Genesis 27-29

1When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” Esau replied.

2“Look,” said Isaac, “I am now old, and I do not know the day of my death.

3Take your weapons—your quiver and bow—and go out into the field to hunt some game for me.

4Then prepare a tasty dish that I love and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”

5Now Rebekah was listening to what Isaac told his son Esau. So when Esau went into the field to hunt game and bring it back,

6Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I overheard your father saying to your brother Esau,

7‘Bring me some game and prepare me a tasty dish to eat, so that I may bless you in the presence of the LORD before I die.’

8Now, my son, listen to my voice and do exactly as I tell you.

9Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can make them into a tasty dish for your father—the kind he loves.

10Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”

11Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I am smooth-skinned.

12What if my father touches me? Then I would be revealed to him as a deceiver, and I would bring upon myself a curse rather than a blessing.”

13His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”

14So Jacob went and got two goats and brought them to his mother, who made the tasty food his father loved.

15And Rebekah took the finest clothes in the house that belonged to her older son Esau, and she put them on her younger son Jacob.

16She also put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

17Then she handed her son Jacob the tasty food and bread she had made.

18So Jacob went to his father and said, “My father.” “Here I am!” he answered. “Which one are you, my son?”

19Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may bless me.”

20But Isaac asked his son, “How did you ever find it so quickly, my son?” “Because the LORD your God brought it to me,” he replied.

21Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can touch you, my son. Are you really my son Esau, or not?”

22So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

23Isaac did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.

24Again he asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he replied, “I am.”

25“Serve me,” said Isaac, “and let me eat some of my son’s game, so that I may bless you.” Jacob brought it to him, and he ate; then he brought him wine, and he drank.

26Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”

27So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

28May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth— an abundance of grain and new wine.

29May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be the master of your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.”

30As soon as Isaac had finished blessing him and Jacob had left his father’s presence, his brother Esau returned from the hunt.

31He too made some tasty food, brought it to his father, and said to him, “My father, sit up and eat of your son’s game, so that you may bless me.”

32But his father Isaac replied, “Who are you?” “I am Esau, your firstborn son,” he answered.

33Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”

34When Esau heard his father’s words, he let out a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, O my father!”

35But Isaac replied, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

36So Esau declared, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me twice. He took my birthright, and now he has taken my blessing.” Then he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

37But Isaac answered Esau: “Look, I have made him your master and given him all his relatives as servants; I have sustained him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”

38Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, O my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

39His father Isaac answered him: “Behold, your dwelling place shall be away from the richness of the land, away from the dew of heaven above.

40You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”

41Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

42When the words of her older son Esau were relayed to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself by plotting to kill you.

43So now, my son, obey my voice and flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran.

44Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—

45until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

46Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”

1So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. “Do not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” he commanded.

2“Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel, and take a wife from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

3May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.

4And may He give the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land where you dwell as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

5So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to take a wife there, commanding him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”

7and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram.

8And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,

9Esau went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, in addition to the wives he already had.

10Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.

11On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

12And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder.

13And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.

14Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

15Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16When Jacob woke up, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.”

17And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”

18Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,

19and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.

20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,

21so that I may return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.

22And this stone I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give You a tenth.”

1Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.

2He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

3When all the flocks had been gathered there, the shepherds would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

4“My brothers,” Jacob asked the shepherds, “where are you from?” “We are from Haran,” they answered.

5“Do you know Laban the grandson of Nahor?” Jacob asked. “We know him,” they replied.

6“Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”

7“Look,” said Jacob, “it is still broad daylight; it is not yet time to gather the livestock. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”

8But they replied, “We cannot, until all the flocks have been gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”

9While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

10As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.

11Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.

12He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.

13When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, where Jacob told him all that had happened.

14Then Laban declared, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

15Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

16Now Laban had two daughters; the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

17Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

18Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

19Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to another. Stay here with me.”

20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

21Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Grant me my wife, for my time is complete, and I want to sleep with her.”

22So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.

23But when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.

24And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.

25When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”

26Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older.

27Finish this week’s celebration, and we will give you the younger one in return for another seven years of work.”

28And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

29Laban also gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.

30Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

31When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

32And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.”

33Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon.

34Once again Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.

35And once more she conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.