Beginning
Jacob Tricks Isaac
27 Now it was when Isaac grew old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son.”
“Here I am,” he said to him.
2 “Look, I’m old,” he said. “I don’t know the day of my death. 3 So now, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt me some game. 4 Then prepare me a delicious meal that I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac was speaking to Esau his son. So while Esau went to the field to hunt game to bring in, 6 Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau saying, 7 ‘Bring me some game and prepare me a delicious meal that I may eat and bless you in Adonai’s presence before my death.’ 8 So now, my son, listen to my voice, to what I am commanding you. 9 Go now to the flock and bring me two good young goats from there, so that I may prepare them as a delicious meal for your father—that he’ll love. 10 Then you’ll bring it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”
11 But Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, but I’m a smooth man. 12 Perhaps my father will touch me, and he’ll take me for a mocker, and I’ll bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”
13 Then his mother said to him, “Let your curse fall on me, my son. Just listen to me, and go, get them for me.”
14 So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a delicious meal that his father would love. 15 Rebekah also took her elder son Esau’s favorite clothes that were with her in the house, and she put them on her younger son Jacob, 16 along with the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the hairless part of his neck. 17 She put the delicious meal and the bread that she had prepared in the hand of Jacob her son.
18 Then he came to his father and said, “My father.”
And he said, “I’m here. Who are you, my son?”
19 Then Jacob said to his father, “I’m your firstborn, Esau. I’ve done just what you said to me. Sit up, please, and eat some of my wild game so that your soul may bless me.”
20 Then Isaac said to his son, “How in the world were you able to find it so quickly, my son?”
He said, “Because Adonai your God made it happen for me.”
21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come closer so I can feel you my son—whether or not you really are my son Esau.”
22 So Jacob came closer to his father Isaac, and he felt him. Then he said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice but the hands are Esau’s hands.” 23 He did not recognize him because his hands were like the hairy hands of his brother Esau. So he blessed him. 24 But he said, “Are you really my son Esau?”
So he said, “I am.”
25 Then he said, “Bring it to me and I’ll eat some of my son’s wild game, so that my soul may bless you.” So he brought it to him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.
26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come closer and kiss me my son.” 27 So he came closer and kissed him. When he smelled the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said,
“Behold, the smell of my son
is like the smell of a field
that Adonai has blessed.
28 May God give you—
from the dew of the sky
and from the fatness of the land—
an abundance of grain and new wine.
29 May peoples serve you
and may nations bow down to you.
Be master over your brothers.
May your mother’s sons bow down to you.
May those who curse you be cursed
and may those who bless you be blessed.”
30 No sooner had Isaac finished blessing Jacob and Jacob had just gone out from his father Isaac’s presence, than Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 Then he also prepared a delicious meal and brought it to his father, and he said to his father, “Let my father get up and eat of his son’s wild game that your soul may bless me.”
32 His father Isaac said, “Who are you?”
And he said, “I am your son, your first-born, Esau.”
33 Then Isaac trembled with intense trembling and said, “Who was it then that hunted wild game and brought it to me? I ate it all just before you came and I blessed him—and yes, he will be blessed.”
34 When Esau heard his father’s words, he shouted with an intensely bitter groan. Then he said to his father, “Bless me, me too, my father!”
35 Then he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”
36 He said, “Is this why he was named Jacob—since he’s tricked me twice already? My birthright he’s taken. Look! Now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he said, “Haven’t you saved a blessing for me?”
37 Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Behold, I’ve made him master over you, and all your brothers I’ve given to him as servants. I’ve provided him with grain and new wine. What then can I do for you, my son?”
38 Esau said to his father, “Do you just have one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39 Then Isaac his father said to him,
“Behold, away from the land’s fatness shall your dwelling be,
away from the dew of the sky above.
40 By your sword shall you live,
and your brother shall you serve.
But when you tear yourself loose,
you will tear his yoke off your neck.”
41 So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “Let the time for mourning my father draw near, so that I can kill my brother Jacob!”
42 Now to Rebekah was reported the words of Esau her elder son. So she sent and called for Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Look, your brother Esau is consoling himself about you with the thought of killing you. 43 So now my son, listen to my voice. Get up—flee to Laban my brother in Haran! 44 Then stay with him a few days, until your brother’s rage subsides, 45 until your brother’s rage turns away from you and he forgets what you’ve done to him. Then I’ll send for you and get you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these women, from the daughters of the land what is life to me?”
Jacob Sent to Laban
28 So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, commanded him and said to him, “Don’t take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 Get up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and take for yourself a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 Now may El Shaddai bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you will become an assembly of peoples. 4 And may he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed with you that you may take possession of the land of your sojourn, which God gave to Abraham.”
5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away and he went toward Paddan-aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 6 Now Esau saw that Isaac blessed Jacob when he sent him to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, when he blessed him and commanded him saying, “Don’t take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.” 7 Jacob listened to his father Isaac and to his mother and went toward Paddan-aram. 8 Then Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were contemptible in his father Isaac’s eyes. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, Nebaioth’s sister for his wife, besides his other wives.
Parashat Vayetze
Jacob’s Ladder From Heaven
10 Then Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He happened upon a certain place and spent the night there, for the sun had set. So he took one of the stones from the place and put it by his head and lay down in that place. 12 He dreamed: All of a sudden, there was a stairway set up on the earth and its top reaching to the heavens—and behold, angels of God going up and down on it! 13 Surprisingly, Adonai was standing on top of it[a] and He said, “I am Adonai, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed. 14 Your seed will be as the dust of the land, and you will burst forth to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed—and in your seed. 15 Behold, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not forsake you until I have done what I promised you.”
16 Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, “Undoubtedly, Adonai is in this place—and I was unaware.” 17 So he was afraid and said, “How fearsome this place is! This is none other than the House of God—this must be the gate of heaven!”
18 Early in the morning Jacob got up and took the stone, which he had placed by his head, and set it up as a memorial stone and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Beth-El (though originally the city’s name was Luz). 20 Then Jacob made a vow saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this way that I am going, and provide me food to eat and clothes to wear, 21 and I return in shalom to my father’s house, then Adonai will be my God. 22 So this stone which I set up as a memorial stone will become God’s House, and of everything You provide me I will definitely give a tenth of it to You.”
Jacob Loves Rachel
29 Then Jacob lifted up his feet and went to the land of the peoples of the east. 2 When he looked, suddenly, there was a well in the field, and there were three herds of sheep resting by it. (For from that well they would water the flocks. The stone on the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the herds gathered there, they would roll away the stone from the mouth of the well and water the flocks, and put the stone back to its place over the mouth of the well.)
4 Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?”
“We’re from Haran,” they said.
5 So he said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s son?”
They said, “We know.”
6 He said to them, “Is he well?”
“Well,” they said. “Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the flock.”
7 He said, “Since it’s still the middle of the day, it’s not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the flock and let them go and graze.”
8 But they said, “We can’t, not until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled away from the mouth of the well—then we water the flock.”
9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with the flock that belonged to her father (for she was a shepherdess). 10 Now when Jacob saw Rachel (the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother), Jacob stepped forward and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban, his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. 12 Then Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. So she ran and told her father.
13 Now when Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, hugged and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things. 14 Laban said to him, “Surely you are my own bone and flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Should you, my relative, serve me for nothing? Tell me, what should your wages be?”
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah’s eyes were delicate, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said, “Let me serve you for seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than I give her to another man! Stay with me.” 20 So Jacob worked for Rachel seven years, yet in his eyes it was like a few days, because of his love for her.
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are completed, so I may go to her.” 22 So Laban gathered all the men of the place and he prepared a feast. 23 When it was evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him, and he went to her. 24 Laban also gave her Zilpah his female servant to his daughter Leah as a female servant.
25 So when it was morning, behold there she was, Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you’ve done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked with you? So why have you deceived me?”
26 But Laban said, “It’s not done so in our place—to give the younger before the first-born. 27 Complete the bridal week for this one. Then we’ll also give you this other—for work that you’ll do with me—another seven years more.”
28 So Jacob did; he also completed this one’s bridal week. Then he gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban also gave his daughter Rachel his female servant Bilhah, to be a servant for her.
30 Jacob also went to Rachel and indeed loved Rachel more than Leah. So he served with him for yet another seven years.
Rivalry Continues With Wives
31 Now Adonai saw that Leah was unloved, so he opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son and named him Reuben because she said, “For Adonai has seen my affliction. Surely now my husband will love me.” 33 Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and said, “For Adonai heard that I am hated, so He’s given me this one also,” and she named him Simeon. 34 Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will join himself to me because I’ve given birth to three sons for him.” For this reason he was named Levi. 35 Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I praise Adonai.” For this reason she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.