Chronological
27 One day, in Isaac’s old age when he was almost blind, he called for Esau his oldest son.
Isaac: “My son?”
Esau: “Yes, Father?”
2-4 Isaac: “I am an old man now, and expect every day to be my last. Take your bow and arrows out into the fields and get me some venison, and prepare it just the way I like it—savory and good—and bring it here for me to eat, and I will give you the blessings that belong to you, my firstborn son,[a] before I die.”
5 But Rebekah overheard the conversation. So when Esau left for the field to hunt for the venison, 6-7 she called her son Jacob and told him what his father had said to his brother.
8-10 Rebekah: “Now do exactly as I tell you. Go out to the flocks and bring me two young goats, and I’ll prepare your father’s favorite dish from them. Then take it to your father, and after he has enjoyed it he will bless you before his death, instead of Esau!”[b]
11-12 Jacob: “But Mother! He won’t be fooled that easily.[c] Think how hairy Esau is, and how smooth my skin is! What if my father feels me? He’ll think I’m making a fool of him and curse me instead of blessing me!”
13 Rebekah: “Let his curses be on me, dear son. Just do what I tell you. Go out and get the goats.”
14 So Jacob followed his mother’s instructions, bringing the dressed kids, which she prepared in his father’s favorite way. 15 Then she took Esau’s best clothes—they were there in the house—and instructed Jacob to put them on. 16 And she made him a pair of gloves from the hairy skin of the young goats, and fastened a strip of the hide around his neck; 17 then she gave him the meat, with its rich aroma, and some fresh-baked bread.
18 Jacob carried the platter of food into the room where his father was lying.
Jacob: “Father?”
Isaac: “Yes? Who is it, my son—Esau or Jacob?”
19 Jacob: “It’s Esau, your oldest son. I’ve done as you told me to. Here is the delicious venison you wanted. Sit up and eat it, so that you will bless me with all your heart!”
20 Isaac: “How were you able to find it so quickly, my son?”
Jacob: “Because Jehovah your God put it in my path!”
21 Isaac: “Come over here. I want to feel you and be sure it really is Esau!”
22 (Jacob goes over to his father. He feels him!)
Isaac: (to himself) “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s!”
23 (The ruse convinces Isaac and he gives Jacob his blessings):
24 Isaac: “Are you really Esau?”
Jacob: “Yes, of course.”
25 Isaac: “Then bring me the venison, and I will eat it and bless you with all my heart.”
(Jacob takes it over to him and Isaac eats; he also drinks the wine Jacob brings him.)
26 Isaac: “Come here and kiss me, my son!”
(Jacob goes over and kisses him on the cheek. Isaac sniffs his clothes, and finally seems convinced.)
27-29 Isaac: “The smell of my son is the good smell of the earth and fields that Jehovah has blessed. May God always give you plenty of rain for your crops, and good harvests and grapes. May many nations be your slaves. Be the master of your brothers. May all your relatives bow low before you. Cursed are all who curse you, and blessed are all who bless you.”
30 (As soon as Isaac has blessed Jacob, and almost before Jacob leaves the room, Esau arrives, coming in from his hunting. 31 He also has prepared his father’s favorite dish and brings it to him.)
Esau: “Here I am, Father, with the venison. Sit up and eat it so that you can give me your finest blessings!”
32 Isaac: “Who is it?”
Esau: “Why, it’s me, of course! Esau, your oldest son!”
33 (Isaac begins to tremble noticeably.)
Isaac: “Then who is it who was just here with venison, and I have already eaten it and blessed him with irrevocable blessing?”
34 (Esau begins to sob with deep and bitter sobs.)
Esau: “O my Father, bless me, bless me too!”
35 Isaac: “Your brother was here and tricked me and has carried away your blessing.”
36 Esau: (bitterly) “No wonder they call him ‘The Cheater.’[d] For he took my birthright, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me?”
37 Isaac: “I have made him your master, and have given him yourself and all of his relatives as his servants. I have guaranteed him abundance of grain and wine—what is there left to give?”
38 Esau: “Not one blessing left for me? O my Father, bless me too.”
(Isaac says nothing[e] as Esau weeps.)
39-40 Isaac: “Yours will be no life of ease and luxury, but you shall hew your way with your sword. For a time you will serve your brother, but you will finally shake loose from him and be free.”
41 So Esau hated Jacob because of what he had done to him. He said to himself, “My father will soon be gone, and then I will kill Jacob.” 42 But someone got wind of what he was planning and reported it to Rebekah. She sent for Jacob and told him that his life was being threatened by Esau.
43 “This is what to do,” she said. “Flee to your Uncle Laban in Haran. 44 Stay there with him awhile until your brother’s fury is spent, 45 and he forgets what you have done. Then I will send for you. For why should I be bereaved of both of you in one day?”
46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m sick and tired of these local girls. I’d rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.”
28 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and said to him, “Don’t marry one of these Canaanite girls. 2 Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather[f] Bethuel, and marry one of your cousins—your Uncle Laban’s daughters. 3 God Almighty bless you and give you many children; may you become a great nation of many tribes! 4 May God pass on to you and to your descendants the mighty blessings promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God has given it to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to visit his Uncle Laban, his mother’s brother—the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
6-8 Esau realized that his father despised the local girls, and that his father and mother had sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, with his father’s blessing, to get a wife from there, and that they had strictly warned him against marrying a Canaanite girl, and that Jacob had agreed and had left for Paddan-aram. 9 So Esau went to his Uncle Ishmael’s family and married another wife from there, besides the wives he already had. Her name was Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth, and daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.
10 So Jacob left Beer-sheba and journeyed toward Haran. 11 That night, when he stopped to camp at sundown, he found a rock for a headrest and lay down to sleep, 12 and dreamed that a staircase[g] reached from earth to heaven, and he saw the angels of God going up and down upon it.
13 At the top of the stairs stood the Lord. “I am Jehovah,” he said, “the God of Abraham, and of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on is yours! I will give it to you and to your descendants. 14 For you will have descendants as many as dust! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south; and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go, and will bring you back safely to this land; I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you all I am promising.”
16-17 Then Jacob woke up. “God lives here!” he exclaimed in terror. “I’ve stumbled into his home! This is the awesome entrance to heaven!” 18 The next morning he got up very early and set his stone headrest upright as a memorial pillar, and poured olive oil over it. 19 He named the place Bethel (“House of God”), though the previous name of the nearest village[h] was Luz.
20 And Jacob vowed this vow to God: “If God will help and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothes, 21 and will bring me back safely to my father, then I will choose Jehovah as my God! 22 And this memorial pillar shall become a place for worship; and I will give you back a tenth of everything you give me!”
29 Jacob traveled on, finally arriving in the land of the East. 2 He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying beside a well in an open field, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well. 3 (The custom was that the stone was not removed until all the flocks were there. After watering them, the stone was rolled back over the mouth of the well again.) 4 Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them where they lived.
“At Haran,” they said.
5 “Do you know a fellow there named Laban, the son of Nahor?”
“We sure do.”
6 “How is he?”
“He’s well and prosperous. Look, there comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
7 “Why don’t you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?” Jacob asked. “They’ll be hungry if you stop so early in the day!”
8 “We don’t roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here,” they replied.
9 As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 And because she was his cousin—the daughter of his mother’s brother—and because the sheep were his uncle’s, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle’s flock. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and started crying! 12-13 He explained about being her cousin on her father’s side, and that he was her Aunt Rebekah’s son. She quickly ran and told her father, Laban, and as soon as he heard of Jacob’s arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly and brought him home. Then Jacob told him his story.
14 “Just think, my very own flesh and blood,” Laban exclaimed.
After Jacob had been there about a month, 15 Laban said to him one day, “Just because we are relatives is no reason for you to work for me without pay. How much do you want?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters, Leah, the older, and her younger sister, Rachel. 17 Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely, and in every way a beauty. 18 Well, Jacob was in love with Rachel. So he told her father, “I’ll work for you seven years if you’ll give me Rachel as my wife.”
19 “Agreed!” Laban replied. “I’d rather give her to you than to someone outside the family.”
20 So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But they seemed to him but a few days, he was so much in love. 21 Finally the time came for him to marry her.
“I have fulfilled my contract,” Jacob said to Laban. “Now give me my wife, so that I can sleep with her.”
22 So Laban invited all the men of the settlement to celebrate with Jacob at a big party. 23 Afterwards, that night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her. 24 (And Laban gave to Leah a servant girl, Zilpah, to be her maid.) 25 But in the morning—it was Leah!
“What sort of trick is this?” Jacob raged at Laban. “I worked for seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?”
26 “It’s not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of her sister,” Laban replied smoothly.[i] 27 “Wait until the bridal week is over and you can have Rachel too—if you promise to work for me another seven years!”
28 So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. Then Laban gave him Rachel, too. 29 And Laban gave to Rachel a servant girl, Bilhah, to be her maid. 30 So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her more than Leah, and stayed and worked the additional seven years.
31 But because Jacob was slighting Leah, Jehovah let her have a child, while Rachel was barren. 32 So Leah became pregnant and had a son, Reuben (meaning “God has noticed my trouble”), for she said, “Jehovah has noticed my trouble—now my husband will love me.” 33 She soon became pregnant again and had another son and named him Simeon (meaning “Jehovah heard”), for she said, “Jehovah heard that I was unloved, and so he has given me another son.” 34 Again she became pregnant and had a son, and named him Levi (meaning “Attachment”) for she said, “Surely now my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!” 35 Once again she was pregnant and had a son and named him Judah (meaning “Praise”), for she said, “Now I will praise Jehovah!” And then she stopped having children.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.