Genesis 26-27

GOD’S WORD Translation

The Lord’s First Promise to Isaac

26 There was a famine in the land in addition to the earlier one during Abraham’s time. So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines in Gerar.

² The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Don’t go to Egypt. Stay where I tell you. ³ Live here in this land for a while, and I will be with you and bless you. I will give all these lands to you and your descendants. I will keep the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and give all these lands to your descendants. Through your descendant all the nations of the earth will be blessed. ⁵ I will bless you because Abraham obeyed me and completed the duties, commands, laws, and instructions I gave him.” ⁶ So Isaac lived in Gerar.

Isaac and Rebekah at Gerar

⁷ When the men of that place asked about his wife, Isaac answered, “She’s my sister.” He was afraid to say “my wife.” He thought that the men of that place would kill him to get Rebekah, because she was an attractive woman. ⁸ When he had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of his window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

⁹ Abimelech called for Isaac and said, “So she’s really your wife! How could you say, ‘She’s my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “I thought I would be killed because of her.”

¹⁰ Then Abimelech said, “What have you done to us! One of the people might have easily gone to bed with your wife, and then you would have made us guilty of sin.” ¹¹ So Abimelech ordered his people, “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death.”

¹² Isaac planted ⌞crops⌟ in that land. In that same year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had planted because the Lord had blessed him. ¹³ He continued to be successful, becoming very rich. ¹⁴ Because he owned so many flocks, herds, and servants, the Philistines became jealous of him. ¹⁵ So the Philistines filled in all the wells that his father’s servants had dug during his father Abraham’s lifetime.

¹⁶ Finally, Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us! You’ve become more powerful than we are.”

¹⁷ So Isaac moved away. He set up his tents in the Gerar Valley and lived there. ¹⁸ He dug out the wells that had been dug during his father Abraham’s lifetime. The Philistines had filled them in after Abraham’s death. He gave them the same names that his father had given them.

¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a spring-fed well. ²⁰ The herders from Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herders, claiming, “This water is ours!” So Isaac named the well Esek [Argument], because they had argued with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah [Accusation]. ²² He moved on from there and dug another well. They didn’t quarrel over this one. So he named it Rehoboth [Roomy] and said, “Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in this land.”

The Lord’s Second Promise to Isaac

²³ He went from there to Beersheba. ²⁴ That night the Lord appeared to Isaac, and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Don’t be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you and increase the number of your descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.” ²⁵ So Isaac built an altar there and worshiped the Lord. He also pitched his tent in that place, and his servants dug a well there.

Isaac’s Agreement with Abimelech

²⁶ Abimelech, his friend Ahuzzath, and Phicol, the commander of his army, came from Gerar to see Isaac. ²⁷ Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?”

²⁸ They answered, “We have seen that the Lord is with you. So we thought, ‘There should be a solemn agreement between us.’ We’d like to make an agreement with you ²⁹ that you will not harm us, since we have not touched you. We have done only good to you and let you go in peace. Now you are blessed by the Lord.”

³⁰ Isaac prepared a special dinner for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹ Early the next morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left peacefully.

³² That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about a well they had dug. They said to him, “We’ve found water.” ³³ So he named it Shibah [Oath]. That is why the name of the city is still Beersheba today.

Esau’s Marriages

³⁴ When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite. He also married Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ These women brought Isaac and Rebekah a lot of grief.

Jacob Gets Isaac’s Blessing

27 When Isaac was old and going blind, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “Son!”

Esau answered, “Here I am.”

² Isaac said, “I’m old. I don’t know when I’m going to die. ³ Now take your hunting equipment, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open country and hunt some wild game for me. ⁴ Prepare a good-tasting meal for me, just the way I like it. Bring it to me to eat so that I will bless you before I die.”

⁵ Rebekah was listening while Isaac was speaking to his son Esau. When Esau went into the open country to hunt for some wild game to bring back, ⁶ Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I’ve just heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. ⁷ He said, ‘Bring me some wild game, and prepare a good-tasting meal for me to eat so that I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now listen to me, Son, and do what I tell you. ⁹ Go to the flock, and get me two good young goats. I’ll prepare them as a good-tasting meal for your father, just the way he likes it. ¹⁰ Then take it to your father to eat so that he will bless you before he dies.”

¹¹ Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth.^{[a] 12} My father will feel ⌞my skin⌟ and think I’m mocking him. Then I’ll bring a curse on myself instead of a blessing.”

¹³ His mother responded, “Let any curse on you fall on me, Son. Just obey me and go! Get me ⌞the young goats⌟.”

¹⁴ He went and got them and brought them to his mother. She prepared a good-tasting meal, just the way his father liked it. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took her older son Esau’s good clothes, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. ¹⁶ She put the skins from the young goats on his hands and on the back of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she gave her son Jacob the good-tasting meal and the bread she had prepared.

¹⁸ He went to his father and said, “Father?”

“Yes?” he answered. “Who are you, Son?”

¹⁹ Jacob answered his father, “I’m Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done what you told me. Sit up and eat this meat I’ve hunted for you so that you may bless me.”

²⁰ Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, Son?”

“The Lord your God brought it to me,” he answered.

²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come over here so that I can feel your skin, Son, ⌞to find out⌟ whether or not you really are my son Esau.” ²² So Jacob went over to his father. Isaac felt ⌞his skin⌟. “The voice is Jacob’s,” he said, “but the hands are Esau’s.” ²³ He didn’t recognize Jacob, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. ²⁴ “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked him.

“I am,” Jacob answered.

²⁵ Isaac said, “Bring me some of the game, and I will eat it, Son, so that I will bless you.” Jacob brought it to Isaac, and he ate it. Jacob also brought him wine, and he drank it.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and give me a kiss, Son.” ²⁷ He went over and gave him a kiss. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said,

³⁰ Isaac finished blessing Jacob. Jacob had barely left when his brother Esau came in from hunting. ³¹ He, too, prepared a good-tasting meal and brought it to his father. Then he said to his father, “Please, Father, eat some of the meat I’ve hunted for you so that you will bless me.”

³² “Who are you?” his father Isaac asked him.

“I’m your firstborn son Esau,” he answered.

³³ Trembling violently all over, Isaac asked, “Who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it before you came in. I blessed him, and he will stay blessed.”

³⁴ When Esau heard these words from his father, he shouted out a very loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!”

³⁵ Isaac said, “Your brother came and deceived me and has taken away your blessing.”

³⁶ Esau said, “Isn’t that why he’s named Jacob? He’s cheated me twice already: He took my rights as firstborn, and now he’s taken my blessing.” So he asked, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”

³⁷ Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him your master, and I have made all his brothers serve him. I’ve provided fresh grain and new wine for him. What is left for me to do for you, Son?”

³⁸ Esau asked, “Do you have only one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!” And Esau sobbed loudly.

³⁹ His father Isaac answered him,

⁴¹ So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing that his father had given him. Esau said to himself, “The time to mourn for my father is near. Then I’ll kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴² When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Watch out! Your brother Esau is comforting himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³ So now, Son, obey me. Quick! Run away to my brother Laban in Haran. ⁴⁴ Stay with him awhile, until your brother’s anger cools down. ⁴⁵ When your brother’s anger is gone and he has forgotten what you did to him, I’ll send for you and get you back. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Rebekah said to Isaac, “I can’t stand Hittite women! If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like one of those from around here, I might as well die.”