Genesis 27-30

Common English Bible

Jacob acquires his father’s blessing

27 When Isaac had grown old and his eyesight was failing, he summoned his older son Esau and said to him, “My son?”

And Esau said, “I’m here.”

² He said, “I’m old and don’t know when I will die. ³ So now, take your hunting gear, your bow and quiver of arrows, go out to the field, and hunt game for me. ⁴ Make me the delicious food that I love and bring it to me so I can eat. Then I can bless you before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau went out to the field to hunt game to bring back, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I just heard your father saying to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me some game and make me some delicious food so I can eat, and I will bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ ⁸ Now, my son, listen to me, to what I’m telling you to do. ⁹ Go to the flock and get me two healthy young goats so I can prepare them as the delicious food your father loves. ¹⁰ You can bring it to your father, he will eat, and then he will bless you before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, but I have smooth skin. ¹² What if my father touches me and thinks I’m making fun of him? I will be cursed instead of blessed.”

¹³ His mother said to him, “Your curse will be on me, my son. Just listen to me: go and get them for me.” ¹⁴ So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made the delicious food that his father loved. ¹⁵ Rebekah took her older son Esau’s favorite clothes that were in the house with her, and she put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ On his arms and smooth neck she put the hide of young goats, ¹⁷ and the delicious food and the bread she had made she put into her son’s hands.

¹⁸ Jacob went to his father and said, “My father.”

And he said, “I’m here. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I’m Esau your oldest son. I’ve made what you asked me to. Sit up and eat some of the game so you can bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac said to his son, “How could you find this so quickly, my son?”

He said, “The Lord your God led me right to it.”^[a]

²¹ Isaac said to Jacob, “Come here and let me touch you, my son. Are you my son Esau or not?” ²² So Jacob approached his father Isaac, and Isaac touched him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the arms are Esau’s arms.” ²³ Isaac didn’t recognize him because his arms were hairy like Esau’s arms, so he blessed him.

²⁴ Isaac said, “Are you really my son Esau?”

And he said, “I am.”

²⁵ Isaac said, “Bring some food here and let me eat some of my son’s game so I can bless you.” Jacob put it before him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank. ²⁶ His father Isaac said to him, “Come here and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came close and kissed him. When Isaac smelled the scent of his clothes, he blessed him,

Esau receives a secondary blessing

³⁰ After Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and just as Jacob left his father Isaac, his brother Esau came back from his hunt. ³¹ He too made some delicious food, brought it to his father, and said, “Let my father sit up and eat from his son’s game so that you may bless me.”

³² His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”

And he said, “I’m your son, your oldest son, Esau.”

³³ Isaac was so shocked that he trembled violently. He said, “Who was the hunter just here with game? He brought me food, and I ate all of it before you came. I blessed him, and he will stay blessed!”

³⁴ When Esau heard what his father said, he let out a loud agonizing cry and wept bitterly. He said to his father, “Bless me! Me too, my father!”

³⁵ Isaac said, “Your brother has already come deceitfully and has taken your blessing.”

³⁶ Esau said, “Isn’t this why he’s called Jacob? He’s taken me^[b] twice now: he took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing.” He continued, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷ Isaac replied to Esau, “I’ve already made him more powerful than you, and I’ve made all of his brothers his servants. I’ve made him strong with grain and wine. What can I do for you, my son?”

³⁸ Esau said to his father, “Do you really have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau wept loudly.

³⁹ His father Isaac responded and said to him,

Jacob sent away for protection

⁴¹ Esau was furious at Jacob because his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, When the period of mourning for the death of my father is over, I will kill my brother.

⁴² Rebekah was told what her older son Esau was planning, so she summoned her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Esau your brother is planning revenge. He plans to kill you. ⁴³ So now, my son, listen to me: Get up and escape to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴ Live with him for a short while until your brother’s rage subsides, ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger at you goes away and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I suffer the loss of both of you on one day?”

⁴⁶ Rebekah then said to Isaac, “I really loathe these Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women, like the women of this land, why should I go on living?”

28 So Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and gave him these orders: “Don’t marry a Canaanite woman. ² Get up and go to Paddan-aram, to the household of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and once there, marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³ God Almighty^[d] will bless you, make you fertile, and give you many descendants so that you will become a large group of peoples. ⁴ He will give you and your descendants Abraham’s blessing so that you will own the land in which you are now immigrants, the land God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ So Isaac sent Jacob off, and he traveled to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother.

⁶ Esau understood that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to marry a woman from there. He recognized that, when Isaac blessed Jacob, he had ordered him, “Don’t marry a Canaanite woman,” ⁷ and that Jacob had listened to his father and mother and gone to Paddan-aram. ⁸ Esau realized that his father Isaac considered Canaanite women unacceptable. ⁹ So he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth, in addition to his other wives.

Jacob’s dream at Bethel

¹⁰ Jacob left Beer-sheba and set out for Haran. ¹¹ He reached a certain place and spent the night there. When the sun had set, he took one of the stones at that place and put it near his head. Then he lay down there. ¹² He dreamed and saw a raised staircase, its foundation on earth and its top touching the sky, and God’s messengers were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ Suddenly the Lord was standing on it^[e] 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 are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will become like the dust of the earth; you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. Every family of earth will be blessed because of you and your descendants. ¹⁵ I am with you now, I will protect you everywhere you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done everything that I have promised you.”

¹⁶ When Jacob woke from his sleep, he thought to himself, The Lord is definitely in this place, but I didn’t know it. ¹⁷ He was terrified and thought, This sacred place is awesome. It’s none other than God’s house and the entrance to heaven. ¹⁸ After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ He named that sacred place Bethel,^[f] though Luz was the city’s original name. ²⁰ Jacob made a solemn promise: “If God is with me and protects me on this trip I’m taking, and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, ²¹ and I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God. ²² This stone that I’ve set up as a sacred pillar will be God’s house, and of everything you give me I will give a tenth back to you.”

Jacob meets Rachel

29 Jacob got to his feet and set out for the land of the easterners. ² He saw a well in the field in front of him, near which three flocks of sheep were lying down. That well was their source for water because the flocks drank from that well. A huge stone covered the well’s opening. ³ When all of the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the well’s opening, water the sheep, and return the stone to its place at the well’s opening. ⁴ Jacob said to them, “Where are you from, my brothers?”

They said, “We’re from Haran.”

⁵ Then he said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?”

They said, “We know him.”

⁶ He said to them, “Is he well?”

They said, “He’s fine. In fact, this is his daughter Rachel now, coming with the flock.”

⁷ He said to them, “It’s now only the middle of the day. It’s not time yet to gather the animals. Water the flock, and then go, put them out to pasture.”

⁸ They said to him, “We can’t until all the herds are gathered, and then we^[g] roll the stone away from the well’s opening and water the flock.”

⁹ While he was still talking to them, Rachel came with her father’s flock since she was its shepherd. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his uncle, and the flock of Laban, Jacob came up, rolled the stone from the well’s opening, and watered the flock of his uncle Laban. ¹¹ Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. ¹² Jacob told Rachel that he was related to her father and that he was Rebekah’s son. She then ran to tell her father. ¹³ When Laban heard about Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him. Laban embraced him, kissed him, and invited him into his house, where Jacob recounted to Laban everything that had happened. ¹⁴ Laban said to him, “Yes, you are my flesh and blood.”

Jacob marries Leah and Rachel

After Jacob had stayed with Laban for a month, ¹⁵ Laban said to Jacob, “You shouldn’t have to work for free just because you are my relative. Tell me what you would like to be paid.”

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah and the younger Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had delicate eyes,^[h] but Rachel had a beautiful figure and was good-looking. ¹⁸ Jacob loved Rachel and said, “I will work for you for seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”

¹⁹ Laban said, “I’d rather give her to you than to another man. Stay with me.”

²⁰ Jacob worked for Rachel for seven years, but it seemed like a few days because he loved her. ²¹ Jacob said to Laban, “The time has come. Give me my wife so that I may sleep with her.” ²² So Laban invited all the people of that place and prepared a banquet. ²³ However, in the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he slept with her. ²⁴ Laban had given his servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her servant. ²⁵ In the morning, there she was—Leah! Jacob said to Laban, “What have you done to me? Didn’t I work for you to have Rachel? Why did you betray me?”

²⁶ Laban said, “Where we live, we don’t give the younger woman before the oldest. ²⁷ Complete the celebratory week with this woman. Then I will give^[i] you this other woman too for your work, if you work for me seven more years.” ²⁸ So that is what Jacob did. He completed the celebratory week with this woman, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. ²⁹ Laban had given his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her servant. ³⁰ Jacob slept with Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He worked for Laban seven more years.

Jacob’s sons are born

³¹ When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to have children. ³² Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben^[j] because she said, “The Lord saw my harsh treatment, and now my husband will love me.” ³³ She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son. She said, “The Lord heard that I was unloved, so he gave me this son too,” and she named him Simeon.^{[k] 34} She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son. She said, “Now, this time my husband will embrace me,^[l] since I have given birth to three sons for him.” So she named him Levi.^{[m] 35} She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.^[n] Then she stopped bearing children.

30 When Rachel realized that she could bear Jacob no children, Rachel became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, “Give me children! If you don’t, I may as well be dead.”

² Jacob was angry at Rachel and said, “Do you think I’m God? God alone has kept you from giving birth!”

³ She said, “Here’s my servant Bilhah. Sleep with her, and she will give birth for me. Because of her, I will also have children.” ⁴ So Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob as his wife, and he slept with her. ⁵ Bilhah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Jacob. ⁶ Rachel said, “God has judged in my favor, heard my voice, and given me a son.” So she named him Dan.^{[o] 7} Rachel’s servant Bilhah became pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob. ⁸ Rachel said, “I’ve competed fiercely with my sister, and now I’ve won.” So she named him Naphtali.^[p]

⁹ When Leah realized that she had stopped bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as his wife. ¹⁰ Leah’s servant Zilpah gave birth to a son for Jacob, ¹¹ and Leah said, “What good luck!” So she named him Gad.^{[q] 12} Leah’s servant Zilpah gave birth to a second son for Jacob, ¹³ and Leah said, “I’m happy now because women call me happy.” So she named him Asher.^[r]

¹⁴ During the wheat harvest, Reuben found some erotic herbs^[s] in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me your son’s erotic herbs.”

¹⁵ Leah replied, “Isn’t it enough that you’ve taken my husband? Now you want to take my son’s erotic herbs too?”

Rachel said, “For your son’s erotic herbs, Jacob^[t] may sleep with you tonight.”

¹⁶ When Jacob came back from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep with me because I’ve paid for you with my son’s erotic herbs.” So he slept with her that night.

¹⁷ God responded to Leah. She became pregnant and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. ¹⁸ Leah said, “God gave me what I paid for, what I deserved for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.^{[u] 19} Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob, ²⁰ and she said, “God has given me a wonderful gift. Now my husband will honor me since I’ve borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.^{[v] 21} After this, she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel, responded to her, and let her conceive. ²³ She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my shame.” ²⁴ She named him Joseph,^[w] saying to herself, May the Lord give me another son.

God blesses Jacob and Laban

²⁵ After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me off so that I can go to my own place and my own country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and children whom I’ve worked for, and I will go. You know the work I’ve done for you.”

²⁷ Laban said to him, “Do me this favor. I’ve discovered by a divine sign that the Lord has blessed me because of you, ²⁸ so name your price and I will pay it.”

²⁹ Jacob said to him, “You know how I’ve worked for you, and how well your livestock have done with me. ³⁰ While in my care, what little you had has multiplied a great deal. The Lord blessed you wherever I took your livestock.^[x] Now, when will I be able to work for my own household too?”

³¹ Laban said, “What will I pay you?”

Jacob said, “Don’t pay me anything. If you will do this for me, I will take care of your flock again, and keep a portion.^{[y] 32} I will go through the entire flock today, taking out all of the speckled and spotted sheep, all of the black male lambs, and all of the spotted and speckled female goats. That will be my price. ³³ I will be completely honest with you: when you come to check on our agreement, every female goat with me that isn’t speckled or spotted and every male lamb with me that isn’t black will be considered stolen.”

³⁴ Laban said, “All right; let’s do it.” ³⁵ However, on that very day Laban took out the striped and spotted male goats and all of the speckled and spotted female goats—any with some white in it—and all of the black male lambs, and gave them to his sons. ³⁶ He put a three-day trip between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was watching the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷ Then Jacob took new branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees; and he peeled white stripes on them, exposing the branches’ white color. ³⁸ He set the branches that he had peeled near the watering troughs so that they were in front of the flock when they drank, because they often mated when they came to drink. ³⁹ When the flock mated in front of the branches, they gave birth to striped, speckled, and spotted young. ⁴⁰ Jacob sorted out the lambs, turning the flock to face the striped and black ones in Laban’s flock but keeping his flock separate, setting them apart from Laban’s flock. ⁴¹ Whenever the strongest of the flock mated, Jacob put the branches in front of them near the watering troughs so that they mated near the branches. ⁴² But he didn’t put branches up for the weakest of the flock. So the weakest became Laban’s and the strongest Jacob’s. ⁴³ The man Jacob became very, very rich: he owned large flocks, female and male servants, camels, and donkeys.