Genesis 25:19-36:43

Living Bible

¹⁹ This is the story of Isaac’s children: ²⁰ Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram. Rebekah was the sister of Laban. ²¹ Isaac pleaded with Jehovah to give Rebekah a child, for even after many years of marriage^[a] she had no children. Then at last she became pregnant. ²² And it seemed as though children were fighting each other inside her!

“I can’t endure this,” she exclaimed. So she asked the Lord about it.

²³ And he told her, “The sons in your womb shall become two rival nations. One will be stronger than the other; and the older shall be a servant of the younger!”

²⁴ And sure enough, she had twins. ²⁵ The first was born so covered with reddish hair that one would think he was wearing a fur coat! So they called him “Esau.”^{[b] 26} Then the other twin was born with his hand on Esau’s heel! So they called him Jacob (meaning “Grabber”). Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

²⁷ As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home. ²⁸ Isaac’s favorite was Esau, because of the venison he brought home, and Rebekah’s favorite was Jacob.

²⁹ One day Jacob was cooking stew when Esau arrived home exhausted from the hunt.

And Esau vowed, thereby selling all his eldest-son rights to his younger brother. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread, peas, and stew; so he ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away.^[c]

26 Now a severe famine overshadowed the land, as had happened before, in Abraham’s time, and so Isaac moved to the city of Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.

² Jehovah appeared to him there and told him, “Don’t go to Egypt. ³ Do as I say and stay here in this land. If you do, I will be with you and bless you, and I will give all this land to you and to your descendants, just as I promised Abraham your father. ⁴ And I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars! And I will give them all of these lands; and they shall be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. ⁵ I will do this because Abraham obeyed my commandments and laws.”

⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar. ⁷ And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister!” For he feared for his life if he told them she was his wife; he was afraid they would kill him to get her, for she was very attractive. ⁸ But sometime later, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making love.

⁹ Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?”

“Because I was afraid I would be murdered,” Isaac replied. “I thought someone would kill me to get her from me.”

¹⁰ “How could you treat us this way?” Abimelech exclaimed. “Someone might carelessly have raped her, and we would be doomed.” ¹¹ Then Abimelech made a public proclamation: “Anyone harming this man or his wife shall die.”

¹² That year Isaac’s crops were tremendous—100 times the grain he sowed. For Jehovah blessed him. ¹³ He was soon a man of great wealth and became richer and richer. ¹⁴ He had large flocks of sheep and goats, great herds of cattle, and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him. ¹⁵ So they filled up his wells with earth—all those dug by the servants of his father Abraham.

¹⁶ And King Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too rich and powerful for us.”

¹⁷ So Isaac moved to Gerar Valley and lived there instead. ¹⁸ And Isaac redug the wells of his father Abraham, the ones the Philistines had filled after his father’s death, and gave them the same names they had had before, when his father had named them. ¹⁹ His shepherds also dug a new well in Gerar Valley, and found a gushing underground spring.

²⁰ Then the local shepherds came and claimed it. “This is our land and our well,” they said, and argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So he named the well, “The Well of Argument!”^{[d] 21} Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a fight over it. So he called it, “The Well of Anger.”^{[e] 22} Abandoning that one, he dug again, and the local residents finally left him alone. So he called it, “The Well of Room Enough for Us at Last!”^[f] “For now at last,” he said, “the Lord has made room for us and we shall thrive.”

²³ When he went to Beer-sheba, ²⁴ Jehovah appeared to him on the night of his arrival. “I am the God of Abraham your father,” he said. “Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you, and will give you so many descendants that they will become a great nation—because of my promise to Abraham, who obeyed me.” ²⁵ Then Isaac built an altar and worshiped Jehovah; and he settled there, and his servants dug a well.

²⁶ One day Isaac had visitors from Gerar. King Abimelech arrived with his advisor, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander.

²⁷ “Why have you come?” Isaac asked them. “This is obviously no friendly visit, since you kicked me out in a most uncivil way.”

²⁸ “Well,” they said, “we can plainly see that Jehovah is blessing you. We’ve decided to ask for a treaty between us. ²⁹ Promise that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you, and in fact, have done only good to you and have sent you away in peace; we bless you in the name of the Lord.”

³⁰ So Isaac prepared a great feast for them, and they ate and drank in preparation for the treaty ceremonies. ³¹ In the morning, as soon as they were up, they each took solemn oaths to seal a nonaggression pact. Then Isaac sent them happily home again.

³² That very same day Isaac’s servants came to tell him, “We have found water”—in the well they had been digging. ³³ So he named the well, “The Well of the Oath,”^[g] and the city that grew up there was named “Oath,” and is called that to this day.

³⁴ Esau, at the age of forty, married a girl named Judith, daughter of Be-eri the Hethite; and he also married Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hethite. ³⁵ But Isaac and Rebekah were bitter about his marrying them.

27 One day, in Isaac’s old age when he was almost blind, he called for Esau his oldest son.

⁵ But Rebekah overheard the conversation. So when Esau left for the field to hunt for the venison, ^6-7 she called her son Jacob and told him what his father had said to his brother.

¹⁴ So Jacob followed his mother’s instructions, bringing the dressed kids, which she prepared in his father’s favorite way. ¹⁵ Then she took Esau’s best clothes—they were there in the house—and instructed Jacob to put them on. ¹⁶ And she made him a pair of gloves from the hairy skin of the young goats, and fastened a strip of the hide around his neck; ¹⁷ then she gave him the meat, with its rich aroma, and some fresh-baked bread.

¹⁸ Jacob carried the platter of food into the room where his father was lying.

²² (Jacob goes over to his father. He feels him!)

²³ (The ruse convinces Isaac and he gives Jacob his blessings):

(Jacob takes it over to him and Isaac eats; he also drinks the wine Jacob brings him.)

(Jacob goes over and kisses him on the cheek. Isaac sniffs his clothes, and finally seems convinced.)

³⁰ (As soon as Isaac has blessed Jacob, and almost before Jacob leaves the room, Esau arrives, coming in from his hunting. ³¹ He also has prepared his father’s favorite dish and brings it to him.)

³³ (Isaac begins to tremble noticeably.)

³⁴ (Esau begins to sob with deep and bitter sobs.)

(Isaac says nothing^[l] as Esau weeps.)

⁴¹ So Esau hated Jacob because of what he had done to him. He said to himself, “My father will soon be gone, and then I will kill Jacob.” ⁴² But someone got wind of what he was planning and reported it to Rebekah. She sent for Jacob and told him that his life was being threatened by Esau.

⁴³ “This is what to do,” she said. “Flee to your Uncle Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴ Stay there with him awhile until your brother’s fury is spent, ⁴⁵ and he forgets what you have done. Then I will send for you. For why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local girls. I’d rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.”

28 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and said to him, “Don’t marry one of these Canaanite girls. ² Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather^[m] Bethuel, and marry one of your cousins—your Uncle Laban’s daughters. ³ God Almighty bless you and give you many children; may you become a great nation of many tribes! ⁴ May God pass on to you and to your descendants the mighty blessings promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God has given it to Abraham.”

⁵ So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to visit his Uncle Laban, his mother’s brother—the son of Bethuel the Aramean.

^6-8 Esau realized that his father despised the local girls, and that his father and mother had sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, with his father’s blessing, to get a wife from there, and that they had strictly warned him against marrying a Canaanite girl, and that Jacob had agreed and had left for Paddan-aram. ⁹ So Esau went to his Uncle Ishmael’s family and married another wife from there, besides the wives he already had. Her name was Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth, and daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.

¹⁰ So Jacob left Beer-sheba and journeyed toward Haran. ¹¹ That night, when he stopped to camp at sundown, he found a rock for a headrest and lay down to sleep, ¹² and dreamed that a staircase^[n] reached from earth to heaven, and he saw the angels of God going up and down upon it.

¹³ At the top of the stairs stood the Lord. “I am Jehovah,” he said, “the God of Abraham, and of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on is yours! I will give it to you and to your descendants. ¹⁴ For you will have descendants as many as dust! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south; and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. ¹⁵ What’s more, I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go, and will bring you back safely to this land; I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you all I am promising.”

^16-17 Then Jacob woke up. “God lives here!” he exclaimed in terror. “I’ve stumbled into his home! This is the awesome entrance to heaven!” ¹⁸ The next morning he got up very early and set his stone headrest upright as a memorial pillar, and poured olive oil over it. ¹⁹ He named the place Bethel (“House of God”), though the previous name of the nearest village^[o] was Luz.

²⁰ And Jacob vowed this vow to God: “If God will help and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothes, ²¹ and will bring me back safely to my father, then I will choose Jehovah as my God! ²² And this memorial pillar shall become a place for worship; and I will give you back a tenth of everything you give me!”

29 Jacob traveled on, finally arriving in the land of the East. ² He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying beside a well in an open field, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well. ³ (The custom was that the stone was not removed until all the flocks were there. After watering them, the stone was rolled back over the mouth of the well again.) ⁴ Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them where they lived.

“At Haran,” they said.

⁵ “Do you know a fellow there named Laban, the son of Nahor?”

“We sure do.”

⁶ “How is he?”

“He’s well and prosperous. Look, there comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

⁷ “Why don’t you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?” Jacob asked. “They’ll be hungry if you stop so early in the day!”

⁸ “We don’t roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here,” they replied.

⁹ As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰ And because she was his cousin—the daughter of his mother’s brother—and because the sheep were his uncle’s, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle’s flock. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and started crying! ^12-13 He explained about being her cousin on her father’s side, and that he was her Aunt Rebekah’s son. She quickly ran and told her father, Laban, and as soon as he heard of Jacob’s arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly and brought him home. Then Jacob told him his story.

¹⁴ “Just think, my very own flesh and blood,” Laban exclaimed.

After Jacob had been there about a month, ¹⁵ Laban said to him one day, “Just because we are relatives is no reason for you to work for me without pay. How much do you want?” ¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters, Leah, the older, and her younger sister, Rachel. ¹⁷ Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely, and in every way a beauty. ¹⁸ Well, Jacob was in love with Rachel. So he told her father, “I’ll work for you seven years if you’ll give me Rachel as my wife.”

¹⁹ “Agreed!” Laban replied. “I’d rather give her to you than to someone outside the family.”

²⁰ So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But they seemed to him but a few days, he was so much in love. ²¹ Finally the time came for him to marry her.

“I have fulfilled my contract,” Jacob said to Laban. “Now give me my wife, so that I can sleep with her.”

²² So Laban invited all the men of the settlement to celebrate with Jacob at a big party. ²³ Afterwards, that night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her. ²⁴ (And Laban gave to Leah a servant girl, Zilpah, to be her maid.) ²⁵ But in the morning—it was Leah!

“What sort of trick is this?” Jacob raged at Laban. “I worked for seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?”

²⁶ “It’s not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of her sister,” Laban replied smoothly.^{[p] 27} “Wait until the bridal week is over and you can have Rachel too—if you promise to work for me another seven years!”

²⁸ So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. Then Laban gave him Rachel, too. ²⁹ And Laban gave to Rachel a servant girl, Bilhah, to be her maid. ³⁰ So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her more than Leah, and stayed and worked the additional seven years.

³¹ But because Jacob was slighting Leah, Jehovah let her have a child, while Rachel was barren. ³² So Leah became pregnant and had a son, Reuben (meaning “God has noticed my trouble”), for she said, “Jehovah has noticed my trouble—now my husband will love me.” ³³ She soon became pregnant again and had another son and named him Simeon (meaning “Jehovah heard”), for she said, “Jehovah heard that I was unloved, and so he has given me another son.” ³⁴ Again she became pregnant and had a son, and named him Levi (meaning “Attachment”) for she said, “Surely now my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!” ³⁵ Once again she was pregnant and had a son and named him Judah (meaning “Praise”), for she said, “Now I will praise Jehovah!” And then she stopped having children.

30 Rachel, realizing she was barren, became envious of her sister. “Give me children or I’ll die,” she exclaimed to Jacob.

² Jacob flew into a rage. “Am I God?” he flared. “He is the one who is responsible for your barrenness.”

³ Then Rachel told him, “Sleep with my servant girl Bilhah, and her children will be mine.” ⁴ So she gave him Bilhah to be his wife, and he slept with her, ⁵ and she became pregnant and presented him with a son. ⁶ Rachel named him Dan (meaning “Justice”),^[q] for she said, “God has given me justice, and heard my plea and given me a son.” ⁷ Then Bilhah, Rachel’s servant girl, became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. ⁸ Rachel named him Naphtali (meaning “Wrestling”), for she said, “I am in a fierce contest with my sister and I am winning!”

⁹ Meanwhile, when Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, she gave her servant girl Zilpah to Jacob, to be his wife, ¹⁰ and soon Zilpah presented him with a son. ¹¹ Leah named him Gad (meaning “My luck has turned!”).

¹² Then Zilpah produced a second son, ¹³ and Leah named him Asher (meaning “Happy”), for she said, “What joy is mine! The other women will think me blessed indeed!”

¹⁴ One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes^[r] growing in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel begged Leah to give some of them to her.

¹⁵ But Leah angrily replied, “Wasn’t it enough to steal my husband? And now will you steal my son’s mandrakes too?”

Rachel said sadly, “He will sleep with you tonight because of the mandrakes.”

¹⁶ That evening as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me tonight!” she said; “for I am hiring you with some mandrakes my son has found!” So he did. ¹⁷ And God answered her prayers and she became pregnant again, and gave birth to her fifth son. ¹⁸ She named him Issachar (meaning “Wages”), for she said, “God has repaid me for giving my slave girl to my husband.” ¹⁹ Then once again she became pregnant, with a sixth son. ²⁰ She named him Zebulun (meaning “Gifts”), for she said, “God has given me good gifts for my husband. Now he will honor me, for I have given him six sons.” ²¹ Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered about Rachel’s plight, and answered her prayers by giving her a child. ^23-24 For she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “God has removed the dark slur against my name,” she said. And she named him Joseph (meaning “May I also have another!”), for she said, “May Jehovah give me another son.”

²⁵ Soon after the birth of Joseph to Rachel, Jacob said to Laban, “I want to go back home. ²⁶ Let me take my wives and children—for I earned them from you—and be gone, for you know how fully I have paid for them with my service to you.”

²⁷ “Please don’t leave me,” Laban replied, “for a fortune-teller that I consulted^[s] told me that the many blessings I’ve been enjoying are all because of your being here. ²⁸ How much of a raise do you need to get you to stay? Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.”

²⁹ Jacob replied, “You know how faithfully I’ve served you through these many years, and how your flocks and herds have grown. ³⁰ For it was little indeed you had before I came, and your wealth has increased enormously; Jehovah has blessed you from everything I do! But now, what about me? When should I provide for my own family?”

^31-32 “What wages do you want?” Laban asked again.

Jacob replied, “If you will do one thing, I’ll go back to work for you. Let me go out among your flocks today and remove all the goats that are speckled or spotted, and all the black sheep. Give them to me as my wages. ³³ Then if you ever find any white goats or sheep in my flock, you will know that I have stolen them from you!”

³⁴ “All right!” Laban replied. “It shall be as you have said!”

^35-36 So that very day Laban went out and formed a flock for Jacob of all the male goats that were ringed and spotted, and the females that were speckled and spotted with any white patches, and all of the black sheep. He gave them to Jacob’s sons to take them three days’ distance, and Jacob stayed and cared for Laban’s flock. ³⁷ Then Jacob took fresh shoots from poplar, almond, and sycamore trees, and peeled white streaks in them, ³⁸ and placed these rods beside the watering troughs so that Laban’s flocks would see them when they came to drink; for that is when they mated. ^39-40 So the flocks mated before the white-streaked rods, and their offspring were streaked and spotted, and Jacob added them to his flock. Then he divided out the ewes from Laban’s flock and segregated them from the rams, and let them mate only with Jacob’s black rams. Thus he built his flocks from Laban’s. ⁴¹ Moreover, he watched for the stronger animals to mate, and placed the peeled branches before them, ⁴² but didn’t with the feebler ones. So the less healthy lambs were Laban’s and the stronger ones were Jacob’s! ⁴³ As a result, Jacob’s flocks increased rapidly and he became very wealthy, with many servants, camels, and donkeys.

31 But Jacob learned that Laban’s sons were grumbling, “He owes everything he owns to our father. All his wealth is at our father’s expense.” ² Soon Jacob noticed a considerable cooling in Laban’s attitude toward him.

³ Jehovah now spoke to Jacob and told him, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives there; and I will be with you.”

⁴ So one day Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come out to the field where he was with the flocks, ⁵ to talk things over with them.

“Your father has turned against me,” he told them, “and now the God of my fathers has come and spoken to me. ⁶ You know how hard I’ve worked for your father, ⁷ but he has been completely unscrupulous and has broken his wage contract with me again and again and again. But God has not permitted him to do me any harm! ⁸ For if he said the speckled animals would be mine, then all the flock produced speckled; and when he changed and said I could have the streaked ones, then all the lambs were streaked! ⁹ In this way God has made me wealthy at your father’s expense.

¹⁰ “And at the mating season, I had a dream, and saw that the he-goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled, and mottled. ¹¹ Then, in my dream, the Angel of God called to me ¹² and told me that I should mate the white female goats with streaked, speckled, and mottled male goats.^[t] ‘For I have seen all that Laban has done to you,’ the Angel said. ¹³ ‘I am the God you met at Bethel,’ he continued, ‘the place where you anointed the pillar and made a vow to serve me. Now leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah replied, “That’s fine with us! There’s nothing for us here—none of our father’s wealth will come to us anyway! ¹⁵ He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women; he sold us, and what he received for us has disappeared. ¹⁶ The riches God has given you from our father were legally ours and our children’s to begin with! So go ahead and do whatever God has told you to.”

^17-20 So one day while Laban was out shearing sheep, Jacob set his wives and sons on camels, and fled without telling Laban his intentions. He drove the flocks before him—Jacob’s flocks he had gotten there at Paddan-aram—and took everything he owned and started out to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. ²¹ So he fled with all of his possessions (and Rachel stole her father’s household gods and took them with her) and crossed the Euphrates River and headed for the territory of Gilead.

²² Laban didn’t learn of their flight for three days. ²³ Then, taking several men with him, he set out in hot pursuit and caught up with them seven days later, at Mount Gilead. ²⁴ That night God appeared to Laban in a dream.

“Watch out what you say to Jacob,” he was told. “Don’t give him your blessing and don’t curse him.” ²⁵ Laban finally caught up with Jacob as he was camped at the top of a ridge; Laban, meanwhile, camped below him in the mountains.

²⁶ “What do you mean by sneaking off like this?” Laban demanded. “Are my daughters prisoners, captured in a battle, that you have rushed them away like this? ²⁷ Why didn’t you give me a chance to have a farewell party, with singing and orchestra and harp? ²⁸ Why didn’t you let me kiss my grandchildren and tell them good-bye? This is a strange way to act. ²⁹ I could crush you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and told me, ‘Be careful not to be too hard on Jacob!’ ³⁰ But see here—though you feel you must go, and long so intensely for your childhood home—why have you stolen my idols?”

³¹ “I sneaked away because I was afraid,” Jacob answered. “I said to myself, ‘He’ll take his daughters from me by force.’ ³² But as for your household idols, a curse upon anyone who took them. Let him die! If you find a single thing we’ve stolen from you, I swear before all these men, I’ll give it back without question.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had taken them.

³³ Laban went first into Jacob’s tent to search there, then into Leah’s, and then searched the two tents of the concubines, but didn’t find them. Finally he went into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Rachel, remember, was the one who had stolen the idols; she had stuffed them into her camel saddle and now was sitting on them! So although Laban searched the tents thoroughly, he didn’t find them.

³⁵ “Forgive my not getting up, Father,” Rachel explained, “but I’m having my monthly period.”^[u] So Laban didn’t find them.

^36-37 Now Jacob got mad. “What did you find?” he demanded of Laban. “What is my crime? You have come rushing after me as though you were chasing a criminal and have searched through everything. Now put everything I stole out here in front of us, before your men and mine, for all to see and to decide whose it is! ³⁸ Twenty years I’ve been with you, and all that time I cared for your ewes and goats so that they produced healthy offspring, and I never touched one ram of yours for food. ³⁹ If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, did I show them to you and ask you to reduce the count of your flock? No, I took the loss. You made me pay for every animal stolen from the flocks, whether I could help it or not.^{[v] 40} I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day, and through the cold and sleepless nights. ⁴¹ Yes, twenty years—fourteen of them earning your two daughters, and six years to get the flock! And you have reduced my wages ten times! ⁴² In fact, except for the grace of God—the God of my grandfather Abraham, even the glorious God of Isaac, my father—you would have sent me off without a penny to my name. But God has seen your cruelty and my hard work, and that is why he appeared to you last night.”

⁴³ Laban replied, “These women are my daughters, and these children are mine, and these flocks and all that you have—all are mine. So how could I harm my own daughters and grandchildren? ⁴⁴ Come now and we will sign a peace pact, you and I, and will live by its terms.”

⁴⁵ So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument, ⁴⁶ and told his men to gather stones and make a heap, and Jacob and Laban ate together beside the pile of rocks. ^47-48 They named it “The Witness Pile”—“Jegar-sahadutha,” in Laban’s language, and “Galeed” in Jacob’s.

“This pile of stones will stand as a witness against us if either of us trespasses across this line,^[w]” Laban said. ⁴⁹ So it was also called “The Watchtower” (Mizpah). For Laban said, “May the Lord see to it that we keep this bargain when we are out of each other’s sight. ⁵⁰ And if you are harsh to my daughters, or take other wives, I won’t know, but God will see it. ^51-52 This heap,” Laban continued, “stands between us as a witness of our vows that I will not cross this line to attack you and you will not cross it to attack me. ⁵³ I call upon the God of Abraham and Nahor, and of their father, to destroy either one of us who does.”

So Jacob took oath before the mighty God of his father, Isaac, to respect the boundary line. ⁵⁴ Then Jacob presented a sacrifice to God there at the top of the mountain, and invited his companions to a feast, and afterwards spent the night with them on the mountain. ⁵⁵ Laban was up early the next morning and kissed his daughters and grandchildren, and blessed them, and returned home.

32 ^1-2 So Jacob and his household^[x] started on again. And the angels of God came to meet him. When he saw them he exclaimed, “God lives here!” So he named the place “God’s territory!”

³ Jacob now sent messengers to his brother, Esau, in Edom, in the land of Seir, ⁴ with this message: “Hello from Jacob! I have been living with Uncle Laban until recently, ⁵ and now I own oxen, donkeys, sheep, goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform you of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to us.”

⁶ The messengers returned with the news that Esau was on the way to meet Jacob—with an army of 400 men! ⁷ Jacob was frantic with fear. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups; ⁸ for he said, “If Esau attacks one group, perhaps the other can escape.”

⁹ Then Jacob prayed, “O God of Abraham my grandfather, and of my father Isaac—O Jehovah who told me to return to the land of my relatives, and said that you would do me good— ¹⁰ I am not worthy of the least of all your loving-kindnesses shown me again and again just as you promised me. For when I left home^[y] I owned nothing except a walking stick! And now I am two armies! ¹¹ O Lord, please deliver me from destruction at the hand of my brother Esau, for I am frightened—terribly afraid that he is coming to kill me and these mothers and my children. ¹² But you promised to do me good, and to multiply my descendants until they become as the sands along the shores—too many to count.”

^13-15 Jacob stayed where he was for the night, and prepared a present for his brother Esau: 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milk camels, with their colts, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, 10 male donkeys.

¹⁶ He instructed his servants to drive them on ahead, each group of animals by itself, separated by a distance between. ¹⁷ He told the men driving the first group that when they met Esau and he asked, “Where are you going? Whose servants are you? Whose animals are these?”— ¹⁸ they should reply: “These belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present for his master Esau! He is coming right behind us!”

¹⁹ Jacob gave the same instructions to each driver, with the same message. ²⁰ Jacob’s strategy was to appease Esau with the presents before meeting him face-to-face! “Perhaps,” Jacob hoped, “he will be friendly to us.” ²¹ So the presents were sent on ahead, and Jacob spent that night in the camp.

^22-24 But during the night he got up and wakened^[z] his two wives and his two concubines and eleven sons, and sent them across the Jordan River at the Jabbok ford with all his possessions, then returned again to the camp and was there alone; and a Man wrestled with him until dawn. ²⁵ And when the Man saw that he couldn’t win the match, he struck Jacob’s hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket.

²⁶ Then the Man said, “Let me go, for it is dawn.”

But Jacob panted, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

²⁷ “What is your name?” the Man asked.

“Jacob,” was the reply.

²⁸ “It isn’t anymore!” the Man told him. “It is Israel—one who has power with God. Because you have been strong with God, you shall prevail with men.”

²⁹ “What is your name?” Jacob asked him.

“No, you mustn’t ask,” the Man told him. And he blessed him there.

³⁰ Jacob named the place “Peniel” (“The Face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is spared.” ³¹ The sun rose as he started on, and he was limping because of his hip. ³² (That is why even today the people of Israel don’t eat meat from near the hip, in memory of what happened that night.)

33 Then, far in the distance, Jacob saw Esau coming with his 400 men. ² Jacob now arranged his family into a column, with his two concubines and their children at the head, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. ³ Then Jacob went on ahead. As he approached his brother he bowed low seven times before him. ⁴ And then Esau ran to meet him and embraced him affectionately and kissed him; and both of them were in tears!

⁵ Then Esau looked at the women and children and asked, “Who are these people with you?”

“My children,” Jacob replied. ⁶ Then the concubines came forward with their children, and bowed low before him. ⁷ Next came Leah with her children, and bowed, and finally Rachel and Joseph came and made their bows.

⁸ “And what were all the flocks and herds I met as I came?” Esau asked.

And Jacob replied, “They are my gifts, to curry your favor!”

⁹ “Brother, I have plenty,” Esau laughed. “Keep what you have.”

¹⁰ “No, but please accept them,” Jacob said, “for what a relief it is to see your friendly smile! I was as frightened of you as though approaching God!^{[aa] 11} Please take my gifts. For God has been very generous to me and I have enough.” So Jacob insisted, and finally Esau accepted them.

¹² “Well, let’s be going,” Esau said. “My men and I will stay with you and lead the way.”

¹³ But Jacob replied, “As you can see,^[ab] some of the children are small, and the flocks and herds have their young, and if they are driven too hard, they will die. ¹⁴ So you go on ahead of us and we’ll follow at our own pace and meet you at Seir.”

¹⁵ “Well,” Esau said, “at least let me leave you some of my men to assist you and be your guides.”

“No,” Jacob insisted, “we’ll get along just fine. Please do as I suggest.”

¹⁶ So Esau started back to Seir that same day. ¹⁷ Meanwhile Jacob and his household went as far as Succoth. There he built himself a camp, with pens for his flocks and herds. (That is why the place is called Succoth, meaning “huts.”) ¹⁸ Then they arrived safely at Shechem, in Canaan, and camped outside the city. ¹⁹ (He bought the land he camped on from the family of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 pieces of silver. ²⁰ And there he erected an altar and called it “El-Elohe-Israel,” “The Altar to the God of Israel.”)

34 One day Dinah, Leah’s daughter, went out to visit some of the neighborhood girls, ² but when Shechem, son of King Hamor the Hivite, saw her, he took her and raped her. ³ He fell deeply in love with her, and tried to win her affection.

⁴ Then he spoke to his father about it. “Get this girl for me,” he demanded. “I want to marry her.”

⁵ Word soon reached Jacob of what had happened, but his sons were out in the fields herding cattle, so he did nothing until their return. ^6-7 Meanwhile King Hamor, Shechem’s father, went to talk with Jacob, arriving just as Jacob’s sons came in from the fields, too shocked and angry to overlook the insult, for it was an outrage against all of them.

⁸ Hamor told Jacob, “My son Shechem is truly in love with your daughter, and longs for her to be his wife. Please let him marry her. ^9-10 Moreover, we invite you folks to live here among us and to let your daughters marry our sons, and we will give our daughters as wives for your young men. And you shall live among us wherever you wish and carry on your business among us and become rich!”

¹¹ Then Shechem addressed Dinah’s father and brothers. “Please be kind to me and let me have her as my wife,” he begged. “I will give whatever you require. ¹² No matter what dowry or gift you demand, I will pay it—only give me the girl as my wife.”

¹³ Her brothers then lied to Shechem and Hamor, acting dishonorably because of what Shechem had done to their sister. ¹⁴ They said, “We couldn’t possibly. For you are not circumcised. It would be a disgrace for her to marry such a man. ¹⁵ I’ll tell you what we’ll do—if every man of you will be circumcised, ¹⁶ then we will intermarry with you and live here and unite with you to become one people. ¹⁷ Otherwise we will take her and be on our way.”

^18-19 Hamor and Shechem gladly agreed, and lost no time in acting upon this request, for Shechem was very much in love with Dinah, and could, he felt sure, sell the idea to the other men of the city—for he was highly respected and very popular. ²⁰ So Hamor and Shechem appeared before the city council^[ac] and presented their request.

²¹ “Those men are our friends,” they said. “Let’s invite them to live here among us and ply their trade. For the land is large enough to hold them, and we can intermarry with them. ²² But they will only consider staying here on one condition—that every one of us men be circumcised, the same as they are. ²³ But if we do this, then all they have will become ours and the land will be enriched. Come on, let’s agree to this so that they will settle here among us.”

²⁴ So all the men agreed, and all were circumcised. ²⁵ But three days later, when their wounds were sore and sensitive to every move they made, two of Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, took their swords, entered the city without opposition, and slaughtered every man there, ²⁶ including Hamor and Shechem. They rescued Dinah from Shechem’s house and returned to their camp again. ²⁷ Then all of Jacob’s sons went over and plundered the city because their sister had been dishonored there. ²⁸ They confiscated all the flocks and herds and donkeys—everything they could lay their hands on, both inside the city and outside in the fields, ²⁹ and took all the women and children, and wealth of every kind.

³⁰ Then Jacob said to Levi and Simeon, “You have made me stink among all the people of this land—all the Canaanites and Perizzites. We are so few that they will come and crush us, and we will all be killed.”

³¹ “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?” they retorted.

35 “Move on to Bethel now, and settle there,” God said to Jacob, “and build an altar to worship me—the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

² So Jacob instructed all those in his household to destroy the idols they had brought with them, and to wash themselves and to put on fresh clothing. ³ “For we are going to Bethel,” he told them, “and I will build an altar there to the God who answered my prayers in the day of my distress, and was with me on my journey.”

⁴ So they gave Jacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them beneath the oak tree near Shechem. ⁵ Then they started on again. And the terror of God was upon all the cities they journeyed through, so that they were not attacked. ⁶ Finally they arrived at Luz (also called Bethel), in Canaan. ⁷ And Jacob erected an altar there and named it “the altar to the God who met me here at Bethel”^[ad] because it was there at Bethel that God appeared to him when he was fleeing from Esau.

⁸ Soon after this^[ae] Rebekah’s old nurse, Deborah, died and was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. And ever after it was called “The Oak of Weeping.”

⁹ Upon Jacob’s arrival at Bethel, en route from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him once again and blessed him. ¹⁰ And God said to him, “You shall no longer be called Jacob (‘Grabber’), but Israel (‘One who prevails with God’). ¹¹ I am God Almighty,” the Lord said to him, “and I will cause you to be fertile and to multiply and to become a great nation, yes, many nations; many kings shall be among your descendants. ¹² And I will pass on to you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and to your descendants.”

^13-14 Afterwards Jacob built a stone pillar at the place where God had appeared to him; and he poured wine over it as an offering to God and then anointed the pillar with olive oil. ¹⁵ Jacob named the spot Bethel (“House of God”), because God had spoken to him there.

¹⁶ Leaving Bethel, he and his household traveled on toward Ephrath (Bethlehem). But Rachel’s pains of childbirth began while they were still a long way away. ¹⁷ After a very hard delivery, the midwife finally exclaimed, “Wonderful—another boy!” ¹⁸ And with Rachel’s last breath (for she died) she named him “Ben-oni” (“Son of my sorrow”); but his father called him “Benjamin” (“Son of my right hand”).

¹⁹ So Rachel died, and was buried near the road to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem). ²⁰ And Jacob set up a monument of stones upon her grave, and it is there to this day.

²¹ Then Israel journeyed on and camped beyond the Tower of Eder. ²² It was while he was there that Reuben slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and someone told Israel about it.

Here are the names of the twelve sons of Jacob:

²³ The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s oldest child, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun.

²⁴ The sons of Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin.

²⁵ The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant girl: Dan, Naphtali.

²⁶ The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant girl: Gad, Asher.

All these were born to him at Paddan-aram.

²⁷ So Jacob came at last to Isaac his father at Mamre in Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron), where Abraham too had lived. ^28-29 Isaac died soon afterwards, at the ripe old age of 180. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

36 Here is a list of the descendants of Esau (also called Edom): ^2-3 Esau married three local girls from Canaan: Adah (daughter of Elon the Hethite), Oholibamah (daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite), Basemath (his cousin^[af]—she was a daughter of Ishmael—the sister of Nebaioth).

⁴ Esau and Adah had a son named Eliphaz. Esau and Basemath had a son named Reuel.

⁵ Esau and Oholibamah had sons named Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.

^6-8 Then Esau took his wives, children, household servants, cattle and flocks—all the wealth he had gained in the land of Canaan—and moved away from his brother Jacob to Mount Seir. (For there was not land enough to support them both because of all their cattle.)

⁹ Here are the names of Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, born to him in Mount Seir:

^10-12 Descended from his wife Adah, born to her son Eliphaz were: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, Kenaz, Amalek (born to Timna, Eliphaz’ concubine).

^13-14 Esau also had grandchildren from his wife Basemath. Born to her son Reuel were: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah.

^15-16 Esau’s grandchildren^[ag] became the heads of clans, as listed here: the clan of Teman, the clan of Omar, the clan of Zepho, the clan of Kenaz, the clan of Korah, the clan of Gatam, the clan of Amalek.

The above clans were the descendants of Eliphaz, the oldest son of Esau and Adah.

¹⁷ The following clans were the descendants of Reuel, born to Esau and his wife Basemath while they lived in Canaan: the clan of Nahath, the clan of Zerah, the clan of Shammah, the clan of Mizzah.

^18-19 And these are the clans named after the sons of Esau and his wife Oholibamah (daughter of Anah): the clan of Jeush, the clan of Jalam, the clan of Korah.

^20-21 These are the names of the tribes that descended from Seir, the Horite—one of the native families of the land of Seir: the tribe of Lotan, the tribe of Shobal, the tribe of Zibeon, the tribe of Anah, the tribe of Dishon, the tribe of Ezer, the tribe of Dishan.

²² The children of Lotan (the son of Seir) were Hori and Heman. (Lotan had a sister, Timna.)

²³ The children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, Onam.

²⁴ The children of Zibeon: Aiah, Anah. (This is the boy who discovered a hot springs in the wasteland while he was grazing his father’s donkeys.)

²⁵ The children of Anah: Dishon, Oholibamah.

²⁶ The children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, Cheran.

²⁷ The children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, Akan.

^28-30 The children of Dishan: Uz, Aran.^[ah]

^31-39 These are the names of the kings of Edom (before Israel had her first king):

King Hadad’s wife was Mehetabel, daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Mezahab.

^40-43 Here are the names of the subtribes of Esau, living in the localities named after themselves: the clan of Timna, the clan of Alvah, the clan of Jetheth, the clan of Oholibamah, the clan of Elah, the clan of Pinon, the clan of Kenaz, the clan of Teman, the clan of Mibzar, the clan of Magdiel, the clan of Iram.

These, then, are the names of the subtribes of Edom, each giving its name to the area it occupied. (All were Edomites, descendants of Esau.)