Genesis 25–26

1Now Abraham had taken another wife, named Keturah,

2and she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

3Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leummites.

4The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.

5Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.

6But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

7Abraham lived a total of 175 years.

8And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.

9His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

10This was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried there with his wife Sarah.

11After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.

12This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.

13These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

14Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

15Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

16These were the sons of Ishmael, and these were their names by their villages and encampments—twelve princes of their tribes.

17Ishmael lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.

18Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

19This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,

20and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

21Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.

22But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So Rebekah went to inquire of the LORD,

23and He declared to her: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

24When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.

25The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau.

26After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

27When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

28Because Isaac had a taste for wild game, he loved Esau; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the field and was famished.

30He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

31“First sell me your birthright,” Jacob replied.

32“Look,” said Esau, “I am about to die, so what good is a birthright to me?”

33“Swear to me first,” Jacob said. So Esau swore to Jacob and sold him the birthright.

34Then Jacob gave some bread and lentil stew to Esau, who ate and drank and then got up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

1Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

2The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land where I tell you.

3Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

4I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,

5because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

6So Isaac settled in Gerar.

7But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”

8When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

9Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

10“What is this you have done to us?” asked Abimelech. “One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

11So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”

12Now Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,

13and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy.

14He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.

15So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.

16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

17So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

18Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.

19Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water there.

20But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.

21Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.

22He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

23From there Isaac went up to Beersheba,

24and that night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.”

25So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.

26Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

27“Why have you come to me?” Isaac asked them. “You hated me and sent me away.”

28“We can plainly see that the LORD has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you

29that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”

30So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

31And they got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

32On that same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “We have found water!” they told him.

33So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.

34When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.