27:1 When 1 Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, 2 he called his older 3 son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” Esau 4 replied. 27:2 Isaac 5 said, “Since 6 I am so old, I could die at any time. 7 27:3 Therefore, take your weapons – your quiver and your bow – and go out into the open fields and hunt down some wild game 8 for me. 27:4 Then prepare for me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me. Then 9 I will eat it so that I may bless you 10 before I die.”
27:5 Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. 11 When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, 12 27:6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father tell your brother Esau, 27:7 ‘Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat 13 it and bless you 14 in the presence of the Lord 15 before I die.’ 27:8 Now then, my son, do 16 exactly what I tell you! 17 27:9 Go to the flock and get me two of the best young goats. I’ll prepare 18 them in a tasty way for your father, just the way he loves them. 27:10 Then you will take 19 it to your father. Thus he will eat it 20 and 21 bless you before he dies.”
27:11 “But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! 22 27:12 My father may touch me! Then he’ll think I’m mocking him 23 and I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.” 27:13 So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, 24 my son! Just obey me! 25 Go and get them for me!”
27:14 So he went and got the goats 26 and brought them to his mother. She 27 prepared some tasty food, just the way his father loved it. 27:15 Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s best clothes, which she had with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 27:16 She put the skins of the young goats 28 on his hands 29 and the smooth part of his neck. 27:17 Then she handed 30 the tasty food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.
27:18 He went to his father and said, “My father!” Isaac 31 replied, “Here I am. Which are you, my son?” 32 27:19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done as you told me. Now sit up 33 and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me.” 34 27:20 But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world 35 did you find it so quickly, 36 my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” 37 he replied. 38 27:21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you, 39 my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau.” 40 27:22 So Jacob went over to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s.” 27:23 He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob. 41 27:24 Then he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” “I am,” Jacob 42 replied. 27:25 Isaac 43 said, “Bring some of the wild game for me to eat, my son. 44 Then I will bless you.” 45 So Jacob 46 brought it to him, and he ate it. He also brought him wine, and Isaac 47 drank. 27:26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and kiss me, my son.” 27:27 So Jacob 48 went over and kissed him. When Isaac caught the scent 49 of his clothing, he blessed him, saying,
“Yes, 50 my son smells
like the scent of an open field
which the Lord has blessed.
27:28 May God give you
the dew of the sky 51
and the richness 52 of the earth,
and plenty of grain and new wine.
27:29 May peoples serve you
and nations bow down to you.
You will be 53 lord 54 over your brothers,
and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. 55
May those who curse you be cursed,
and those who bless you be blessed.”
27:30 Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely left 56 his father’s 57 presence, when his brother Esau returned from the hunt. 58 27:31 He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau 59 said to him, “My father, get up 60 and eat some of your son’s wild game. Then you can bless me.” 61 27:32 His father Isaac asked, 62 “Who are you?” “I am your firstborn son,” 63 he replied, “Esau!” 27:33 Isaac began to shake violently 64 and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. 65 He will indeed be blessed!”
27:34 When Esau heard 66 his father’s words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. 67 He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!” 27:35 But Isaac 68 replied, “Your brother came in here deceitfully and took away 69 your blessing.” 27:36 Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! 70 He has tripped me up 71 two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”
27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?” 27:38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!” 72 Then Esau wept loudly. 73
27:39 So his father Isaac said to him,
“Indeed, 74 your home will be
away from the richness 75 of the earth,
and away from the dew of the sky above.
27:40 You will live by your sword
but you will serve your brother.
When you grow restless,
you will tear off his yoke
from your neck.” 76
27:41 So Esau hated 77 Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. 78 Esau said privately, 79 “The time 80 of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill 81 my brother Jacob!”
27:42 When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, 82 she quickly summoned 83 her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you. 84 27:43 Now then, my son, do what I say. 85 Run away immediately 86 to my brother Laban in Haran. 27:44 Live with him for a little while 87 until your brother’s rage subsides. 27:45 Stay there 88 until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there. 89 Why should I lose both of you in one day?” 90
27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed 91 because of these daughters of Heth. 92 If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!” 93
28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! 94 28:2 Leave immediately 95 for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 28:3 May the sovereign God 96 bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! 97 Then you will become 98 a large nation. 99 28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham 100 so that you may possess the land 101 God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” 102 28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. 103 As he blessed him, 104 Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” 105 28:7 Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan Aram. 28:8 Then Esau realized 106 that the Canaanite women 107 were displeasing to 108 his father Isaac. 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and married 109 Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.
28:10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. 28:11 He reached a certain place 110 where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. 111 He took one of the stones 112 and placed it near his head. 113 Then he fell asleep 114 in that place 28:12 and had a dream. 115 He saw 116 a stairway 117 erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. 118 I will give you and your descendants the ground 119 you are lying on. 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, 120 and you will spread out 121 to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another 122 using your name and that of your descendants. 123 28:15 I am with you! 124 I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”
28:16 Then Jacob woke up 125 and thought, 126 “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 28:17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”
28:18 Early 127 in the morning Jacob 128 took the stone he had placed near his head 129 and set it up as a sacred stone. 130 Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, 131 although the former name of the town was Luz. 28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food 132 to eat and clothing to wear, 28:21 and I return safely to my father’s home, 133 then the Lord will become my God. 28:22 Then this stone 134 that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely 135 give you back a tenth of everything you give me.” 136
29:1 So Jacob moved on 137 and came to the land of the eastern people. 138 29:2 He saw 139 in the field a well with 140 three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now 141 a large stone covered the mouth of the well. 29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds 142 would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well’s mouth.
29:4 Jacob asked them, “My brothers, where are you from?” They replied, “We’re from Haran.” 29:5 So he said to them, “Do you know Laban, the grandson 143 of Nahor?” “We know him,” 144 they said. 29:6 “Is he well?” 145 Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. 146 Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.” 29:7 Then Jacob 147 said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, 148 it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” 149 29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water 150 the sheep.”
29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them. 151 29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, 152 and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he 153 went over 154 and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. 155 29:11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep loudly. 156 29:12 When Jacob explained 157 to Rachel that he was a relative of her father 158 and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father. 29:13 When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob 159 told Laban how he was related to him. 160 29:14 Then Laban said to him, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” 161 So Jacob 162 stayed with him for a month. 163
29:15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Should you work 164 for me for nothing because you are my relative? 165 Tell me what your wages should be.” 29:16 (Now Laban had two daughters; 166 the older one was named Leah, and the younger one Rachel. 29:17 Leah’s eyes were tender, 167 but Rachel had a lovely figure and beautiful appearance.) 168 29:18 Since Jacob had fallen in love with 169 Rachel, he said, “I’ll serve you seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rachel.” 29:19 Laban replied, “I’d rather give her to you than to another man. 170 Stay with me.” 29:20 So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. 171 But they seemed like only a few days to him 172 because his love for her was so great. 173
29:21 Finally Jacob said 174 to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time of service is up. 175 I want to have marital relations with her.” 176 29:22 So Laban invited all the people 177 of that place and prepared a feast. 29:23 In the evening he brought his daughter Leah 178 to Jacob, 179 and Jacob 180 had marital relations with her. 181 29:24 (Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah to be her servant.) 182
29:25 In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! 183 So Jacob 184 said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! 185 Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked 186 me?” 29:26 “It is not our custom here,” 187 Laban replied, “to give the younger daughter in marriage 188 before the firstborn. 29:27 Complete my older daughter’s bridal week. 189 Then we will give you the younger one 190 too, in exchange for seven more years of work.” 191
29:28 Jacob did as Laban said. 192 When Jacob 193 completed Leah’s bridal week, 194 Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 195 29:29 (Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.) 196 29:30 Jacob 197 had marital relations 198 with Rachel as well. He loved Rachel more than Leah, so he worked for Laban 199 for seven more years. 200
29:31 When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, 201 he enabled her to become pregnant 202 while Rachel remained childless. 29:32 So Leah became pregnant 203 and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, 204 for she said, “The Lord has looked with pity on my oppressed condition. 205 Surely my husband will love me now.”
29:33 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Because the Lord heard that I was unloved, 206 he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon. 207
29:34 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, 208 because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi. 209
29:35 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” That is why she named him Judah. 210 Then she stopped having children.