Abraham’s Family

25 Abraham married again, and his new wife was Keturah. ² She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³ Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s descendants were the people of Assyria, Letush, and Leum. ⁴ The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah. ⁵ Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. ⁶ But before Abraham died, he did give gifts to the sons of his other wives, then sent them to the East to be away from Isaac.

⁷ Abraham lived to be one hundred seventy-five years old. ⁸ He breathed his last breath and died at an old age, after a long and satisfying life. ⁹ His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron east of Mamre. (Ephron was the son of Zohar the Hittite.) ¹⁰ So Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah in the same field that he had bought from the Hittites. ¹¹ After Abraham died, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac was now living at Beer Lahai Roi.

¹² This is the family history of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. (Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian servant, was Ishmael’s mother.) ¹³ These are the names of Ishmael’s sons in the order they were born: Nebaioth, the first son, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶ These were Ishmael’s sons, and these are the names of the tribal leaders listed according to their settlements and camps. ¹⁷ Ishmael lived one hundred thirty-seven years and then breathed his last breath and died. ¹⁸ His descendants lived from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt stretching toward Assyria. They often attacked the descendants of his brothers.

Isaac’s Family

¹⁹ This is the family history of Isaac. Abraham had a son named Isaac. ²⁰ When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, who came from Northwest Mesopotamia. She was Bethuel’s daughter and the sister of Laban the Aramean. ²¹ Isaac’s wife could not have children, so Isaac prayed to the Lord for her. The Lord heard Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant.

²² While she was pregnant, the babies struggled inside her. She asked, “Why is this happening to me?” Then she went to get an answer from the Lord.

²³ The Lord said to her,

²⁴ When the time came, Rebekah gave birth to twins. ²⁵ The first baby was born red. Since his skin was like a hairy robe, he was named Esau.^{[a] 26} When the second baby was born, he was holding on to Esau’s heel, so that baby was named Jacob.^[b] Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled hunter. He loved to be out in the fields. But Jacob was a quiet man and stayed among the tents. ²⁸ Isaac loved Esau because he hunted the wild animals that Isaac enjoyed eating. But Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹ One day Jacob was boiling a pot of vegetable soup. Esau came in from hunting in the fields, weak from hunger. ³⁰ So Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red soup, because I am weak with hunger.” (That is why people call him Edom.^[c])

³¹ But Jacob said, “You must sell me your rights as the firstborn son.”^[d]

³² Esau said, “I am almost dead from hunger. If I die, all of my father’s wealth will not help me.”

³³ But Jacob said, “First, promise me that you will give it to me.” So Esau made a promise to Jacob and sold his part of their father’s wealth to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and vegetable soup, and he ate and drank, and then left. So Esau showed how little he cared about his rights as the firstborn son.