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The Birth of Esau and Jacob
These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham fathered Isaac,
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Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
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When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
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Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
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Esau Sells His Birthright
Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.
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And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)
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Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”
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Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
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Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
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Isaac Blesses Jacob
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son”; and he answered, “Here I am.”
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Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau,
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But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
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Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
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And she put the delicious food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
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Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”
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Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”
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So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”
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As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
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Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”
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Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
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But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.
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Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
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Jacob Sent to Laban
Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.
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Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
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Esau Marries an Ishmaelite
Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,”
