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Jacob and Esau
This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,
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After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
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The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
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Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
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Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.
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He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)
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Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”
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But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
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Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.
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Jacob Takes Esau’s Blessing
When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
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Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau,
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Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin.
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Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.
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Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.
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Jacob 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 give me your blessing.”
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Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”
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Jacob went 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.”
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Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.
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After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.
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Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
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Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
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When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you.
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Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”
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So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
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Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
