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Genesis 27-28; Matthew 8:18-34 (Contemporary English Version)

Contemporary English Version (CEV)
Genesis 27-28 Listen to this passage View commentary related to this passage Genesis 27 Isaac Blesses Jacob ¹After Isaac had become old and almost blind, he called in his first-born son Esau, who asked him, "Father, what can I do for you?" ²Isaac replied, "I am old and might die at any time. ³So take your bow and arrows, then go out in the fields, and kill a wild animal. ⁴Cook some of that tasty food that I love so much and bring it to me. I want to eat it once more and give you my blessing before I die." ⁵Rebekah had been listening, and as soon as Esau left to go hunting, ⁶she said to Jacob, "I heard your father tell Esau ⁷to kill a wild animal and cook some tasty food for your father before he dies. Your father said this because he wants to bless your brother with the LORD as his witness. ⁸Now, my son, listen carefully to what I want you to do. ⁹Go and kill two of your best young goats and bring them to me. I'll cook the tasty food that your father loves so much. ¹⁰Then you can take it to him, so he can eat it and give you his blessing before he dies." ¹¹"My brother Esau is a hairy man," Jacob reminded her. "And I am not. ¹²If my father touches me and realizes I am trying to trick him, he will put a curse on me instead of giving me a blessing." ¹³Rebekah insisted, "Let his curse fall on me! Just do what I say and bring me the meat." ¹⁴So Jacob brought the meat to his mother, and she cooked the tasty food that his father liked. ¹⁵Then she took Esau's best clothes and put them on Jacob. ¹⁶She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins ¹⁷and gave him some bread and the tasty food she had cooked. ¹⁸Jacob went to his father and said, "Father, here I am." "Which one of my sons are you?" his father asked. ¹⁹Jacob replied, "I am Esau, your first-born, and I have done what you told me. Please sit up and eat the meat I have brought. Then you can give me your blessing." ²⁰Isaac asked, "My son, how did you find an animal so quickly?" "The LORD your God was kind to me," Jacob answered. ²¹"My son," Isaac said, "come closer, where I can touch you and find out if you really are Esau." ²²Jacob went closer. His father touched him and said, "You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau's." ²³And so Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking he was Esau. ²⁴Isaac asked, "Are you really my son Esau?" "Yes, I am," Jacob answered. ²⁵So Isaac told him, "Serve me the wild meat, and I can give you my blessing." Jacob gave him some meat, and he ate it. He also gave him some wine, and he drank it. ²⁶Then Isaac said, "Son, come over here and kiss me." ²⁷While Jacob was kissing him, Isaac caught the smell of his clothes and said: "The smell of my son is like a field the LORD has blessed. ²⁸God will bless you, my son, with dew from heaven and with fertile fields, rich with grain and grapes. ²⁹Nations will be your servants and bow down to you. You will rule over your brothers, and they will kneel at your feet. Anyone who curses you will be cursed; anyone who blesses you will be blessed." ³⁰Right after Isaac had given Jacob his blessing and Jacob had gone, Esau came back from hunting. ³¹He cooked the tasty food, brought it to his father, and said, "Father, please sit up and eat the meat I have brought you, so you can give me your blessing." ³²"Who are you?" Isaac asked. "I am Esau, your first-born son." ³³Isaac started trembling and said, "Then who brought me some wild meat right before you came in? I ate it and gave him a blessing that cannot be taken back." ³⁴Esau cried loudly and begged, "Father, give me a blessing too!" ³⁵Isaac answered, "Your brother tricked me and stole your blessing." ³⁶Esau replied, "My brother deserves the name Jacob, ^[a] because he has already cheated me twice. The first time he cheated me out of my rights as the first-born son, and now he has cheated me out of my blessing." Then Esau asked his father, "Don't you still have any blessing left for me?" ³⁷"My son," Isaac answered, "I have made Jacob the ruler over you and your brothers, and all of you will be his servants. I have also promised him all the grain and grapes that he needs. There's nothing left that I can do for you." ³⁸"Father," Esau asked, "don't you have more than one blessing? You can surely give me a blessing too!" Then Esau started crying again. ³⁹So his father said: "Your home will be far from that fertile land, where dew comes down from the heavens. ⁴⁰You will live by the power of your sword and be your brother's slave. But when you decide to be free, you will break loose." ⁴¹Esau hated his brother Jacob because he had stolen the blessing that was supposed to be his. So he said to himself, "Just as soon as my father dies, I'll kill Jacob." ⁴²When Rebekah found out what Esau planned to do, she sent for Jacob and told him, "Son, your brother Esau is just waiting for the time when he can kill you. ⁴³Now listen carefully and do what I say. Go to the home of my brother Laban in Haran ⁴⁴and stay with him for a while. When Esau stops being angry ⁴⁵and forgets what you have done to him, I'll send for you to come home. Why should I lose both of my sons on the same day?" ^[b] ⁴⁶Rebekah later told Isaac, "Those Hittite wives of Esau are making my life miserable! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman, I'd be better off dead." Genesis 28 Isaac's Instructions to Jacob ¹Isaac called in Jacob, then gave him a blessing, and said: Don't marry any of those Canaanite women. ²Go at once to your mother's father Bethuel in northern Syria ^[c] and choose a wife from one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. ³I pray that God All-Powerful will bless you with many descendants and let you become a great nation. ⁴May he bless you with the land he gave Abraham, so that you will take over this land where we now live as foreigners. ⁵Isaac then sent Jacob to stay with Rebekah's brother Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean. Esau Marries the Daughter of Ishmael ⁶Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and had warned him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. He also learned that Jacob had been sent to find a wife in northern Syria ^[d] ⁷and that he had obeyed his father and mother. ⁸Esau already had several wives, but he realized at last how much his father hated the Canaanite women. ⁹So he married Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth ^[e] and the granddaughter of Abraham. Jacob's Dream at Bethel ¹⁰Jacob left the town of Beersheba and started out for Haran. ¹¹At sunset he stopped for the night and went to sleep, resting his head on a large rock. ¹²In a dream he saw a ladder ^[f] that reached from earth to heaven, and God's angels were going up and down on it. ¹³The LORD was standing beside the ladder ^[g] and said: I am the LORD God who was worshiped by Abraham and Isaac. I will give to you and your family the land on which you are now sleeping. ¹⁴Your descendants will spread over the earth in all directions and will become as numerous as the specks of dust. Your family will be a blessing to all people. ^[h] ¹⁵Wherever you go, I will watch over you, then later I will bring you back to this land. I won't leave you--I will do all I have promised. ¹⁶Jacob woke up suddenly and thought, "The LORD is in this place, and I didn't even know it." ¹⁷Then Jacob became frightened and said, "This is a fearsome place! It must be the house of God and the ladder ^[i] to heaven." ¹⁸When Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the rock that he had used for a pillow and stood it up for a place of worship. Then he poured olive oil on the rock to dedicate it to God, ¹⁹and he named the place Bethel. ^[j] Before that it had been named Luz. ²⁰Jacob solemnly promised God, "If you go with me and watch over me as I travel, and if you give me food and clothes ²¹and bring me safely home again, you will be my God. ²²This rock will be your house, and I will give back to you a tenth of everything you give me." Footnotes: Genesis 27:36 Jacob: In Hebrew "Jacob" sounds like "cheat." Genesis 27:45 lose. . . day: Esau would be hunted down as a murderer if he killed Jacob, and so Rebekah would lose both of her sons. Genesis 28:2 northern Syria: See the note at 24.10. Genesis 28:6 northern Syria: See the note at 24.10. Genesis 28:9 Nebaioth: Ishmael's oldest son (see 25.13). Genesis 28:12 ladder: Or "stairway." Genesis 28:13 the ladder: Or "Jacob" or "the stairway" (see the note at 28.12). Genesis 28:14 Your family. . . people: Or "All people will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your family." Genesis 28:17 ladder: See the note at 28.12. Genesis 28:19 Bethel: In Hebrew "Bethel" means "House of God." Contemporary English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society
Matthew 8:18-34 Listen to this passage View commentary related to this passage Some Who Wanted To Go with Jesus (Luke 9.57-62) ¹⁸When Jesus saw the crowd, ^[a] he went across Lake Galilee. ¹⁹A teacher of the Law of Moses came up to him and said, "Teacher, I'll go anywhere with you!" ²⁰Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens, and birds have nests. But the Son of Man doesn't have a place to call his own." ²¹Another disciple said to Jesus, "Lord, let me wait till I bury my father." ²²Jesus answered, "Come with me, and let the dead bury their dead." ^[b] A Storm (Mark 4.35-41; Luke 8.22-25) ²³After Jesus left in a boat with his disciples, ²⁴a terrible storm suddenly struck the lake, and waves started splashing into their boat. Jesus was sound asleep, ²⁵so the disciples went over to him and woke him up. They said, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" ²⁶But Jesus replied, "Why are you so afraid? You surely don't have much faith." Then he got up and ordered the wind and the waves to calm down. And everything was calm. ²⁷The men in the boat were amazed and said, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him." Two Men with Demons in Them (Mark 5.1-20; Luke 8.26-39) ²⁸After Jesus had crossed the lake, he came to shore near the town of Gadara ^[c] and started down the road. Two men with demons in them came to him from the tombs. ^[d] They were so fierce that no one could travel that way. ²⁹Suddenly they shouted, "Jesus, Son of God, what do you want with us? Have you come to punish us before our time?" ³⁰Not far from there a large herd of pigs was feeding. ³¹So the demons begged Jesus, "If you force us out, please send us into those pigs!" ³²Jesus told them to go, and they went out of the men and into the pigs. All at once the pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. ³³The people taking care of the pigs ran to the town and told everything, especially what had happened to the two men. ³⁴Everyone in town came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their part of the country. Footnotes: Matthew 8:18 saw the crowd: Some manuscripts have "large crowd." Others have "large crowds." Matthew 8:22 let the dead bury their dead: For the Jewish people a proper burial of their dead was a very important duty. But Jesus teaches that following him is even more important. Matthew 8:28 Gadara: Some manuscripts have "Gergesa." Others have "Gerasa." Matthew 8:28 tombs: It was thought that demons and evil spirits lived in tombs and in caves that were used for burying the dead. Contemporary English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Genesis 27-28

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Genesis 27

Isaac Blesses Jacob

¹After Isaac had become old and almost blind, he called in his first-born son Esau, who asked him, "Father, what can I do for you?"

²Isaac replied, "I am old and might die at any time. ³So take your bow and arrows, then go out in the fields, and kill a wild animal. ⁴Cook some of that tasty food that I love so much and bring it to me. I want to eat it once more and give you my blessing before I die."

⁵Rebekah had been listening, and as soon as Esau left to go hunting, ⁶she said to Jacob, "I heard your father tell Esau ⁷to kill a wild animal and cook some tasty food for your father before he dies. Your father said this because he wants to bless your brother with the LORD as his witness. ⁸Now, my son, listen carefully to what I want you to do. ⁹Go and kill two of your best young goats and bring them to me. I'll cook the tasty food that your father loves so much. ¹⁰Then you can take it to him, so he can eat it and give you his blessing before he dies."

¹¹"My brother Esau is a hairy man," Jacob reminded her. "And I am not. ¹²If my father touches me and realizes I am trying to trick him, he will put a curse on me instead of giving me a blessing."

¹³Rebekah insisted, "Let his curse fall on me! Just do what I say and bring me the meat." ¹⁴So Jacob brought the meat to his mother, and she cooked the tasty food that his father liked. ¹⁵Then she took Esau's best clothes and put them on Jacob. ¹⁶She also covered the smooth part of his hands and neck with goatskins ¹⁷and gave him some bread and the tasty food she had cooked.

¹⁸Jacob went to his father and said, "Father, here I am."

"Which one of my sons are you?" his father asked.

¹⁹Jacob replied, "I am Esau, your first-born, and I have done what you told me. Please sit up and eat the meat I have brought. Then you can give me your blessing."

²⁰Isaac asked, "My son, how did you find an animal so quickly?"

"The LORD your God was kind to me," Jacob answered.

²¹"My son," Isaac said, "come closer, where I can touch you and find out if you really are Esau." ²²Jacob went closer. His father touched him and said, "You sound like Jacob, but your hands feel hairy like Esau's." ²³And so Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking he was Esau.

²⁴Isaac asked, "Are you really my son Esau?"

"Yes, I am," Jacob answered.

²⁵So Isaac told him, "Serve me the wild meat, and I can give you my blessing."

Jacob gave him some meat, and he ate it. He also gave him some wine, and he drank it. ²⁶Then Isaac said, "Son, come over here and kiss me." ²⁷While Jacob was kissing him, Isaac caught the smell of his clothes and said:

"The smell of my son

is like a field

the LORD has blessed.

²⁸God will bless you, my son,

with dew from heaven

and with fertile fields,

rich with grain and grapes.

²⁹Nations will be your servants

and bow down to you.

You will rule over your brothers,

and they will kneel

at your feet.

Anyone who curses you

will be cursed;

anyone who blesses you

will be blessed."

³⁰Right after Isaac had given Jacob his blessing and Jacob had gone, Esau came back from hunting. ³¹He cooked the tasty food, brought it to his father, and said, "Father, please sit up and eat the meat I have brought you, so you can give me your blessing."

³²"Who are you?" Isaac asked.

"I am Esau, your first-born son."

³³Isaac started trembling and said, "Then who brought me some wild meat right before you came in? I ate it and gave him a blessing that cannot be taken back."

³⁴Esau cried loudly and begged, "Father, give me a blessing too!"

³⁵Isaac answered, "Your brother tricked me and stole your blessing."

³⁶Esau replied, "My brother deserves the name Jacob, ^[a] because he has already cheated me twice. The first time he cheated me out of my rights as the first-born son, and now he has cheated me out of my blessing." Then Esau asked his father, "Don't you still have any blessing left for me?" ³⁷"My son," Isaac answered, "I have made Jacob the ruler over you and your brothers, and all of you will be his servants. I have also promised him all the grain and grapes that he needs. There's nothing left that I can do for you."

³⁸"Father," Esau asked, "don't you have more than one blessing? You can surely give me a blessing too!" Then Esau started crying again.

³⁹So his father said:

"Your home will be far

from that fertile land,

where dew comes down

from the heavens.

⁴⁰You will live by the power

of your sword

and be your brother's slave.

But when you decide to be free,

you will break loose."

⁴¹Esau hated his brother Jacob because he had stolen the blessing that was supposed to be his. So he said to himself, "Just as soon as my father dies, I'll kill Jacob."

⁴²When Rebekah found out what Esau planned to do, she sent for Jacob and told him, "Son, your brother Esau is just waiting for the time when he can kill you. ⁴³Now listen carefully and do what I say. Go to the home of my brother Laban in Haran ⁴⁴and stay with him for a while. When Esau stops being angry ⁴⁵and forgets what you have done to him, I'll send for you to come home. Why should I lose both of my sons on the same day?" ^[b] ⁴⁶Rebekah later told Isaac, "Those Hittite wives of Esau are making my life miserable! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman, I'd be better off dead."

Genesis 28

Isaac's Instructions to Jacob

¹Isaac called in Jacob, then gave him a blessing, and said:

Don't marry any of those Canaanite women. ²Go at once to your mother's father Bethuel in northern Syria ^[c] and choose a wife from one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. ³I pray that God All-Powerful will bless you with many descendants and let you become a great nation. ⁴May he bless you with the land he gave Abraham, so that you will take over this land where we now live as foreigners. ⁵Isaac then sent Jacob to stay with Rebekah's brother Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.

Esau Marries the Daughter of Ishmael

⁶Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and had warned him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. He also learned that Jacob had been sent to find a wife in northern Syria ^[d] ⁷and that he had obeyed his father and mother. ⁸Esau already had several wives, but he realized at last how much his father hated the Canaanite women. ⁹So he married Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth ^[e] and the granddaughter of Abraham.

Jacob's Dream at Bethel

¹⁰Jacob left the town of Beersheba and started out for Haran. ¹¹At sunset he stopped for the night and went to sleep, resting his head on a large rock. ¹²In a dream he saw a ladder ^[f] that reached from earth to heaven, and God's angels were going up and down on it. ¹³The LORD was standing beside the ladder ^[g] and said: I am the LORD God who was worshiped by Abraham and Isaac. I will give to you and your family the land on which you are now sleeping. ¹⁴Your descendants will spread over the earth in all directions and will become as numerous as the specks of dust. Your family will be a blessing to all people. ^[h] ¹⁵Wherever you go, I will watch over you, then later I will bring you back to this land. I won't leave you--I will do all I have promised. ¹⁶Jacob woke up suddenly and thought, "The LORD is in this place, and I didn't even know it." ¹⁷Then Jacob became frightened and said, "This is a fearsome place! It must be the house of God and the ladder ^[i] to heaven." ¹⁸When Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the rock that he had used for a pillow and stood it up for a place of worship. Then he poured olive oil on the rock to dedicate it to God, ¹⁹and he named the place Bethel. ^[j] Before that it had been named Luz. ²⁰Jacob solemnly promised God, "If you go with me and watch over me as I travel, and if you give me food and clothes ²¹and bring me safely home again, you will be my God. ²²This rock will be your house, and I will give back to you a tenth of everything you give me."

Footnotes:

Genesis 27:36 Jacob: In Hebrew "Jacob" sounds like "cheat."
Genesis 27:45 lose. . . day: Esau would be hunted down as a murderer if he killed Jacob, and so Rebekah would lose both of her sons.
Genesis 28:2 northern Syria: See the note at 24.10.
Genesis 28:6 northern Syria: See the note at 24.10.
Genesis 28:9 Nebaioth: Ishmael's oldest son (see 25.13).
Genesis 28:12 ladder: Or "stairway."
Genesis 28:13 the ladder: Or "Jacob" or "the stairway" (see the note at 28.12).
Genesis 28:14 Your family. . . people: Or "All people will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your family."
Genesis 28:17 ladder: See the note at 28.12.
Genesis 28:19 Bethel: In Hebrew "Bethel" means "House of God."

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Matthew 8:18-34

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Some Who Wanted To Go with Jesus

(Luke 9.57-62)

¹⁸When Jesus saw the crowd, ^[a] he went across Lake Galilee. ¹⁹A teacher of the Law of Moses came up to him and said, "Teacher, I'll go anywhere with you!" ²⁰Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens, and birds have nests. But the Son of Man doesn't have a place to call his own."

²¹Another disciple said to Jesus, "Lord, let me wait till I bury my father."

²²Jesus answered, "Come with me, and let the dead bury their dead." ^[b]

A Storm

(Mark 4.35-41; Luke 8.22-25)

²³After Jesus left in a boat with his disciples, ²⁴a terrible storm suddenly struck the lake, and waves started splashing into their boat.

Jesus was sound asleep, ²⁵so the disciples went over to him and woke him up. They said, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

²⁶But Jesus replied, "Why are you so afraid? You surely don't have much faith." Then he got up and ordered the wind and the waves to calm down. And everything was calm.

²⁷The men in the boat were amazed and said, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him."

Two Men with Demons in Them

(Mark 5.1-20; Luke 8.26-39)

²⁸After Jesus had crossed the lake, he came to shore near the town of Gadara ^[c] and started down the road. Two men with demons in them came to him from the tombs. ^[d] They were so fierce that no one could travel that way. ²⁹Suddenly they shouted, "Jesus, Son of God, what do you want with us? Have you come to punish us before our time?" ³⁰Not far from there a large herd of pigs was feeding. ³¹So the demons begged Jesus, "If you force us out, please send us into those pigs!" ³²Jesus told them to go, and they went out of the men and into the pigs. All at once the pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

³³The people taking care of the pigs ran to the town and told everything, especially what had happened to the two men. ³⁴Everyone in town came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their part of the country.

Footnotes:

Matthew 8:18 saw the crowd: Some manuscripts have "large crowd." Others have "large crowds."
Matthew 8:22 let the dead bury their dead: For the Jewish people a proper burial of their dead was a very important duty. But Jesus teaches that following him is even more important.
Matthew 8:28 Gadara: Some manuscripts have "Gergesa." Others have "Gerasa."
Matthew 8:28 tombs: It was thought that demons and evil spirits lived in tombs and in caves that were used for burying the dead.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

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Passage results

Genesis 27-28; Matthew 8:18-34 (Contemporary English Version)

Genesis 27

Isaac Blesses Jacob

Genesis 28

Isaac's Instructions to Jacob

Esau Marries the Daughter of Ishmael

Jacob's Dream at Bethel

Some Who Wanted To Go with Jesus

(Luke 9.57-62)

A Storm

(Mark 4.35-41; Luke 8.22-25)

Two Men with Demons in Them

(Mark 5.1-20; Luke 8.26-39)