Beginning
Abraham dies
25 Abraham then married another woman. Her name was Keturah. 2 She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. 3 Jokshan later became the father of Sheba and Dedan. The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites and the Leummites. 4 Midian had sons who were called Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All those were descendants of Abraham's wife, Keturah. 5 When Abraham died, he left everything that belonged to him to Isaac. 6 But while he was still alive, he gave gifts to the sons of his slave wives. He sent these sons away to the land of the east. He wanted to keep them far away from Isaac.
7 Abraham lived for 175 years. 8 He died after a good and long life, when he was very old. He joined his ancestors who had died before him. 9 His sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried his body in the cave of Machpelah. That was near Mamre. The cave is in the field that belonged to Zohar's son, Ephron. He was a Hittite. 10 Abraham had bought the field from the Hittites.
So they buried Abraham there. It was in the cave where his wife, Sarah, had also been buried.
11 After Abraham's death, God blessed his son, Isaac. Isaac was living near Beer Lahai Roi.
Ishmael's family
12 This is the report about Abraham's son, Ishmael, and his family.
Sarah's female servant gave birth to Ishmael. Her name was Hagar. She was from Egypt. 13 These are the names of Ishmael's sons. The list starts from the firstborn son and ends with the last son. Nebaioth was the first son of Ishmael. Then there were Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. 16 These were all Ishmael's sons. Their names became the names of 12 groups of people. They separated and lived in their own lands. Ishmael's sons ruled over the 12 groups of people. 17 Ishmael lived for 137 years then he died. He joined his ancestors who had died before him. 18 Ishmael's descendants lived in the lands from Havilah to Shur. These are near Egypt, towards Asshur. They were always at war with each other.[a]
Jacob and Esau
19 This is the report about Abraham's son, Isaac, and his family.
Abraham became the father of Isaac. 20 When Isaac was 40 years old, he married Rebekah. Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel. Bethuel was an Aramean from Paddan Aram. She was the sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 Rebekah could not have children. So Isaac prayed to the Lord for Rebekah. The Lord did as Isaac asked. And Isaac's wife, Rebekah, became pregnant. 22 The babies inside her were fighting with each other. Rebekah said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So Rebekah went to ask the Lord. 23 The Lord said to Rebekah, ‘The two children who are in your body will become two separate nations of people. One group will be stronger than the other. The older son will become a servant to the younger son.’[b]
24 The time came for Rebekah to give birth. There were two babies inside her. 25 The first baby to come out had a red body. Hair covered the whole of his body. They called him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out. His hand was holding the back of Esau's foot. They called him Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.
27 Time passed and the boys grew. Esau became a good hunter, out in the fields. Jacob was a quiet man. He stayed near to the tents. 28 Isaac liked to eat the meat from the animals that Esau killed. So he loved Esau. But Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 One day, Jacob was cooking a meal. Esau came back from the country. He was very hungry. 30 He said to Jacob ‘Quick, let me have some of that red food! I am very hungry.’ (That is why he was also called Edom.)[c] 31 Jacob said, ‘You must first sell me your birthright.’[d]
32 Esau said, ‘Look, I am so hungry that I will die. Then my birthright will not help me at all!’
33 Jacob said, ‘First, make a serious promise to me.’ So Esau promised to sell his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and the soup made from grains. Esau ate the food and he drank. Then he got up and he left.
In that way, Esau showed that he did not think that his birthright was important.[e]
Isaac and Abimelech
26 There was another famine in the land. This had happened before, when Abraham was alive. Now Isaac went to Gerar to visit Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac. He said, ‘Do not go to Egypt. Instead, live in the land that I will show to you. 3 Stay in this land, and I will be with you. I will bless you. I will give these lands to you and your descendants. I made a strong promise to your father Abraham. I will make that promise become true. 4 I will give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky. And I will give these lands to them. Because of your descendants, I will bless everyone on the earth.[f] 5 This will happen because Abraham obeyed me. He obeyed all my laws and rules, and he did what I told him to do.’
6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 The men of Gerar asked Isaac about his wife. He told them, ‘She is my sister.’ He was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought that the men of Gerar might kill him because Rebekah was very beautiful.[g]
8 Isaac stayed in Gerar for a long time. One day Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked down from his window. He saw that Isaac was kissing Rebekah.[h] 9 Abimelech called Isaac to come to him. He said, ‘Rebekah is your wife! Why did you say, “She is my sister”?’ Isaac replied, ‘I thought that someone might kill me because of her.’
10 Abimelech said, ‘You have done a bad thing against us! One of my men might have had sex with your wife. Then we would have been guilty of a bad sin.’ 11 So Abimelech told his people, ‘I will kill anyone who hurts this man, or his wife.’
12 Isaac planted crops in the land and they grew very well. They made 100 times the amount of food that he had planted. This was because the Lord blessed him.[i]
13 Isaac became rich. His riches continued to grow so that he became a very important person. 14 He had many sheep, goats and cows. He also had many servants in his house. He had so many servants that the Philistines became jealous of him. 15 So they took dirt from the ground and they filled up Isaac's wells. When Abraham was alive, his servants had dug these wells to get water.
16 Abimelech said to Isaac ‘You have become too powerful for us. Go and live somewhere else.’
17 So Isaac moved away from that place. He put his tents in the Valley of Gerar and he stayed there. 18 Isaac dug the dirt out of the wells that Abraham had dug. After Abraham died the Philistines had filled them with dirt. Isaac gave these wells the same names as his father had given them.
19 Isaac's servants went to dig in the valley. They found another well there. It was full of fresh water. 20 But the shepherds of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's shepherds. They said, ‘The water belongs to us!’ So Isaac called that well Esek, because they quarrelled with him there.[j]
21 So Isaac's servants dug another well. But the shepherds of Gerar quarrelled about that one too. Isaac called that well Sitnah.[k]
22 Isaac moved away from Sitnah and he dug another well. No one quarrelled with him about this well. So he called it Rehoboth.[l] He said, ‘Now the Lord has given us a place to live. We will have many good things in this land.’
23 From that place, Isaac went to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to him. The Lord said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you. I will give you many descendants because of my servant Abraham.’
25 Isaac built an altar there and he worshipped the Lord. He put up his tent there. His servants dug a well.
26 During that time, Abimelech came from Gerar to visit Isaac. He came with Ahuzzath his officer and with Phicol the leader of his army.[m]
27 Isaac asked them, ‘Why have you come to me? You hated me and you sent me away from you.’ 28 They replied, ‘We saw that the Lord is with you. So we said to one another, “There should be an agreement between us and you.” So let us promise to be friends. 29 Promise that you will not hurt us. We did not hurt you. We did only good things for you. We sent you away as friends. Now the Lord is blessing you.’
30 Then Isaac made a large meal for them. And they all ate happily together.[n] 31 Early the next morning, they promised each other to be friends. Then Isaac said ‘goodbye’ to them. They left as his friends.
32 The same day, Isaac's servants came to him. They told him about a well that they had dug. They said, ‘We have found water!’ 33 Isaac called the well Shibah. So the town is still called Beersheba.[o]
34 When Esau was 40 years old, he got married. He married Judith. She was the daughter of Beer the Hittite. He also married Basemath. She was the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 Esau's wives brought a lot of trouble to Isaac and Rebekah.[p]
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