Descendants of Isaac

³⁴ Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac were Esau and Israel.^[a]

²⁸ “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel,^[a] because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”

⁸ “God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and when Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation.

² She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. ³ And Abraham named their son Isaac.

¹⁰ This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.^{[a] 11} But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; ¹² he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”^{[b] 13} In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”^[c]

The Lord’s Love for Israel

² “I have always loved you,” says the Lord.

But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”

And the Lord replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, ³ but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.”

⁴ Esau’s descendants in Edom may say, “We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.”

But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies replies, “They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again. Their country will be known as ‘The Land of Wickedness,’ and their people will be called ‘The People with Whom the Lord Is Forever Angry.’

Descendants of Abraham

²⁸ The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael.

²⁴ And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! ²⁵ The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.^{[a] 26} Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.^[b] Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

Esau Sells His Birthright

²⁷ As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home. ²⁸ Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.