Beginning
Chapter 27
Jacob Supplants His Brother.[a] 1 Isaac had grown old, and his eyes had failed so much that he could no longer see. He called his older son, Esau, and said to him, “My son.”
He answered, “Here I am.”
2 He continued, “See, I am old and do not know when I will die. 3 Take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out into the countryside and hunt for some wild game for me. 4 Then prepare me a plate of delicious meat and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”
5 Rebekah overheard Isaac speaking to his son Esau. When Esau went out into the countryside to hunt game and to bring it home, 6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I have heard your father speaking to your brother Esau. 7 He said, ‘Bring me some game and prepare me a plate to eat it so that I may give you the Lord’s blessing before I die.’ 8 Now, my son, obey my instructions: 9 Go immediately to the flock and take two choice kids. I will prepare them to make a plate for your father just the way he likes it. 10 Then you can carry it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.”
11 Jacob answered Rebekah his mother, “You know that my brother Esau is hairy, while my skin is smooth. 12 My father might touch me and realize that I am playing a trick on him and place a curse on me instead of a blessing.”
13 But his mother said, “Let that curse fall on me, my son! Only obey me and go and bring the kid goats.”
14 He went to get them and brought them back to his mother, and his mother prepared them to make a meal the way his father liked it. 15 Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son, Esau, which were in the house with her. She put them on her younger son, Jacob. 16 She put the skins of the kid goats on the smooth parts of his arms and neck. 17 Then she gave the meal that she had prepared to her son Jacob.
18 He went to his father and said, “My father.” He answered, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”
19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done everything you ordered. Please get up, sit down, and eat the game so that you may bless me.”
20 Isaac said to his son, “How did you prepare it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “The Lord placed the game right in front of me.”
21 Then Isaac said, “Draw near and let me touch you, my son, so that I may know if you are really my son Esau or not.”
22 Jacob drew near, and Isaac, his father, touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the arms are the arms of Esau.” 23 He did not recognize him, because his arms were hairy like the arms of his brother Esau, and he blessed him. 24 Then he said to him one more time, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.”
25 He said, “Bring me the game to eat, my son, so that I can bless you.”
Jacob served him the meal and Isaac ate; and he brought him wine and he drank. 26 Then his father Isaac told him, “Draw near and kiss me, my son.”
27 He drew near and kissed him. Isaac smelled the scent of his clothes and he blessed him, saying,
“This is the scent of my son
like the scent of the fields
that the Lord has blessed.
28 God grant you dew from the heavens
and the riches of the earth
and an abundance of grain and wine.
29 May the peoples serve you,
and may the nations bow down before you.
May you be lord over your brothers,
and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
May the one who curses you be cursed
and the one who blesses you be blessed.”
30 Isaac had just finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just left his father, when Esau, his brother, arrived from the hunt. 31 He also prepared a meal and brought it to his father and said to him, “Rise, my father, and eat the wild game of your son, so that you may bless me.”
32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”
He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”
33 Isaac was seized by a violent trembling and said, “Then who was it who prepared the wild game and brought it to me? I ate it all before you arrived, and I blessed him; and the blessing will remain with him.”
34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he shrieked and let out a bitter cry. He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father.” 35 He answered, “Your brother came here with trickery and received your blessing.”
36 He then said, “He has been well named Jacob,[b] for he has supplanted me twice. He already took away my birthright and now he has taken my blessing.” He added, “Do you not have a blessing left for me?”
37 Isaac answered Esau and said, “Behold, I have made him your lord and I have given him his brothers as his servants. He is to be maintained with grain and wine. What can I do for you, my son?”
38 Esau told his father, “Do you only have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” But Isaac was silent, and Esau cried out aloud.
39 Finally Isaac spoke and said,
“Behold, far from the riches of the earth
shall your dwelling be
and far from the dew of the heavens.
40 You shall live by the sword
and serve your brother.
But then, when you have dominion,
you shall break the yoke from your neck.”
41 Jacob Flees to Mesopotamia.[c] Esau hated Jacob on account of the blessing that his father had given him. Esau thought, “The time to mourn my father is drawing near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
42 When Rebekah was told what Esau, her older son, had said, she called Jacob, her younger son, and said, “Esau your brother wants to get even with you by killing you. 43 So obey me, my son. Rise, and flee to Haran, to my brother Laban. 44 Remain with him for some time, till your brother’s anger has calmed. 45 When the fury of your brother is soothed and he has forgotten what you did to him, I will send for you to bring you back from there. Why should I be deprived of the two of you in a single day?”
46 Rebekah said to Isaac, “I despise my life because of those Hittite women. If Jacob were to take a wife from among the Hittites, from among the daughters of the land, what good would life be to me?”
Chapter 28
1 Isaac called to Jacob and blessed him and gave him this command: “You must not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan. 2 Up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, the father of your mother, and take a wife from there, from among the daughters of Laban, the brother of your mother. 3 May God Almighty bless you; may he make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you become a multitude of people. 4 May he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants, so that you may possess the land in which you have dwelt as an alien, the land that God gave to Abraham.” 5 Thus, Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, and the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that when he had blessed him, he had commanded him, “You must not take a wife from among the Canaanites.” 7 Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan-aram. 8 Esau then understood that Isaac disapproved of the daughters of Canaan. 9 He therefore went to Ishmael and, besides the wives he already had, he took as wife Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth.
10 Jacob’s Dream at Bethel.[d] Jacob left from Beer-sheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 He came upon a certain place and spent the night there for the sun was setting. He took a stone and used it as a pillow and slept in that place. 12 He had a dream. There was a ladder resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. The angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.
13 And the Lord stood before him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you are lying shall be given to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth and shall extend to the west and the east, the north and the south. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you and through your descendants. 15 I am with you and I will protect you wherever you go. I will make you return to this country, for I will not abandon you without having done all that I have promised you.”
16 Jacob woke from sleep and said, “Truly, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 He was filled with fear and said, “How terrible this place is! This is truly the house of God, this is the gate to heaven.”
18 In the morning Jacob arose early, took the rock that he had used as a pillow, and erected it as a pillar pouring oil on top of it. 19 He named the place Bethel,[e] although the city had previously been called Luz.
20 Jacob made a vow, “If God remains with me and protects me in this journey that I am making and gives me bread to eat and clothes to cover me, 21 and if I return in peace to my father’s house, the Lord will be my God. 22 This stone that I am erecting as a pillar shall be a shrine to God. I will offer you one-tenth of everything that you give me.”
Chapter 29
The Wedding for Which Jacob Slaved.[f] 1 Jacob set out on his journey and traveled to the lands of the east. 2 He saw a well in the countryside and three flocks of sheep lying beside it. The flocks would drink at this well, but the stone over the mouth of the well was very large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and the sheep would drink there. They would then replace the stone over the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” They said, “We are from Haran.”
5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?”
They said, “We know him.”
6 He said to them, “Is he well?”
They answered, “Yes, and here comes his daughter Rachel with his flock.”
7 He continued, “It is still early; it is not yet the time to gather the sheep together. Give the sheep something to drink and then go and pasture them.”
8 They said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together. Then we will roll the stone away from the mouth of the well and have the flocks drink.”
9 He was still speaking with them when Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. 10 When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, together with the sheep of his uncle Laban, he got up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and gave water to the sheep of his uncle Laban. 11 Jacob then kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 He revealed to Rachel that he was a relative of her father, for he was the son of Rebekah. So she ran to tell her father.
13 When Laban heard about Jacob, the son of his sister, he ran to meet him. He embraced him, kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all about what had happened to him. 14 Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.”
Jacob lived with him for a month. 15 Then Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you be working for me without a salary? Tell me what you want as your salary.”
16 Now Laban had two daughters. The older was named Leah and the younger was named Rachel. 17 Leah had sad[g] eyes, while Rachel was very beautiful and lovely. 18 Because of this, Jacob loved Rachel. He therefore said, “I will serve you for seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”
19 Laban answered, “I prefer to give her to you rather than to a stranger. Stay with me.” 20 So Jacob served him for seven years for Rachel. He was so in love with her that it seemed only a few days.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time of service is completed and I wish to marry her.”
22 Laban gathered all the men of that place and threw a banquet. 23 When it was the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him and he married her. 24 Laban gave his own slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a slave.
25 When morning came, behold, it was Leah! Jacob said to Laban, “What have you done! Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why have you tricked me?”
26 Laban answered, “It is not the custom in our land to give the younger one before the older one. 27 Finish the bridal week with this one; then I will give you the other as well if you will serve me for another seven years.”
28 Jacob did this. He finished the bridal week with Leah, and then Laban gave him Rachel as his wife. 29 Laban gave his own slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a slave. 30 Jacob slept with Rachel, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he served his uncle for another seven years.
31 The Children of Jacob.[h] Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was being overlooked, opened her womb while Rachel remained barren. 32 Leah conceived and bore a son whom she named Reuben, for she said, “The Lord has seen my humiliation; surely my husband will love me now.”
33 Then she conceived another son and said, “The Lord has heard that I was ignored and he has given me this one as well.” She named him Simeon.
34 She conceived again and bore a son and said, “This time my husband will show me affection, for I have borne three sons for him.” Because of this she named him Levi.
35 She conceived once again and bore a son and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” For this she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
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