Genesis 26-28

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

26 And there was a famine in the land, other than the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

² And the Lord appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I will tell you.

³ Dwell temporarily in this land, and I will be with you and will favor you with blessings; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴ And I will make your descendants to multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your posterity all these lands (kingdoms); and by your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, or by Him bless themselves,^(A)

⁵ For Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commands, My statutes, and My laws.

⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷ And the men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, She is my sister; for he was afraid to say, She is my wife—[thinking], Lest the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she is attractive and is beautiful to look upon.

⁸ When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife.

⁹ And Abimelech called Isaac and said, See here, she is certainly your wife! How did you [dare] say to me, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I thought, Lest I die on account of her.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? One of the men might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt and sin upon us.

¹¹ Then Abimelech charged all his people, He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

¹² Then Isaac sowed seed in that land and received in the same year a hundred times as much as he had planted, and the Lord favored him with blessings.

¹³ And the man became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and distinguished;

¹⁴ He owned flocks, herds, and a great supply of servants, and the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had closed and filled with earth.

¹⁶ And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we are.

¹⁷ So Isaac went away from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

¹⁸ And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names by which his father had called them.

¹⁹ Now Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of living [spring] water.

²⁰ And the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, The water is ours. And he named the well Esek [contention] because they quarreled with him.

²¹ Then [his servants] dug another well, and they quarreled over that also; so he named it Sitnah [enmity].

²² And he moved away from there and dug another well, and for that one they did not quarrel. He named it Rehoboth [room], saying, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

²³ Now he went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴ And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will favor you with blessings and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.

²⁵ And [Isaac] ^[a]built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants were digging a well.

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzah, one of his friends, and Phicol, his army’s commander.

²⁷ And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?

²⁸ They said, We saw that the Lord was certainly with you; so we said, Let there be now an oath between us [carrying a curse with it to befall the one who breaks it], even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you

²⁹ That you will do us no harm, inasmuch as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed or favored of the Lord!

³⁰ And he made them a [formal] dinner, and they ate and drank.

³¹ And they rose up early in the morning and took oaths [with a curse] with one another; and Isaac sent them on their way and they departed from him in peace.

³² That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying, We have found water!

³³ And he named [the well] Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba [well of the oath] to this day.^(B)

³⁴ Now Esau was 40 years old when he took as wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵ And they made life bitter and a grief of mind and spirit for Isaac and Rebekah [their parents-in-law].

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, My son! And he answered him, Here I am.

² He said, See here now; I am old, I do not know when I may die.

³ So now, I pray you, take your weapons, your [arrows in a] quiver and your bow, and go out into the open country and hunt game for me,

⁴ And prepare me appetizing meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat of it, [preparatory] to giving you my blessing [as my firstborn] before I die.

⁵ But Rebekah heard what Isaac said to Esau his son; and when Esau had gone to the open country to hunt for game that he might bring it,

⁶ Rebekah said to Jacob her younger son, See here, I heard your father say to Esau your brother,

⁷ Bring me game and make me appetizing meat, so that I may eat and declare my blessing upon you before the Lord before my death.

⁸ So now, my son, do exactly as I command you.

⁹ Go now to the flock, and from it bring me two good and suitable kids; and I will make them into appetizing meat for your father, such as he loves.

¹⁰ And you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat and declare his blessing upon you before his death.

¹¹ But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Listen, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.

¹² Suppose my father feels me; I will seem to him to be a cheat and an imposter, and I will bring [his] curse on me and not [his] blessing.

¹³ But his mother said to him, On me be your curse, my son; only obey my word and go, fetch them to me.

¹⁴ So [Jacob] went, got [the kids], and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared appetizing meat with a delightful odor, such as his father loved.

¹⁵ Then Rebekah took her elder son Esau’s best clothes which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.

¹⁶ And she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

¹⁷ And she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.

¹⁸ So he went to his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I; who are you, my son?

¹⁹ And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your firstborn; I have done what you told me to do. Now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may proceed to bless me.

²⁰ And Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found the game so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord your God caused it to come to me.

²¹ But Isaac said to Jacob, Come close to me, I beg of you, that I may feel you, my son, and know whether you really are my son Esau or not.

²² So Jacob went near to Isaac, and his father felt him and said, The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

²³ He could not identify him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

²⁴ But he said, Are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am.

²⁵ Then [Isaac] said, Bring it to me and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you. He brought it to him and he ate; and he brought him wine and he drank.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said, Come near and kiss me, my son.

²⁷ So he came near and kissed him; and [Isaac] smelled his clothing and blessed him and said, The scent of my son is as the odor of a field which the Lord has blessed.

²⁸ And may God give you of the dew of the heavens and of the fatness of the earth and abundance of grain and [new] wine;

²⁹ Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you; be master over your brothers, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Let everyone be cursed who curses you and favored with blessings who blesses you.

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob and Jacob was scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

³¹ Esau had also prepared savory food and brought it to his father and said to him, Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.

³² And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he replied, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.

³³ Then Isaac trembled and shook violently, and he said, Who? Where is he who has hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate of it all before you came and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.

³⁴ When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with a great and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father!^(C)

³⁵ [Isaac] said, Your brother came with crafty cunning and treacherous deceit and has taken your blessing.

³⁶ [Esau] replied, Is he not rightly named Jacob [the supplanter]? For he has supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing! Have you not still a blessing reserved for me?

³⁷ And Isaac answered Esau, Behold, I have made [Jacob] your lord and master; I have given all his brethren to him for servants, and with corn and [new] wine have I sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?

³⁸ Esau said to his father, Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father! And Esau lifted up [could not control] his voice and wept aloud.

³⁹ Then Isaac his father answered, Your [blessing and] dwelling shall all come from the fruitfulness of the earth and from the dew of the heavens above;

⁴⁰ By your sword you shall live and serve your brother. But [the time shall come] when you will grow restive and break loose, and you shall tear his yoke from off your neck.

⁴¹ And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are very near. When [he is gone] I will ^[b]kill my brother Jacob.

⁴² These words of Esau her elder son were repeated to Rebekah. She sent for Jacob her younger son and said to him, See here, your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you [by intending] to kill you.

⁴³ So now, my son, do what I tell you; arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran;

⁴⁴ Linger and dwell with him for a while until your brother’s fury is spent.

⁴⁵ When your brother’s anger is diverted from you, he will forget [the wrong] that you have done him. Then ^[c]I will send and bring you back from there. Why should I be deprived of both of you in one day?

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth [these wives of Esau]! If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth such as these Hittite girls around here, what good will my life be to me?

28 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, You shall not marry one of the women of Canaan.

² Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take from there as a wife one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

³ May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you until you become a group of peoples.

⁴ May He give the blessing [He gave to] Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land He gave to Abraham, in which you are a sojourner.

⁵ Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Padan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother.

⁶ Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Padan-aram to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;

⁷ And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan-aram.

⁸ Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please Isaac his father.

⁹ So Esau went to Ishmael and took to be his wife, [in addition] to the wives he [already] had, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

¹⁰ And Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.

¹¹ And he came to a certain place and stayed there overnight, because the sun was set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down there to sleep.

¹² And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!

¹³ And behold, the Lord stood over and beside him and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father [forefather] and the God of Isaac; I will give to you and to your descendants the land on which you are lying.

¹⁴ And your offspring shall be as [countless as] the dust or sand of the ground, and you shall spread abroad to the west and the east and the north and the south; and by you and your Offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed and bless themselves.^(D)

¹⁵ And behold, I am with you and will keep (watch over you with care, take notice of) you wherever you may go, and I will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done all of which I have told you.

¹⁶ And Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.

¹⁷ He was afraid and said, How to be feared and reverenced is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and ^[d]this is the gateway to heaven!

¹⁸ And Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone he had put under his head, and he set it up for a pillar (a monument to the vision in his dream), and he poured oil on its top [in dedication].

¹⁹ And he named that place Bethel [the house of God]; but the name of that city was Luz at first.

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me food to eat and clothing to wear,

²¹ So that I may come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God;

²² And this stone which I have set up as a pillar (monument) shall be God’s house [a sacred place to me], and of all [the increase of possessions] that You give me I will give the tenth to You.