Chronological

Abraham’s Old Age and Descendants

25 Now Abraham took another wife—her name was Keturah. ² She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. ³ Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s sons were Asshurim, Letushim and Leummim. ⁴ Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All of these were Keturah’s sons. ⁵ Now Abraham gave everything that he had to Isaac, ⁶ but to the sons of Abraham’s concubines, Abraham had given gifts and sent them away from his son Isaac while he was still living, eastward to the land of the east.

⁷ Now these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life that he lived: 175 years. ⁸ So Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, old and satisfied. Then he was gathered to his peoples. ⁹ Then Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, next to Mamre, ¹⁰ the field that Abraham bought from the sons of Heth. There Abraham is buried along with Sarah his wife.

¹¹ After Abraham’s death, God blessed Isaac his son, and Isaac lived near Beer-lahai-roi.

¹² Now these are the genealogies of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave-girl, bore to Abraham. ¹³ These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names according to their descendants: Ishmael’s firstborn, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedem. ¹⁶ These are Ishmael’s sons and these are their names, by their unwalled and walled settlements, twelve princes according to their clans. ¹⁷ These are the years of Ishmael’s life: 137 years. He breathed his last, died and was gathered to his peoples. ¹⁸ Then they dwelled from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria. Over against all his brothers he fell.

Parashat Toledot

Esau and Jacob

¹⁹ Now these are the genealogies of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham fathered Isaac. ²⁰ Isaac was 40 years old when he took for himself Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ Isaac prayed to Adonai on behalf of his wife because she was barren. Adonai answered his plea and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

²² But the children struggled with one another inside her, and she said, “If it’s like this, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of Adonai. ²³ Adonai said to her:

²⁴ When her time came to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ Now the first came out reddish, all of him was like a fur coat, and they named him Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding onto Esau’s heel—so he was named Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when he fathered them.

²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau became a man knowledgeable in hunting, an outdoorsman, while Jacob was a mild man, remaining in tents. ²⁸ Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹ Now Jacob cooked a stew. When Esau came in from the field, he was exhausted, ³⁰ so Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me some of this really red stuff, because I’m exhausted”—that is why he is called Edom.

³¹ So Jacob said, “Sell your birthright to me today.”

³² Esau said, “Look, I’m about to die. Of whatever use is this to me—a birthright?”

³³ Jacob said, “Make a pledge to me now.”

So he made a pledge to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ^{[a] 34} Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

Confirming the Covenant with Isaac

26 Now there was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that happened in Abraham’s days. So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines, to Gerar. ² Then Adonai appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land about which I tell you. ³ Live as an outsider in this land and I will be with you and bless you—for to you and to your seed I give all these lands—and I will confirm my pledge that I swore to Abraham your father. ⁴ I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and I will give your seed all these lands. And in your seed all the nations of the earth will continually be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My mitzvot, My decrees, and My instructions.” ⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷ Now the men of the place asked about his wife. So he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “my wife”—“or else the men of the place would kill me on account of Rebekah, because she’s good looking.”

⁸ Now after he had been there for a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines peered down through the window and saw, behold, Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹ So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “So in fact she’s your wife! Now how could you say, ‘She’s my sister’?”

Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Or else I might die because of her.’”

¹⁰ Then Abimelech said, “What is it that you’ve done to us? One of the people could have easily slept with your wife and you would’ve brought guilt on us.”

¹¹ So Abimelech commanded all the people saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely die!”

Adonai Blesses Isaac

¹² Then Isaac sowed in that land and in that year reaped a hundredfold. Adonai blessed him ¹³ and the man became great and continued to become greater until he became very great. ¹⁴ He acquired livestock of sheep and livestock of cattle, and numerous servants. Then the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ All the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham the Philistines stopped up and filled with dirt. ¹⁶ So Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much more powerful than us.”

¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there, camped in the Valley of Gerar and dwelled there. ¹⁸ Then Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham—the Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham’s death. He gave them the same names that his father had given them. ¹⁹ Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of living water there. ²⁰ But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Quarrel, because they quarreled with him. ²¹ Then he dug another well and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Accusation. ²² Then he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he named it Wide Spaces and said, “Because now Adonai has created wide spaces for us and we will be fruitful in the land.”

²³ He went up from there to Beer-sheba. ²⁴ Adonai appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed for the sake of Abraham my servant.”

²⁵ So he built an altar there and called on the Name of Adonai. He pitched his tent there and Isaac’s servants hollowed out a well there.

Covenant of Isaac and Abimelech

²⁶ Now Abimelech went to him from Gerar along with Achuzzat his friend and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?”

²⁸ They said, “We’ve clearly seen that Adonai has been with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an agreement between us—between us and you—and let us make a covenant with you: ²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we haven’t touched you and just as we did nothing to you but good, and sent you away in shalom. You are now blessed by Adonai.”

³⁰ Then he made a feast for them and they ate and drank. ³¹ Then they got up early in the morning and made a pledge, each to his brother. Then Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in shalom. ³² Now it happened that on that day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they dug, and said to him, “We’ve found water.” ³³ So he called it Pledge. That is why the city’s name is Beer-sheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was 40 years old, he took as wife Judith the daughter of Be-eri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ But they caused a bitterness of spirit for Isaac and Rebekah.