, the Fall, the gospel revealed to Adam, the Flood, the tower of Babel, and the family of Abraham that became the house of Israel. Its frame is a series of family records, each opening “These are the generations.” Latter-day revelation names Moses as its author (Moses 1:40–41; 1 Ne. 5:10–11).

This companion goes through all fifty chapters and tries to anticipate the questions a careful reader asks: Who is this? Where is this? What did that word or custom mean? Where is Christ in this? What the Gospel Library already puts beside the verse (the footnotes, the Joseph Smith Translation, the chapter heading) is not repeated here for its own sake; it comes in where it answers the question.

Mark chapters as studied to track your progress.

The chapters

Genesis is built on family lines. It follows one line at a time and narrows, from all mankind to Noah, to Abraham, to the twelve sons of Jacob.

Genesis 1–3

The Creation and the Fall

The earth is made and called very good. Adam and Eve are placed in Eden, partake of the fruit, and are sent out into the world, with a promise about the woman’s seed.

  1. 1 The Creation In six days God speaks an unformed, empty earth into order and fills it with life, and last of all makes man and woman in His own image.
  2. 2 The Garden of Eden God rests on the seventh day and sanctifies it. Then the LORD God forms the man from the ground, plants a garden for him, gives him work and a commandment, and builds the woman, and the two become one flesh.
  3. 3 The Fall The serpent questions God’s word, Eve and then Adam eat the forbidden fruit, and their eyes are opened. God seeks them out, promises that the woman’s seed will bruise the serpent’s head, clothes them, and sends them out of the garden, with cherubim keeping the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 4–11

From Adam to Noah and the Nations

Cain and Abel, the line of Seth down to Enoch and Noah, the Flood and the covenant of the rainbow, and the scattering at the tower of Babel. The record then follows the line of Shem to Abram.

  1. 4 Cain and Abel Outside Eden, Adam and Eve’s son Cain brings an offering the Lord does not accept, refuses the Lord’s warning, and kills his brother Abel. Cain is driven out to wander, his line builds cities and crafts and boasts of vengeance, and in Seth’s line people begin to call on the name of the LORD.
  2. 5 From Adam to Noah Ten generations from Adam to Noah, each man living, begetting, and dying, until Enoch walks with God and is taken, and Lamech names his son Noah in the hope of rest from the cursed ground.
  3. 6 Noah Found Grace The earth fills with violence, and the LORD grieves that He made man. One man finds grace. Noah walks with God, receives the promise of God’s covenant, and builds the ark exactly as he is told.
  4. 7 The Waters Prevail Noah, his household, and the animals go into the ark, the LORD shuts the door, and the waters rise over the mountains until nothing that breathes is left alive outside the ark.
  5. 8 God Remembered Noah God remembers Noah, and the waters go down. The dove comes back with an olive leaf, Noah leaves the ark and builds an altar, and the LORD promises that seedtime and harvest, day and night, will not cease.
  6. 9 The Covenant and the Bow God blesses Noah’s family as He blessed the first man and woman, gives them the animals for food but not their blood, and covenants with every living thing never again to destroy the earth by a flood, with His bow in the cloud as the token. Then Noah plants a vineyard, and a family’s shame ends in a curse on Canaan and blessings on Shem and Japheth.
  7. 10 The Nations from Noah’s Sons Noah’s three sons become the nations of the known world. Japheth’s line reaches the far north and the coastlands, Ham’s includes Egypt, Babylon, and Canaan, and Shem’s, told last, includes the children of Eber, from whom Abraham will come.
  8. 11 The Tower of Babel Noah’s descendants settle in Shinar and build a city and a tower to make a name for themselves and avoid being scattered. The Lord confounds their language and scatters them. Then the record follows the line of Shem, whose name means “name,” ten generations down to Abram and his barren wife Sarai, who leave Ur for Haran.
Genesis 12–25

Abraham

The Lord calls Abram out of his country and covenants with him for a land, a posterity, and a blessing for all families of the earth. Melchizedek, Hagar and Ishmael, Sodom, the birth of Isaac, and the offering on Moriah.

  1. 12 The Call of Abram The Lord calls Abram away from his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and promises him a great nation, a great name, and a blessing for all the families of the earth. Abram goes, marks the land with altars, and then, driven to Egypt by famine, watches the promise put at risk and the Lord protect it.
  2. 13 Abram and Lot Part Back from Egypt, Abram returns to his altar at Beth-el. When the herdsmen quarrel, he gives his nephew Lot first choice of the land; Lot takes the well-watered Jordan plain, and the Lord then shows Abram the whole land and promises it to him and his seed for ever.
  3. 14 Abram and Melchizedek Four kings from the east raid the cities of the plain and carry off Lot. Abram rescues him with the men of his own household, and on the way home two kings come out to meet him. From Melchizedek, priest of the most high God, he receives bread, wine, and a blessing, and gives him a tenth of all; from the king of Sodom he will take nothing.
  4. 15 The Covenant between the Pieces Still childless, Abram asks what God’s promises are worth. God shows him the stars, Abram believes, and when he asks how he can know the land will be his, God makes a covenant with him in the old way, passing alone as fire between the halves of the animals.
  5. 16 The God Who Sees Ten years into the promise and still childless, Sarai gives her Egyptian maid Hagar to Abram as a wife. Hagar conceives, the household breaks apart, and Hagar runs into the wilderness, where the LORD finds her, calls her by name, promises her a son and a multitude, and is named by her “the God who sees me.”
  6. 17 New Names and the Token of the Covenant Thirteen years after Ishmael’s birth the Lord appears to Abram as God Almighty. He renames Abram and Sarai, gives circumcision as the token of the covenant, and promises that Sarah herself will bear the son, Isaac, with whom the covenant will continue.
  7. 18 Abraham Pleads for Sodom Three visitors come to Abraham’s tent in the heat of the day and are welcomed with a feast. The promise of a son is repeated where Sarah can hear it, and she laughs. Then the LORD tells Abraham what He means to do to Sodom, and Abraham pleads for the city, from fifty righteous down to ten.
  8. 19 Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed The messengers who left Abraham’s tent reach Sodom at evening. Lot takes them in, the men of the city surround his house, and at dawn the messengers lead Lot and his family out by the hand before the LORD overthrows the cities of the plain. Lot’s wife looks back; Lot and his daughters end in a cave, where Moab and Ammon begin.
  9. 20 Abraham and Abimelech In Gerar Abraham again calls Sarah his sister, and the king takes her. God warns the king in a dream, names Abraham a prophet, and heals the king’s house when Abraham prays, keeping Sarah safe for the son the LORD has promised her.
  10. 21 Isaac Is Born and Ishmael Is Sent Away The LORD keeps His word to Sarah, and the son of promise is named “he laughs.” Hagar and Ishmael are sent into the wilderness, where God hears the boy, and Abraham secures a well at Beer-sheba by oath.
  11. 22 The Lord Will Provide God tests Abraham by asking for Isaac, the son of every promise. Abraham goes without a word, tells his son that God will provide the lamb, and on the mountain the Lord provides a ram in Isaac’s place and swears to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed.
  12. 23 Sarah’s Death and Burial Sarah dies at Hebron. Abraham, who has lived on the promise of the land for more than sixty years and owns none of it, asks the people of the town for a grave, refuses it as a gift, and pays four hundred shekels of silver before witnesses at the city gate for the cave of Machpelah.
  13. 24 The Lord Led Me Abraham sends his senior servant back to his kindred to find a wife for Isaac. At the well the servant prays for a sign, and Rebekah gives it before he has finished praying. Her family agrees that “the thing proceedeth from the LORD,” and she answers, “I will go.”
  14. 25 Abraham Dies; Jacob and Esau Born Abraham settles his house, gives all he has to Isaac, and dies full of years. Ishmael’s twelve princes are counted and set aside. Then the record turns to Isaac, whose wife, after twenty years, carries twins who struggle before they are born, and the elder sells his birthright for a bowl of stew.
Genesis 26–36

Isaac and Jacob

The covenant passes to Isaac and then to Jacob, the younger son. Jacob’s dream at Beth-el, his years with Laban, the births of his sons, and the night he is named Israel.

  1. 26 Isaac and the Wells of Abraham In a famine the Lord keeps Isaac in the land and renews to him the oath He swore to Abraham. Isaac repeats his father’s fear at Gerar, prospers, reopens his father’s wells and digs new ones until there is room, and the king who sent him away comes to swear peace with the man the LORD is with. Esau’s marriages close the chapter in grief.
  2. 27 Jacob Receives Isaac’s Blessing Old and unable to see, Isaac sends Esau to hunt so that he can bless him. Rebekah, who overheard, sends Jacob in Esau’s place, dressed as his brother. Isaac blesses the wrong son, will not take the blessing back, and Jacob must flee from Esau’s anger.
  3. 28 Jacob’s Ladder at Beth-el Isaac blesses Jacob with the blessing of Abraham and sends him to Padan-aram for a wife, while Esau adds another wife of his own. On the road Jacob dreams of a ladder to heaven, and the LORD stands there and gives him the covenant directly. Jacob wakes in awe, names the place Beth-el, and vows that the LORD will be his God.
  4. 29 Seven Years for Rachel, and the LORD Who Saw Leah Jacob reaches Haran, rolls the stone from a well for Rachel, and serves seven years for her, only to wake beside Leah. After seven more he has both sisters, and the LORD, who saw that Leah was loved less, gives her four sons, the fourth named Judah, “praise.”
  5. 30 God Remembered Rachel Rachel and Leah, with their maids, compete in giving Jacob sons; Leah buys a night with mandrakes, and in the end God remembers Rachel and gives her Joseph. Jacob, who wants to go home, bargains with Laban for the speckled and spotted animals of the flock and grows rich.
  6. 31 I Will Be with Thee At the end of twenty years in Haran the Lord tells Jacob to go home. Jacob leaves without telling Laban, Rachel takes her father’s household gods, and Laban overtakes them in Gilead. God has warned Laban in a dream, and the two men part with a heap of stones between them.
  7. 32 Jacob Wrestles at Peniel Jacob comes home to the edge of Canaan, where angels meet him and word comes that Esau is coming to meet him with four hundred men. He prays, sends droves of animals ahead, and sends his family across the Jabbok. Left alone, he wrestles until dawn with a man who renames him Israel; he names the place Peniel, “face of God,” and limps away.
  8. 33 Jacob and Esau Meet Jacob bows seven times, and Esau runs to him and weeps. Jacob presses his gift on his brother, saying that Esau’s face is “as though I had seen the face of God,” and the two part. Jacob settles at Succoth and Shechem, buys a field, and builds an altar he calls El-elohe-Israel.
  9. 34 Dinah and the Men of Shechem Shechem seizes Jacob’s daughter Dinah and then asks to marry her. Her brothers answer with a lie about circumcision, and on the third day Simeon and Levi kill every male in the city. Jacob fears for his house; his sons answer with a question about their sister.
  10. 35 Jacob Returns to Beth-el After the killing at Shechem, God tells Jacob to go back to Beth-el, and he first clears his household of its foreign gods. There God confirms the name Israel and the covenant of Abraham. On the road Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin, Reuben sins against his father, and Isaac dies.
  11. 36 The Generations of Esau Genesis stops to count Esau’s family before it follows Jacob’s. Esau moves to the hills of Seir, where his sons become the chiefs and then the kings of Edom, a nation that has land and rulers while Jacob is still a sojourner in the land promised to him.
Genesis 37–50

Joseph and His Brothers

Joseph is sold into Egypt, rises to rule it, and saves the family that sold him. The book closes with Jacob’s blessings on his sons and Joseph’s death in Egypt.

  1. 37 What Will Become of His Dreams Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph, dreams that his family will bow to him. His brothers throw him in a pit, sell him to traders bound for Egypt, and send his bloodied coat to their father. In trying to see “what will become of his dreams,” they start them on the road to fulfillment.
  2. 38 Judah and Tamar In the middle of Joseph’s story, Genesis turns to Judah. He loses two sons, breaks a promise to his widowed daughter-in-law, and is made to recognize his own pledge. He owns his fault, and the twins she bears carry the line toward David and Jesus Christ.
  3. 39 The Lord Was with Joseph Sold into Egypt, Joseph is made steward of Potiphar’s house, refuses Potiphar’s wife, and is thrown into prison on her word. Through the house and the prison the narrator keeps saying one thing, that the LORD was with Joseph.
  4. 40 Interpretations Belong to God Two of Pharaoh’s officers join Joseph in prison and have dreams on the same night. Joseph tells the butler he will be restored and the baker that he will be executed, both within three days. He asks the butler to remember him, and the butler forgets.
  5. 41 There Was Bread After two forgotten years in prison, Joseph is brought before Pharaoh, says that God and not he will give the answer, and is set over Egypt. He stores the grain of seven good years, and when the famine comes, “in all the land of Egypt there was bread.”
  6. 42 Joseph Knew His Brethren, but They Knew Not Him Famine sends ten of Jacob’s sons to Egypt to buy grain, and they bow to the governor without knowing him. Joseph accuses them of spying, holds them three days, and keeps Simeon until they bring Benjamin. Their silver turns up in their sacks, and Jacob refuses to let Benjamin go.
  7. 43 Mercy Before the Man The grain runs out, and Jacob finally lets Benjamin go because Judah pledges himself as surety for him. Jacob prays that God will give his sons mercy before the man in Egypt. That man is Joseph, who is moved to tears at the sight of Benjamin and sets a table for the brothers who sold him.
  8. 44 Let Thy Servant Abide Instead of the Lad Joseph has his silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack, and the brothers come back to answer for it. Judah, who once proposed selling Joseph, steps forward and offers to be a servant in Benjamin’s place so that the boy can go home to his father.
  9. 45 God Sent Me Before You to Preserve Life Joseph can hold back no longer and tells his brothers who he is. He asks them not to grieve over what they did, because God sent him ahead to keep the family alive; Pharaoh invites them all to Egypt, and Jacob, hearing that Joseph lives, says, “It is enough.”
  10. 46 Jacob Goes Down to Egypt At Beer-sheba the Lord tells Jacob not to fear going down to Egypt, where He will make of him a great nation. The chapter counts the seventy who went with him, and Joseph, meeting his father in Goshen, tells his brothers what to say to Pharaoh.
  11. 47 A Possession in Egypt Joseph presents his family to Pharaoh, who gives them the best of the land. Jacob blesses the king, Egypt sells itself to Pharaoh for bread, Israel grows in Goshen, and the dying Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan.
  12. 48 God Make Thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh Near death in Egypt, Jacob takes Joseph's two sons as his own, crosses his hands to lay his right hand on the younger, and blesses them in the name of the God who has shepherded and redeemed him.
  13. 49 Until Shiloh Come Jacob calls his twelve sons to his bedside and tells each what will befall him. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi are passed over for what they did; the scepter goes to Judah “until Shiloh come,” and Joseph’s branches run over the wall. Jacob then charges them to bury him at Machpelah and dies.
  14. 50 God Meant It unto Good Jacob is embalmed and carried up to the cave of Machpelah. With their father gone, Joseph’s brothers fear he will repay them, and he answers that God meant their evil for good. Genesis ends with Joseph’s oath, “God will surely visit you,” and his body in a coffin in Egypt.

Beloved passages

Most-used sources

Every note cites its sources. These are the ones this commentary leans on most.